Chapter 51 III Montparnasse, the open city (1)-2

I want to have a lot of money, but live like a pauper. Pablo Picasso I have briefly described Montmartre in the era of the Black Cat Tavern, the era of Toulouse-Lautrec, the era of De Pacchi, the era of Boulport, the era of Susan Valadon and the era of Montmartre Utrillo The lives of the artists on Mont Terre; also describe their Montmartre in the era of "laundry boats", the era of wearing blue overalls, the era of unscrupulous random shooting and the era of Montmartre in the era of "Smart Rabbit" tavern parties Creations on Ershan Mountain.Later, these artists in Montmartre crossed the Seine and fought hand in hand with the poets Alfred Jarry, Paul Faure and Blaise Sandras who lived on the left bank of the Seine.After the outbreak of the First World War, they left Paris one after another like the lead sand bullets after the explosion, scattered all over France, and even all over the world.Montparnasse experienced periods of hunger and cold, periods of organizing secret meetings, and reorganized exhibitions of peace.Modigliani's death constituted the last tragic act of this terrible period.After the armistice was signed, life gradually returned to normal.People are about to forget the war, Montparnasse has also changed, yesterday is a thing of the past, Montmartre planted the seeds, Montparnasse is about to reap the fruits: Surrealism has emerged in Paris.Poets and painters, like many others, have ditched their buggies for automobiles and headed straight and fast into the future.

The painters, Fauvists and Cubists who lived in the "laundry boat" were once a very radical artistic avant-garde.After the war, these artistic pioneers dispersed in a short period of time and went their separate ways: Picasso slipped away, Max Jacob prepared to retreat to the Loire, the Dutchman van Dongen wore tailored clothes. Buckskin coats and immaculate white shirts, holding jeweled countesses or baronesses in their arms, mingled among the upper-class crowd.During the day, he accompanied them to the studios of painters as models, and at night, he accompanied them to nightclubs and other gathering places to spend money.

André Derain already has a whole collection of Bugatti cars and is about to buy a racing car.He also plans to buy some real estate: a private mansion in Rue Duigner-Rousseau, an apartment in Rue Assas, another apartment in Rue Valenne, a studio in Rue Bonaparte and the A villa in the west. Wearing a tweed jacket and holding a large-grain shotgun, Vlaminck keeps a close eye on his enemies (he has many), ready to pounce and fight in defense of his territory.He disseminated a series of remarks to slander Picasso, DeLong, Kisling and almost half of the artists.When his bestial rage grew uncontrollable, he would rush out the door, or climb a mountain, or go out on a wild country road, to relieve his tense nerves.His going out often scares the surrounding chickens and dogs.

Juan Gris kept his former distance from the others.He often travels south to treat his asthma.Doctors linked his asthma to his tuberculosis.It's heavy, but not lethal.But, in 1927, incurable leukemia finally claimed his life. Braque also lives in Duigne-Rousseau Street and is a neighbor of De Lang.Not only did he stay away from Picasso, he also stopped communicating with others. Fifteen years on, money appreciates.However, in addition to beautiful houses, cars and real estate, the heads of these impoverished artists have turned into piggy banks, thinking about making money and saving money all day long.They may have become bourgeois, but in any case they can only be regarded as petty bourgeois.Daniel-Henri Carnville knew them well, from the moment they first set foot in Paris.He often said:

None of them fundamentally changed their way of life, not even Derain, especially Picasso... What we call knowing their lives is not their private life, but the families of these painters Life.Fundamentally, they need very little.In everyday life, they are not bourgeois at all. [Excerpt from Danielle-Henri Carnville's conversation with Francis "My Gallery and My Painter"] There was little love between them anymore, and they were no longer looking for reasons to be together.However, there is one thing that brings them back together: this is the entire pre-1914 collection of the German dealer Kahnville, who was so fond of Cubist paintings.

