Breton, André

Breton, André (1896–1966). French poet, essayist, critic, and editor, the founder of the Surrealist movement and its chief theorist and promoter. In 1924 he marked the official launch of the movement by publishing his Manifeste du surréalisme (dedicated to the memory of his friend Apollinaire), and in 1925 he helped organize the first Surrealist exhibition, at the Galerie Pierre, Paris. He wrote numerous other books and articles on Surrealism and was also the driving force behind two of the major periodicals of the movement—La Révolution surrealiste (1924–9) and Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution (1930–3). In 1941–6 he lived in New York, where he was one of a group of expatriate Surrealists who had an important influence on the genesis of Abstract Expressionism. After his return to Paris he continued to be regarded as the ‘Pope of Surrealism’, even though the movement was now long past its prime, and his death in 1966 was regarded by many as marking its end.