There was a time when I had a great interest in Surrealism. I still love the paintings. But the more I studied it, the more Breton's version of Surrealism in relation to dada seemed like what Stalin was to the Russian revolution or what Stewart Home has become to neoism - too authoritarian, too self-serving, too power-hungry & manipulative. After all, Queneau, a favorite writer, became quickly disillusioned w/ that scene, Artaud was expelled.. it all seems so dogmatic. To make matters worse, I've read a fair amt of Breton & find most of it "wooden", as the expression goes - of course, that cd be bad translations. For me, the best surrealist writer was Raymond Roussell - & he wasn't a surrealist! Anyway, to give Breton his due credit, he's the one who exposed me to Fourier - the utopian philosopher who Alfred Jarry was also interested in. I have a tattoo on the small of my back of Fourier's archibras. ( )

vormgeving door Frederick J. Kiesler (Wenen, 1896-1966, New York)