During the five-year war, like Yude and other German expatriates, all of Carnville's properties were seized. After the signing of the "Treaty of Versailles", Germany was forced to compensate the Allies for all losses caused by the war, and the treaty also included provisions for overdue fines.There was talk of auctioning off property seized from the enemy to compensate creditors for their losses.But with regard to the auction of paintings, some of the art dealers are in favor, the leader being Leonce Rosenberg; others are against, and Carnville is naturally among the opponents.Leonce Rosenberg had his own agenda deep down.He believes that he can kill two birds with one stone in favor of auctioning the seized paintings: on the one hand, he can prevent the German businessman Carnville from recovering the hundreds of painting treasures he originally collected, so that he can preserve his position as the main protector of Cubism in this field. status, and thereby protecting himself; on the other hand, anticipating an imminent spike in the prices of Cubist works, he bought them all now so that he could make a fortune in the future.However, he miscalculated.Later facts quickly proved that 800 works were listed at the same time, and the market was quickly saturated. As a result, the inventory in hand was unsalable and could not be sold.

The 1908 Independent Exhibition rejected Braque's works.Fifteen years later, some people are still willing, hoping, and even dreaming that this auction of the German merchant's collection can deal a real blow to Cubism, knock it down completely, and make it never rise again.All of these people support Leonce Rosenberg's views and are firmly in favor of the auction.But when hope joins stupidity, the result must be ignorance... Carnville returned to Paris in February 1920, a month after Modigliani's death.An alliance with a childhood friend enabled him to bypass the rules prohibiting people without citizenship from operating in France and opened the Simon Gallery on Rue Astorgue.He then proceeded to attack on two fronts: first, to reconnect with painters with whom he had lost contact during the Great War; second, he effectively reined in the threat posed by auctions of seized works.

He lost Picasso, and did not resume his relationship soon.There were entanglements between the two of them on two issues: the Spaniard (Picasso) accused the German (Carnville) of not following his advice to apply for French citizenship, and if he had listened to him, he would have obtained French citizenship earlier, This incident of the seizure of the collection can be avoided; the art dealer has always owed the painter 20,000 francs because he has no ability to pay. The two of them do not appear to have met again until after that debt was paid off in 1925.Because of this, Picasso's art dealers have always been the Rosenberg brothers.After Leonce Rosenberg, Picasso chose his younger brother Paul Rosenberg as his art dealer.

Some other painters headed by Gris have always been faithful to Carnville.And some, such as Vlaminck, Derain, Braque and Loesche only chose Carnville for a few years, and later they also sided with Rosenberg. Neither Carnville nor any of his friends were able to prevent the sale of paintings that France had confiscated from German dealers.He just bought back a few of his favorites by covert means, none of them Picasso: because their relationship was still fraught.Since the issue of nationality prevented him from acting in an open capacity, Carnville formed an association with several friends and members of his family, and they acted in the name of the association.

In 1921 and 1923, Drouot organized five auctions of paintings from the pre-war collection of Carnville, four of which were works from his gallery and one from his private collection.By all accounts, these auctions were failures, and catastrophic failures at that.Robert Desnos bought a charcoal drawing labeled Braque's masterpiece that was actually by Picasso.Desnos was furious, and not just for getting the wrong author.In his essay "On Painters," he wrote: The works to be sold are stacked together in a disorderly manner, the rolled paintings are folded in cardboard boxes, and the paintings carefully signed and stamped by the artist are bundled into bundles. , or buried among the debris behind the stand.The messiness of the entire sales venue cannot be described in words.All this proves with irrefutable facts that the revenge actions taken by the involved painters Brac, Delang, Flemish, Gris, Loesche, Manolu and Picasso are not unreasonable.

