BEOGRADSKI NADREALIZAM

1922 The magazine Putevi (Roads) was published in Belgrade, and its editors and contributors were: Milan Dedinac, Dušan Timotijević, Marko Ristić, Miloš Crnjanski, Rastko Petrović, Stanislav Vinaver, Dušan Matić, Todor Manojlović, Bosko Tokin, Aleksandar Vučo and others. Rastko Petrović published the book Otkrovenje (The Revelation). In Zagreb Dragan Aleksic published the reviews Dada tank and Dada jazz, and Branko Ve Poljanski Dada-jok. Rade Drainac started the magazine Hipnos (Hypnos) featuring Monny de Boully and Rastko Petrovic amongst its contributors.

 1923 The performance Hiljadu druga noć (The Thousand and Second Night) was held in the Belgrade Kasina. The posters were designed by Dušan Janković, and the lyrics and music for the futurist ballet Služiteljeva metla (The Janitor’s Broom) were written by Marko Ristić and Miloje Milojević, and the choreographer was Klaudija Isačenko. Ljubomir Micić in his magazine Zenit published the manifesto Zenithism as the Balkan Totalizer of New Life and organized the first Zenitist Soirées in Belgrade and Zagreb. Slobodan Micić Palezanski was the editor of the Šabac avant-garde magazine Venturaementes (The Coming Spirits), two issues of which came out, while Dusan Matic edited texts on psychoanalysis.

 1924 The magazine Svedočanstva (Testimonies) was published in Belgrade until 1925, and its editors and contributors were: Milan Dedinac, Mladen Dimitrijević, Dušan Matić, Rastko Petrović, Marko Ristic, Aleksandar Vučo and others. The illustrations were: a drawing by Pablo Picasso, drawings by mentally ill people and photographs of tattooages. Monny de Boully published the almanac Crno na belo (In Black and White), Branko Kovačević, Almanah Branka Radičevića (The Almanac of Branko Radičević) with photographs, and Dušan Jerković and Desimir Blagojević the magazine Umetnost (Art). The First Zenit International Exhibition of New Art was staged in Belgrade.

 1925 Marko Ristić published Od sreće i od sna (Out of Happiness and Out of Dreams), a volume of poetry, and Monny de Boully Textes surréalistes in the Parisian magazine La Révolution surréaliste (No. 5). Monny de Boully and Dušan Matić were among the signatories of the Surrealist declaration La révolution d’abord et toujours published in the Parisian paper Clarté. New magazines were started: Okno (The Pane), editor Djordje Jovanović, Bela revija (The White Review), editors Risto Ratković and B. Jovanović, Film (Film), editors Maksim Goranović and Bosko Tokin, the almanac Čaša vode (A Glass of Water), editor Risto Ratković. Ljubomir Micić published the long poem Aeroplan bez motora (Aeroplane Without an Engine).

 1926 The magazine Večnost (Eternity) brought together Risto Ratković, Monny de Boully, Dragan Aleksić, Dušan Jerković, Desimir Blagojević and other young poets. Nikola Vučo in Paris, and Vane Živadinović Bor in Vrnjačka Banja shot the first series of Surrealist photographs. Marko Ristić met Breton and the French Surrealists during his stay in Paris and started to work on the La vie mobile cycle of collages. Milan Dedinac published Javna ptica (The Public Bird), a long poem with photomontages. Poetry books were published by: Aleksandar Vučo – Krov nad prozorom (The Roof Above the Window), Monny de Boully – Krilato zlato (Winged Gold), Branko Ve Poljanski – Tumbe (Topsy-Turvy). The artist group Oblik (Form) was founded in Belgrade. Ljubomir Micić’s magazine Zenit, published in Zagreb and Belgrade from 1921, was banned.

 1927 Marko and Ševa Ristić brought Max Ernst’s painting Sova (Ptica u kavezu)/The Owl (Bird in a Cage) from Paris to Belgrade (Marko Ristic’s Legacy at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade). Monny de Boully published Antena smrti (The Antenna of Death) and, with Risto Ratković Leviatan (The Leviathan), a collection of poetry. Rastko Petrović published the novel Sa silama nemirljivim (With Forces Intransigent), and Stanislav Vinaver Ženidba Vrapca Podunavca (The Marriage of the Danubian Sparrow), a long poem. Monny de Boully, Risto Ratković and others contributed to the almanac Novi istok (The New East).

