In homage to Guillaume Apollinaire (famous French poet, art-critic, writer and defender of Cubism), who had just died and who, on several occasions, seemed to us to have followed a discipline of this kind, without however having sacrificed to it any mediocre literary means, Soupault and I baptized the new mode of pure expression which we had at our disposal and which we wished to pass on to our friends, by the name of SURREALISM. I believe that there is no point today in dwelling any further on this word and that the meaning we gave it initially has generally prevailed over its Apollinarian sense.


Breton's quote refers to the start of the term Surrealism, together with Philippe Soupault - Le Manifeste du Surréalisme (Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924)

André Breton Quotes

In homage to Guillaume Apollinaire (famous French poet, art-critic, writer and defender of Cubism), who had just died and who, on several occasions,...

In homage to Guillaume Apollinaire (famous French poet, art-critic, writer and defender of Cubism), who had just died and who, on several occasions,...

In homage to Guillaume Apollinaire (famous French poet, art-critic, writer and defender of Cubism), who had just died and who, on several occasions,...

In homage to Guillaume Apollinaire (famous French poet, art-critic, writer and defender of Cubism), who had just died and who, on several occasions,...