#Infosurr

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #166 has just been published:

Issue 166 opens on Robert Desnos’s Poèmes de Minuit, most of them hitherto unpublished, and then, devotes itself to the last big exhibition of Jean-Claude Silbermann, « one of the last living artists belonging to « historic » surrealism and certainly one of those who strongly contributed to the reinvention of its plastic means. » - the invitation card is reproduced on the cover. Light is also thrown on the forerunner of painted dreams, Léon Spillaert, "the creator of oneiric places which announce those of Giorgio de Chirico and Paul Delvaux". Pierre Petiot’s astonishing research on the links between surrealism and mathematics is dealt with, as well as the continuing activity of La Torre Magnetica and their collection of "Notebooks to cross fire" , together with Javier Galvez’s "radical lyricism". The issue ends on the presentation of  La Vitesse de l’ombre, which confirms that Annie Le Brun, even  better than Paul Eluard, knows "how to give us to see". In this issue, there are two new headings which should give an impetus to,  and respect the encyclopaedic rigour of Infosurr. The first one is a "Regrets" section, which will deal with publications which, in some sort of way, got lost in the avalanche of reviews we receive. The first will mention the meteoric Jean Claude Barbé and his poetry published under the splendid title Bientôt l’éternité m’empêchera de vivre. The second section is devoted to those who have departed from this world. To catch up with this delay, here is a reminder of those whom  Infosurr had forgotten (2015-2017).

[migueldecarvalho]

Recensão por Laurens Vancrevel in "INFOSURR, actualités du surréalisme et ses alentours", #125, Junho 2016, p. 5

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr's 165th issue is now available:

Issue 165 will pay homage to Gérard Durozoi who brought surrealism to several generations. "What Durozoi wrote was flying high but he so elegantly made everything comprehensible". His portrait will feature on page 1. Light will be thrown on the astonishing personality of Arturo Schwarz, the encyclopaedic compiler of surrealism and the avant-gardes, but with other 'identity cards" to be discovered...One page will be devoted to the "poetic surreality" of Will Alexander, the perfect successor of Ted Joans and another one to Claude Gauvreau's "dramatic objects" and his Vampire and the Nymphomaniac, Gauvreau's little-known opera, which is probably the most vibrant example of the scion of surrealism in Quebec - the automatist movement.

We will also deal with an exhibition in Germany of Jan Svankmajer's itinerary as a filmmaker, a creator of objects and a surrealist activist. "Never put your work at the service of anything else but freedom". We will return to Pol Bury's exhibition, his graphic work next to his "animated reliefs", and to the Gardens of Dreams by Alberto Giacometti and Salvador Dali....another very rich issue !

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #158 is out now:

"The 16 pages of issue 158 start with an homage to Jean Terrossian and his paintings 'such as they widely question and give lasting pleasure' - one of his works will feature on the cover. It will also celebrate the second tome of Guy Cabanel's Cités légendaires (Legendary Cities) which already ranks "among the most stimulating recent surrealist works" and it will come back on Jean-Claude Silbermann's Passerelle d'Oiseaux (Bridge of Birds): " What a pleasure to start walking on this bridge of birds in the expectation of finding surprises held in the title itself and in its own promise of almosts - 'almost complete poetry' - in a strict temporality from 1959 to 2020.

"Concerning the development of studies on surrealism, we will comment upon Ron Sakolsky's study of "the intercrossings of surrealism and anarchy" and on Abigail Susik's brilliant essay, Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work, which shows a real empathy for surrealism, unlike most University studies on the movement. "The poetical output of the South African writer Breyten Breytenbach, will be thrown light upon. He is better known as a writer but his poetry is really close to surrealism. A discovery not to be overlooked (despite its price) is the 1000-page edition of the one-issue review Vendredi (only one copy available at all) - "an excellent way of plunging, perhaps drowning, into the freedom of tone and playful and impulsive spirit of Belgian surrealism". Reviews will not be forgotten, with the first issue of Philosophical Egg and the second issue of Alcheringa with its dossier on Michel Zimbacca - nor will Georgia O'Keefe in Paris, Toyen in Hamburg and the little-known Mary Reynolds, Marcel Duchamp's close friend, The issue ends on Maurice Henry's humorous Rêves et Culbutes (Dreams and Sommersaults)."

