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Surrealism and the Exotic is the story of the obsessive relationship between surrealist and non-western culture. Describing the travels across Africa, Oceania, Mexico and the Caribbean made by wealthy aesthetes, it combines an insight into the mentality of early twentieth century collectors with an overview of the artistic heritage at stake in these adventures. Featuring more than 70 photographs of artefacts, exhibitions and expeditions-in-progress, it brings to life the climate of hedonism enjoyed by Breton, Ernst, Durkheim, and Mauss, It is an unparalleled introduction to the Surrealist movement and to French thought and culture in the 1920s and 1930s.
List of contents
Acknowledgments. Introduction: Surrealism and ethnologie: subversive ideologies Part 1 - Cults 1. The culture of Surrealism Part 2 - The Primitive: ideologies and objects 2. The primitive:fantasy, theory, Surrealist ideology 3. The primitive object Part 3 - Voyages 4. Africanismes 5. Océanie: re-mapping the world 6. North America: the search for the familiar on unfamiliar terrain 7. Mexico and the Caribbean: 'Magic as part of everyday life' Part 4 - Anthropologies 8. Michel Leiris - an anthropology of the self 9. Georges Bataille - an anthropology of otherness Afterword Bibliography Index
About the author
Louise Tythacott is a curator at Liverpool Museum. She was formerly a guide at Brighton Pavilion and a postgraduate researcher at Hong Kong University
Summary
Surrealism and the Exotic is the story of the obsessive relationship between surrealist and non-western culture. Describing the travels across Africa, Oceania, Mexico and the Caribbean made by wealthy aesthetes, it combines an insight into the mentality of early twentieth century collectors with an overview of the artistic heritage at stake in these adventures. Featuring more than 70 photographs of artefacts, exhibitions and expeditions-in-progress, it brings to life the climate of hedonism enjoyed by Breton, Ernst, Durkheim, and Mauss, It is an unparalleled introduction to the Surrealist movement and to French thought and culture in the 1920s and 1930s.
