Paul Nougé (12 February 1895 – 6 November 1967) was a Belgian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

, founder and theoretician of surrealism in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, sometimes known as the "Belgian Breton".

Biography

Born of a French father who originated from the Charent region in France and a Belgian mother, Paul Nougé attended a French school in Brussels studying Biological Chemistry and worked as a Biochemist in a medical laboratory from 1919 to 1953. He became a founding member of the first

Belgian Communist Party french: Parti Communiste de Belgique , abbreviation = KPB-PCB , colorcode = , leader1_title = Historical leaders , leader1_name = Joseph JacquemotteJulien LahautLouis Van Geyt , founder = Julien Lahaut , founded = , dissolved = , merge ...

in 1919. In November 1924 he created the journal ''Correspondance'', which published 26 pamphlets up to September 1925, in collaboration with Camille Goemans and Marcel Lecomte. In July 1925 he was expelled from the party. That same year Nougé met the French surrealists,

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He ...

, André Breton and

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

, and together they signed the tract "La Révolution d'abord et toujours" (The Revolution First and Forever). In 1926 he made the acquaintance of Louis Scutenaire, and September of that year marked the drafting of the constitution of the Belgian Surrealist Group that comprised Nougé, Goemans,

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bound ...

, E. L. T. Mesens and

André Souris André Souris (; 10 July 1899 – 12 February 1970) was a Belgian composer, conductor, musicologist, and writer associated with the surrealist movement. Biography Souris was born in Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium, and studied at the Conservatory ...

. In 1927 Nougé composed plagiarised examples of a grammar book of Clarisse Juranville, illustrated with five drawings by Magritte. In 1928 he founded the magazine ''Distances'' and wrote the poem catalogue of a fur trader that was illustrated by Magritte entitled ''Le catalogue Samuel'' (re-edited by Didier Devillez, Brussels, 1996). He also wrote the preface of a Magritte exhibition at the gallery "L'époque" (signed by his 'accomplices' Goemans, Mesens, Lecomte, Scutenaire and Souris) and delivered in January 1929 to Charleroi – a conference on the accompanying music to a concert conducted by Souris and an exhibition of Magritte ("La conférence de Charleroi", published in 1946). Between December 1929 and February 1930 Nougé created 19 photographs, unpublished until 1968, under the title ''Subversion des images''. These

photographs A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now created ...

have been displayed notably, and most recently, at the Edinburgh Art Festival 2009.Edinburgh Guide http://www.edinburghguide.com/photos/lajongleuse Retrieved 22 March 2011 In 1931 he wrote the preface to an exhibition which followed the return of Magritte to Brussels. Extracts from "Images défendues" were published in 1933 in issue number 5 of ''Surréalisme au service de la Révolution''. In 1934 Nougé co-signed "L'action immédiate" in ''Documents 34'', edited by Mesens. In 1935 "Le Couteau dans la plaie" ('The Knife in the Wound') was published and in 1936, ''René Magritte ou la révélation objective'' was published in "Les Beaux-Arts" in Brussels. In that same year, Nougé, along with Mesens, organised the exclusion of Souris from the group. Nougé was mobilised in 1939 in

Mérignac Mérignac may refer to : ;Places * Mérignac, Charente, a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France * Mérignac, Charente-Maritime, a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in southwestern France * Mérignac, Gironde, a commun ...

then Biarritz, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, as a military nurse. In 1941 Nougé prefaced an exhibition, quickly closed by the occupying forces, of photographs by Raoul Ubac in Brussels ''L'expérience souveraine'' (The Sovereign Experience). In 1943 he published the complete text of ''René Magritte ou Les images défendues''. In January 1944, under the pseudonym of Paul Lecharantais, he prefaced a new exhibition of Magritte that was criticized by the collaborators of

nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

. In 1945 Nougé participated in the exhibition "Surréalisme" organised by the Editions La Boétie de Bruxelles gallery. In 1946 he published ''La Conférence de Charleroi'' and, under the title ''Élémentaires'' a preface for the exhibition of Magritte "Le Surréalisme en Plein Soleil" (Surrealism in Full Sunlight) at the Dietrich gallery. Paul Nougé died in Brussels on 6 November 1967. A number of his poems have been translated into English by