First auction on June 13, 1921.At the meeting, Braque fired first.According to Gertrude Stein, Black was commissioned by his peers to attack Leonce Rosenberg, who had been promoted to specialist.They could not choose Gris or Picasso, who were Spanish; not Marie Laurence, who married and became German; nor the sculptor Lipsitz, who was Lithuanian.Vlaminck was ineligible because he was directing the fight from behind.One could have delegated Derain or Loesche, but Braque had the advantage, he had senior qualifications: he was French, an officer with the War Cross and Legion of Honor, plus he had been badly wounded at the front. He bravely accepted and carried out the task that was entrusted to him.He threw fists at Leonce Rosenberg, denounced him as a betrayer of Cubism, and was a down-to-earth bastard and coward.Leonce Rosenberg showed no signs of weakness, calling his attacker a "Normandy pig".As a result, he was knocked to the ground by Braque.The patrol police happened to pass by and turned the two fighting people to the police station. The fight at Drouot ended.Mattis arrived just at this time.After Gertrude Stein had told him what had happened, Matisse defended the representatives of the Cubists with all his strength, saying: "Brack is right, this man is a French robber!" The wound was bandaged.The auction appraiser came before the art dealers again, among them were Bernard Jr., Durand-Ruel, Paul Guillaume, Leopold Sporowski and many other foreigners.Among those who came to the auction were bankers, painters, writers, patrons of the arts and literature, and directors of French museums.It is a great pity that most of the good pre-war work was missed by these responsible persons because they rarely raised their hands. Art dealers bought very little: Leonce Rosenberg because he had no money; his brother wanted to buy as much as possible of Picasso's works since World War I; foreigners bought less because Apart from Picasso and Derain, they did not know other painters whose works were auctioned.Therefore, none of the painter's works sold for high prices. As a result, the association founded by Carnville successfully purchased most of the works of Gris and Braque.Derain's works sold best, followed by Vlaminck.With the progress of the auction, it became more and more obvious that Leonce Rosenberg's original calculation was a major mistake, and the sales price of the seized paintings not only did not soar, but plummeted.The market does not have the ability to digest and absorb all the participating works.The real beneficiaries of auctions are not professional artists, but knowledgeable amateurs of painting, often buying for someone else.For example, the Swiss painter Charles-Edouard Jeanneret bought a large number of Picasso's works and gave them to an entrepreneur-Raoul Laroche; Louis Aragon bought Braque's for himself for 240 francs; André Breton bought some works by Loesche, Picasso, Flemish, Braque and Van Dongen; Tristan Chara and Paul Éluard also bought a lot. A number of poets also participated in the auction, but they were no longer the same poets as before the war.Some of the poets before the war died, and some disappeared without a trace.The latecomers took the place of the poets with whom we are already very familiar.These later poets were about to acquire the work of the Laundryboat painters, acting as go-betweens between the blue-smock painters of yesteryear and the patrons of the new literary arts.These poets occupy the positions left by the literati of yesterday and will contribute to changing the face of Montparnasse. At the beginning of the 20th century there were already Surrealists at Drouot auctions.The age of surrealism was born from that time. ...It was at that time that André Breton and I discovered this artistic expression (at that time, it seemed to us only an expression)—"Surrealism", we The purpose of using this technique is only to commemorate Guillaume Apollinaire. Philip Subo In 1919, André Breton received his parents who came to visit him in a very shabby room in the Great Hotel on the Pantheon Square.They're here to order him to stop doing the Dada movement that only crazy clowns take part in.If the son does not resume his medical studies, they stop providing him with living expenses. Breton obeyed his parents' orders, left the hotel where he lived, and became an employee of the Gallimar Publishing House on Sebastian-Bodin Street.The task assigned to him by the leader of the publishing house is: to send subscribers their published "French New Magazine" and to proofread Marcel Proust's work "The Guyment Family".But Breton's important work of that period was "Magnetic Field", co-authored with Philippe Supauer.André Breton wrote in his "Promenade" about the two of them writing "Magnetic Field": In 1919 my main energies were concentrated on the study of less complete (somewhat