![The Critics - The Art World - Bad Dream - What was Surrealism really about?](https://cdn.magzter.com/1422886351/1722840615/articles/I2vw5Yn6n1722859680994/art-Leonora-Carrington-Ren-Magritte-Surrealism-Dal-exhibitions-Andr-BretonSurrealist-manifestounconsciouness-nightmares-dreams-art-history-art-movements-Freud.jpg)
Yvan Goll was born in 1891. In his twenties, he moved to Paris, where he wrote antiwar poetry and absurdist drama, met Picasso and Chagall, and gorged himself on the era's avant-garde buffet. Photographs show us a laser-eyed face that is either wrapping up a sneer or embarking on a new one. He looks like the kind of person who would pen an attack on the young rascals who called themselves Surrealists, and, in 1924, he did. By making "Freud a new muse," Goll wrote, Surrealists were "confusing art and psychiatry," producing glib, trivial work that strained to "shock the public."The good news was that it would "quickly disappear from the scene." I should add that Goll considered himself a Surrealist, and that he was jabbing at his rivals' ideas in an issue of Surréalisme, the journal he founded. You should also know that he did the jabbing days before the poet André Breton published his first Surrealist manifesto.
This story is from the August 12, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 12, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
![Screams from a Marriage](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/3zRgYYnN-1725881148238/SCREAMS-FROM-A-MARRIAGE.jpg)
Screams from a Marriage
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
![Fly with Me](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/dYeQQzK6j1725880676447/FLY-WITH-ME.jpg)
Fly with Me
The children’s books of Katherine Rundell.
![The Mystery of Pain](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/e8e1WRybK1725879059454/THE-MYSTERY-OF-PAIN.jpg)
The Mystery of Pain
Garth Greenwell’s novel of extreme affliction and ordinary happiness.
![The Show Must Go On](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/8Ifks8k251725878208364/THE-SHOW-MUST-GO-ON.jpg)
The Show Must Go On
What if Ronald Reagan’ Presidency never really ended?
![LAST COFFEEHOUSE ON TRAVIS](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/2arIF1NQM1725877039050/LAST-COFFEEHOUSE-ON-TRAVIS.jpg)
LAST COFFEEHOUSE ON TRAVIS
For a few months, I stayed with my aunt's friend in Midtown, back when she could still afford to live there.
![Tales from the New World](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/FUEtmPGZg1725876059710/TALES-FROM-THE-NEW-WORLD.jpg)
Tales from the New World
The novelist Richard Powers considers our changing earth.
![Land of the Flea](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/xk--ld-TU1725873820810/LAND-OF-THE-FLEA.jpg)
Land of the Flea
What America 1s buying and selling.
![The Dark Time](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/V6UjUCdK01725867416552/THE-DARK-TIME.jpg)
The Dark Time
On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging.
![The Post-Moral Age](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/6J5KQks7M1725866971231/THE-POSTMORAL-AGE.jpg)
The Post-Moral Age
If conscience is merely a biological artifact, must we give up on goodness?
![How We Got the Story](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1826433/ePeTYI45Y1725866824434/HOW-WE-GOT-THE-STORY.jpg)
How We Got the Story
This five-part series, which includes this three-part series on how we got the story, is the result of a two-year investigation, involving dozens of legal filings, scores of interview requests, several interviews, innumerable Zoom meetings, and five 311 calls.