The mind, placed before any kind of difficulty, can find an ideal outlet in the absurd. Accommodation to the absurd readmits adults to the mysterious realm inhabited by children.
Andre BretonRead
Surrealism will usher you into death, which is a secret society. It will glove your hand, burying therein the profound M with which the word Memory begins.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Surrealism explores the subconscious and offers a unique perspective on existence and memory.
In this quote, AndrΓ© Breton suggests that surrealism, as an artistic movement, leads individuals to confront deep existential truths, including the concept of death, which he metaphorically describes as a 'secret society.' He implies that through surrealism, one can discover profound insights about memory and existence, represented by the letter M, which opens the window to deeper understanding and reflection on our past and its impact on life.
Themes
SurrealismMemoryExistenceDeathArt
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a discussion about the role of surrealism in contemporary art critiques.
More from Andre Breton
All quotes βBeauty is like a train that ceaselessly roars out of the Gare de Lyon and which I know will never leave, which has not left. It consists of jolts and shocks, many of which do not have much importance, but which we know are destined to produce one Shock, which does...The human heart, beautiful as a seismograph...Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or will not be at all.
Andre BretonRead
I maintain that anyone who still refuses to see, for instance, a horse galloping on a tomato, must be an idiot. A tomato is also a child's balloon - Surrealism, again, having suppressed the word "like."
Andre BretonRead
There is no use being alive if one must work. The event from which each of us is entitled to expect the revelation of his own lifeβs meaning - that event which I may not yet have found, but on whose path I seek myself - is not earned by work.
Andre BretonRead
Let us not mince words: the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful.
Andre BretonRead
The simplest act of surrealism is to walk out into the street, gun in hand, and shoot at random.
Andre BretonRead
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