Pierre Reverdy

Pierre Reverdy (* September 13, 1889 in Narbonne, † June 17, 1960 in the Abbey of St. Pierre at Solesmes ) was a French poet, writer of literary theory essays and stories. His literary work comes from the area of Cubism and Surrealism.

Life

Pierre Reverdy grew up near the Montagne Noire. Among his ancestors there were many sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. The study he completed in Toulouse and Narbonne.

Reverdy moved in October to Paris in 1910. Here he lived in the studio house Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre, where he met, among others, Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara. Among his friends in Paris were Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Henri Matisse. As of Surrealism began to develop, Reverdy was involved in its creation. In the first Surrealist Manifesto Breton Reverdy described as " the greatest poet of our time".

Reverdy published in 1915 his first volume of poetry, Poèmes en prose, the cubist painter Juan Gris provided them with illustrations. In 1917 Reverdy founded with Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire, the literary avant -Journal north-south. The sales in 1918 reinstated. The title North-South was derived from the Paris Metro station of the same name that Montmartre Association from 1910 to Montparnasse. His " Image Theory", published in March 1918 in North-South, influenced the young Breton, because it offered him the key to an understanding of what happened to him. The bulging from the unconscious words condensed into one image: "The image is a pure creation of the mind - it can not arise from a comparison, but from the convergence of two more or less distant realities. - The more distant and more precisely the relations of each other approximated realities, the stronger the image - the more emotional impact and poetic reality has it [ ... ] ".

In the early 1920s had Reverdy an affair with the fashion designer Coco Chanel and devoted many poems.

Reverdy distanced himself gradually from the surrealist environment, left in 1926 at the age of 37 years, Paris, converted to Catholicism and chose as his new residence, the Abbey of Saint -Pierre in Solesmes, where he lived as a lay brother. There he remained until his death in 1960. During this time he wrote poetry, such as Sources du vent, Ferraille and Le Chant des morts. He also wrote two books of literary theoretical content mixed with aphorisms: En vrac and Le livre de mon bord.

Discount and factory Pierre Reverdy are managed by the same name Comité the Fondation Maeght in Saint -Paul -de- Vence since 1984. It preserves currently 150 exhibits, including illustrated by Juan Gris, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso art books to texts Reverdy.

Work (selection)

  • In German translation: Song of the Dead, Translator, notes, woodcuts John Strugalla, Despalles éditions Paris & Mainz 2011

Secondary literature

  • Birgitta Heid: Only Picasso could do that. The artist's book Le chant des morts by Pablo Picasso and Pierre Reverdy, in: Pablo Picasso. Artists' Books: Works from the Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection, ed. Nina grinding and Armin Second, Hirmer, München 2010, ISBN 978-3-7774-3101-7
649875
de