Surrealism and the Gothic: Castles of the Interior

266 Pages·2017·5.26 MB·English

by  Neil Matheson

Surrealism and the Gothic
Surrealism and the Gothic is the first book-length analysis of the role played by the
gothic in both the initial emergence of surrealism and at key moments in its subse-
quent development as an art and literary movement. The book argues the strong and
sustained influence, not only of the classic gothic novel itself – Ann Radcliffe, Charles
Maturin, Matthew Lewis, etc. – but also the determinative impact of closely related
phenomena, as with the influence of mediumism, alchemy and magic. The book also
traces the later development of the gothic novel, as with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and
its mutation into such works of popular fiction as the Fantômas series of Marcel
Allain and Pierre Souvestre, enthusiastically taken up by writers such as Apollinaire
and subsequently feeding into the development of surrealism. More broadly, the book
considers a range of motifs strongly associated with gothic writing, as with insan-
ity, incarceration and the ‘accursed outsider’, explored in relation to the personal
experience and electroshock treatment of Antonin Artaud. A recurring motif of the
analysis is that of the gothic castle, developed in the writings of André Breton, Artaud,
Sade, Julien Gracq and other writers, as well as in the work of visual artists such as
Magritte.
Neil Matheson is Senior Lecturer in Theory and Criticism of Photography at the
University of Westminster, publishing widely on surrealism, photography and contem-
porary art. Publications include The Sources of Surrealism (2006), joint-editorship of
The Machine and the Ghost (2013) and recent essays on Magritte, Ithell Colquhoun
and on spirit photography.
Studies in Surrealism
Series Editor: Gavin Parkinson, The Courtauld Institute of Art
With scholarly interest in Surrealism greater than ever, Studies in Surrealism serves as
a major forum for key areas of inquiry into the activities of the Surrealist movement.
The series extends the ongoing academic and popular interest in Surrealism, evident in
recent studies that have rethought established areas of Surrealist activity and engage-
ment, including those of art, politics, the object, exhibitions, photography, popular
culture, crime and science. Expanding and adding to existing lines of inquiry, books
in the series examine Surrealism’s intersections with philosophical, social, artistic and
literary themes.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/Studies-
in-Surrealism/book-series/2123
Appropriated Photographs in French Surrealist Periodicals, 1924–1939
Linda Steer
Angela Carter and Surrealism
‘A Feminist Libertarian Aesthetic’
Anna Watz
A Surrealist Stratigraphy of Dorothea Tanning’s Chasm
Catriona McAra
Surrealism and the Gothic
Castles of the Interior
Neil Matheson
Remaking the Readymade
Duchamp, Man Ray, and the Conundrum of the Replica
Adina Kamien-Kazhdan
André Breton in Exile
The Poetics of “Occultation,” 1941–1947
Victoria Clouston
Surrealism, Occultism and Politics
In Search of the Marvellous
Edited by Tessel M. Bauduin, Victoria Ferentinou, and Daniel Zamani
Surrealism and the Gothic
Castles of the Interior
Neil Matheson
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 Neil Matheson
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asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
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without intent to infringe.
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ISBN: 978-1-4094-3274-6 (hbk)
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Contents
List of figures vi
Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction: ‘the start of a venture’ 1
1 Crossing the bridge: surrealism between dream and reality 15
2 From the castle to the street: Fantômas and the re-enchantment
of modern urban life 44
3 Gothic psychology and the ‘humid backroom of spiritualism’ 80
4 The Theatre of Blood: Breton and the psychiatrists 109
5 Dark angel of surrealism: Artaud, electroshock and black magic 135
6 Heritage of the accursed: surrealism, magic and the
alchemical quest 166
7 Return to the castle: transgression and Sadean violence in the
postwar era 205
Conclusion: gothic surrealism and the mutation of inner space 239
Index 244
Figures
1.1 ‘Erutarettil’, Littérature, New series, nos. 11–12, October 1923,
pp. 24–25 16
1.2 Max Ernst, from Une Semaine de bonté, 1934. © ADAGP, Paris
and DACS, London, 2016 27
1.3 Max Ernst, from A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil,
1930. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2016 30
1.4 Cover image of Antonin Artaud, Le Moine, 1931. Anon.
photograph, 23 × 17 cm. BnF © ADAGP, Paris and DACS,
London, 2016 34
2.1 Excelsior, 29 April 1912. Image © BnF 52
2.2 Fantômas, La Série rouge, Fayard, 1913. Private collection 56
2.3 Yves Tanguy, Fantômas, 1925. Oil on canvas 50 × 150 cm.
Private collection © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2016 59
2.4 Victor Brauner, Fantômas, 1932. Oil on canvas 73 × 92 cm.
Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne Métropole ©
ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016. Photo: Musée d’art
moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne Métropole – Yves Bresson 60
2.5 Robert Desnos, ‘Imagerie moderne’, Documents no. 7
(December 1929), p. 379; Documents, deuxième année, 1930
no. 1, p. 53 61
2.6 Fantômas: Le Mort qui tue (dir. Louis Feuillade), 1913 64