incomplete) sentences.When they stand alone, they are a bit confusing.Although it is impossible to find out that the author has determined in advance the result of the final combination of each single sentence, through these single sentences, people can find some ideas contained in them.These sentences are vivid and lifelike, and their syntactic structure is correct and rigorous.In my opinion, they belong to the first class of good poetry. For two consecutive weeks, every morning, Breton and Su Bo wrote in the spa tavern or great man's hotel on Avenue Saint-Germain.The principles they always follow in the writing process are: do not talk about logic, rely solely on inspiration, and highlight the situation, image and effect; the speed and progress of writing adapt to the situation, but prevent deletion and modification; the method of collaboration as needed: sometimes two people together Write, sometimes separately, sometimes one after the other.Every day begins at sunrise and ends at sunset, day after day, week after week.They worked so hard to write this work based on a discovery that excited Breton: dreamy, hypnotic, inspired essays.This discovery formed the central idea of ​​the Surrealist movement. The author of "Magnetic Field" regards the work as the birth certificate of Surrealism, and with the birth of "Magnetic Field", the Surrealist movement was born.At that time, it was not called Surrealism, but Dada. The movement really began in January 1920, a few days after Chara arrived in Paris from Switzerland.After the literati headed by Breton and Aragon finished reading some poems at the Saint-Denis Street Art Palace, the public waited to hear André Salmon's report entitled "Exchange Crisis" (in advertisements and newspapers) published in this way), but what they saw was a row of dubious people reading poems by Subo, Chara, Albert Biro, and others.These poems have nothing to do with the "exchange crisis" or the works of Picabia on display in the main hall. A few days later, on February 5, 1920, the future Surrealists organized the second public event of the Dada movement at the Grand Palais in Paris. The question asked was simple: how can more people be attracted to such an event?They quickly found the answer and issued an announcement in the media, announcing that Charles Chaplin, who was currently in Paris, would visit his Dada friends at the Grand Palace, because Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863— 1938), Italian writer. , Henri Bergson (1859-1941), French spiritualist philosopher, opponent of Neo-Kantianism, positivism and materialism.Prince Charlot of Monaco and a number of similar bigwigs have just joined the movement.These people are not only his friends, but also his accomplices. However, none of Charles Chaplin, D'Annunzio, or Bergson was present, and only Chara, Breton, and Aragon read the manifesto of their movement to the packed hall.The dialogue and debate between them and the audience was very intense. On March 27, 1920, a new provocative incident occurred.The venue was the theater where the scandal was caused by the performance of "King Yubu" twenty-five years ago. The "actors" participated in the "performance" in the name of exposing the absurdity of the rules of classical theater, and their behavior was truly unscrupulous: Ribemont-Desagne played the piano piece "Fructus Chicory".It was a piece of music made up of random random playing, which was deafening and made the audience unbearable; André Breton had a piece of armor made of cardboard on his chest, and a shooting target was drawn on the cardboard. He read to the audience the Manifesto of Cruelty, written by Francis Picabia.The declaration ends with the following sentences: Dada doesn't feel anything special, he's nothing, nothing, nothing. As you wish: insignificant. Like your heaven: insignificant. Like your idols: insignificant. Like your politicians: insignificant. Like your heroes: insignificant. Like your artists: insignificant. On May 26, 1920, a Dada carnival took place in the Garvo Hall.The news media and people with billboards on their chests added fuel to the streets and alleys of the capital, saying: Dada members will shave their heads in public; Eluard, Francier, Ribemont-Desagne, Su Bo and Chara) will have a variety of performances in the audience.I hope the audience in the audience can be full. The curtain rises, and Chara holds up a balloon—a giant cardboard male genital erected on top of it—marked "Dada's Genital," first on stage.Followed by the "famous magician" Philip Subo, he was painted black, wearing pajamas, holding a big knife.He holds up five balloons, each with the name of a dead person written: a pope—Benoit XV, a military commander—Pétain, a state leader—Clemenceau, A woman writer—Madame La Hilde and the first person to be pierced to death by the sword of a surrealist