Sarane Alexandrian (15 June 1927,
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
– 11 September 2009,
Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.
Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the ...
) was a French
philosopher,
essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
ist, and
art critic.
Early life
Alexandrian was born to a French mother and
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
father, Vartan Alexandrian, a
stomatologist under the service of
Faisal I
Faisal I bin Al-Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi ( ar, فيصل الأول بن الحسين بن علي الهاشمي, ''Faysal el-Evvel bin al-Ḥusayn bin Alī el-Hâşimî''; 20 May 1885 – 8 September 1933) was King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria ...
. At the age of six, he was sent to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
to stay with his maternal grandmother.
Sarane Alexandrian: French art historian, poet and right-hand man to André Breton
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
obituary by Marcus Williamson
Marcus Williamson is a British writer, journalist and campaigner. As an obituarist for ''The Independent'' he has written obituaries of more than 300 subjects, including artists, poets, actors and inventors.
Campaigns
Phorm
In 2009 the AIM-l ...
Literary career
Alexandrian's initiation to Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
and surrealism came in the summer of 1943 when, aged 16, he met Raoul Hausmann
Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry, and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on ...
who was staying in Peyrat-le-Château near Limoges as a refugee. From 1947, he served as the last secretary of André Breton and became an essential figure of the surrealist current.
Alexandrian was an advocate of the philosophy Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...
advanced in ''The Gay Science'' ('' Die fröhliche Wissenschaft''). He headed the journal '' Supérieur Inconnu'' (a title provided by Breton), which exalts four values shared by the surrealists and Alexandrian: dream
A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...
s, love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...
, knowledge
Knowledge can be defined as Descriptive knowledge, awareness of facts or as Procedural knowledge, practical skills, and may also refer to Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called pro ...
, and revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. Catherine Millet
Catherine Millet (; born 1 April 1948 in Bois-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French writer, art critic, curator, and founder and editor of the magazine '' Art Press'', which focuses on modern art and contemporary art.
Biography
Born in Bois-Col ...
is one notable contributor to the magazine.
Alexandrian was a friend of Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealist movement.
Early life
He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufacturer who subsequen ...
, and remained an admirer of Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical ...
, and an ardent defender of Mata Hari
Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle; 7 August 187615 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari (), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed ...
.
Works
Alexandrian has more than 40 books to his credit. His best known works are:
*''André Breton par lui-même'', 1971 (''André Breton in His Own Words'');
*''Hans Bellmer'', 1971;
*''Les Libérateurs de l'amour'', 1977 (''The Liberators of Love'');
*''Surrealist Art'', 1985 (Thames & Hudson World of Art);
*''Max Ernst'', 1986;
*''Histoire de la littérature érotique'', 1989 (''The History of Erotic Literature'');
*''LJUBA'', Paris, Cercle d'Art, 2003.
Further reading
* Gallimard (1974). ''Dans le Surréalisme et le rêve'', p. 246-9. Paris. The author first discusses the dream of Breton and then proposes an analysis.
Texts and Prefaces
Préfaces in Musculatures of Nathalie Gassel
References
External links
Official Website
in The Independent by Marcus Williamson
Marcus Williamson is a British writer, journalist and campaigner. As an obituarist for ''The Independent'' he has written obituaries of more than 300 subjects, including artists, poets, actors and inventors.
Campaigns
Phorm
In 2009 the AIM-l ...
Obituary
in Le Monde by Claire Paulhan
rêve 1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandrian, Sarane
Writers from Baghdad
French people of Armenian descent
1927 births
2009 deaths
French male essayists
20th-century French essayists
20th-century French philosophers
20th-century French male writers