University of Nebraska Press

Contents

The Poetics of the Manifesto: Nowness and Newness xixVery Rough Chronology xxxiii

Part i. SymbolismEngland

1.1 James Abbott McNeill Whistler, The Ten O'clock, 1885 31.2 Oscar Wilde, The Poets and the People: By One of the Latter,

1887 15

1.3 Oscar Wilde, Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 17

France1.4 Pierre-Louis [Maurice Denis], Definition of Neo-Traditionism

(excerpt), 1890 181.5 Stephane Mallarme, Action Restricted, 1886 211.6 Stephane Mallarme, Crisis in Poetry (excerpt), 1886 241.7 Stephane Mallarme, A Throw of Dice Not Ever Will Abolish

Chance, 1897 271.8 Jean Moreas, The Symbolist Manifesto (excerpt), 1886 501.9 Odilon Redon, Suggestive Art (excerpt), 1922 52

Switzerland1.10 Ferdinand Hodler, Parallelism, c. 1900 54

Russia1.11 V. Bryusov, Keys to the Mysteries (parts I and II), 1904 .561.12 Vyacheslav Ivanov, Thoughts about Symbolism, 1912 63•1.13 Fyodor Sologub, The Theater'of One Will, 1908 71

Ireland

1.14 William Butler Yeats, Anima Hominis (excerpt), 1917 86

Part 2. Primitivism and NeoprimitivismFrance

2.1 Tristan Tzara, Note 6 on Negro Art, 1917 99

Poland2.2 Anatol Stern and Aleksander Wat, primitivists to the nations of the

world and to poland, 1920 100United States

2.3 Gary Snyder, Poetry and the Primitive: Notes on Poetry as anEcological Survival Technique, 1967 102

viii CONTENTS

Part 3. CubismFrance

3.1 Pierre Albert-Birot, The Sun Is in the Staircase, 1916-1924 1153.2 Guillaume Apollinaire, Picasso, 1905 1153.3 Guillaume Apollinaire, The New Painting: Art Notes, 1912 1203.4 Guillaume Apollinaire, Cubism Differs, 1913 1233.5 Guillaume Apollinaire, Horse Calligram, 1913-1916 1263.6 Guillaume Apollinaire, Vase, 1913-1916 1273.7 Guillaume Apollinaire, Bleuet, 1917 1283.8 Guillaume Apollinaire, The Little Car, 1918 1293.9 Georges Braque, Reflections on Painting, 1917 131

3.10 Blaise Cendrars, On Projection Powder, 1917 1323.11 Blaise Cendrars, Profound Today, 1917 1333.12 Max Jacob, Words in Freedom, 1917 1363.13 Pierre Reverdy, On Cubism, 1917 138

Part 4. Nowism/Presentism/SimultaneismFrance

4.1 Pierre Albert-Birot, Banality, 1916 1434.2 Pierre Albert-Birot, Ca ne se fait pas (It isn't done), 1916 1444.3 Pierre Albert-Birot, L'Esprit moderne (The modern spirit),

1916 146

4.4 Pierre Albert-Birot, La Loi (The law), 1916 1484.5 Pierre Albert-Birot, Nunic Dialogue: Z and A in Front of Modern

Paintings, 1916 1494.6 Pierre Albert-Birot, Nunism, 1916 1504.7 Pierre Albert-Birot, Pas de corset! (No girdle!), 1917 1514.8 Blaise Cendrars, The ABCs of Cinema, 1917-1921 1524.9 Blaise Cendrars, Simultaneous Contrast, 1919 155

4.10 Robert Delaunay, Light, 1912 1564.11 Robert Delaunay, Historical Notes on Painting: Color and the

Simultaneous, 1913 1594.12 Robert Delaunay, Simultaneism in Contemporary Modern Art,

Painting, Poetry, 1913 1604.13 Robert Delaunay, Simultaneism: An Ism of Art, 1925 163

Germany4.14 Raoul Hausmann, Manifesto of PREsentism, 1920 164

United States4.15 Barnett Newman, The Sublime Is Now, 1948 165

CONTENTS ix

Parts. FuturismsITALIAN FUTURISM

Italy

5.1 Futurist Synthesis of the War, 1914 170

5.2 Umberto Boccioni, Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture,

1912 172

5.3 Umberto Boccioni and others, Futurist Painting: Technical

Manifesto, 1910 178

5.4 Umberto Boccioni and others, Manifesto of the Futurist Painters,

1910 182

5.5 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Founding and Manifesto of

