The Lives of the Surrealists

a delightful collection of stories and behind the scene realities

I bought the 3 books for the purpose of education

Lives of the British Surrealists is a collection of biographies of artists who participated in the Surrealist movement from it's beginnings in 1924 to 1939 when many of artists fled Europe at the start of World War II and lived as refugees for years. But the biographies detail the entire lives of these artists; their feuds, friendships, marriages, mental breakdowns, and even wealth for a few. This is a very fun and entertaining read. Desmond Morris joined the movement in 1948 at age 20 and became bestselling author with "The Naked Age" and a renown zoologist. Now 96 he has given a great gift of his eyewitness accounts. Descending from the World War I Dada movement, Surrealism started out as a literary movement but because "paintings can can be understood in any language". Surrealism or psychic automatism quickly gained a world wide audience that it has continued to hold enthralled. By tapping the deeper recesses of the mind, the surrealist works should speak directly to the viewer with a much stronger voice because, of course, at those depths we all share the same hopes and fears, the same hatreds, loves and longings.

A fun romp, gossipy and laced with salacious details about bohemian artists pushing imagery into dreams and nausea, while jumping into bed with each other (and sometimes in groups), thumbing their noses at conventions like monogamy and bowls-of-fruit paintings. Many of the artists were born into wealth so it seems odd that their surrealist movement was a reaction to the dull status quo, but more pointedly a reaction to the horrors of World Wars. They were egomaniacs and hucksters and drama queens (and that was the men) and women who flaunted convention with acts that included nudity and shock. Who knew Picasso was such a horndog; his success afforded him the ability to set up apartments for multiple mistresses simultaneously. You learn a lot more about modern art from Robert Hughes’ "The Shock of the New". I much enjoyed this.

I didn't know that the author Desmond Morris ,best known for book The Naked Ape, was also a Surrealist artist himself. He gives the nitty gritty and personal insight on the major and not so major players. I like that each entry begins with the info as to nationality, habitation, partners, death, etc before getting to the gossipy main course. As others mentioned, it would be nice to have more pictures but I realize why it is limited to 1 photo of the artist and 1 of their work which helps keeps the tome a reasonable size. I got the book from the library but love it so much that I will probably have to buy a copy for my own.