Victor Brauner

The Romanian avant-garde looked for inspiration in two principal places where artists from all-over Europe gathered, confronted and discussed their ideas of a new art. While Berlin nourished the constructivist orientation of the Romanian avantgarde, Paris stimulated its interest in surrealism. Although Berlin was by far more significant as a stimulus for the synthesis of all arts and all modern movements toward which the Romanian avant-garde strove, Paris had the advantage of anemotional attachment. The French culture had been set long ago as a model for the entire Romanian modern culture and institutions. Consequently it is not surprising that poets and artists, including Victor Brauner, chosed to live and work in Paris in order to feel closer to what was considered to be the origin.Victor Brauner is discussed both in the context of the Romanian avant-garde and in the history of the French surrealism, but one cannot detect any tension between center and periphery. One motivation ca...

O reexaminare a mișcării suprarealiste de la București în perioada interbelică, concentrându-se în special pe restituirea în contextul istoric al „laborator de investigație suprarealistă” activ între 1933 și 1941. Această perioadă, mai puțin cercetată din istoria avangardei românești, relevă o legătură crucială între manifestările anterioare și ulterioare ale suprarealismului din România. Studiul subliniază natura transnațională a mișcării, rolul artiștilor evrei și interacțiunea complexă dintre experimentarea artistică, ideologiile politice și contextele sociale.

Cercetarea se concentrează pe un grup de artiști format în jurul lui Victor Brauner: Hedda Sterne, Théodore (Teddy) Brauner, Medi Wechsler Dinu și Jules Perahim, care au activat într-un „laborator de investigație suprarealistă” centrat în jurul atelierului Heddei Sterne din strada Teodor Ștefănescu din București.

Studiul aduce contribuții originale prin documentarea activității colective a acestui cerc de artiști, evidențiind producția lor artistică comună, în special seriile de lucrări „Cadavre(s) Délicieux" - aproximativ 389 de experimente artistice realizate prin metoda suprarealistă. De asemenea, sunt analizate experimentele literare și piesele de teatru create colectiv de acest grup.
Contextul socio-politic al perioadei este atent examinat, arătând cum ascensiunea extremei drepte și antisemitismului a influențat activitatea grupului, ale cărui membri erau în majoritate de origine evreiască. Cercetarea evidențiază și legăturile grupului cu mișcarea comunistă ilegală, documentate prin arhivele Siguranței.

O contribuție importantă a studiului este analiza relației dintre suprarealism și realismul socialist în România, arătând că tranziția între cele două curente nu a fost bruscă, ci a existat o perioadă de coexistență și contaminare reciprocă în anii 1930.
Studiul se bazează pe surse inedite din arhive private și publice, inclusiv corespondență, fotografii și documente oficiale. Este evidențiată importanța arhivei familiei Dinu în conservarea acestor materiale după plecarea Heddei Sterne în SUA în 1941.

Cercetarea contribuie la o mai bună înțelegere a avangardei românești, demonstrând că între cele două valuri/vârste cunoscute ale suprarealismului românesc (grupul „unu" și grupul „Infra-noir") a existat această „verigă lipsă" reprezentată de laboratorul de investigație suprarealistă din București.

Figurative art has historically been a trendy subject among Pakistani artists. Abid Husain Qureshi, on the other hand, has concentrated especially on human sorrow and loss from a variety of perspectives, which provides us with views into Pakistan's whole past and history. He has also researched human psychology and its intricacies. His paintings are enhanced by the way he arranges the materials to represent the subject matter best. To emphasize the meaning of the subject matter even more, he also used color. Therefore, the current paper's goal is to examine and thoroughly analyze all the artwork that Qureshi created during his life. This study's method is based on both intrinsic and extrinsic analysis. It will pay special attention to its aesthetics and underlying philosophical ideas, which have shaped his entire body of work.