Futurism, 1909 185

5.6 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, After the Marne, Joffre Visited the

Front in an Automobile, 1915 190

5.7 Filippo Tomasso Marinetti, Emilio Settimelli, and Bruno Corra,

The Futurist Synthetic Theatre, 1915 191

TACTILISM

Italy

5.8 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Tactilism, 1924 197

NOISISM/BRUITISM

Italy

5.9 Carlo Carra, The Painting of Sounds, Noises, and Smells, 1913 201

5.10 Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noises (excerpt), 1913 205

France

5.11 Guillaume Apollinaire, L'Antitradition futuriste, 1913 212

5.12 Valentine de Saint-Point, Manifesto of Futurist Woman (Response

to F. T. Marinetti), 1912 213 —

5.13 Valentine de Saint-Point, Futurist Manifesto of Lust, 1913 217

ACMEiSM

Russia

5.14 Ossip Mandelstam, The Morning of Acmeism (parts I-IV),

1913 221

THE MEZZANINE OF POETRY

Russia

5.15 Graal-Arelsky [Stepan Stepanovich Petrov], Egopoetry in Poetry,

1912 224

5.16 Graal-Arelsky [Stepan Stepanovich Petrov], The Tables, 1912 226

5.17 Lev Zack, overture, 1913 226

CONTENTS

CUBO-FUTURISM (THE HYLEA GROUP)

Russia

5.18 David Burliuk and others, Slap in the Face of Public Taste,1912 230

5.19 Vladimir Mayakovsky, We, Too, Want Meat! 1914 2315.20 Vladimir Mayakovsky, A Drop of Tar, 1915 233

ZAOUM

Russia5.21 Anonymous, Bald Mountain Zaum-Poem, 1836 2355.22 Victor Khlebnikov and Alexey Kruchenykh, The Letter as Such,

1913 2365.23 Victor Khlebnikov and Alexey Kruchenykh, The Word as Such,

1913 237

5.24 Victor Khlebnikov and others, The Trumpet of the Martians,1916 238

RAYONISM

Russia5.25 Mikhail Larionov and Natalya Goncharova, Rayonists and

Futurists: A Manifesto, 1913 2405.26 Ilya Zdanevich and Mikhail Larionov, Why We Paint Ourselves: A

Futurist Manifesto, 1913 244

Part 6. Expressionism and FauvismNorway/France

6.1 Edvard Munch, The St. Cloud Manifesto [Impressions from aballroom, New Year's Eve in St. Cloud], 1889 248

6.2 Edvard Munch, The Violet Diary (excerpt), 1891-1892 2496.3 Edvard Munch, Art and Nature, 1907-1929 251

Poland/France ''6.4 Oskar Kokoschka, On the Nature of Visions, 1912 252

Germany6.5 Paul Klee, Creative Credo, 1920 2556.6 Paul Klee, We Construct and Construct, 1929 259

Belgium6.7 James Ensor, Preface to His Collected Writings (excerpt), 1921 2606.8 James Ensor, Speech Delivered at a Banquet Given for Him by La

Flandre Litteraire, Ostende (excerpt), 1923 2616.9 James Ensor, Speech Delivered at His Exhibition at the Jeu de

Paume, Paris (excerpt), 1932 262Holland/United States

6.10 Willem de Kooning, What Abstract Art Means to Me, 1951 264

CONTENTS xi

Part 7. Der Blaue Reiter

Germany

7.1 Wassily Kandinsky, Seeing, 1912 271

7.2 Wassily Kandinsky, Sounds, 1912 271

7.3 Wassily Kandinsky, Line and Fish, 1935 272

7.4 Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, Preface to Der Blaue Reiter

