Un Cadavre
Bataille, Georges, Jacques Prévert, Michel Leiris, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Raymond Queneau et al
(Paris). (Imp[rimerie]. Sp[éciale]. du Cadavre). 1930, 15 janvier
A very good copy of the tract issued by the dissident Surrealists against Breton which led to his christening as 'le Pape du Surréalisme'.
The very first collective tract issued by the Surrealists, very shortly after their manifesto was published in October 1924, was 'Un Cadavre', a scathing and virulent post-mortem attack against Anatole France. André Breton, one of the founders of the movement and an enthusiastic participant in the first tract is himself the subject of this second 'Un Cadavre' which denounces his authoritarianism, his high-handed treatment of his fellows and the 'Second Manifeste du Surréalisme' - of Breton's formulation - that had appeared recently in 'La Révolution Surréaliste'. The tone is again one of polemic with Breton treated as dead (as per Prévert and others), denounced (Ribemont-Dessaignes, Bataille and Queneau among others), derided, pitied (Leiris) and satirised. The supreme irony is that the previous 'Un Cadavre' had concluded with the phrase 'A LA PROCHAINE OCCASION IL Y AURA UN NOUVEAU CADAVRE'; it seems unlikely that Breton had imagined it might be him.
The participants and their contributions in this issue of 'Un Cadavre' include Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes ('Papologie d'André Breton'), Jacques Prévert ('Mort d'un Monsieur'), Raymond Queneau ('Dédé'), Roger Vitrac ('Moralement, puer ... '), Michel Leiris ('Le Bouquet sans Fleurs'), Georges Limbour ('Lettre'), J.-A. Boiffard ('Questions de Personnes'), Robert Desnos ('Thjomas l'Imposteur' credited to Robert Desno [sic]), Max Morise ('La Marseillaise'), Georges Bataille ('Le Lion Châtré'), Jacques Baron ('Un Bon Débarras') and Alejo Carpentier ('Témoignage').
'Un jour il criait contre les prêtres, le lendemain il se croyait évêque ou pape en Avignon ... '. (Jacques Prévert).
'Le deuxième manifeste du Surréalisme n'est pas un révélation, mais c'est une réussite. On ne fait pas mieux dans le genre hypocrite, faux-frère, pelotard, sacristain, et pour tout dire: flic et curé.' (Georges RIbemeont Dessaignes).
'Ci-git le boeuf Breton, le vieil esthète, faux révolutionnaire à tête de Christ.' (Georges Bataille).
'Those denounced and excommunicated in the 'Second Manifesto', most of whom had already left the [Surrealist] movement at least by the spring of 1929, were followed by others, like Prévert and Queneau, who had subsequently contributed, even briefly to 'Documents'. Bataille masterminded the pamphlet 'Un Cadavre' (ironically modelled on the surrealists' 1924 pamphlet of the same name attacking Anatole France), which is a bitter denunciation of Breton, pictured in the front as a martyred Christ, and is signed by the dissident surrealists, Limbour, Morise, Baron, Leiris, Queneau, J. A. Boiffard, Robert Desnos, Jacques Prévert, and Bataille himself.' (Dawn Ades).
This example of 'Un Cadavre' is in very good condition with no chips to the sheet edges albeit with folds as usual. The tract is scarce and present in US institutions (the Getty, MoMA, Northwestern and the Art Institute of Chicago among few others) in a handful of copies as well as at the Tate, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (two copies including one on pink paper), the Université de Montréal and the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich only.
[Ades 10.13, see pg. 235].
The very first collective tract issued by the Surrealists, very shortly after their manifesto was published in October 1924, was 'Un Cadavre', a scathing and virulent post-mortem attack against Anatole France. André Breton, one of the founders of the movement and an enthusiastic participant in the first tract is himself the subject of this second 'Un Cadavre' which denounces his authoritarianism, his high-handed treatment of his fellows and the 'Second Manifeste du Surréalisme' - of Breton's formulation - that had appeared recently in 'La Révolution Surréaliste'. The tone is again one of polemic with Breton treated as dead (as per Prévert and others), denounced (Ribemont-Dessaignes, Bataille and Queneau among others), derided, pitied (Leiris) and satirised. The supreme irony is that the previous 'Un Cadavre' had concluded with the phrase 'A LA PROCHAINE OCCASION IL Y AURA UN NOUVEAU CADAVRE'; it seems unlikely that Breton had imagined it might be him.
The participants and their contributions in this issue of 'Un Cadavre' include Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes ('Papologie d'André Breton'), Jacques Prévert ('Mort d'un Monsieur'), Raymond Queneau ('Dédé'), Roger Vitrac ('Moralement, puer ... '), Michel Leiris ('Le Bouquet sans Fleurs'), Georges Limbour ('Lettre'), J.-A. Boiffard ('Questions de Personnes'), Robert Desnos ('Thjomas l'Imposteur' credited to Robert Desno [sic]), Max Morise ('La Marseillaise'), Georges Bataille ('Le Lion Châtré'), Jacques Baron ('Un Bon Débarras') and Alejo Carpentier ('Témoignage').
'Un jour il criait contre les prêtres, le lendemain il se croyait évêque ou pape en Avignon ... '. (Jacques Prévert).
'Le deuxième manifeste du Surréalisme n'est pas un révélation, mais c'est une réussite. On ne fait pas mieux dans le genre hypocrite, faux-frère, pelotard, sacristain, et pour tout dire: flic et curé.' (Georges RIbemeont Dessaignes).
'Ci-git le boeuf Breton, le vieil esthète, faux révolutionnaire à tête de Christ.' (Georges Bataille).
'Those denounced and excommunicated in the 'Second Manifesto', most of whom had already left the [Surrealist] movement at least by the spring of 1929, were followed by others, like Prévert and Queneau, who had subsequently contributed, even briefly to 'Documents'. Bataille masterminded the pamphlet 'Un Cadavre' (ironically modelled on the surrealists' 1924 pamphlet of the same name attacking Anatole France), which is a bitter denunciation of Breton, pictured in the front as a martyred Christ, and is signed by the dissident surrealists, Limbour, Morise, Baron, Leiris, Queneau, J. A. Boiffard, Robert Desnos, Jacques Prévert, and Bataille himself.' (Dawn Ades).
This example of 'Un Cadavre' is in very good condition with no chips to the sheet edges albeit with folds as usual. The tract is scarce and present in US institutions (the Getty, MoMA, Northwestern and the Art Institute of Chicago among few others) in a handful of copies as well as at the Tate, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (two copies including one on pink paper), the Université de Montréal and the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich only.
[Ades 10.13, see pg. 235].
[Bifolium of newsprint paper]. Small folio. (370 x 320 mm). Printed text recto and verso in columns in newspaper format throughout, portrait of André Breton to front cover, horizontal fold as usual and offset vertical fold, some very small splits at edges but no loss. Loose as issued.
#48611