Shine Your Light, Light up Your City "Arată-ți lumina, luminează-ți orașul! O ploaie de lumini a invadat orașul încă din zilele deschiderii Capitalei Culturale Europene: concerte pentru (aproape) toate gusturile, artă plastică, instalații, mega-păpuși în dialog cu cei mici, lansări de carte, conferințe, Ioan Hollender, concurs de șah, voluntari și foarte multe păreri. Aceasta este Capitala culturală? A cui? A noastră? A Europei? A unei generații? Să aprindem luminile să vedem mai bine cine suntem, ce am așteptat și cum a început.  Din programul deschiderii prezentam expozitia Victor Brauner, conferinta Peter Sloterdijk  si concertul de jazz si csardasuri  gazduit de Filarmonica Banatul.

În suita evenimentelor ce au marcat deschiderea Capitalei culturale europene la Timișoara, vedeta incontestabilă a fost expoziția retrospectivă de artă plastică "Victor Brauner-Invenții și magie", deschisă la Muzeul Național de Artă din Timișoara.  Dar dincolo de festivisim, se bucuria reala a expozitiei, se impun cateva intrebari> suntem, ca societate, pregatiti sa intelegem si sa apreciem? Lipsa culturii artistice. Dar artistii banateni plecati din tara? Lipsa in program. Suprarealism care mutileaza un palat baroc? Evreitatea intr-o tara nationalista - ar fi doar cateva intrebari.

Essay written before the opening of a retrospective Victor Brauner exhibition in Timisoara, 2023, European Capital of Culture. I tried to introduce the great artist and other personalities from his family to a Romanian public who could not learn about it, by now. It is a, introduction to the aesthetics of surrealism, to his efforts to survive in Paris and in a France under nazi domination, to Brauner striving to keep track with his Western friends despite the different cultural background as well as his growing poverty.

Research into Hedda Sterne’s Romanian and European art career, which has until recently been almost lacking, reveals both new perspectives towards understanding her later evolution and necessary complementary
information on biographical aspects of the artists, writers, actors, and musicians in the avant-garde circles that Sterne had been part of.

The present article discusses the series of collective surrealist artistic and literary pieces made by Hedda Sterne at the end of the 1930s together with Victor Brauner, Theodore Brauner, Medi Wechsler Dinu, and Jules Perahim, the famous “Cadavres exquis” which the participants called “Cadavres délicieux.” The story behind these interesting artistic collaborations has until now only been mentioned in passing.

This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of the candidate's knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes copyright.

Auch wenn die Musealisierung des Surrealismus voranschreitet, ist seine massenmediale Wirkung größer denn je - und dies, obwohl er die von seinen Begründern proklamierte Revolution nicht auszulösen vermochte. Zwischen Kunst und Kommerz - in diesem intermedialen Spannungsfeld diskutieren die Beiträger_innen die Frage nach der Aktualität des Surrealismus in der heutigen Mediengesellschaft. Zwischen Mythos und Marke changierend, inspiriert er nach wie vor Kunstschaffende und Medientheoretiker und dient zugleich als Werbeträger der Kulturindustrie. Dadurch eröffnet er am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts ein Potenzial, das gerade für den aktuellen Medienumbruch neue Perspektiven eröffnet.

Dieser Artikel versucht einen disziplinubergreifenden Dialog zwischen der Typenlehre des Psychoanalytikers C. G. Jungs und dem Medicine Wheel der Machte des Individuellen Selbst der Plains Indians anhand des Symboles Kreis herzustellen.Jung beschreibt in seinen eigenen Werken die Treffen mit den indigenen Stammen und dem Einfluss der Begegnungen auf seine Gedankenmodelle. In „Memories, Dreams, Reflexions“ (Jung, 1989) beschreibt Jung seine Begegnungen mit den Native Americans. Diese Erfahrungen machten ihm bewusst, in welchen Verhaftungen „the cultural consciousness of the white man“ (Jung, 1989, S. 247) war. Die kosmopolitische Weltanschauung, die religiosen Traditionen der Native Americans finden ihren Ausdruck im Symbol des Medicine Wheel – des Medizinrades. Der Kreis als Symbol und als Werkzeug fur Sonnentanze und fur Visionssuche, als astronomisches Observatorium, als Wegweiser fur das Leben, als Anleitung fur Heilung – letztendlich diente es als Tor zur Erlangung spiritueller ...