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #164 has just been published:

Large exhibitions follow each other: Surrealist worlds, presenting the sumptuous Scharf-Gerstenberg collection, the "Berlin Surrealist Museum", the casts from the "Hans Arp Firm', "the basea of his marvellous sculptures". We will come back on the exhibition Surrealismo e Magia - Modernita incantata (Surréalisme and Magic - the Enchanted Modernity) in Potsdam after it went to Venice, and on the recent big exhibition of Max Ernst - the "ubiquity" of "the pictor doctus who never ceased to renew himself as an artist,a  poet and a thinker". Poetry is still present with Alain Roussel's experimentations and with reviews like Liveable Countries under the aegis of "Naivety, utopia and Exuberance", and with the confirmation of S as the "vital sign of Leeds surrealism". 

Homage will be paid to Charles Radcliffe, the publisher of the review Heatwave , "the only person to have resigned before being expelled" from the International Situationist. ("Just as Jack Kerouac's life reflected the fifties, Radcliffe's life reflected the sixties"). We will also mention Desmond Morris's homage to Oscar Mellor, "the private surrealist" , who remained apart from the mercantile system but produced an astonishing surrealist oeuvre - in which Magritte and Delvaux are confronted with British nonsense. After 27 years of existence, Infosurr goes on making discoveries.

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr's 163 issue is now available:

"Issue 163 continues to show the variety of news from surrealism. Surrealist poetry, for instance, with Ludovic Tac and 'his splendid tonality and heated words' ( if we use Jean-Claude Silbermann's letter), or Aaron Kent and John Welson's flamboyant play on words and images.

"Marianne van Hirtum's itinerary will be rediscovered in Breaking bounds, breaking adrift. Exhibitions will be duly reviewed, with Leonora Carrington who becomes a big star but whose work resists banalization.

"Paul Lafargue's astounding essays will be dealt with, on top of Right to Laziness - he really was a 'perfect surrealist in farcical denunciation.'

"Finally the 'Figures of and around surrealism' will open again, even if our notices are published later than the demise of those who are departed. In this issue, homage will be paid to the American surrealist Paul Garon ( whose portrait features on the cover), between blues and surrealism, and to the Slovakian surrealist Albert Marencin and his 'surrealist telephone between Bratislava and Bordeaux.'"

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr's 160th issue is now being sent out to subscribers:

"Issue 160 of Infosurr first pays homage to the little-known richness of Dutch surrealism through the Vancrevel donation to the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The cover is dedicated to the two main leaders of the Brumes Blondes movement, Laurens Vancrevel and Her de Vries. It is thanks to Laurens Vancrevel that 'we can now progressively map out these last unexplored surrealist territories.'

"We will come back to the huge exhibition Surrealism without Borders (New York, London), an attempt to re-evaluate the peripheries of surrealism, while surrealism has always conceived itself as a periphery. The risk taken by the exhibition was 'to ignore that surrealism was above all a moral' and to include strange personalities, however rich the show was otherwise. However the lucky visitors have been given the occasion to discover the 'exquisite corpse' completed by Ted Joans over 30 years, a long strip of drawings, entitled Long Distance, 9-meter long!

"We will also mention the last stage of the Toyen exhibition, ending its rich life in Paris. 'In the dark room of life, I look at the screen of my brain.' Another singular figure, Eileen Agar, the 'Angel of Anarchy,' has had a big exhibition to celebrate her painting as well as her life--she always integrated surrealism into her daily life.

"In 'The Figures of and around surrealism' section, homage is paid to Jacques Calonne ('the most lyrical of Belgian experimental poets,' Christian Dotremont) and to Frederick Tristan, his multiple avatars and his chilled relationships to surrealism. We won't forget the dialogue between the painter-poets and the poet-painters, like George-Henri Morin and Jacques Lacomblez (for the latter, one has 'to resist in order to persist in the Elsewhere'). As regards reviews, we will cite Ouroboros, beautiful, rich but not indigestible, whose programme could be summed up in one sentence: 'Under the ashes of the past, one has to find the incandescent core of the live charcoals, its presentness' (D.Hoss).

