Composition, 2010
Aube Elleouét Breton (B. 1935)
'Composition' (2010) is a particularly strong example of Aube Elléouët-Breton’s distinctive approach to Surrealist collage. The scene is assembled from disparate printed images, cut from their original contexts and brought into new, unexpected relationships. At first glance, it resembles a bizarre maritime adventure: a ship appears to sail through, or perhaps emerge from, a mountainous sea; a cat sits improbably atop the ship’s tower; a human hand and pointing finger rise from the rocks; two large moons or celestial discs hover in the upper left; and a strangely scaled astronaut or diving figure stands at the right. The foreground is constructed from what appear to be maps, waves, rocks, and fragments of landscape, while tiny white marks scattered across the dark sky create a dreamlike, almost cosmic atmosphere. The collage does not attempt to construct a physically coherent scene; rather, its very incompatibility and disruption of ordinary logic are integral.
Several classic Surrealist strategies are at play here, particularly the manipulation of scale and the unexpected juxtaposition of unrelated elements. Objects that would ordinarily have no relationship to one another are brought together, while their proportions no longer obey the conventions of the physical world. The result is a form of ‘dream logic’ characteristic of Elléouët-Breton’s practice, in which recognisable fragments of reality are reimagined to create an entirely new, imaginary world.
Elléouët-Breton was the daughter of André Breton, the writer and principal theorist of Surrealism, and the artist Jacqueline Lamba. However, it would be a mistake to regard her simply as an artist continuing her father’s work. She developed a distinctive collage language of her own, and Composition dates from relatively late in her career: having begun to seriously develop her collage practice in the 1970s, by 2010 she had been refining this visual vocabulary for several decades. The work should therefore be understood as a mature expression of an artistic language shaped over several decades. Its strange combinations, and dreamlike spaces demonstrate how Elléouët-Breton adapted the principles of Surrealism into a personal and evolving practice.
Aube Elleouét Breton (B. 1935)
Aube Elléouët-Breton was born in Paris, December 20, 1935. Her mother was Jacqueline Lamba, a painter and her father, André Breton, the writer and founder of Surrealism. In 1943 she stayed for one year with her mother at Frida Kahlo's house in Mexico. Since the early 1970s, Aube Elléouët-Breton devoted more and more time to the art of collage, exhibiting them in France and internationally. Her work is included in private and museum collections, including the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris among others. Even though Aube's collages encompass a surrealist spirit, she developed her own distinct artistic language, often addressing issues such as ecology and feminism in her work.