This small book - a zine published by the Seligmann Center for the Arts, NY, explores Kurt Seligmann and the Artist's Experience from spiritual, political, and historical aspects through Seligmann's life experience, writings, and biography. I wrote the first chapter, considered an introduction but really a biographical exploration of the themes above, pages 6-11.

Weiche Konstruktion mit gekochten Bohnen-Die Vorahnung des Bür gerkrieges ist ein Gemälde Salvador Dah's aus dem Jahr 1936, das eine abschreckende Inszenierung von Gewalt zeigt. In einer offenen, spröden Landschaft kämpft ein großes Wesen mit verstümmelten Gliedmaßen gegen Teile seines eigenen Körpers. 1962 schrieb der Künstler im Rückblick über das Bild: »Die Vorahnung des Bürger kriegs ließ mir keine Ruhe. Als Maler von Höhepunkten in der Krankheit der Eingeweide beendete ich sechs Monate vor dem Spa nischen Bürgerkrieg Construction molle avec haricots bouillis-premonition de laguerre civile, auf dem ein großer menschlicher Körper zu sehen ist, mit übergroßen Armen und Beinen, die sich gegensei tig im Wahn würgen.« Dali betonte anschließend den zukunftsvisio nären Charakter des Bildes: »dieser Titel paßt genau in die Dalischen Voraussagen«.1 1937 malte der belgische Surrealist Rene Magritte das Gemälde Le Drapeau noir (Die schwarze Flagge; Abb. 2, S. 102), das eine bedrohli che Versammlung düsterer Flugobjekte zeigt. Über dieses schrieb im Jahr 1946 der mit ihm befreundete belgische Künstler, Verleger und Schriftsteller Edouard Leon Theodore Mesens, Magritte habe pro phetische Bilder gemalt und führt Le Drapeau noir als Beweis für eine »prophetie verifiee« an.2 Künstler und ihre Selbstdarstellung als Visionäre Auch in der surrealistischen Literatur geben uns die Dichter Hin weise darauf, dass sie vom Kriegsereignis von 1939 gewusst hätten. Zu ihnen zählt Andre Breton, der sich in seinem Lettre aux voyantes (Brief an die Seherinnen) bereits 1925 sicher ist: »Es gibt Leute, die be haupten, im Krieg etwas gelernt zu haben, sie sind auf jeden Fall nicht so weit vorgedrungen wie ich, der weiß, was mich im Jahr 1939 erwartet.«3 Diesen Satz sollte er später im amerikanischen Exil wäh rend des Zweiten Weltkrieges als Beweis für die besondere Sensibi lität und visionäre Kraft des Surrealismus anführen.4 Louis Aragon schließlich verfasste in den 1950er Jahren eine Hommage an seinen Dichterfreund Robert Desnos.5 Im Refrain des Gedichtes betonte er, Desnos habe sein eigenes Schicksal-nämlich seine Deportation ins Konzentrationslager Theresienstadt, in dem er 1943 an Typhus ver starb-vorhergesehen. Je pense ä Desnos qui partit de Compiegne Comme un soir en dormant tu nous en fis recit Accomplir jusqu'au bout ta propre prophetie Lä-bas oü le destin de notre siede saigne.6 Ich denke an Dich, Desnos, der Compiegne verließ wie Du es uns eines Abends im Schlaf verhießt, um die eigene Prophezeiung zu vollenden, dort, wo das Schicksal unseres Jahrhunderts blutet.7 Louis Aragon erinnerte mit diesem Gedicht auch an eine surrea listische Traumseance, die am 25. September 1922 im Beisein von Andre Breton, Paul Eluard und Benjamin Peret stattgefunden hatte und die in der Zeitschrift Litterature, dem Organ der Surrealisten, am 1. November 1922 veröffentlicht worden war.8 In dieser Seance hatte Desnos im Zustand des Traumes den Tod und eine sehr weite Reise zu einem nicht näher präzisierten Ort oder Ziel namens »Nazimova« gesehen.9 Desnos hatte in dieser Seance des weiteren vorausgesagt, der Dichter Peret würde in einem »wagon plein de gens« (mit Men schen angefüllten Eisenbahnwaggon) sterben, und er hätte auf einen Zettel einen aus der Waggontür stürzenden Mann gezeichnet. Die Übereinstimmungen dieser Traumniederschrift des später Depor tierten mit den Beschreibungen der Todeszüge, die in die Konzen trationslager fuhren, sind verblüffend. 1 Salvador Dali, Construction molle avec haricots bouillis-premonition de la guerre civile (Weiche Konstruktion mit gekochten Bohnen-Die Vorahnung des Bürgerkrieges)-1936 Öl auf Leinwand • 100 x 99,9 cm

