Categories Autographs - Arts & Letters , New releases , SOUPAULT Philippe

Philippe SOUPAULT criticizes the surrealists with Paul ELUARD.

“Breton and Picabia, after declaring that the Dada demonstrations were stupid and boring, have the magnificent (!) project of walking in groups of 12 on the boulevards and in the streets carrying paintings by Picabia or Delaunay. »

1.500€

Philippe SOUPAULT (1897.1990)

Autograph letter signed to Paul Éluard.

Two pages large in-4° on paper with its letterhead.

Paris. Slnd [1926/1927].

“I was naive enough to believe that no one among us had either ambition or desire for the papacy. »

Excluded from the surrealist movement in 1926, Soupault returned with sadness and regret to the betrayals of Breton and Picabia and the endangerment of the Dadaist movement.

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“ My dear Éluard, I am happy to have finally received news from you and to know that you are all well. For your book, of course, put the Six bookstore […] So I hope to see your book soon. I would like to write to you at length: that would prove that I have done a lot and seen a lot, but alas!

What I see is even sadder than what I don't see. Breton and Picabia, after declaring that the Dada demonstrations were stupid and boring, have the magnificent (!) plan to walk in groups of 12 on the boulevards and in the streets carrying paintings by Picabia or Delaunay. Was it really worth shouting so much against the demonstrations which were still a little better? This clarifies many obscure points and feelings since I was naive enough to believe that none of us had either ambition or desire for the papacy. The real name of Picabia and another is Papabili.

All of this is sad, sad, my poor friend, because it is difficult to accept being fooled by people who, in order to do so, will speak of affection, of friendship. I will long remember a green or yellow smile when one of my old friends was shown our two works; yours or mine. Everything we did was wrong or unacceptable because they couldn't really do it.

I seem much more bitter than I really am because I am too genuinely indifferent. I declared the other day, having all the same had enough, that I was abandoning the direction of Literature . So Sans Pareil [Au sans pareil, a French publishing house created in 1919 by René Hilsum] does not know if he agrees to publish it. Finally, let's move on...

See you soon dear friend. Asking you to entrust one of my hands to Gala and keep the other. Don't forget your friend Philippe Soupault. »