The Lives of the Surrealists

Starred review from February 12, 2018
Morris (The Naked Ape), the last surviving member of the first-generation Surrealists, offers an intimate tour of the personal lives of the artists in his inner circle. The motley assortment ranges from textbook staples (Salvador Dalí) to those on the movement’s margins (Alexander Calder). Morris’s emphatic focus is not on their art but their lives. Writing as a personal friend and acquaintance of many of the Surrealists, he divulges their working habits (Alberto Giacometti was a night owl who regularly went to bed at 7 a.m.), personality quirks (Leonor Fini spent hours studying corpses), and sexual conquests with a disarming familiarity (each entry begins with a list of sexual partners). The movement’s founder and fulcrum, Andre Breton, is cast as something of an unlikable, controlling bully who at one point or another expelled nearly all of the Surrealists from the movement, occasionally with unintentionally humorous theatricality. Morris concedes, however, that the movement “would have been much the poorer without him.” Each of these 32 short biographical entries is thoughtfully accompanied by a lesser-known work of art by each artist, along with photographs of the artists as they appeared in their most active years. Alternatively funny, ribald, and at times genuinely moving, Morris’s fittingly off-kilter tribute to the Surrealist movement itself and the eclectic men and women who carried its torch is a true joy. illus.

Starred review from April 1, 2018

English zoologist and author (The Naked Ape) Morris, one of the last surviving surrealists, presents the lives of 32 artists most closely associated with the movement. Surrealism began more as a way of life that rebelled against the establishment giving rise to World War I than a philosophical or art movement. In separate chapters, each of which covers one of the artists, Morris draws on his knowledge of individual idiosyncrasies, life histories, love lives, personalities, predilections, character traits, etc. Not focused on analyzing individual art works created by these men and women, although he does include reproductions of one work by each artist, Morris nevertheless attempts to address how these artists contributed to the movement. In addition to providing a photograph and standard biographical details, the author recounts details that are extraordinary, entertaining, shocking, and witty. With an appendix listing major surrealist group exhibitions and further reading. VERDICT Of significance and interest to many general readers and those interested in 20th-century art and art movements, this belongs in large public libraries as well as academic libraries with visual arts collections. Highly recommended.--Cheryl Ann Lajos, Broward Cty. Lib., FL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018
An ideal introduction to the rebellious art movement.Zoologist Morris (Cats in Art, 2017, etc.) is well-known for his many BBC nature programs and the influential The Naked Ape (1967), but he's also a fine painter and was a member of the surrealist movement. In 1950, he exhibited with noted surrealist Joan Miro and made two surrealist films. Readers will be thankful that Morris, now 89, wrote this very personal take on his fellow surrealists. Although he only caught the tail end of it in the 1940s, he offers a revealing book filled with shocking anecdotes and outrageous quotations about 32 of them, from the renowned--Salvador Dali was the "most skillful, most accomplished"--to the obscure. In these witty and succinct profiles, Morris focuses on their personalities, which, in many cases, were stranger than their art; surrealism wasn't only an art movement, but a "whole way of life." Many of the opening sentences immediately grab the reader's attention. Hans Bellmer "holds the record for creating some of the most disturbing images in the history of the surrealist movement." Andre Breton, more poet than artist, was the movement's "most central, most important figure" even though he was a "petty dictator." Max Ernst "was the ultimate surrealist" and the most exploratory, "restlessly inventive and forever trying out new techniques." Rene Magritte "was an artist addicted to contradiction." He spent his life "trying to think up novel ways of insulting the commonsense values of everyday existence." Wolfgang Paalen "has the dubious distinction of being the only surrealist to have been eaten by wild animals." There's a distinct tell-all aspect to the narrative; Morris doesn't shy away from describing the artists' sexual proclivities and numerous relationships. The book also includes stunning photographs of the artists and their work.Like a modern-day Giorgio Vasari, Morris creates an intimate and unique you-are-there assessment of what made the surrealists tick.

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