Even though 90 years have already passed form the First Surrealism Manifest (1924) of Andre Breton, it seems as if surrealism is still actual and tangible even nowadays. If we study it deeply theoretically, it is obvious that it is necessary in the century we are living. The surrealists’ human commitment becomes more attractive in an époque that is becoming materialistic day by day, in a society that hands in its fate to science and technology and in an environment which is getting more and more hostile every day. In this framework, surrealism is perceived neither as a “dogma” nor as a closed philosophical system, but as an open and adapted thought and life confrontation “method”. It has got a relieving effect which makes people co-communicate among each other; people of all the nationalities who gather around a common inspiration. It unifies the past with the present; it engraves the boulevard of the future, offering new and unknown opportunities to anyone.

The Magician was a solo exhibition of artist and researcher, Stella Baraklianou, at Gloam Gallery, Sheffield 17th June - 4th July 2021.
This is a PDF version of the gallery programme and contains an interview with gallery co-director of Gloam and Stella Baraklianou

the avant-garde fashion-the mask for the show-the (trans)gender story-Victor Brauner & Gellu Naum-virtual reality (Man Ray)
An inoubliable appearance for Tzara is the monocle; without one, there is no Tzara. In his late years, Tzara took a pair of glasses to study the Villon anagrams and medieval puns: until then, the monocle as part of Tzara identity took a variety of forms and images.

The often scandalous and outrageous actions, paintings, and literary oeuvres the surrealists produced and presented to the public were mostly directed against the society of their fathers—more precisely, the social values and morals of the bourgeoisie, which, in the eyes of the surrealists, had provoked the terrors of World War I. In their opinion, society had to change, to undergo a radical transformation, in order to prevent such an event from happening ever again. Only through absolute freedom could society metamorphose into something transcending the past terrors. During the 1920s the surrealists lived their dream, experimenting with literature, art, politics, and philosophy. Everything seemed possible. Then, during the 1930s, the theories defended by the group seemed to fail. Unrest and political tension defined Europe. The surrealists had to watch in horror the development of something a little too familiar: the terrors of another World War that lurked on the horizon. In that respect, the last surrealist show in Paris, the Exposition internationale du surréalisme that took place in January 1938, reflected the anxiety of a group of artists caught between the terror of the past war and of the one that had yet to come.

