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David Gascoyne & British Surrealism
We gathered a few Gascoyne related links and images to supplement José-Luis Moctezuma's essay, David Gascoyne's Surrealist Mode: "Negotiations with the Infinite", which appears in this issue. Some relate directly to the essay - the full text of Holderlin's Madness, for example, is now online at Archive.org. We've linked to Gascoyne's British Library Audio Files where he recounts his time with the Surrealists, and we've included images associated with the London Surrealist Exhibition of 1936, such as Sheila Legge's and Salvador Dali's iconic Surrealist Bulletin photo documenting Legge's art performance in Trafalgar Square. A photo of Dali in his diving suit at the 1936 Exhibition also appears below, along with a few images of a few Surrealist book covers of works translated by Gascoyne, Humphrey Jennings, and even Samuel Beckett, among others. Internet resources on Surrealism are many, and we're happy to see the additional studies and images of the work of the ever-present Women of Surrealism such as Eileen Agar and Claude Cahun, but we hope that gathering these few items here might supply a quick look around at some of the sources that are more specifically connected to the poet David Gascoyne. |
From National Galleries of Scotland: This collaged memory book, compiled during the Second World War, looks back over a period of intense involvement that Gascoyne had with Surrealism. The scrapbook is one of a series produced by Gascoyne during the 1940s, using material he had gathered whilst preparing his publication, ‘A Short Survey of Surrealism’ in 1935. It is a compendium of photographs, catalogues, prospectuses, published and manuscript texts, press cuttings, and so forth, together with several original collages and painted ornaments by Gascoyne himself, all ordered thematically. |
Above: David Gascoyne - Notebook, p. 78 - 79 Projection of Rubbish, Anima, Animus drawing Yale University - Beinecke Digital Collections |
Above: Poemes de la Folie de Hölderlin by Jouve |
Hölderlin's Madness by David Gascoyne is online at archive.org 
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Below: a segment on Hölderlin's Madness from Night Thoughts: The Surreal Life of the Poet David Gascoyne: by Robert Fraser, Oxford University Press, 2012, p.137 
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Conquest of the Irrational by Salvador Dali (1935). Julian Levy Publisher image from the: Salvador Dali Book Collector Blogspot 
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David Gascoyne Poems 1937-1942
Design by Graham Sutherland Editions Poetry London, 1943 |
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David Emery Gascoyne, 1942 ink, Lucian Freud blainsouthern.com |
David Gascoyne, Perseus and Andromeda 1936 from the Tate Museum |
A Short Survey of Surrealism David Gascoyne Cobden-Sanderson, 1935 cover collages by Max Ernst |
What is Surrealism? Criterion Miscellany-No.43. Andre Breton, translated by David Gascoyne. Faber and Faber Limited, London, 1936. Minster Gate image via abe.com |
Remove Your Hat Benjamin Peret translated by David Gascoyne & Humphrey Jennings Roger Roughton Contemporary Poetry & Prose Editions, Number One Second Edition, 1936 |
Thorns of Thunder Paul Eluard, Thorns of Thunder. Selected Poems edited by George Reavey. Translated from the French by Samuel Beckett, Denis Devlin, David Gascoyne, Eugene Jolas, Man Ray, George Reavey and Ruthven Todd. Europa Press & Stanley Nott, London, 1936, |
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The Magnetic Fields by André Breton and Philippe Soupault, published in an edition of 300 copies by Atlas Press, London, 1985. This is the first English translation (by David Gascoyne) of the "automatic writing" in Les Champs magnétiques (1919), the first Surrealist book. From Rick Poyner History of Surrealism on pinterest: |
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Poster by Max Ernst for the International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London, 1936 |
 Surrealism, Herbert Read, editor Faber and Faber, 1936 Cover Design: Roland Penrose |
National Life Story Collection: Artists' Lives Gascoyne, David. (Part 4 of 11)
David Gascoyne recounts his life story for the British Library in eleven audio recordings which they've posted online.
Part Four contains much on Gascoyne's connections to the Surrealists.
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International Surrealist Exhibition
New Burlington Galleries, London June 1936
Image above from www.nationalgalleries.org
Salvador Dali in his Diving Suit
International Surrealist Exhibition
London, 1936
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Sheila Legge in performance in Trafalgar Square and shown left, carrying the leg prop. |
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In 1936,
Salvador DalÍ collaborated with fellow surrealist
Sheila Legge to stage a surrealist happening in
Trafalgar Square. Legge appeared as The Phantom
of Sex Appeal dressed in a long white satin
dress, her face completely obscured by paper roses and
ladybirds. Photographs of this event showing pigeons
perching on the Phantom’s arms have become an iconic
surrealist image.
Following Legge’s appearance as the Surrealist Phantom in Trafalgar Square, she wandered the exhibition, carrying a pork chop in one hand, and an artificial leg in the other, but the pork chop had to be abandoned on account of the heat. |
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Exhibition London, 1936 Click here for the full .pdf file of this catalogue 
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List of Contributors to the Exhibition
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