3.1 Paul Le Cour, Materialisation of Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe,
ca.1918, from Æsculape (November 1924) 84
3.2 Mme. Sacco, from André Breton, Nadja, 1928 88
3.3 Comte de Tromelin, ‘Temptation of a young woman by Satan’,
n.d., from Æsculape, 1913, p. 64 94
3.4 Comte de Tromelin, Untitled (Le Sabbat), ca. 1902–7. Pencil
on paper. 35.5 × 49.5 cm. Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne.
Photo: Arnaud Conne. Æsculape, 1913, p. 63 95
4.1 Adrien Barrère, L’Homme qui a tué la mort, Grand Guignol,
Paris, 1928. BnF Gallica 110
4.2 Les Détraquées as reproduced in Breton’s Nadja, 1928. Photograph 113
4.3 P.-L. Palau, Les Détraquées – insert in Le Surréalisme, même no. 1
(October 1956) 116
4.4 Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault, Femme drapeé, ca. 1917–20.
Photograph © Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac 126
Figures vii
5.1 The Snake Pit (dir. Anatole Litvak), 1948 149
5.2 Antonin Artaud, L’immaculée conception, January 1945. Pencil
and coloured chalks on paper. 61 × 48 cm. Private collection.
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016 152
5.3 Antonin Artaud, La bouillabaisse de formes dans la tour de babel,
February 1946. Pencil and coloured chalks on paper. 63 × 48 cm.
Private collection © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2016 153
5.4 Antonin Artaud, Le Totem, ca. December 1945–February 1946.
Pencil and coloured chalks on paper. 63 × 48 cm. Musée Cantini,
Marseille. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2016 154
5.5 Antonin Artaud, La Mort et l’homme, ca. April 1946. Pencil and
coloured chalks on paper. 65.5 × 50.5 cm. Musée national d’art
moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. © ADAGP, Paris and
DACS, London, 2016 155
5.6 Antonin Artaud, Le théâtre de la cruauté, ca. March 1946. Pencil
and coloured chalks on paper. 62 × 46 cm. Musée national d’art
moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. © ADAGP, Paris and
DACS, London, 2016 156
5.7 Anon, ‘L’Empoisonnement’, 1931. Photograph. 23 × 17 cm.
Collection BnF © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2016 157
6.1 Brentano’s window display arranged by Kurt Seligmann, Marcel
Duchamp and André Breton, New York, 1942 170
6.2 Kurt Seligmann, The Mirror of Magic, 1948. © Orange County
Citizens Foundation/ARS, NY and DACS, London, 2016 173
6.3 The Golden Fleece: An Alchemistic Fantasy, 1941. Collaboration
of Kurt Seligmann and Hanya Holm. © Orange County
Citizens Foundation/ARS, NY and DACS, London, 2016 174
6.4 Earth, Fire and Water, The Golden Fleece: An Alchemistic Fantasy,
1941. © Orange County Citizens Foundation/ARS, NY and DACS,
London, 2016 174
6.5 ‘Massacre of the Innocents’, in R. Abrahami Eleazaris, Uraltes
Chymisches Werck, Leipzig (1760) 175
6.6 Kurt Seligmann, ‘Magic Evening’ held in Seligmann’s studio,
May 1948. © Orange County Citizens Foundation/ARS, NY
and DACS, London, 2016 177
6.7 Louis Breton, Ashtoreth, n.d., in J.-A.-S. Collin de Plancy,
Dictionnaire infernal (6th ed., 1863) 185
6.8 Max Ernst, View cover design, April 1942. © ADAGP, Paris
and DACS, London, 2016 186
6.9 Frontispiece to A.-V.-C. Berbiguier de Terre neuve du Thym,
Les Farfadets, 1821 187
6.10 Maurice Baskine, Athanor soleil au Phénix, n.d. Oil on canvas.
65 × 50 cm. © Musée d’Art Moderne & Contemporain de
Cordes sur Ciel 192
6.11 Maurice Baskine, La mère folle, ca. 1946–50. Triptych. Oil on
canvas. 86 × 126 cm. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre
Pompidou © Rights reserved. Photo © Centre Pompidou,
MNAM-CCI 193
viii Figures
6.12 Aleister Crowley, The Sun (Study for Tarot), 1920. Oil on wood.
24.2 × 19 cm. Private collection. © Ordo Templi Orientis.
All rights reserved 193
7.1 René Magritte, Le Château des Pyrénées, 1959. Oil on canvas.
200 × 145 cm. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Gift of Harry
Torczyner, New York. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London,
2016. Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem by Moshe Caine 206
7.2 Man Ray, Érotique voilée, 1933. Gelatin silver print. 12.6 × 16.8 cm.
© Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2016 213
7.3 Man Ray, Portrait imaginaire de D.A.F. de Sade, 1938. Oil on
canvas with painted wood panel. 61.6 × 46.7 cm. The Menil
Collection © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS,
London, 2016 214
7.4 Peter Ibbetson (dir. Henry Hathaway), 1935 225
7.5 Toyen, At the Château La Coste, 1946. Oil on canvas. 100 × 160 cm.
Private collection. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2016 227
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used for the Œuvres complètes (Paris: Ed. Gallimard)
of André Breton:
Breton, OCI – Œuvres complètes, Vol. I (1988)
Breton, OCII – Œuvres complètes, Vol. II (1992)
Breton, OCIII – Œuvres complètes, Vol. III (1999)
Breton, OCIV – Œuvres complètes, Vol. IV (2008)
Breton, CV – Breton, Communicating Vessels (Lincoln and London: University
of Nebraska Press, 1990).
The Œuvres complètes of Antonin Artaud, in 26 volumes, are abbreviated as:
Artaud, OCI – Œuvres complètes, Vol. I (Paris: Ed. Gallimard, 1976 and 1984), etc.
The Gallimard series of Œuvres, in the work of Artaud, Desnos, etc. is abbrevi-
ated as: Artaud, Œuvres – Antonin Artaud, Œuvres, Evelyne Grossman ed.
(Paris: Ed. Gallimard, 2004).
Desnos, Œuvres – Robert Desnos, Œuvres, Marie-Claire Dumas ed. (Paris: Ed.
Gallimard, 1999).
Translations
English translations have been used where available and are referenced to those sources.
Where not available, the translation is my own.