L'Amour fou : Photography and Surrealism [Hardcover]

Rosalind Krauss (Author), Jane Livingston (Author), Dawn Ades (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 1985

Much has been written about Surrealist painting and sculpture, but most of the erotic, disorienting and exquisite Surrealist photographs of Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Andre Breton, Brassai, Salvador Dali, Andre Kertesz and Hans Bellmer have remained all but unknown - until now. Traditional criticism has viewed Surrealist photography as a pale imitiation of authentic Surrealist work. The assumption has been that photography, a "realistic" medium, is fundamentally incomptatible with a cause devoted to the wildly subjective, the world of dreams and the unconscious. As a consequence, Surrealist photography, a major body of 20-century art, has remained largely unexplored. This text studies the crucial role photography played in the Surrealist movement. It shows how photographers enlisted into the service of "subjective" Surrealism their medium's very claim to "objective" reality. Of greatest interest, of course, is the book's abundant reproductions of the fantastic and distorted photographic creations that must be ackowledged as an important part of the Surrealist oeuvre.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Andre Breton's surrealist manifestos of the 1920s and '30s, along with his novel concept of "l'amour fou," ascribed to his revolutionary Parisian art movement "the intensely illogical reality of a dream." British and American art educators Krauss, Livingston and Ades in this rich picture book examine the very extensive role of photography (an unlikely medium on the face of it) in the surrealist movement. Shown here are photographs by Man Ray, Brassai, Tabard, Ubac, Boiffard and others whose choice of subject and/or photolab manipulations leave in no doubt their surrealist competence and intent. Illogical juxtapositions, twisted imagery (e.g., Hans Bellemer's "Doll" sequence), light-and-shadow cutouts, and coldly unerotic dissections of the female form boldly assert surrealism's quest for an ultimate truthits own "psycho-atmospheric-anamorphic" knowledge. A scholarly tour de force, this is the catalogue of a traveling exhibition. December 27
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Rosalind Krauss, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University, is a widely published author of books and articles on art subjects. Since 1976 she has edited October, a journal of aesthetics. Jane Livingston, former associate director and chief curator of The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has written major books and exhibition catalogues on art and photography. Dawn Ades, Professor of Art History and Theory Essex University, Colchester, England, has written several art books, including Abbeville's The 20th-Century Poster.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; First Edition edition (October 25, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896595765
• ISBN-13: 978-0896595767
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 1.1 x 12.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #411,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Surrealism