Almanac, 1912 273

7.5 Franz Marc, Aphorisms, 1911-1912 275

7.6 Franz Marc, Der Blaue Reiter, 1912 277

Part 8. Scuola MetafisicaItaly

8.1 Carlo Carra, Declaration, 1918 280

8.2 Giorgio de Chirico, On Metaphysical Art (excerpt), 1919 282

Part 9. DadaZURICH DADA

France/Switzerland

9.1 Dada Excites Everything, 1921 290

9.2 Jean (Hans) Arp, Manifesto of the Dada Crocodarium, 1920 292

9.3 Jean (Hans) Arp, The Elephant Style versus the Bidet Style,

1934 292

9.4 Jean (Hans) Arp, Infinite Millimeter Manifesto, 1938 293

9.5 Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janko, and Tristan Tzara, L'Amiral

cherche une maison a louer, 1916 294

9.6 Tristan Tzara, Note on Art, 1917 296

9.7 Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto, 1918 297

9.8 Tristan Tzara, Mr. Antipyrine's Manifesto, 1918 304 ~

9.9 Tristan Tzara, Note on Poetry, 1919 305

9.10 Tristan Tzara, Mr. AA the Antiphilosopher Has Sent Us This

Manifesto, 1920 308

9.11 Tristan Tzara, Proclamation without Pretention, 1920 310

BERLIN DADA

Germany

9.12 Richard Huelsenbeck, Pig's Bladder, 1920 312

DUTCH DADA

Holland

9.13 Theo van Doesburg [I. K. Bonset], Characteristics of Dadaism

(excerpt), 1923 314

PARIS-NEW YORK DADA AND SURREALISM

France/United States

9.14 Marcel Duchamp, Possible, 1913 316

xii CONTENTS

9.15 Francis Picabia, Dada Cannibalistic Manifesto, 1920 3169.16 Francis Picabia, DADA Manifesto, 1920 3179.17 Francis Picabia Is an Imbecile, an Idiot, a Pickpocket!!! 1921 3199.18 Man Ray, Statement, 1916 3209.19 Hans Richter, Against Without For Dada, 1919 3209.20 Jacques Vache, Manifesto of UMORE, 1917 322

United States9.21 Marcel Duchamp, Kind of Sub-Title, 1934 3249.22 The Baroness Else Von Freytag-Loringhoven, The Modest Woman,

1921 324

9.23 Mina Loy, Aphorisms on Futurism, 1914-1919 3279.24 Mina Loy, Aphorisms on Modernism, 1914-1919 3309.25 Mina Loy, Notes on Existence, 1914-1919 3319.26 Mina Loy, The Artist and the Public, 1917 3339.27 Mina Loy, Auto-Facial-Construction, 1919 3349.28 Man Ray, LTnquietude, 1921 335

Part 10. VorticismEngland

10.1 The Egoist: An Individualist Review, 1914 34010.2 R. Aldington and others, Beyond Action and Reaction, 1914 34010.3 R. Aldington and others, Our Vortex, 1914 34210.4 Wyndham Lewis, Bless England, 1914-1915 34410.5 Wyndham Lewis, Curse with Expletive of Whirlwind the Britannic

Aesthete, 1914-1915 34610.6 Wyndham Lewis, Oh Blast France, 1914-1915 347

Part 11. Imagism -France

11.1 Pierre Reverdy, The Image, 1918 351United States

11.2 F. S. Flint, Imagisme, 1913 35211.3 Marsden Hartley, The Business of Poetry, 1919 35311.4 Ezra Pound, A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste, 1913 35611.5 Ezra Pound, Axiomata, 1921 360

Part 12. Spanish, Catalan, and Latin American Avant-GardesSpain/Catalonia

12.1 Salvador Dali, Yellow Manifesto, 1928 36712.2 Ramon Gomez de la Serna [Tristan], Futurist Proclamation to the

Spaniards, 1910 372

CONTENTS xiii

12.3 Jose Ortega y Gasset, The Point of View in the Arts (excerpt),

1924 37312.4 Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Art-Evolution (In Manifesto Style),