Robert Archambeau Robert Archambeau (18 April 1933 — 25 April 2022) was a Canadian ceramic artist and potter. He also had an academic career in post-secondary art studies. Personal history Born in Toledo, Ohio, United States in 1933, he immigrated to C ...

and Jean-Luc Garneau, and appear in the poetry magazine ''

Samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...

''.

Selective bibliography

* ''Histoire de ne pas rire'', Les Lèvres nues, Brussels, 1956; L'Âge d'homme, Lausanne, 1980. * ''L'Expérience continue'', Les Lèvres nues, Brussels, 1966; L'Âge d'homme, Lausanne, 1981. * ''Journal (1941-1950)'', Les Lèvres nues, Brussels, 1968; Didier Devillez Editor, Brussels, 1995. * From 1973 numerous unpublished texts by Nougé were published by Tom Gutt in "Le Vocatif". * ''Des mots à la rumeur publique'', Lausanne, L'Âge d'homme, 1983. * ''Erotiques'', Didier Devillez editor, Brussels, 1994. * ''Journal 1941-1950'', Didier Devillez editor, Brussels, 1995. * ''Quelques lettres'', Didier Devillez editor, Brussels, 1995. * ''Paul Nougé, René Magritte, Le catalogue Samuel'', prefaced by Tom Gutt, Brussels, Didier Devillez, 1996. * ''René Magritte (in extenso)'', Didier Devillez editor, Brussels, 1997. * ''Fragments'', Didier Devillez editor, Brussels, 1997. * ''La Musique est dangereuse'', writings around music, compiled and presented by Robert Wangermée, Didier Devillez editor, Brussels, 2001.

Re-issued journals

* ''Correspondance'' (1924-1925), Brussels, Didier Devillez, "Fac Similé", 1993 * ''Marie, Journal bimensuel pour la belle jeunesse'' (1926-1927), Brussels, Didier Devillez, "Fac Similé", 1993.

About Nougé

, ''Paul Nougé et ses complices'' in "Entretiens sur le surréalisme", under the direction of

Ferdinand Alquié Ferdinand Alquié (; 18 December 1906, Carcassonne, Aude – 28 February 1985, Montpellier) was a French philosopher and member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques from 1978. In the years 1931 to 1945 he was a professor in v ...

, Mouton, Paris-La Haye, 1968. *Christian Bussy, ''Anthologie du surréalisme en Belgique'',

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 ...

, Gallimard, 1972. *

Marcel Mariën Marcel Mariën (29 April 1920 – 19 September 1993) was a Belgian surrealist (later Situationist), poet, essayist, photographer, collagist, and filmmaker. Mariën was a pivotal member of the Belgian wing of the Surrealist movement. In addition ...

, ''L'activité surréaliste en Belgique (1924-1950)'',

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Lebeer-Hossmann, 1979. *''René Magritte et le surréalisme en Belgique'', Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, 1982. *''Le mouvement surréaliste à Bruxelles et en Wallonie (1924-1947)'',

, Centre Culturel Wallonie Brussels, 1988. *Olivier Smolders, ''Paul Nougé, Écriture et caractère. À l'école de la ruse'', Labor, Brussels, 1995. *Christine de Naeyer, ''Paul Nougé et la photographie'', Brussels, Didier Devillez, 1995. *''Irène, Scut, Magritte & C°'',

, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, 1996, 558 p.

References

External links

* In 1927 René Magritte painted a picture entitled ''Paul Nougé'' (Legacy Irène Scutenaire-

Hamoir Hamoir (; wa, Hamwer) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2006, Hamoir had a total population of 3,592. The total area is 27.80 km2 which gives a population density of 129 inhabitants per k ...