 1928 Aleksandar Vučo published the novel Koren vida (The Root of Vision), and Marko Ristić his antinovel Bez mere (Without Measure). Djordje Kostić, Oskar Davičo and Djordje Jovanović started the magazine Tragovi (Trails), and Zvezdan Vujadinović 50 u Evropi (50 in Europe), which was published until 1933, and contributed to by Slobodan Kušić, Branko Milovanović, Dragan Aleksić and others. Vane Bor entered the circle of the French Surrealists, and, inspired by Ernst’s work, experimented with nonpainting materials. Vane Bor and Marko Ristic began explorations in the photogram technique. Rastko Petrović traveled to Africa, where he made a series of drawings and photographs and wrote the travelogue Afrika (Africa, 1930). Oto Bihalji Merin and Pavle Bihalji published the magazine Nova literatura (New Literature) and founded the Nolit Publishing House.

 1929 Djordje Kostić, Djordje Jovanović, Oskar Davičo and Dušan Matić sought to rally Belgrade’s group of Surrealists. Nikola Vučo created a new series of photographs in Paris and Belgrade which he donated to the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1990. André Thirion, a French Surrealist, stayed with Lula and Aleksandar Vučo as a house guest and a series of le cadavre exquis was the result. André Germain, the editor of the magazine La revue européenne, also visited the Surrealists in Belgrade. Books of poetry were published by Aleksandar Vučo, Ako se jos jednom setim ili načelo (If I Remember Once Again or the Tenet) and Djordje Jovanović, Djordje Kostić and Oskar Davičo founded the magazine Četiri strane itd. (The Four Sides etc). Together with their French colleagues, Koča Popović and Vane Bor signed the protest Čovek od ukusa (A Man of Taste) in the Paris magazine Revue Du Cinéma (No. 3). Monny de Boully joined the Le Grand Jeu (The Big Game) group, and, together with other poets, started the magazine Discontinuité in Paris of which only one issue was published.

1930 The almanac Nemoguce-L’impossible was published in Belgrade featuring the Surrealists’ manifesto and signed by the thirteen members of the group: Aleksandar Vučo, Oskar Davičo, Milan Dedinac, Mladen Dimitrijević, Vane Živadinovic Bor, Radojica Živanovic Noe, Djordje Jovanović, Djordje Kostić, Dušan Matić, Branko Milovanović, Koča Popović, Petar Popović and Marko Ristić. Apart from the Belgrade group of Surrealists, the following artists also contributed to the almanac: Breton, Eluard, Péret, Aragon, Char and Thirion. The first issue of the French Surrealists’s magazine, La surréalisme au service de la révolution, included a text devoted to the founding of the Belgrade group and its manifesto. Jean-Paul Dreyfus dedicated to Vane Bor a review of a film by Fritz Lang published in the Parisian Revue Du Cinéma. Oskar Davičo and Djordje Kostić created a series of drawings. Aleksandar Vučo and Dušan Matić made the assemblage Urnebesni kliker (The Frenzied Marble), and, together with Lula Vučo, the collage Une atmosphère du printemps et de jeunesse. Vane Bor produced a series of photomontages. Ljubisa Jocić published his first book of poetry San ili biljka (A Dream or a Plant).

 1931 The magazine Nadrealizam danas i ovde (Surrealism Here and Now) was published in Belgrade, and its contributors were: A. Vučo, O. Davičo, Dj. Jovanović, Vane Bor, R. Živanovic Noe, M. Ristić, D. Matić, Dj. Kostić, K. Popović, P. Popović, and from France: S. Dali, A. Breton, R. Char, R. Crevel, P. Eluard, M. Ernst, Y. Tanguy, T. Tzara. Works by the following artists were published: Radojica Živanović Noe, Dušan Matić, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miró. Marko Ristić and Dušan Matić published Pozicija nadrealizma (The Position of Surrealism) which was not signed by all the members of the group. In Paris Vane Bor met Salvador Dali with whom he would correspond for several years. Under the title “Belgrade, 23 décembre 1930”, the magazine La surréalisme au service de la révolution (No. 3) published The Position of Surrealism which began with the statement: “Tout un monde contre tout un monde”. The signatories were: Davičo, Dedinac, Vane Bor, Živanović Noe, Jovanović, Kostić, Matić, K. Popović, P. Popović, Ristić and Aleksandar Vučo. Marko Ristić and Koča Popović published the book Nacrt za jednu fenomenologiju iracionalnog (Outline for A Phenomenology of the Irrational), and Petar Popović, the long poem Neću, testera stvarnosti (I Will Not, the Saw of Reality) which included a photomontage. Misunderstandings between the Surrealists and representatives of social literature, i.e., between the editors of the magazines Surrealism Here and Now and Stozer (The Pivot) began to develop. Marko Ristić spent some time with the French Surrealists, at No. 14, Rue de Château, Montparnasse.

