This publication accompanies the first exhibition dedicated to the manifestation of the Surrealist movement in Egypt. With images of over 200 works, it offers the reader a first-hand look at this artistic world. Through various visual (painting, drawing, photography) and literary media, this catalogue provides visitors with an indispensable companion for understanding the effervescent artistic context of 1930s-40s Egypt. More than example of aesthetic research, the creation of the movement was stimulated by a real revolutionary impetus. It stood against the opinions and conventions of the time. Works from the most important artists are represented, including visual artists Abdel Hadi El Gazzar, Kamel El Telmissany, Fouad Kamel, Ida Kar, Amy Nimr, and Ramsès Younan, as well as poets and writers Albert Cossery,Georges Henein, and Edmond Jabès.

In the thick of the Second World War, the Cairo-based Surrealist collective Art et Liberte were pioneering new art forms and mounting subversive exhibitions that sent shockwaves across local artistic circles. Born with the publication of their Manifesto Long Live Degenerate Art on December 22nd, 1938, the group rejected the convergence of art and nationalism, aligning themselves with a complex, international and evolving Surrealist movement spanning cities such as Paris, London, Mexico City, New York, Beirut and Tokyo. Art and Liberty created a distinct reworking of Surrealism, which provided a generation of disillusioned Egyptian and non-Egyptian artists and writers, men and women alike, with a platform for cultural reform and anti-Fascist protest. Surrealism in Egypt is the first comprehensive analysis of Art and Liberty's artworks, literature and critical writings on Surrealism. By addressing the group's long-lost and often misconstrued legacy, and drawing on a substantial body of previously unpublished primary documents and more than 200 field interviews, the author charts Art and Liberty's significant contribution towards a new definition of Surrealism.Moving beyond the polarizing dichotomies of Saidian Orientalism, this book rewrites the history of Surrealism itself - advocating for a new definition of the movement that reflects an inclusive vision of art history.

This issue of Yale French Studies on "Surrealism and Its Others"examines the works and theories of writers, artists, and thinkers who positioned themselves and their productions in dialogue with Breton's surrealism. Although surrealism always sought to distinguish itself from other movements and ideologies, its members often celebrated their commonality with many "others" outside of the official group with whom they shared their passions: Marxists, visual artists, filmmakers, psychiatrists, and ethnographers. Each of the writers, artists, and thinkers examined here were either temporarily associated with surrealism or were influenced by its collective and open spirit, even if in a primarily opposing or questioning role. In some cases, this outside perspective came from as close as Belgium and other European countries. In other cases, it came from farther away - from North Africa or North America - which reveals surrealism's engagement with non-European, formerly colonized cultures, reflects its staunchly anti-colonial stance, and confirms the movement as something more than an aesthetic phenomenon. Along with its aesthetic mission, surrealism was also, and perhaps more importantly, a powerful political and social reality. This issue examines works by artists, writers, and theorists who were all, in their own ways, located outside of yet close to surrealism and who provide us with a new perspective on this avant-garde and modernist movement. Martine Antle Surrealism and the Orient Adam Jolles The Tactile Turn: Envisioning a Post-Colonial Aesthetic in France Jonathan P. Eburne Automatism and Terror: Surrealism, Theory, and the Postwar Left Pierre Taminiaux Breton and Trotsky: The Revolutionary Memory of Surrealism Richard Stamelman Photography: The Marvelous Precipitate of Desire Robert Harvey Where's Duchamp?--Out Queering the Field Raphaelle Moine From Surrealist Cinema to Surrealism in the Cinema: Does a Surrealist Genre Exist in Film? Georgiana M. M. Colvile Between Surrealism and Magic Realism: The Early Feature Films of André Delvaux, 1926-2002--the Other Delvaux Katharine Conley Surrealism and Outsider Art: From the Automatic Message to André Breton's Collection

Der vorliegende Band beschäftigt sich mit dem Surrealismus in Literatur und Kunst in Algerien, Ägypten, Libanon, Syrien und der Türkei zwischen den 1930er und 1980er Jahren. In einer transkulturellen Perspektive erscheint die zu Beginn der 1920er Jahre von Frankreich ausgehende Bewegung gleichermaßen als globales wie als lokales Phänomen, das in den hier behandelten Regionen weniger auf kollektive als auf individualistische Weise, vornehmlich auf dem Gebiet von Poesie und Sprache, rezipiert wurde. Die Studien in diesem Band verfolgen das Ziel, ein klareres Bild von den Resonanzen des Surrealismus in diesen Regionen zu zeichnen und damit einen Beitrag zur Geschichte sowohl der Transmoderne als auch des Surrealismus zu leisten. Methodisch geht es darum, Verbindungen, Begegnungen und Austausch auf individuell-künstlerischer, politisch-institutioneller und soziohistorischer Ebene zu untersuchen. Ein neuer Blick auf den globalen Surrealismus muss diese Netzwerke und Verbindungen auf der Mikroebene berücksichtigen, wenn es um die Fragen geht, wann, wo und was Surrealismus war. Die Antwort könnte zeigen, dass der Surrealismus weitaus weiter verbreitet war als bisher angenommen.