signed
by Bulletin international du Surréalisme.
Praha/ Santa Cruz de Tenerife/ Bruxelles/ London, 1935-1936.. Nos. 1-4 (all published). 4to. Self-wraps., stapled as issued. Fine fitted slipcase and chemise by Devauchelle (black boards, silver label at spine). A complete set, including the sensationally rare No. 2, published in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in October 1935, of which virtually the entire printing seems to have been lost. Remarking on this inaccessible et mythique numéro, the Breton sale catalogue of 2003 reported that daprès Benjamin Péret, la quasi totalité de son tirage contenu dans une valise se trouverait quelque part au fond de locéan. De la plus insigne rareté. Contents of the set as follows: No. 1: Bulletin international du surréalisme. Publié par le Groupe surréaliste en Tchécoslovaquie. Prague, le 9 avril 1935./ Mezinárodní buletin surrealismu. Vydala Skupina surrealistu v CSR. Praha, 9. duben 1935. 12pp. 4 illus., Styrsky, Toyen and Makovsky. Parallel texts in Czech and French. With extensive quotation from Breton and Eluard, who, at the invitation of the Czech group, visited Prague early in 1935, where they were lionized by the Communist Party press. Declarations by Vítezslav Neval and others; illus. of work by Styrsky and Toyen. No. 2: Boletín internacional del surrealismo. Santa Cruz de Tenerife, octubre 1935. Publicado por el grupo surrealista de Paris y Gaceta de Arte de Tenerife (Islas Canarios). 9, (1)pp. 5 illus. Parallel texts in Spanish and French. In May, 1935, another invitation was extended to the Paris surrealists, this time from friends of Oscar Dominguez in Tenerife who for four years had been publishing a review of modern art, Gaceta de Arte. Breton and Péret went to the Canaries, and met Eduardo Westerdahl, the director of the review, and the poets Domingo Pérez Minik, Domingo Lopez Torres, Pedro Garcia Cabrera and Agustin Espinoza. Gaceta de Arte organized an exhibition at the Ateneo Gallery of paintings, water-colours, drawings, collages, engravings, and photographs.... Conferences were held, and Buñuel and Dalís film LAge dOr was shown. A second bilingual edition of the International Surrealist Bulletin, this time in Spanish and French, appeared in October 1935 at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, dealing with the same issues--the relationship between art and revolution--as the Czech number. It contained reproductions of The Hunter by Dominguez, and The Death of Marat, an engraving by Picasso for a collection of poems by Benjamin Péret (Marcel Jean). No. 3: Bulletin international du Surréalisme. Publié à Bruxelles par le Groupe surréaliste en Belgique, 20 aoùt 1935. 8pp. 3 halftone illus. Opening with a manifesto protesting the Franco-Soviet pact, Le couteau dans la plaie, signed by 14 subscribers, including René Magritte, E.L.T. Mesens, Paul Nougé, Jean Scutenaire, André Souris, Achille Chavée, Fernand Dumont, Marcel Lecomte and Max Servais; followed by the text of Bretons speech to the Congrès des Écrivains pour la défense de la Culture--which, notoriously, he had been prevented from reading. There was now a clear political accord between the [Paris and Brussels] groups, underlined by Nougé, Scutenaire and Souris, which claimed, as did Breton, that revolutionary action was possible outside the Communist Party (Ades). No. 4: International Surrealist Bulletin. Issued by the Surrealist Group in England. September 1936. 18, (2)pp. 11 illus. Texts by Herbert Read and Hugh Sykes Davies; bulletin read and approved by Agar, Breton, Burra, Davies, Éluard, Gascoyne, Jennings, Mesens, Moore, Nash, Penrose, Man Ray, Read, Todd and others. The first surrealist periodical in England, following on the International Surrealist Exhibition opened by Breton at the New Burlington Galleries in London in the summer of 1936. A little unobtrusive browning in No. 2; a very fine set.
(Inventory #: B93408-2)