1917 374CREATIONISM

Chile/Paris

12.5 Vicente Huidobro, Non Serviam, 1914 376

12.6 Vicente Huidobro, Avis aux touristes (Warning to tourists),

1914-1917 378

12.7 Vicente Huidobro, We Must Create, 1922 379

ULTRAISM

Argentina

12.8 Jorge Luis Borges and others, Ultraist Manifesto, 1921 381

HALLUCINISM

Brazil

12.9 Mario de Andrade, Extremely Interesting Preface (excerpt),

1922 382

Part 13. Merz, Verbophonics, OptophonicsGermany/France

13.1 Raoul Hausmann, B.T.B., 1946 389

13.2 Kurt Schwitters, Cow Manifesto, 1922 390

13.3 Kurt Schwitters, i (a manifesto), 1922 391

13.4 Kurt Schwitters and Raoul Hausmann, PIN Manifesto: Present

Inter Noumenal/Poetry Intervenes Now, 1946 392

13.5 Kurt Schwitters and Raoul Hausmann, A Fancy, 1962 393

Russia/Germany

13.6 El Lissitzky, Topography of Typography, 1923 394-,

Fart 14. Constructivism/RealismRussia

14.1 Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner, The Realistic Manifesto,

1920 396

14.2 Vladimir Tatlin, The Initiative Individual Artist in the Creativity of

the Collective, 1919 401

Part 15. Suprematism, Bauhaus, and ElementarismRussia

15.1 Kasimir Malevich, Suprematism, 1927 404

15.2 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Dynamics of a Metropolis: A Film Sketch,

1921-1922 413

xiv CONTENTS

15.3 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Remarks for Those Who Refuse toUnderstand the Film Immediately, 1921-1922 418

15.4 Lyubov Popova, Statement in Catalogue of Tenth State Exhibition,

1919 419

Part 16. De Stijl, Plasticism, and NeoplasticismHolland

16.1 Theo van Doesburg [I. K. Bonset], Towards a Constructive Poetry,1923 422

16.2 Theo van Doesburg and others, Manifesto I of De Stijl (excerpt),1918 424

16.3 Piet Mondrian, Neoplasticism in Painting, 1917-1918 42516.4 Piet Mondrian, Natural Reality and Abstract Reality,

1919 429

16.5 Piet Mondrian, The Plastic Means, 1927 43216.6 Hans Richter, Towards a New World Plasticism, 1927 432

Part 17. PurismFrance

17.1 Le Corbusier [Charles Edouard Jeanneret] and Amedee Ozenfant,Purism, 1920 436

17.2 Amedee Ozenfant, The Art of Living (excerpt), 1927-1928 44217.3 Amedee Ozenfant, The Life of the Artist Today (excerpt),

1928 445

Part 18 SurrealismFrance

18.1 Declaration of January 27,1925 450

18.2 Antonin Artaud, The Theater of Cruelty: First Manifesto,

1932 45i '•>

18.3 Antonin Artaud, All Writing Is Pigshit, 1965 46018.4 Antonin Artaud, Here Where Others . . . , 1965 46218.5 Antonin Artaud, Revolt against Poetry, 1965 46318.6 Antonin Artaud, Shit to the Spirit, 1965 46418.7 Andre Breton, Declaration VW, 1942 47018.8 Andre Breton and Paul Eluard, Notes on Poetry (excerpt),

1929 47118.9 Andre Breton and Diego Rivera [Leon Trotsky], Manifesto for an

Independent Revolutionary Art, 1938 47218.10 Claude Cahun, The Invisible Adventure, 1930 47718.11 Max Morise, Enchanted Eyes, 1924 478