 1932 Radojica Živanović Noe staged an exhibiiton of Surrealist Paintings and Editions at the Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion in Belgrade. Marko Ristić and Vane Bor published the book Antizid (Anti-Wall), and Aleksandar Vučo, the books of poetry Humor zaspalo (Humor Asleep), and Nemenikuće, Ćirilo i Metodije (Cyril and Methodius). Dušan Matić, Oskar Davičo and Djordje Kostić published the book Položaj nadrealizma u društvenom procesu (The Position of Surrealism in the Social Process), and Boško Tokin, Terazije (Terazije Street), a novel which included a photomontage. The magazine Surrealism Here and Now ceased publication after its third issue. Oskar Davičo was arrested in Bihać, and Djordje Jovanović and Koča Popović in Belgrade. Monny de Boully moved to Paris.

 1933 For their revolutionary and Surrealist activities, Oskar Davičo, Djordje Jovanović and Koca Popović were sent to prison in Sremska Mitrovica, and some remained there for several years. Writing about this in his text “Des surréalistes yougoslaves sont au bagne”, (Le surréalisme au service de la révolution, No. 6), René Crevel, warning of the advent of nazism and fascism in Europe, described in detail their arrest and detention without trial. Marko Ristić’s L’humor est–il une, attitude morale and Zdenko Reich’s Préface à une étude sur la métaphore were published in the 6th issue of the magazine Le surréalisme au service de la révolution. Vane Bor’s personal letter to Salvador Dali sent on 31 December 1932 from Belgrade, was also published in the same issue. In Belgrade, a children’s book with photomontages by Aleksandar Vučo and Dusan Matić, Podvizi družine “Pet petlića” (The Exploits of the “Five Cockerels” Gang) was published.

1934 Members of the Surrealist group: Marko Ristić, Koča Popović and Vane Bor, collaborated at the new Belgrade magazine Danas (Today), edited by Milan Bogdanović and Miroslav Krleža. Milan Dedinac gave a lecture entitled What is Surrealism and What Do the Surrealists Want. Ljubisa Jocić published a volume of poetry entitled Ljubav i sloboda (Love and Freedom). Radojica Živanović Noe joined the new art group Život (Life).

 1935 Vane Bor made a series of photographs Jedan minut pre zločina (A Minute Before the Crime). Aleksandar Vučo and Dusan Matić published the long poem Marija Rucara. The first International Surrealist Exhibition was staged in Copenhagen, followed by similar exhibitions in London (1936), Paris (1938, 1947, 1960), Mexico (1940), New York (1942), and Prague (1948), etc.

 1936 The first issue of the magazine Naša stvarnost (Our Reality) was published in Belgrade. It was edited by Aleksandar Vučo until 1939. The contributors were R. Živanović Noe and Dj. Jovanović. Vane Bor, together with the composer Josip Slavenski and the art historian Jovan Djordjević, became members of the Film Cultural Cooperative founded in Zemun. In cooperation with the American producer Esther Johnson, Bor filmed a movie about Belgrade which was lost. Djordje Kostic attended a performance by Salvador Dali at the opening of the International Exhibition of Surrealism in London.

 1937 Marko Ristić published the essay Pablo Picasso in the newly-founded Zagreb magazine Ars (No. 2), and Milan Dedinac, a book of poetry Jedan čovek na prozoru (A Man at the Window). Marko and Ševa Ristić visited the World Exhibition in Paris and during that time also visited Dali, Thirion, Breton and the Gradiva Gallery. Koča Popović joined the International Brigades in Spain.

 1938 Turpituda (Turpitude), “a paranoiac-didactic rhapsody” by Marko Ristić, with drawings by Krsto Hegedušić, was published in Zagreb and immediately confiscated and destroyed on the basis of the Law on the Protection of State Public Security and Order. Marko Ristić contributed to the Parisian magazine Minotaure (No. 3-4) in Enquête Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme. An International Exhibition of Surrealism was held in Paris, displaying works by seventy artists from fourteen countries: England, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, America, France, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and Japan.

1939 Marko Ristić produced the Asamblaž (Assemblage) which became an integral part of Surrealist Art Legacy contained in the Legacy of Marko Ristić, a 1993 donation by Marko, Ševa i Mara Ristić to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade.

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