Wednesday, 19 May 2010

L'Ecriture Automatique

"Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all."
-Andre Breton

While wandering through La Place du Pantheon during a recent vacation in Paris, I encountered a plaque outside L'Hotel de Grands Hommes, which stated that the hotel was "the true birthplace of Surrealism." The plaque suggested that "it was here, in the course of the spring of 1919" (Bayley), that Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault developed "l'ecriture automatique," or automatic writing, as a a means of delving into the subconscious, or as Walter Jackson Bate - perhaps my favorite literary critic - may have suggested, allowing "the mind to act as a thoroughfare for all thoughts" (Bate, 18). It is with this mentality that I have created this blog - in an attempt to develop my "critical eye" as I perceive and react to the visual world.


I seek truth in the satisfaction of the eye's appetite. In the course of this insatiable pursuit, I will turn to this blog with critical reviews of the artists and exhibitions that I encounter. I hope to address truth in its cultural and aesthetic context, proving that the source of truth in art is principle and examining its effect on how we perceive and react to beauty.



Sources Cited

1. Bate, Walter Jackson. "Negative Capability." Modern Critical Views: John Keats. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea, 1985. 13-28. Print.

2. Bayley, Stephen. "Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design." The Observer. 25 Mar. 2007. Web. 19 May 2010.

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