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #157 is now available:

"The 12 pages of issue 157 celebrate the return of several epoch-making exhibitions, like, in Prague that of Roman Erben’s works, in which  « Tanguy’s creatures are precipitated against one another, and, in so doing, disintegrate and penetrate one another » - one of his works is on the cover. In Spain, the Menu Editions have shown Cruzeiro-Seixas's works and there is also an important exhibition on Benjamin Péret in Nantes. In Germany, the question mark which follows the title Surrealismus in Deutschland ? raised an important issue for the idea of surrealism in Germany. In Aix-en Provence, an important exhibition (with a catalogue)  dealt with the theme of surrealism and literature, stressing the evolution from surrealism AND literature to a surrealism without literature.

"New publications abound, with Jean-Claude Silbermann’s Passerelle d’Oiseaux, his (almost) complete poetical works which « fill us with delight and which readers will feel the pleasure of being made complicit with an author who simply considers that he actually pleases life ». A further look at his poetry will follow in the next issue. Also in this issue the bats are dissected in Le Vent pur des étables, a treatise of poetical chiropterology and Chinese landscapes described by Guy Cabanel's aphorisms. Finally the issue will end on the (re)discovery of Anne-Marie Castelain’s Traces and Empreintes : « Thanks to their impeccable technical mastery, paintings, inks and etchings reveal the efficiency of their own alchemy »."

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #167 is out now:

Issue 167 starts with the discovery of Bastian van der Velden’s original research on the context of the relationships between Breton and Nadja – he is the « archeologist of images and ancient texts hidden in archives » – and that of Leonor de Abreu on Benjamin Péret in Mexico. News are given of what is happening on the Canadian West Coast, with Ron Sakolsky’s Surrealism and the Anarchist Imagination, as well as twenty years of The Oystercatcher – systematically published every May 1st – with surrealism as its field of investigation. « Surrealism is never what it seems ».

Homage is paid to Claude Tarnaud’s Maga, illustrated by Henriette de Champrel,  » offering suspended forms between jelly fish and madrepores » – one of these images is on the first page, to Alain Roussel and his Impossible Text : « To read this fine flower is an immense pleasure, this is what Jehan Mayoux, who knew flowers so well, would have appreciated ». The issue will close on Max Ernst’s Imaginary Worlds – Liberated Worlds.

Various articles will include our « regrets »: on the surrealists’ colonial « unframing » and on forgotten departures in 2018 and 2019.. There will be four pages of references to documents and exhibitions.

[surrealistnyc]

Annie Le Brun's first published work, Sur le champ, is available for download via Surrealismo Internacional.

Among the many tributes now online are François-René Simon's for Infosurr, her many appearances in the pages of Philosophie magazine, and an English-language interview in World Literature Today.

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #161 is now being sent out to subscribers:

Issue 161 first pays homage to Marianne Isvic's radicality in her link with the Situationist International, "a little-known figure of the surrealist revolution", whose activity is revealed in an essay by Alain Segura. Another important event is the publication of André Breton's correspondence, especially the long one between him and Jean Paulhan (1918-1962), which leads one to "complete his kaleidoscopic portrait  far from all cliches".

Exhibitions will be reviewed, that on Perahim, his "transparent labyrinth" (Petr Kral), his "travel agency for trips to dreamlands" (Edouard Jaguer) and that on the great retrospective of Christian Dotremont in Brussels, "the painter of writing", for the centenary of his birth. The fashion being now to couple surrealism and a given thematics, we will deal with the exhibition of the complex but well-documented alchemical union of surrealism and magic in Venice and Potsdam.

Surrealism being a political and collective movement, one will salute the re-edition of Mario Cesariny's Texts of Affirmative Combat of the Surrealist Movement, "an ambitious anthology of texts of the surrealist movement, then 50 years of age, which would never have seen the light before, on account of the State's censorship" when Portugal was under Salazar's dictatorship. The issue ends on a presentation of University studies on "surrealism and money" under Stéphane Mallarmé's provocative quotation in 1899, "to want to give its real price, in money, to a work of art, were it half a million, is to insult it".

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #159 has recently been published with subscriptions available on their site.

