ABOUT THIS BOOK

In Surrealism at Play Susan Laxton writes a new history of surrealism in which she traces the centrality of play to the movement and its ongoing legacy. For surrealist artists, play took a consistent role in their aesthetic as they worked in, with, and against a post-World War I world increasingly dominated by technology and functionalism. Whether through exquisite-corpse drawings, Man Ray’s rayographs, or Joan Miró’s visual puns, surrealists became adept at developing techniques and processes designed to guarantee aleatory outcomes. In embracing chance as the means to produce unforeseeable ends, they shifted emphasis from final product to process, challenging the disciplinary structures of industrial modernism. As Laxton demonstrates, play became a primary method through which surrealism refashioned artistic practice, everyday experience, and the nature of subjectivity.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Susan Laxton is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of California, Riverside, and the author of Paris as Gameboard: Man Ray's Atgets.

REVIEWS

"This volume adds another layer of interpretation and visual analysis to the mass of recent scholarship on surrealism during its heyday. . . . Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty."

-- W. S. Bradley Choice

"Surrealism at Play is a major contribution to the study of surrealism: Laxton balances a close reading of artwork with theoretical analysis. Every art school and college that covers surrealism in its curriculum and every museum with surrealist works in its collection should acquire this work."

-- Stephen Bury ARLIS/NA Reviews

"This book, without doubt, will take its rightful place alongside the best works in art history and literary criticism. Very well written, extensively researched, and breaking new ground in the understanding of surrealism."

-- Robert Maddox-Harle Leonardo Reviews

"Surrealism at Play passionately traces how a particular art movement envisioned and articulated its own transformative potential. . . . Laxton helps us understand the Surrealists’ insistence on irrationality not as a sport, but rather as an attempt to engage in the political debates of their time."

-- Ela Bittencourt Hyperallergic

"Laxton’s project is a major accomplishment, matching extensive imagination with scholarly rigor."

-- Natalie Dupêcher CAA Reviews

“Laxton’s elegantly written book engages with the topical question of play and points to future research on avant-garde and contemporary art along ludic critical lines.”

-- Xiaofan Amy Li French Studies

“Laxton’s sharp, well-informed, and incisive study offers a rich exploration of the serious business of surrealist play.”

-- Johanna Malt Modernism/modernity

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction. A Modern Critical Ludic 1
1. Blur 29
2. Drift 72
3. System 137
4. Pun 185
5. Postlude 246
Notes 273
Bibliography 331
Index 351

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