2024 marks the centenary of the publication of André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, and thus the birth of the Surrealist movement. This French language book celebrates 100 years of Surrealism, combining historical retrospection, interpretation, and the perspective of contemporary artists who explore Surrealist themes and forms in their work. It is based on the Surrealist literary magazine Le Grand Jeu, which was published between 1928 and 1930.
Games to which the Surrealists referred are a core theme of the volume: chess and the “Jeu de Marseille,” a special set of tarot cards created by the Surrealists in the south of France, where many had to flee from German occupation between 1940 and 1944. Alongside, the essays investigate topics such as identity, metamorphosis, esotericism, kabbalah, and magic, as well as speculation, abstraction, and automatism. Moreover, new light is shed on the female members and affiliates of the Surrealist movement, including Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Suzanne Duchamp, Leonor Fini, Gladys Hynes, Meret Oppenheim, Dorothea Tanning, and others.
The book is also an homage to the never-published fourth issue of Le Grand Jeu, which has been preserved as a maquette and is reproduced here in facsimile images.