Als die amerikanische Zeitschrift View im Jahre 1942 dem Exilkünstler Max Ernst ein Sonderheft widmet, berichtet Henry Miller darin über seine erste Begegnung mit dem Künstler: »[ ... ]ich spürte, daß Max Ernst ein geborener depayse war, ein flüchtiger Vogel in Menschengestalt, der unablässig seine ganze Kraft aufbot, um sich über die äußere Welt [ ... ] zu erheben.«' Was der Dichter poetisch umschreibt, trifft auf das Leben des Surrealisten zu, dessen Biografi e von beständiger Veränderung und permanenten Ortswechseln zwischen Ländern und Kontinenten -Deutschland, Frankreich und Amerika -geprägt ist, welche die Konturen einer möglichen geografi schen und nationalen Verortung des Künstlers nach und nach verschwimmen lassen. So fragt der Kunsthistoriker Eduard Trier 1953 anlässlich der Ausstellung Max Ernsts in der Kölner Galerie Der Spiegel: »Wer ist Max Ernst heute? Ein Amerikaner in Paris? Ein Brühler in Köln? Ein Heimkehrer zum Vater Rhein?«. Trier spielt damit auf das gleichnamige Gemälde aus diesem Jahr an, das als eines der Hauptwerke der Schau präsentiert wurde IAbb. 11.2 Der Künstler selbst hat das Vagabundieren und eine fort währende Unruhe stets als das wesentliche Merkmal seiner Natur beschrieben, von der auch sein Schaffen nicht unberührt geblieben ist: »Wie mein Leben «, schreibt Max Ernst, »so ist auch mein Werk nicht harmonisch im Sinne der klassischen Komponisten, nicht einmal im Sinne der klassischen Revolutionäre.« 3 241

This text is an afterword for a proposed "box" of materials from  film maker, artist, musicologist, ethnologist and mage Harry Smith's lectures at Naropa Institute. It deals specifically with his brand of transgressive sacrality and the wide ranging subjects and practices his own "magical" work encompassed.

Kurt Seligmann and the Spiritual in Art uncovers the historical context and thematic affinities of Seligmann’s ideas in the context of 20th century art and intellectual history. It employs as a point of departure one of his talks written for the New School for Social Research, New York between 1940-51. A compressed version of this piece is published in The Winged Boat: Lectures and Lecteurs, a zine including works by William Seaton, Jesse Bransford, David Horton, Bonnie Crosky, Janet Hamill, Daniel Mack, and Mary Altobelli, published by the Seligmann Center for the Arts, October 2016, available for purchase from the Seligmann Center at the Citizens’ Foundation, NY.

Als im Mai 1936 die Pariser Galerie Charles Ratton die Exposition surréaliste d'objets präsentiert, möchte sie die Möglichkeiten des Surrealismus veranschaulichen, die Wirklichkeit zu transfigurieren, ohne diese jedoch zu metamorphosieren. Die ausgestellten Objektemathematische Objekte, objets trouvés sowie Objekte aus Nordamerika und Ozeanien -werden in den Status des Phantastischen erhoben, obwohl sie keinerlei Veränderung oder Transformation erfahren. Es sind die Dichter, die einen "Gebrauchsgegenstand allein durch Wahl des Künstlers in den Rang eines Kunstgegenstands erheben", wie André Breton 1938 im Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme erklärt. Zahlreiche Studien, jüngst die Ausstellung Le surréalisme et l'objet 2013 im Centre Pompidou, sind seitdem dem surrealistischen Paradoxon zwischen dem Bereich des Traums und der Phantasie einerseits sowie der materiellen Wirklichkeit andererseits nachgegangen. Im Rahmen eines Workshops soll nun das Interesse insbesondere auf das objet sauvage gelenkt werden. Also auf jene Gegenstände, die aus Ozeanien, Afrika und Nordamerika kommen und nicht nur in der Ästhetik des Surrealismus, sondern auch in den Sammlungen der Dichter und Künstler einen wichtigen Platz einnehmen. Jenseits ihrer Magie besitzen diese Objekte einen konkreten Tauschwert: Roland Tual, der Geschäftsführer der 1926 eröffneten Galerie surréaliste, macht mit den Berliner Galeristen Hildebrand Gurlitt sowie Karl und Josef Nierendorf Geschäfte mit ozeanischen und afrikanischen Objekten. Paul Eluard ist immer auf der Suche nach Objekten, die er Pariser Kunsthändlern wie Charles Ratton verkaufen kann. Aus seiner Korrespondenz mit Gala geht hervor, daß der Sammler schon beim Ankauf der Objekte stets ihren Weiterverkauf im Kopf hat. Ebenso begreift André Breton diese Objekte, abgesehen von ihrer großen ästhetischen Qualität, als Bestandteile seiner Maklertätigkeit, von der er lebt.