poet—Cocteau. The whole hall suddenly became noisy and chaotic.Although Gide, Douglas, Jules Roman, Brancusi, Leche, and Mei Jingqi sat still, the others were all excited, tomatoes, carrots, white radishes and oranges were flying across the seats, All the way to the stage.The first hit was Ribermont-Desagne, who was performing on the stage; Explaining the behavior; a little distance away, a squat young man stood up and shouted: "Long live French fries and chips!" This is Benjamin Pere.Later, he was about to leave the general public and enter the stage of surrealism. Is it Dadaism or Surrealism?Is it both, or does one include the other?No one knows yet.Breton was bored, it was Chara who had disappointed him.He respects Chara as a poet, not as a social activist.Because what works in Zurich may not work in Paris.Just shouting slogans is useless, we must put it into action, and we must pay attention to practical results.The Dada movement is a movement that pursues freedom. Breton fully agrees with this conclusion. He said: "Dada is a kind of thought... What the Dada movement pursues is the freedom of thought in the field of art." [Excerpted from Andre Bou Leton's "Promenade"] However, Charat's thoughts are more inclined to extreme liberalism, while Breton's thoughts are inclined to Leninism, that is to say, on the issue of method, they are closer to Stalin. On May 13, 1921, the Dadaist Action was held again. The trial of the "Bales lawsuit" was held at 20:30 in the Dandong Street Society Hall.A preview of the indictment and criminal prosecution trial against writer Maurice Balles.Who shall judge?Openly said to be Dada, but in fact it was André Breton.why?For Pales is the representative of the patriotism, nationalism and conservatism most hated by the "literary school" and by certain leftists and many literary men of various schools. Tristan Chara objected to such a trial, he believed that Dada did not have the qualifications to conduct trials.Breton opposed Charat's idea.On the one hand, he tried to prevent the spread of this idea, and on the other hand, he tried his best to make the trial proceed as scheduled.The result of his doing so is not only the trial of Bales, but also the trial of Charah.From this perspective, Breton believes that this prosecution contains a double meaning: Because Dada believes that the time has come for the power of law to serve to deny all ideas.They resolved, then, that this right must at any rate be exercised against those who might prevent them from exercising their tyranny, and that immediate steps must be taken to combat their resistance. As a result, Maurice Balais's resistance was charged with "crimes against thought security." Those seated at the bench were: a presiding judge, Andre Breton, and two jurors, Pierre de Waal and Theodor Francier, and the representative of the prosecution, Georges Ribemont-Desagne, defense representatives Louis Aragon and Philippe Subo. Witnesses were numerous, among them were Dadaists, but also well-known personalities who presented themselves for various motives: Benjamin Perret, Drieu La Rochelle, Tristan Chara (participating against his will) , Madame La Hilde, the Symbolist poet Louis de Gonzag-Frick... The accused did not appear, having left Paris hastily after receiving notice to appear.Therefore, a dummy made of cloth was placed on the defendant's seat, and a banner was hung above the dummy's head, which read: "No one can excuse that they know nothing about the Dada movement."Everyone on the bench wore a judge's hat and the white coat of a medical student. Breton read out the indictment drafted by him himself.The entire indictment appears flimsy, sacrificing Chara (Riebemont-Desagne, with much reluctance, playing the role) rather than accusing Balais.The defense was strong and in place, and the witnesses performed their duties appropriately. The "Unknown Soldier" was also called to testify.He wears a ridiculous costume, a gas mask, and walks like a giant penguin swaying from side to side.His presence on stage provoked the usual scene in the audience: some booed, some whistled, some sang "La Marseillaise".Picabia, who has always been extremely disgusted with quarrels and fights, naturally left the scene immediately. Benjamin Pere, who played his part well, came backstage and took off his gas mask.The long-awaited witness Tristan Chara replaced him.Opposite him is Breton, and the two are at war with each other: it is Zurich and Paris, the past and the future, the Dada and the Surrealists. Chara spoke first: I don't trust any court, not even one run by Dada.Mr President, you will admit, as I do, that we are all a bunch of scoundrels, and that it does not matter that there are only big and small scoundrels among us... Breton: Do you understand why you were asked to testify in court? Chara: Of course because I'm Tristan Chara.Although I don't fully understand the need for me to testify in court. Su Bo: The defense believes that the witnesses are jealous of the defendant. Do you dare to admit this? Charla: What the witness has to say to the defense is: You're all talking nonsense...   