Hallucinating curls and a man-coffin. Occultist traces in Central European Surrealism

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse the influence of occultism on the development of the Central European avant-garde, especially the Surrealism of the ‘30s and ‘40s. On the one hand, occultists affirm a retreat from the tyranny of reason, which for many avant-garde artists embodies the pettiness of human existence, stifled by the forces of family and public duties. On the other hand, they are an inexhaustible source of props, actions and rituals. Both aspects are extremely important for both Czech Artificialists (Toyen and Štyrský) and Surrealists (Teige, Nezval); however, they gain particular importance in the theories and practice of Romanian Surrealists – Victor Brauner, Gherasim Luca and, above all, Gellu Naum. The space in which these transformed entities with a new status enter consciousness are the eponymous „dangerous territory” that André Breton wrote about, and which become a metaphor (but is it only a metaphor?) of the alliance of the proto-language and the proto-image.