Copyright by Ashley Lynn Busby 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Ashley Lynn Busby Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: PICTURING THE COSMOS: SURREALISM, ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY, AND THE TAROT, 1920S-1940S Committee: Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Supervisor Richard Shiff John R. Clarke Bruce J. Hunt Kimberly A. Smith PICTURING THE COSMOS: SURREALISM, ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY, AND THE TAROT, 1920S-1940S by Ashley Lynn Busby, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2013 Dedication To JWB Acknowledgements First, I want to thank my dissertation committee for their support of this project. John Clarke, Richard Shiff, and Bruce Hunt have helped shape my scholarly development since my arrival at the University of Texas. I am also very grateful for Kimberly Smith’s continued guidance and encouragement. During my undergraduate study at Southwestern University, her dedication to her students inspired me to pursue graduate work, and I continue to look to her as a teaching role model. As an advisor, Linda Henderson has been exemplary during my time at the university. Her scholarship on the intersections between art and science has helped show me the possibilities for my own work in this area. In addition to research pursued in the library and collections at the University of Texas at Austin, I spent the summer of 2008 completing research at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Funding from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, the Department of Art and Art History, the M.K. Hage Foundation, and the Walter Read Hovey Memorial Fund supported my time spent abroad. The Department of Art and Art History also helped fund my travel to conferences held by the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), the Western Society for French History, and the Popular Culture Association. Papers given at these meetings later became integral components of the dissertation. I am especially appreciative to my colleagues at SLSA for their commentary and suggestions over the years. v During my time at the University of Texas at Austin, I established many friendships that helped me in both my personal and scholarly growth. Among these, I am especially thankful for Melissa Warak’s friendship and her role as a sounding board for my ideas. My dear friend Michele Solberg was also exceedingly helpful in helping me understand the Tarot and astrology through the eyes of a practitioner. The Undergraduate Writing Center provided me with employment and funding during my many years in Austin. My work there and the many friendships established in those tiny rooms in the FAC helped sustain me over the years and also made me a better writer. Over the past two years, my colleagues at Susquehanna University have also generously supported me as I attempted to balance the completion of the dissertation with my new role as a professor. I am especially indebted to Mark Fertig, Ann Piper, and Juli Boggs for pushing me to the finish line. Finally, I want to thank my family and friends who have supported me throughout this process. My parents and in-laws likely thought I might turn out to be a lifetime student, but never wavered in their support. My friends in Austin, old and new, were willing to distract me when distractions were most needed but also understanding when I had to disconnect or work long hours. Most importantly, my husband Jed’s unwavering encouragement has grounded me. I apologize for all those nights when I was so intensely focused on the computer screen and seemingly ignored you. Thank you. vi PICTURING THE COSMOS: SURREALISM, ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY, AND THE TAROT, 1920S-1940S Ashley Lynn Busby, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Linda Dalrymple Henderson This dissertation explores the presence and meaning of astronomical elements in the creative work of Surrealist artists and writers who were involved with the movement from the 1920s to the 1940s. Set against a backdrop of widespread popular interest in astronomy in France during these decades and those directly preceding them, Surrealists such as André Breton, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Wolfgang Paalen, Oscar Domínguez, Matta, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and Kurt Seligmann all addressed cosmic themes in their artistic production. This dissertation identifies and analyzes their varied engagement with such themes, including their presence in the related areas of astrology and the Tarot. The heavens offered the Surrealists a rich terrain for invention—one that could be seen as scientific or occult, fanciful or factual, as well as ancient or up-to-date. In their quest to access previously unknown realms of reality, the Surrealists found in the little-explored and often strange territory of outer space a new realm for creative invention. As such, these artists and writers projected their surreal visions onto the universe in their continued search for the marvelous. vii Table of Contents List of Illustrations ..................................................................................................x Introduction ............................................................................................................1 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ........................................................................4 STATE OF THE LITERATURE ..............................................................................7 OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION ....................................................................12 Chapter 1 Astronomical Visions: The Popularization of Astronomy and Related Phenomena in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries ................16 ASTRONOMY: SCIENCE, IMAGINATION, OR BOTH? .........................................17 PROMOTING THE COSMOS: ARAGO, FLAMMARION, AND FRENCH PERIODICALS AS ASTRONOMICAL POPULARIZERS ...........................................................27 IMAGING THE COSMOS: ASTRONOMICAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND PLANETARIA AS POPULARIZERS ......................................................................................50 IMAGINING THE COSMOS: SCIENCE FICTION AS ASTRONOMICAL POPULARIZER ..............................................................................................................59 DIVINING THE COSMOS: THE FRENCH OCCULT REVIVAL, ASTRONOMY, AND THE TAROT AS ASTRONOMICAL POPULARIZER ............................................71 Surrealism's Engagement with the Occcult .........................................71 The Late Nineteenth-Century French Occult Revival .........................78 The Popularization of Astrology in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries .....................................................................................83 The Popularization of the Tarot in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries .....................................................................................90 Chapter 2 Science in the Streets: Astronomical Encounters in Surrealist Paris .......................................................................................................................95 SURREALIST AND ASTRONOMICAL PARIS AS CREATIVE IMPETUS ..................98 ASTRONOMICAL POINTS OF ACCESS: THE PALAIS DE LA DÉCOUVERTE AND INTERACTIVE EXHIBITION TACTICS ....................................................110 viii Chapter 3 Cosmic Preoccupations: Joan Miró, Max Ernst, and Astronomy .....................................................................................................................133 MIRÓ AND ASTRONOMY ..............................................................................135 ERNST AND ASTRONOMY .............................................................................157 Chapter 4 Outer Space/ Inner Space Surrealist Understandings of Interstellar Space...........................................................................................................180 SURREALISM, EINSTEIN, AND THE SPACE-TIME CONTIUUM .........................182 ANDRÉ BRETON'S SURREALIST SOURCES ON EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE .......191 SURREALIST VISIONS OF INTERSTELLAR SPACE AND TRAVEL .....................195 Chapter 5 Astral Magicians: Surrealism and Occult Astronomy ................199 BRETON AND ASTROLOGY ...........................................................................200 BRETON AND THE TAROT: THE JEU DE MARSEILLES, ARCANUM 17, AND LE SURREALISME EN 1947 .......................................................................205 The Jeu de Marseilles.........................................................................206 Arcanum 17 ........................................................................................209 The 1947 Surrealist Exhibition and the Tarot ....................................213 KURT SELIGMANN, SURREALIST SCHOLAR OF OCCULTISM: THE MIRROR OF MAGIC, ASTROLOGY, AND THE TAROT ................................................217 SURREALIST ART, ASTROLOGY, AND THE TAROT: REMEDIOS VARO AND LEONORA CARRINGTON ......................................................................221 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................237 Bibliography .......................................................................................................243 ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS All images are withheld from publication for reasons of intellectual property