Drawings known as Cadavre Exquis (the phrase means ‘exquisite corpses’) which were the result of collaborative game-playing among members of the surrealist movement. Unlike many examples of such works, the participants of Tate’s Cadavre Exquis of c.1930 are known from an inscription on the reverse of the sheet, in André Breton’s hand, identifying them as Breton himself, the artist Valentine Hugo, the surrealist poet Paul Eluard and Eluard’s partner Nusch.
The technique of the Cadavre Exquis was discovered by members of the Surrealist movement around 1925. Based on a traditional parlour-game, it initially involved passing a piece of paper between a group of people who would each add a word secretly - typically, a noun, an adjective, a verb, an adverb, and an object – before folding the sheet and passing it to the next player.
The name Cadavre Exquis derived from one of the first games which had produced the line ‘Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau’ (‘The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine’). The sentences produced in this collective and experimental way were, as the leader of the surrealist movement André Breton noted, ‘designed to provide the most paradoxical confrontation possible between the elements of speech’ and were appreciated by the surrealists for their disruption of everyday logic. Such unexpected combinations of ideas and images seemed to the surrealists to create fantastic imaginary worlds. Quickly the game was extended to visual imagery, where each of the participants would create a ‘body’ consisting - notionally at least - of head, chest and arms, torso, legs and feet.
Notes from Tate, London
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| 1925 Yves Tanguy and André Masoon |
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| 1926 Andre Breton, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duhamel, Max Morise |
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| 1927 Man Ray, Joan Miro, Max Morise, Yves Tanguy ink, pencil, coloured caron and collage on paper 36 x 23 cm Centre Pompidou, Paris © Philippe Migeat - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP |
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| 1927 "Nude" Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró, Max Morise, Man Ray pencil, ink and coloured pencils on paper 35.9 x 22.9 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York - ADAGP, Paris |
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| 1927 Man Ray, Max Morise, André Breton and Yves Tanguy grease pencil, pen and ink and pencil on paper 31.1 x 20.5 cm |
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| 1927 Max Ernst, André Masson, Max Morise pencil and coloured crayon on paper 20.8 x 15.5 cm Centre Pompidou, Paris |
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| 1927 Max Morise, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, Man Ray pencil, India ink and crayon on paper 36 x 23 cm |
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| 1927 Max Morise, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró |
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| 1927 Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Max Morise, Joan Miró |
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| 1927 Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Max Morise |
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| 1927 Yves Tanguy, Max Morise, Joan Miró, Man Ray |
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| 1927c Max Morise, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró pencil, India ink and crayon on paper © Successió Miró/ ADAGP, Paris |
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| 1928 Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Max Morise, André Breton pen and brown ink, and graphite with smudging, with coloured crayons on cream wove paper 31.1 x 20 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL © 2018 Man Ray Trust - Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York - ADAGP, Paris |
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| 1928 Max Morise, Jeannette Ducrocq Tanguy, Pierre Naville, Benjamin Péret, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert collage 28.9 x 22.9 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York |
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| 1928 Man Ray, Max Morise, André Breton, Yves Tanguy coloured crayon, crayon and ink on paper 30.5 x 20 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| 1928 Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró, Max Morise |
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| 1929 Greta Knutson, Tristan Tzara, Valentine Hugo |
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| 1929 Paul and Nush Eluard, André Breton coloured crayon on black paper 32 x 25 cm |
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| 1929 Paul Éluard, André Breton & Nusch Éluard |
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| 1930 Nusch Eluard, Valentine Hugo, André Breton, Paul Éluard |
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| 1930c André Breton, Nusch Eluard, Valentine Hugo, Paul Eluard crayon on paper 31 x 24 cm Tate, London |
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| 1930c Valentine Hugo, André Breton coloured crayon on black paper 31.5 x 23.7 cm |
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| 1932 Salvador Dali, Valentine Hugo, André Breton, Gala Dali |
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| 1932c Salvador Dalí, André Breton, Gala, Valentine Hugo India ink on paper 27 x 18.5 cm © Some rights reserved. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2018 |
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| 1933 ( landscape progression ) Valentine Hugo, André Breton, Tristan Tzara, Greta Knutson coloured pencil on black Paper 24.1 x 31.7 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York |
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| 1934 André Breton, Gala Dalí, Salvador Dalí, Valentine Hugo |
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| 1934 Jacques Hérold, Yves Tanguy, Victor Brauner pencil on paper 25.6 x 16.5 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York |
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| 1934 Yves Tanguy, Victor Brauner, Jacques Hérold |
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| 1934c André Breton, Victor Brauner, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Hérold graphite on paper 26 x 16.5 cm © The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas |
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| Esteban Francés, Remedios Varo, Oscar Domínguez, Marcel Jean collage on paper 27.3 x 20.8 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York © 2018 / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
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| 1938 André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy collage on paper 25.2 x 16.7 cm © Jean-Claude Planchet - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP © Adagp, Paris |
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| 1938 André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy collage on paper © Philippe Migeat - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP © Adagp, Paris |
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| 1938 André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy collage on paper |
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| 1938 André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy collage |
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| 1938 André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Jannette Tanguy, Jaqueline Lamba collage 30.4 x 19.7 cm |
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| 1938 Victor Brauner, Jacques Hérold, Violette Hérold, Yves Tanguy, and Raoul Ubac collage |
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| 1940 André Breton, Jacques Herold, Wifredo Lam ink, pencil, coloured crayon and collage on paper 29.8 x 22.9 cm © Philippe Migeat - Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI /Dist. RMN-GP |
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| 1949 Elisa Breton, Benjamin Peret, André Breton pencil and frottage on paper 27 x 21 cm Gallery of Surrealism, New York |
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| n.d. André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy collage |
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| n.d. André Breton, Valentine Hugo, Paul and Nusch Éluard |
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| n.d. André Breton oil pastel and coloured chalk on paper 32.4 x 25.2 cm |
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| n.d. André Breton, Eugène Grindel, Nusch Eluard, Paul Eluard, Valentine Hugo |
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| n.d. Valentine Hugo, Paul Eluard, André Breton pastel on black paper 40.4 x 25 cm |
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| n.d. Man Ray, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, Max Morise graphite on ivory wove paper 24.5 x 19 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris |