Magic Art
What is ‘Magic Art’? In 1953, André Breton, founder of the surrealist movement, was invited by a prestigious French publisher to explore answers to this question. His resulting analysis is wide-ranging and evocative. Beginning with a literary review of magic and art, Breton draws upon Novalis and Baudelaire before considering the prehistoric rock art of Spain and France, the native art of the Pacific Northwest, the magical grimoires and alchemical symbolism of the Middle Ages, and the work of Hieronymus Bosch, Antoine Caron, Paolo Uccello, Gustav Moreau, Paul Gauguin and the Surrealists. Through these and other diverse sources, Breton traces a mystery that lies at the heart of our timeless fascination with otherness and seeks to place surrealism as a successor to a magical sensibility that began with art itself.
First published in 1957 as L’Art magique, this important text is offered here as an English translation for the first time. Working from manuscript notes for the original project, this edition presents the iconographic content as Breton intended, together with more than 300 new citations and a comprehensive bibliography that emphasizes sources found in Breton’s own library.
This deluxe edition is limited to 88 hand-numbered copies signed by André Breton’s daughter, Aube Elléouët Breton. It contains a supplementary volume of additional texts: 32 modern responses from artists, scholars, poets, and esotericists providing contemporary insights into Breton’s 1955 Enquiry on ‘magic art’; reviews of L’Art magique when it first appeared in 1957; an interview with Breton concerning the work; and an essay from surrealist scholar Will Atkin that explores the relevancy of Breton’s project today.
Bound in full morocco by the acclaimed artisan bindery, Ludlow Bookbinding, this deluxe takes inspiration from the surrealist bookbinder, Paul Bonet. His custom binding of Breton’s Second manifeste du Surréalisme (commissioned in 1934) draws upon the recurring surrealist preoccupation of the hand, presented as a photograph, and augmented with gilt tooling and morocco onlays. It was purchased for the Bibliothèque nationale in 2019.
Standard Edition
Hardback
30cm x 24cm
320 pages
160 illustrations
2 kg
English text
Original Price - £69.95
Special Edition
Special Edition
Limited to 248 hand-numbered copies
Custom sleeve and lined box
VOLUME ONE
‘Magic Art’
Jet black cloth blind-stamped with the liminal devil, Jappard
30cm x 24cm
320 pages
160 illustrations
VOLUME TWO
‘Magic Art Redux’
30cm x 24cm
80 pages
2 illustrations
3.2 kg
English text
Original Price - £150
Deluxe Edition
Deluxe Edition
Limited to 88 hand-numbered copies
Signed by Aubé Elléouët Breton
Full crushed morocco with surreal inlays, top edge gilt
Silk solander box, lined with suedel.
VOLUME ONE
‘Magic Art’
30cm x 24cm
320 pages
160 illustrations
VOLUME TWO
‘Magic Art Redux’
30cm x 24cm
80 pages
2 illustrations
4 kg
English text
Original Price - £425
