André Robert Breton (born February 19, 1896; died September 28, 1966) was a French writer and poet. He was an important thinker and helped start the surrealist movement. His work includes the first Surrealist Manifesto, written in 1924. In this document, he described surrealism as "pure psychic automatism."

Breton was a leader of the surrealist movement and wrote well-known books such as Nadja and L'Amour fou. His work as a writer, along with his studies on writing and visual art, made him an important person in 20th-century French art and literature.

Biography

André Breton was the only child in his family, which had a simple lifestyle in Tinchebray, Normandy, France. His father, Louis-Justin Breton, was a police officer and did not believe in religion. His mother, Marguerite-Marie-Eugénie Le Gouguès, used to sew clothes for a living. Breton studied medicine and became interested in mental health. His studies were interrupted when he was required to serve in World War I.

During the war, he worked in a hospital in Nantes that treated people with brain injuries. There, he met Jacques Vaché, a friend of the writer Alfred Jarry. Vaché had unusual ideas and did not follow traditional artistic rules. He influenced Breton deeply. Vaché died by suicide at 23. Letters he wrote during the war were published in a book called Lettres de guerre (1919). Breton wrote four essays to introduce the book.

Breton married Simone Kahn on September 15, 1921. The couple moved to an apartment at 42 rue Fontaine in Paris on January 1, 1922. This apartment became a home for more than 5,300 items, including paintings, books, and art from different cultures. Like his father, Breton did not believe in religion.

In 1919, Breton started a magazine called Littérature with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. He also worked with the artist Tristan Tzara, who was part of the Dadaist movement. Breton and Soupault wrote a book called Les Champs Magnétiques (The Magnetic Fields), where they used a method called automatic writing. In 1924, Breton published his Surrealist Manifesto, which led to the creation of the magazine La Révolution surréaliste and the Bureau of Surrealist Research. Many writers, including Soupault, Aragon, and Paul Éluard, joined Breton’s group.

Breton wanted to mix the ideas of personal change from the poet Arthur Rimbaud with the political ideas of Karl Marx. In 1927, he and others joined the French Communist Party. He was removed from the party in 1933. His novel Nadja, which describes his relationship with a woman who later had mental health issues, was published in 1928. Because of economic problems, Breton had to sell his art collection, but he later collected it again.

In December 1929, Breton published his Second Manifesto of Surrealism. It included a statement that many people, including Albert Camus, criticized: "The simplest surrealist act is to run into the street with a gun and shoot randomly at people."

After the Second Manifesto was published, some writers and artists criticized Breton in a collection of pamphlets called Un Cadavre (a reference to a book Breton had written earlier). These writers were upset with Breton’s leadership and his control over the Surrealist movement. Some called Breton dishonest or disrespectful.

In response to the criticism, Breton added a note to the second edition of the Second Manifesto. He said that while he described the act of shooting randomly as "simple," he did not mean it should be encouraged. He compared arguing about it to a person from a wealthy background questioning why someone else does not commit suicide or move to the Soviet Union.

In 1935, Breton had a conflict with the Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg at a meeting of writers in Paris. Ehrenburg insulted Breton and other Surrealists, saying they avoided work and supported harmful behaviors. Breton slapped Ehrenburg in public, which caused Surrealists to be removed from the meeting. René Crevel, a Surrealist who was also a communist, was separated from Breton and others because of his personal life and his disagreements with communists.

In 1938, Breton accepted a job from the French government to travel to Mexico. After a confusing arrival in Mexico City, he said, "I don’t know why I came here. Mexico is the most surrealist country in the world." During his visit, Breton met the political leader Leon Trotsky. Together, Breton and Trotsky wrote a statement called Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art, calling for complete freedom in art.

At the start of World War II, Breton worked again in the French Army. The Vichy government, which ruled France during the war, banned Breton’s writings, calling them "the very negation of the national revolution." With help from American rescuers, Breton escaped to the United States and the Caribbean in 1941. He lived in New York City for a few years and organized a major Surrealist art exhibition at Yale University in 1942.

In 1942, Breton worked with the artist Wifredo Lam to publish a poem called Fata Morgana, which was illustrated by Lam. Breton also met Martinican writers Suzanne Césaire and Aimé Césaire. He wrote an introduction for a 1947 edition of Aimé Césaire’s book Cahier d’un retour au pays natal. During his time in New York, Breton married Elisa Bindhoff, a Chilean woman.

In 1944, Breton and Elisa traveled to the Gaspé Peninsula in Québec, where he wrote Arcane 17. This book describes his fears about World War II, his admiration for the Percé Rock, and his new relationship with Elisa.

In 1945–1946, Breton visited Haiti. He connected Surrealist ideas with the history of the Haitian Revolution and the spiritual practices of Vodou. He admired the work of the painter and Vodou priest Hector Hyppolite, who was the first artist to directly depict Vodou rituals and gods. Breton brought Hyppolite’s paintings back to France, where they became important to Surrealist art focused on the occult and magic.

Legacy

Breton loved collecting art, items related to different cultures, and unusual objects. He was especially interested in materials from the northwest coast of North America. Because of money problems, in 1931, he had to sell most of his collection (along with that of his friend Paul Éluard). Later, he rebuilt the collection in his studio and home at 42 rue Fontaine. The collection grew to more than 5,300 items, including modern paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, books, art catalogs, journals, manuscripts, and works from popular and Oceanic art traditions.

French scholar Claude Lévi-Strauss said Breton was skilled at identifying real items based on their time together in 1940s New York.

After Breton died on 28 September 1966, his third wife, Elisa, and his daughter, Aube, let students and researchers use his archive and collection. After thirty-six years, when efforts to create a foundation to protect the collection were blocked, the collection was sold by Calmels Cohen at Drouot-Richelieu. A wall from the apartment is kept at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Nine manuscripts that were only partly published before, including Manifeste du surréalisme, were sold by Sotheby's in May 2008.