"Issue 159 will first concentrate on a singular editorial adventure with the superb books published by the Brazilian editions 100/cabeças, " a key place in the international surrealist landscape". Original exhibitions will also be commented upon, like the exploration of the railway tracks of modernity in Brussels and the surrealist bestiary at the Max Ernst Museum in Germany. Reviews will also keep us busy with the Cahiers Péret and Péret's translations, and Peculiar Mormyrid which fights for the "reinvention of travelling", and the latest issue of Salamendra, " a treasurable compendium of recent analyses of the spiritual and political crises in our present-day societies". From Switzerland, we will review a comprehensive editorial survey by Méret Oppenheim from Mein Album/My Album, Méret's "veritable personal plastic diary". The issue will end on an article on the new edition of Robert Desnos's Sommeils - this will be the last notice written by Gérard Durozoi who has just left us. We will pay homage to him in the next issue.

"The next issues will deal with singular adventures, like that of Eileen Agar, the "Angel of Anarchy", Max Ernst's writings published, at last, in Germany, the closing down of La Fleur en papier doré, the Mecca for surrealism in Brussels and the little-known richness of Dutch surrealism through the donation of the Collection Vancrevel to the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Homage will be paid to Frederick Tristan (or Danielle Sarréra, if you prefer), as well as to Jacques Calonne and to Paul Garon, the American fan of blues and surrealism. Surrealist poetry will be present, too, with publications by Ludovic Tac, Jean Thiercelin and Jacques Lacomblez. The " Figures of and around Surrealism" and the "Tar and Feather" sections will not be forgotten, and neither will be the many exhibitions, among which Surrealism Beyond Borders in New York and London, and surrealism and alchemy in Venice and Potsdam. Finally, it is our pleasure to greet the re-edition of Mario Cesariny's anthology of texts of affirmation and fight of the surrealist movement throughout the world, published in 1975."

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #162 is now available:

Issue n°162 will celebrate many new publications, such as Ouroboros, the "obsidian-eyed review", and Oystercatcher's political commitment. It will pay homage to Alain Joubert's Chronicles of the Black Box, a "journal of readings and passions" and to Jean Thiercelin's poetry, a "poetry of tempests and dark bites". Max Ernst's writings are being published in Germany, " hardly credible 46 years after his death". Paul Paun's "plastic works will not be separated from his poetical and editorial adventures" and Eugenio F.Granell and Rik Lina's dragons will be dealt with.

We will celebrate Joël Cornuault's essay on André Breton and his suitcase of dawns, a fervent homage to Breton and the key to his poetical approach, the "ascending sign". The issue will also discover who Sotère Torregian is, "who felt he would be surrealist all his life", as he said in 1958. He still is publishing in 2023.

We will report on Patrick Lepetit's research on the relationships between surrealism and the Celtic myths with his publication of La Tête d'Ogmius / Ogmius's Head and we will recall places of surrealist life such  as "La Fleur en papier doré" in Brussels and his proprietor Geert van Bruaene.

[surrealistnyc]

Infosurr #156 is now available

"The 12 pages of Issue 155 will help you rediscover the strange Juliette Roche in Besançon, the work of Man Ray in Avignon or Philip Lamantia’s narcotics-inspired poetry. Tribute is paid, with delay, to Nanos Valatoris, one of the main Greek surrealist poets. The review are always in the spotlight with the annual issue of The Oystercatcher or the documents and unpublished correspondences unearthed by L'Étoile de mer edited by the friends of Robert Desnos. This rich panorama will be completed with Kathleen Fox's "seductive narrative in creations" and Agustin Cardenas, "the surrealist sculptor par excellence" said André Pieyre de Mandiargues. We start to report on the huge travelling exhibition of Toyen. It deserved the cover of the issue with an amazing photo of her and Jindrich Styrsky. "In the next issues, we will deal with Maurice Henry’s Rêves et Culbutes, Mary Reynolds’s neglected career and the one-issue review Vendredi. The « Figures of or around surrealism » section will mention Petr Kral, Arturo Schwarz, Alain Joubert, Jean Terrossian, Jacques Calonne and Frédérick Tristan. Exhibitions start again with the surrealist bestiary of Max Ernst in Germany and the course around surrealism of Anne-Marie Castelain. New academic approaches to surrealism (Abigail Susik) will be presented, as well as poetic approaches still in progress (Guy Cabanel, Jean-Claude Silbermann). Reviews will always be present in Infosurr like the first issue of Philosophical Egg. So there are always (re)discoveries to be made, here and elsewhere."