CONTENTS XV

Catalonia

18.12 Salvador Dali, Photography, Pure Creation of the Mind, 1927 482

Martinique

18.13 Aime Cesaire, In the Guise of a Literary Manifesto, 1942 484

18.14 Suzanne Cesaire, The Domain of the Marvelous, 1941 488

18.15 Suzanne Cesaire, Surrealism and Us, 1943 489

Chile/France/United States

18.16 Matta [Matta Echaurren], On Emotion, 1954 493

Senegal

18.17 Leopold Sedar Senghor, Speech and Image: An African Tradition of

the Surreal, 1965 494

Part 19. Thingism and MachinismUnited States

19.1 Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Furniture, 1840 498

France

19.2 Sonia Delaunay, The Future of Fashion, 1931 503

19.3 Sonia Delaunay, The Issue, 1966 504

19.4 Fernand Leger, The Aesthetic of the Machine (excerpt), 1924 505

19.5 Francis Ponge, The Object Is Poetics, 1962 507

Italy

19.6 Giorgio de Chirico, Statues, Furniture, and Generals, 1968 509

19.7 F. T. Marinetti and others, The Futurist Manifesto of the Italian

Hat, 1933 512

19.8 Volt [Vincenzo Fani], Futurist Manifesto of Women's Fashion,

1920 514

Part 20. Concretism -.Russia/France

20.1 Theo van Doesburg, Basis of Concrete Painting, 1930 520

20.2 Wassily Kandinsky, Concrete Art, 1938 520

Switzerland/France

20.3 Jean (Hans) Arp, Concrete Art, 1944 524

Part 21. Verticalism and The Revolution of the WordFrance/United States

21.1 Hans (Jean) Arp and others, Poetry Is Vertical, 1941 529

21.2 Eugene Jolas and others, The Revolution of the Word, 1928 530

Part 22. Dimensionalism and SpatialismFrance

22.1 Pierre and Use Gamier, Spatial Eroticism, 1966 534

xvi CONTENTS

22.2 Francis Picabia and others, Dimensionist Manifesto, 1936 53622.3 Paul de Vree, Declaration, 1966 539

Italy22.4 Lucio Fontana and others, Manifesto of Spatialist Art, 1951 540

Japan/France22.5 Seiichi Niikuni and Pierre Gamier, Position 3 of Spatialism: For a

Supranational Poetry, 1966 541

Part 23. LettrismRomania/France

23.1 Isidore Isou, Manifesto of Lettrist Poetry, 1942 54523.2 Isidore Isou, DADALETTRIE Meca-Esthetically Destructive 1 and 2,

1970 546

Part 24. Projectivism and Open FieldUnited States

24.1 Charles Olson, Projective Verse, 1950 548

Part 25. NativismEngland/United States

25.1 D. H. Lawrence, The Spirit of Place, 1923 561United States

25.2 Marsden Hartley, On the Subject of Nativeness—A Tribute toMaine, 1937 567

25.3 Eudora Welty, Place in Fiction, 1956 570

Part 26. Individualism and PersonismUnited States

26.1 Marsden Hartley, A Word, 1916 587 ~26.2 Marsden Hartley, Art and the Personal Life, 1928 58826.3 Frank O'Hara, Personism, 1959 59126.4 Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (excerpt), 1855 59326.5 William Carlos Williams, The Pluralism of Experience, 1974 600

Part 27. ThresholdsUnited States

27.1 W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (excerpt), 1903 605England/United States

27.2 Mina Loy, Feminist Manifesto, 1914 611Mexico/United States

27.3 Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera (excerpt), 1987 614Switzerland

27.4 Meret Oppenheim, It Is Not Easy, 1975 619

CONTENTS xvii

France27.5 Helene Cixous and Catherine Clement, Sorties, 1975 621

Part 28. OulipoFrance

28.1 Francois Le Lionnais, The Litpot: The First Manifesto, 1962 630

Part 29. L=A=N=C=U=A=C=EUnited States

29.1 Susan Bee [Laufer] and Charles Bernstein, Style, 1978 635

29.2 Charles Bernstein, The Conspiracy of "Us," 1979 637

29.3 Lyn Hejinian, If Written Is Writing, 1978 640

29.4 Michael Palmer, The Flower of Capital, 1979 642

29.5 Nick Piombino, Writing and Remembering, 1993 644

Part 30. Miscellaneous ManifestosMUSIC

30.1 George Antheil, Abstraction and Time in Music, n.d. 650

30.2 Pierre Boulez, Experiment, Ostriches and Music, 1955 652

30.3 Pierre Boulez, Demythologizing the Conductor, i960 654

30.4 John Cage, Bang Fist, 1937 657

ARCHITECTURE

30.5 Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building (excerpt),

1979 657

30.6 John Hejduk, Thoughts of an Architect, 1986 661

30.7 Charles Jencks, 13 Propositions of Post-Modern Architecture,

1996 661

REFLECTIONS ON MANIFESTOS

30.8 Nanni Balestrini and others, Manifesto of Naples, 1959 663

30.9 Tom Phillips, The Postcard Vision, 1971 664

30.10 Jacques Roubaud, Hypothesis of the Compact (excerpt), 1995 667

Part 31. Writing and the Book31.1 Gertrude Stein, Composition as Explanation, 1926 671

31.2 Edmond Jabes, To Be in the Book, 1963 679

31.3 Edmond Jabes, To Enlarge the Horizons of the Word, 1984 680

Selected Bibliography 683

Source Acknowledgments 691