Surrealist Sorcery: Objects, Theories and Practices of Magic in the Surrealist Movement

— —

Will Atkin Gavin Parkinson (Courtauld Institute of Art UK)

Surrealist Sorcery

Objects, Theories and Practices of Magic in the Surrealist Movement

Will Atkin, Gavin Parkinson (Courtauld Institute of Art UK)

$160

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Bloomsbury Visual Arts
02 November 2023

Art & design styles: Surrealism & Dada; Man-made objects depicted in art (cityscapes & machines); Magic, alchemy & hermetic thought

Series: Transnational Surrealism

Often regarded as an artistic movement of interwar Paris, Surrealism comprised an international community of artists, writers, and intellectuals who have aspired to change the conditions of life itself over the course of the past century. Consisting of a wide range of dedicated case studies from the 1920s to the 1970s, this book highlights the international dimensions of the Surrealist Movement, and the radical chains of thought that linked its followers across the globe: from France to Romania, and from Canada to the former Czechoslovakia.

From very early on, the surrealists approached magic as a means of bypassing, discrediting, and combatting rationalism, capitalism, and other institutionalized systems and values that they saw to be constraining influences upon modern life. Surrealist Sorcery maps out how this interest in magic developed into a major area of surrealist research that led not only to theoretical but also practical explorations of the subject. Taking an international perspective, Atkin surveys this important quality of the movement and how it's remained an important element in the surrealist project and its ongoing legacy.

By: Will Atkin
Edited by: Gavin Parkinson (Courtauld Institute of Art UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350227484
ISBN 10: 135022748X
Series: Transnational Surrealism
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 02 November 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Will Atkin is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Art History at the University of Nottingham, UK

Reviews for Surrealist Sorcery: Objects, Theories and Practices of Magic in the Surrealist Movement

A work of extreme erudition, Atkins’ book and its transnational framework contributes powerfully to long-standing debates on modernist primitivism and ethnographic forms of Surrealism. Slowly but surely, an underground Surrealism emerges, drawing the reader especially into the catastrophic war years and their aftermath. * George Baker, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, UCLA, USA * Illuminating a compelling archive spanning the 1920s through to the 1970s, and covering a wide range of international sources, this book demonstrates that surrealist art had a significant investment in magical practices as a means of reanimating and redeeming certain aspects of modern existence. * Abigail Susik, author of Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work (2021), and Associate Professor of Art History, Willamette University, USA *