BRETON André. - Lot 94

BRETON André. PRESENT OF THE GAULS. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SIGNED. 3 1/2 pages in ink and 1 note. Manuscript concerning Gallic medals. In the end you are tired of this ancient world... you're tired of living in Greek and Roman antiquity Who's the iconoclast talking like that? We all know him: it's Guillaume Apollinaire, and these two unadorned verses can be denied any manifesto intent, especially as they open the greatest collection of poems of this century [Alcools]. ... The discovery of the Gallic medals, by which I mean the revelation in broad daylight of the Art that presides over them, brings in this respect an unexpected help and assurance. ... the intense spotlight recently shone on the Gallic medals could not fail to illuminate a category of hitherto neglected works that extend the lesson ... ... The criterion that governed the selection and grouping of works of this nature is none other than that which emerges from all of Marcel Duchamp's recent work.