Poème-Objet from VVV Portfolio
André Breton
French, 1896–1966
1942, published 1943
A found postcard transformed into a 'poem-object'—postcard, thread, sequins, and ink on paper—in which Breton stitches and annotates a tiny picture so its visual fragments read like a short surreal poem.
A small colored façade is pasted at the center of a broad rose sheet, with thin threads and terse handwritten captions radiating from windows and figures so the image reads like an exploded map of a mysterious narrative.
Created for the VVV portfolio during Breton's exile, this work demonstrates Surrealism's turn toward object-based poetry—recombining everyday ephemera and sparse text to provoke chance associations and new imaginative meanings in a fraught historical moment.
Medium
Postcard, thread, sequins, and ink on paper from a portfolio of five etchings (one with aquatint), three duplicated drawings (two watercolor on paper and one crayon on paper), one collage, one engraving, and one gelatin silver print
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 8 5/16 x 8 7/16" (21.1 x 21.5 cm); sheet: 18 x 13 15/16" (45.7 x 35.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Louis E. Stern Collection
Accession
1113.1964.1
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