Breton: Can you find anyone more despicable than Maurice Valles? Charla: Yes.André Breton, Théodor Fraenkel, Pierre de Waal, Georges Ribemont-Desagne, Louis Aragon, Philippe Soupeau, Jacques Rigaud , Pierre Drieux La Rochelle, Benjamin Perret, Serge Charchouner. Breton: Does the witness imply that Maurice Valles himself is as good as the vile men whom the witness has just listed as his friends? ...does the witness want to prove that he is a complete idiot, or does he want to have him locked up in a madhouse? Charla: Yes, I do make people think I'm a complete idiot, but I don't want to escape my captivity, on the contrary, I intend to spend the rest of my life there. André Breton probably wanted Maurice Valles to be sentenced to death.However, a jury of twelve spectators delivered a different verdict: the writer was sentenced to twenty years of hard labor.As soon as the judgment was handed down, Breton began to make second-hand preparations. A year after the Balais lawsuit, Picabia was estranged from both the Literary Society and Chara's friends.He himself convened an "international conference for the defense of modern thought and the determination of policy."At that time, the presidents of major magazines and some independent artists: Paulan of "French New Magazine", Oshanfang of "New Thinking", Vitrac of "Adventure" magazine, Breton of "Literature" magazine, Eric , Delaunay and Loesche all participated in the conference. Chara believed that the purpose of such a conference (commonly known as the "Paris Conference" at the time) was inconsistent with the freedom of thought advocated by the Dadaists. After some consideration, he finally made a decision to refuse to participate in the Paris Conference.Breton believed that Chara was against him everywhere, and that Chara opposed and resisted everything he did.So he asked the members of the congress committee (Polan was not present) to sign a press release announcing Chara as "the proponent of a movement" originating in Zurich that was "outdated and incompatible with the current situation." Totally inconsistent." [Excerpt from "Dada in Paris" by Michel Sanouille].In order to make everyone understand the situation and not be deceived, the General Assembly Committee called Chara "a swindling hypocrite".Breton himself later admitted that he had indeed done something stupid in doing so. What they did was a little too much.In response to Breton's xenophobic remarks, Charat, with the support of Eluard, Ribemont-Desagne and Eric Satie, held a meeting at the Lilac Garden Tavern, inviting members of the Dada movement, the movement sympathizers and artists who had attended the Paris Congress.Breton attended the meeting.Many of those invited attended the meeting.Most of the participants unanimously criticized Breton's practice during the "Paris Congress" as fraudulent: the press communiqué was concocted by him personally, but it was named in the name of the collective, and in order to destroy his reputation, he unscrupulously cursed all famous people.Originally, out of trust in him, the artists entrusted him to organize the Paris Congress of Artists, but now they withdrew their trust in him.So, the meeting fell through. Breton was not convinced, and he vowed revenge.A few days later, Comoedia magazine published an article accusing Tristan Tzara of claiming to be the inventor of the term "Dada movement" when in fact he played only a minor role in drafting the 1918 Dada Manifesto Because there were Vachet, Duchamp and Picabia before him, he basically did not have a decisive influence on this movement... In the end, Breton made a more sincere effort to straighten out the ranks of the "literary" faction.In the "Literature" newspaper founded in 1919, Breton regarded Gide, Valéry, and Falgue as survivors of symbolism, and the poets familiar to Apollinaire Salmon, Jacob, Levedi, and Sander. Lars, Morand, Giraudoux, and Drieu La Rochelle all participated in the work of the newspaper.Then Vache, Éluard, and Chara, who had eclipsed Valéry and Gide, appeared in their ranks.Levedi, who had once alienated Surrealism because of his too devout Catholicism, also rejoined the team. After the failure of the Paris Congress, newspapers became the movement's instrument of war on words.Breton once gave up his attack on the Dada movement for a short period of time, and devoted himself to rectifying its combat team.He reorganized Aragon, Pere, Lambert and Vitrac, and recruited a new recruit, and directly included a person in the commando of his small army, this is Robert Desno s. Robert Desnos (1900-1945), French poet. Surrealist from 1922 to 1930.