Surrealism through its journals

Dissecting the role of magazines and journals as laboratories for Surrealism, from Littérature to La Révolution Surréaliste and beyond

Art historian Rosalind Krauss once defined Surrealist journals as "the true Surrealist object." These periodicals are works of art in themselves, ones that challenge conventions and disciplinary boundaries by mixing languages and forms of expression. Unlike the curious creations of Meret Oppenheim or the assemblages of Joseph Cornell, however, these collective publications revealed the movement’s interdisciplinary complexity and theoretical strength, while exposing the internal conflicts among its practitioners.

Published to follow the centenary of the publication of the first Manifeste du Surréalisme in October 1924, Surrealism through Its Journals reassembles the movement’s rise and fall through its formative publications. Each chapter studies a different journal: beginning with the Dadaist Proverbe and Littérature; moving to the landmark La Révolution Surréaliste and Minotaure; to View magazine and its influence on Surrealism in the United States; and beyond. It illustrates how their production and circulation influenced artists who went on to become part of Surrealism’s widening circle, including Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso. The book also explores periodicals that were not affiliated with the movement but displayed Surrealist elements, such as Italian humor papers in the years leading up to World War II.

Generously illustrated with eye-catching articles and artworks, with a nod to the iconic pink fish from La Révolution Surréaliste on the cover, Surrealism through Its Journals is a thorough yet readable compendium of the movement’s definitive publications, and will delight any art history aficionado or lover of ephemera.