Brassaı ̈also famously photographed the great painter
Henri Matisse at work in his studio.
Although often linked with the Surrealists, Bras-
saı ̈’s relationship to Surrealism is complicated. Bras-
saı ̈ did not meet Surrealist major domo Andre ́
Breton until 1931, and by then, many of Brassaı ̈’s
friends, including Jacques Pre ́vert, Robert Desnos,
and Raymond Queneau had already been expelled
from the official movement. Many of Brassaı ̈’s
images were influenced by Surrealism and were
used to express Surrealist ideas, but Brassaı ̈refused
to join the movement, and his interest in the physical
world was incompatible with Surrealist emphasis on
fantastic associations. Like Picasso, Brassaı ̈’s images
remain based on rational, visible, and mental con-
structions of the complexity of the world. Brassaı ̈’s
photography expresses in a two-dimensional dis-
course the authenticity of the subject of the image.
Graffiti especially inspired Brassaı ̈because of its
ancient history and its correspondence to the origins
of writing. Over a thirty-year period Brassaı ̈kept
careful notebooks and witnessed its changes over
time. In regards to graffiti, but useful as a general
statement of his philosophy of art, Brassaı ̈explained
that a work of art
stands alone and naked, like a conscript in front of a
recruiting board, and it should be allowed to be its own
judge. The way it was generated, its genealogy, the
ambition or intention that inspired it, none of these has
anything to do with its value, and can neither enhance
nor reduce it, justify nor destroy it.
(Brassaı ̈, ‘‘Images latentes,’’ L’Intransigeant,15
November 1932)
In 1943–1945, when working as a photographer
was not possible during the Nazi occupation and
with Picasso’s encouragement, Brassaı ̈began draw-
ing again, and in 1946, he published,Trente dessins,
a portfolio consisting mostly of nudes, with a poem
by Jacques Pre ́vert written in response to the
images. After this publication, again with Picasso’s
influence, he began to sculpt palm-sized river stones,
usually extracting female torsos from them. Later
sculptures were larger and made use of other mate-
rials, a practice that continued through the early
1970s. Shortly before his death, Brassaı ̈completed
Marcel Proust sous l’emprise de la photographie,a
study of Proust’s interest in photography and the
role of photography and photographs inAlare ́cher-
eche du temps perdu. At the close of the twentieth
century, Brassaı ̈’s work was receiving considerable
scholarly attention, both for his own contributions
and his role as part of the Parisian avant-garde of
the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most fertile periods
of photographic practice of the century.SCOTTA.SHERER
Seealso:History of Photography: Interwar Years;
Photography in France; SurrealismBiography
Born in Brasso ́, Transylvania, 1899. Became French citizen
in 1947. Died in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, 7 July 1984.Individual Exhibitions
1933 Brassaı ̈; Galerie Arts et Me ́tiers Graphiques; Paris
1945 Brassaı ̈, dessins; Galerie Renou et Colle; Paris
1954 Brassaı ̈; Art Institute of Chicago (traveled to Walker
Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; George Eastman
House, Rochester, New York; Institute of Art, New
Orleans, Louisiana)
1956 Language of the Wall: Parisian Graffiti Photographed
by Brassaı ̈; The Museum of Modern Art; New York,
New York
1958 Language of the Wall: Parisian Graffiti Photographed
by Brassaı ̈; Institute of Contempoary Arts; London
1963 Brassaı ̈, photographies, sculptures, gravures; Bibliothe`-
que Nationale; Paris (traveled to Re ́sidence du Louvre,
Menton)
1964 Les sculptures de Picasso et les photographies de Bras-
saı ̈; Galerie Madoura; Cannes, France
1968 Brassaı ̈; Museum of Modern Art; New York (traveled
to St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri; National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne; Farmer’s Blaxland Gallery, Sid-
ney; Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland; National
Art Gallery, Wellington; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery,
New Plymouth, New Zealand; Centro Venezolano
Americano, Caracas; Museo de Arte Moderno ‘‘La Ter-
tulia,’’ Cali, Colombia; Museo de Arte Moderno de
Bogota ́, Colombia; Museo de Zea, Medellı ́n, Colombia;
Institutio Nacional de Cultura, Lima, Peru; Museo de
Arte Contemporanea, Sa ̃o Paulo, Brazil; Museo de Arte
Moderna de Bahia, Salvador, El Salvado; Hayden Gal-
lery, Boston)
1973 Brassaı ̈; Dartmouth College of Art; Dartmouth, New
Hampshire (traveled to Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.; University of Iowa Museum of Art,
Iowa; University of California, Berkeley; Winnipeg Art
Gallery, Winnipeg; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute,
Museum of Art, Utica, New York; Everson Museum,
Syracuse, New York)
1976 The Secret Paris of the 30s/Le Paris secret des anne ́es
trente; Marlborough Gallery; New York and traveling
1979 Brassaı ̈, Artists and Studios; Marlborough Gallery;
New York and traveling
Brassaı ̈; The Photographers’ Gallery, London (traveled
to Brewery Arts Center, Kendal; The Scottish Photogra-
phy Group Gallery, Edinburgh; Tolarno Galleries, Mel-
bourne; Salford University, Salford, Australia)
1987 Picasso vu par Brassaı ̈; Muse ́e Picasso, Paris
1988 Brassaı ̈, Paris le jour, Paris la nuit; Muse ́e Carnavalet;
ParisBRASSAI ̈