[surrealistnyc]

"In this new 12-page issue 152, fascinating lives are paid homage to, first Paul Hammond's , between surrealism, the cinema, France and Spain - one of his works is on the cover -, then Jean Jacques Pauvert's. Jacques Lacomblez's poetry as well as recent reviews reveal the richness of surrealist activity today (S, Ouroboros and a special issue of Vocatif). An updated synthesis of the vigour of the surrealist spirit in Wales is presented, as well as the works of Mozambican Malangatana Valente Ngwenya and Leonora Carrington's tales now available again in France.

In the next issue, singular adventures will be (re)discovered, like Oscar Dominguez's visit to Czechoslovakia, the dramatic poems and "pictopoems" by Mario Cesariny and the surrealist vision of Humphrey Jennings. We will come back on the end of the "Contrées" cycle by Jacques Abeille and we will turn to present-day poetry in North America by Brooke Rothwell and Valery Oistenau. To catch up with the flux of Time, our "Figures of and around surrealism" section will deal with Ivan Tovar, Jean-Michel Goutier, Petr Kral, Nano Valatoris, Simone Debout, Daniel Cordier, Nelly Kaplan, Arturo Schwarz, Arturo Cruzeiro Seixas and Alain Joubert, and our "Tar and Feathers" section will unfortunately be active again. A review of reviews on surrealism will continue with L'Etoile de mer, Peculiar Mormyrid, A Idea, etc.

On the Infosurr website you will find the index and table of contents of the previous issues and of the catalogues of books, brochures and magazines supported and distributed by Infosurr, as well as a personal press column and various news : infosurr.net. Please see our 25 Years of Infosurr page.News of the Grand Tamanoir Editions : the (almost) complete poetry of Jean-Claude Silberman has just been published under the title Passerelles d’Oiseaux (Footbridge of Birds) accompanied with a box as a deluxe edition. News of the Grand Tamanoir Editions : Jean Thiercelin’s Poems 1961-1990 and Her de Vries ‘s work on Nadja. As is obvious we do need your help : subscription, renewal of subscription, distribution of the bulletin and your collaboration as regards publications, exhibitions, various events which you would know of, have read or visited. (Abonnement au bulletin). That way, knowledge of, and access to, the surrealist galaxy will be reinforced and its ideas defended. Counting on your support of our passion and seriousness of purpose. With our best wishes Richard Walter and the editors."

[surrealistnyc]

Issue 155 of Infosurr has just been published, about which its editor Richard Walter writes:

"The 12 pages of Issue 155 will help you rediscover Maurice Heine’s Monde mouvant et sans limites, an anthology of replies to the question « Which extreme will the human being reach when his desires meet with no obstacle ? ». Other new approaches of surrealism will e dealt with : the relationships between the Thebah Lodge, the « close affinities of surrealism and the subversive spirit of romanticism », the new portrait of Arthur Cravan as the terror of the wild beasts, « which puts him back at the centre of all that vibrated in the early 20th century ». « An impassionned intiative to follow », the latest review launched by Abdul Kader El Janabi, In Toto, whose first issue explores Arab surrealism with a huge dossier on « the surrealist battle formation in the Middle East and North Africa », but also a whole bunch of rare, unpublished, old and new documents…This rich panorama will be completed with Will Alexander’s latest work from the USA and La Grieta from Spain. Finally, we will present a strip cartoon for the first time : David B.’s André Breton, a surrealist inquiry, which imagines the improbable encounter – but totally plausible in surrealist reality – of Breton and the serial detective Nick Carter. This deserved to be on the cover of the issue !

"In the next issues, we will deal with Maurice Henry’s Rêves et Culbutes, Philip Lamantia’s narcotics-inspired poetry, Mary Reynolds’s neglected career and the one-issue review Vendredi. The « Figures of or around surrealism » section will mention Petr Kral, Nanos Valatoris, Arturo Schwarz, Alain Joubert and Jean Terrossian. Exhibitions start again with the work of Man Ray in Avignon, the strange Juliette Roche in Besançon, the huge travelling exhibition of Toyen the rebel, the surrealist bestiary of Max Ernst in Germany and the work in the neighbourhood of surrealism by Anne-Marie Castelain and Kathy Fox. We will also have to come back on the annual issue of The Oystercatcher, the first issue of The philosophical Egg and on the documents and unpublished correspondences unearthed by L’Etoile de mer, edited by the Friends of Robert Desnos."