Victor Brauner's 1947 composition Le Surréaliste may justifiable be regarded as the most concise manifesto for Surrealism's project of artistic and spiritual renewal in post-war Paris. Based on the first major arcanum of the traditional tarot deck, the work glorifies the Surrealist artist as all-powerful magician, equipped with the power over the four life-giving elements. Although the composition paradigmatically foreshadows the key themes of initiation, spiritual rebirth and cosmic harmony that lay at the very heart of the Surrealism in 1947 exhibition at Maeght Gallery, the painting has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. The only detailed interpretations of the composition have, so far, been supplied by Angelica Rudenstine and Nicolas Calas. Both authors have read the work through a strictly psycho-biographical lens: Dismissing the proliferation of hermetic symbolism as part of a hermeneutically sealed, quintessentially private mythology, the composition's broader socio-political implications remain completely unaddressed, culminating in its reductionist identification as an alchemical self-portrait in the guise of a young sorcerer. Such interpretations not only eclipse the role of Brauner's Jewish heritage and his first-hand encounter with the dangers of the Holocaust in war-torn France; they also misleadingly separate the artist's personal embrace of occultism from the broader frame-work of Surrealism and magic in the post-war period. In this paper, I aim to demonstrate that we need to assess the painting's meaning beyond the purely personal and psycho-biographical interpretations it has so far received. All the while insisting that the painting needs to be read as Brauner's response to the war, I will situate the work in a tight historical framework – post the 1946 Art et Resistance exhibition at the Musee National d'Art Moderne and pre the 1947 International Surrealism exhibition at Maeght gallery. As will be shown, it is precisely within and against the dominant socio-political context of trauma, terror, war and épuration that Brauner's work emerges not as an escapist reverie, but instead deploys alchemical symbolism for more far-reaching counter-cultural purposes.

With this presentation I will introduce my research concerning my thesis Outgrowing the vernissage. The openings of the Expositions Internationales du Surréalisme in 1938Surréalisme in , 1947Surréalisme in and 1959: pioneer experimentations of Performance Art.

""Abraxas is a bi-annual journal of contemporary esoteric art and culture printed in a high quality format. The first special issue, titled ‘Charming Intentions: Occultism, Magic and the History of Art’, will be launched on 25 May, 2013.
Presented in its usual impeccable design and high quality format, it offers eight papers selected from the conference ‘Charming Intentions: Occultism, Magic and the History of Art’, held at the Department of History of Art at the University of Cambridge on 3-4 December 2012.

From the depiction of astrology in medieval manuscript illumination, to Renaissance magic stones, Tantric fertility rites, Surrealist painting and the influence of witchcraft on 20th-century American experimental films, this issue aims to attest the place of esoteric themes as a flourishing field in current art-historical research and to the formative influence which esoteric currents have exerted on Western and non-Western material and visual culture.

Contributors include Imma Ramos, Monika Winiarczyk, Dr Judith Noble, Dr Liliana Leopardi, Shandra Lamaute, Lisa Hanstein, Alexandra Marracini and Daniel Zamani.""

This thesis addresses the Surrealists' anti-colonialism, arguing that the Surrealist movement held a resolute line of political commitment that preceded and outran its relation to Communism. This is a more positive view of Surrealism's engagement with politics than has been evident in much scholarly writing.