foxes in breeches

23rd April 2013

Photo reblogged from theater of diminished faculties with 121 notes

todf, beetleinabox:

Man Ray, Waking Dream Séance (image first published on the cover of La revolution surrealiste, 01/12/24). The seated woman is Simone Breton; standing around her (from left to right) are Max Morise, Roger Vitrac, Jacques André-Boiffard, André Breton, Paul Eluard, Pierre Naville, Giorgio de Chirico, Philippe Soupault, Jacques Baron, and Robert Desnos.
Walter Benjamin writes:

Any serious exploration of occult, surrealistic, phantasmagoric gifts and phenomena presupposes a dialectical intertwinement to which a romantic turn of mind is impervious. For histrionic or fanatical stress on the mysterious side of the mysterious takes us no further; we penetrate the mystery only to the degree that we recognize it in the everyday world, by virtue of a dialectical optic that perceives the everyday as impenetrable, the impenetrable as everyday. The most passionate investigation of telepathic phenomena, for example, will not teach us half as much about reading (which is an eminently telepathic process), as the profane illumination of reading about telepathic phenomena. And the most passionate investigation of the hashish trance will not teach us half as much about thinking (which is eminently narcotic), as the profane illumination of thinking about the hashish trance. The reader, the thinker, the loiterer, the flâneur, are types of illuminati just as much as the opium eater, the dreamer, the ecstatic. And more profane. Not to mention that most terrible drug—ourselves—which we take in solitude.

Man Ray, Waking Dream Séance (image first published on the cover of La revolution surrealiste, 01/12/24). The seated woman is Simone Breton; standing around her (from left to right) are Max Morise, Roger Vitrac, Jacques André-Boiffard, André Breton, Paul Eluard, Pierre Naville, Giorgio de Chirico, Philippe Soupault, Jacques Baron, and Robert Desnos.

Walter Benjamin writes:

Any serious exploration of occult, surrealistic, phantasmagoric gifts and phenomena presupposes a dialectical intertwinement to which a romantic turn of mind is impervious. For histrionic or fanatical stress on the mysterious side of the mysterious takes us no further; we penetrate the mystery only to the degree that we recognize it in the everyday world, by virtue of a dialectical optic that perceives the everyday as impenetrable, the impenetrable as everyday. The most passionate investigation of telepathic phenomena, for example, will not teach us half as much about reading (which is an eminently telepathic process), as the profane illumination of reading about telepathic phenomena. And the most passionate investigation of the hashish trance will not teach us half as much about thinking (which is eminently narcotic), as the profane illumination of thinking about the hashish trance. The reader, the thinker, the loiterer, the flâneur, are types of illuminati just as much as the opium eater, the dreamer, the ecstatic. And more profane. Not to mention that most terrible drug—ourselves—which we take in solitude.

Tagged: surrealism photography man ray waking dream seance la revolution surrealiste 1920s quote walter benjamin max morise roger vitrac jacques andre boiffard andre breton paul eluard pierre naville giorgio de chirico philippe soupault jacques baron robert desnos

Source: beetleinabox

14th April 2013

Photo reblogged from Reality Asylum with 103 notes

realityayslum:

Portrait of Bona de Mandiargues by Man Ray, c1960.

… via Zaz Zetoun Mind (interesting interview with her from 1977 contained in link) … enjoy some of her paintings courtesy of Christies

Tagged: surrealism nude man ray veiled stockings bona de mandiargues 1960s

17th March 2013

Photoset with 69 notes

Untitled (Fantasies of Mr. Seabrook) by Man Ray, 1930

Also

Tagged: man ray photography 1930s fantasies of mr. seabrook surrealism fetish bondage

10th March 2013

Photo reblogged from Regard Intemporel with 826 notes