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Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the European
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
. In particular, he had a profound influence on twentieth-century theatre through his conceptualization of the Theatre of Cruelty. Known for his raw, surreal and transgressive work, his texts explored themes from the cosmologies of ancient cultures, philosophy, the occult,
mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...
and indigenous Mexican and Balinese practices.


Early life

Antonin Artaud was born in
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
, to Euphrasie Nalpas and Antoine-Roi Artaud. His parents were first cousins—his grandmothers were sisters from
Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prom ...
(modern day
İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...
, Turkey). His paternal grandmother, Catherine Chilé, was raised in Marseille, where she married Marius Artaud, a Frenchman. His maternal grandmother, Mariette Chilé, grew up in Smyrna, where she married Louis Nalpas, a local ship chandler. He was, throughout his life, greatly affected by his Greek ancestry. Euphrasie gave birth to nine children, but four were stillborn and two others died in childhood. Artaud was diagnosed with meningitis at age five, a disease which had no cure at the time. Biographer David Shafer points out, "given the frequency of such misdiagnoses, coupled with the absence of a treatment (and consequent near-minimal survival rate) and the symptoms he had, it's unlikely that Artaud actually contracted it." From 1907 to 1914, Artaud attended the Collége Sacré-Coeur. Here he began reading works by Arthur Rimbaud,
Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...
, and
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
and founded a private literary magazine in collaboration with his friends. At the end of college he started to noticeably withdraw from social life and "destroyed most of his written work and gave away his books.":3 Distressed, his parents arranged for him to see a psychiatrist.:25 Over the next five years Artaud was admitted to a series of
sanatoria A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are ofte ...
.:163 There was a pause in his treatment in 1916, when Artaud was conscripted into the
French Army History Early history The first permanent army, paid with regular wages, instead of feudal levies, was established under Charles VII of France, Charles VII in the 1420 to 1430s. The Kings of France needed reliable troops during and after the ...
.:26 He was discharged due to "an unspecified health reason" (Artaud would later claim it was "due to sleepwalking", while his mother ascribed it to his "nervous condition").:4 In May 1919, the director of the sanatorium prescribed
laudanum Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine). Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum Linnaeus'') in alcohol (ethanol). R ...
for Artaud, precipitating a lifelong addiction to that and other opiates.:162 In March 1921, Artaud moved to Paris where he was put under the psychiatric care of Dr Édouard Toulouse who took him in as a boarder.:29


Career


Theatrical apprenticeships

In Paris, Artaud worked with a number of celebrated French "teacher-directors". This included
Jacques Copeau Jacques Copeau (; 4 February 1879 – 20 October 1949) was a French theatre director, producer, actor, and dramatist. Before he founded the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris, he wrote theatre reviews for several Parisian journals, work ...
, André Antoine, Georges and
Ludmilla Pitoëff Ludmilla Pitoëff (December 25, 1896 – September 15, 1951) was a Russian-born French stage actress. She also appeared in London and New York, as well as in some films. Biography Born in Tiflis, Russia on December 25, 1896, she married Georg ...
,
Charles Dullin Charles Dullin (; 8 May 1885 – 11 December 1949) was a French actor, theater manager and director. Career Dullin began his career as an actor in melodrama:185 In 1908, he started his first troupe with Saturnin Fabre, the ''Théâtre de Foire ...
,
Firmin Gémier Firmin Gémier (1869-1933) was a French actor and director. Internationally, he is most famous for originating the role of Père Ubu in Alfred Jarry’s play ''Ubu Roi''. He is known as the principle architect of the popular theatre movement in Fr ...
and Lugné Poe. Lugné Poe, who gave Artaud his first work in a professional theatre, would later describe Artaud as "a painter lost in the midst of actors". His core theatrical training was as part of Dullin's troupe, ''Théâtre de l'Atelier'', which he joined in 1921.:345 Artaud remained a member for eighteen months.:345 As a member of Dullin's troupe, Artaud trained for 10 to 12 hours a day. Originally Artaud was a strong proponent of Dullin's teaching, stating: "Hearing Dullin teach I feel that I'm rediscovering ancient secrets and a whole forgotten mystique of production.":351 In particular, they shared a strong interest in east Asian theater, specifically performance traditions from Bali and Japan.:10 Dullin, however, did not think Western theater should be adopting the language and style of east Asian theatre. Instead he promoted a theatre of transposition; for Dullin, "To want to impose on our Western theater rules of a theatre of a long tradition which has its own symbolic language would be a great mistake." Artaud came to disagree with many of Dullin's teachings.:352 Their final disagreement was over his performance of the Emperor Charlemagne in Alexandre Arnoux's ''Huon de Bordeaux'' and he left the troupe in 1923.:22 He would join the Pitoëff's troupe in 1923, remaining with them through the next year when he would put more focus on his work in the cinema.:15-16


Literary career

In 1923, Artaud mailed some of his poems to the journal ''
La Nouvelle Revue Française LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...
'' (NRF); they were rejected, but the author of the poems intrigued the NRF's editor,
Jacques Rivière Jacques Rivière (15 July 1886 – 14 February 1925) was a French " man of letters" — a writer, critic and editor who was "a major force in the intellectual life of France in the period immediately following World War I". He edited the ...
, who requested a meeting. After meeting via post they continued their relationship. The compilation of these letters into an
epistolary Epistolary means "in the form of a letter or letters", and may refer to: * Epistolary ( la, epistolarium), a Christian liturgical book containing set readings for church services from the New Testament Epistles * Epistolary novel * Epistolary po ...
work, ''Correspondance avec Jacques Rivière'', was Artaud's first major publication.:45 Artaud would continue to publish some of his most important work in the ''NRF'', including the "First Manifesto for a Theatre of Cruelty" (1932) and "Theatre and the plague" (1933).:105 He would draw from these publications when putting together ''
The Theatre and Its Double ''The Theatre and Its Double'' (''Le Théâtre et son Double'') is a collection of essays by French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud. It contains his most famous works on the theatre, including his manifestos for a Theatre of Cruelty. Compos ...
''.:105


Work in the cinema

Artaud also had an active career in the cinema working as a critic, actor, and writer. Artaud's performance as Jean-Paul Marat in
Abel Gance Abel Gance (; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 188910 November 1981) was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: ''J ...
's ''Napoléon'' (1927) used exaggerated movements to convey the fire of Marat's personality. He also played the monk Massieu in
Carl Theodor Dreyer Carl Theodor Dreyer (; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his movies are noted for their emotional aus ...
's '' The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (1928).:17 He wrote a number of film scenarios, ten of which have survived.:23 Only one of Artaud's scenarios was produced, ''
The Seashell and the Clergyman ''The Seashell and the Clergyman'' (french: La Coquille et le clergyman) is a 1928 French experimental film directed by Germaine Dulac, from an original scenario by Antonin Artaud. It premiered in Paris on 9 February 1928. Synopsis The film fol ...
'' (1928). Directed by Germaine Dulac, many critics and scholars consider it to be the first surrealist film.


Association with surrealists

Artaud was briefly associated with the surrealists, before being expelled by André Breton in 1927.:21 This was in part due to the Surrealists increasing affiliation with the Communist Party in France.:274 As Ros Murray notes, "Artaud was not into politics at all, writing things like: ''I shit on Marxism''. Additionally, "Breton was becoming very anti-theatre because he saw theatre as being bourgeois and anti-revolutionary." In "The Manifesto for an Abortive Theatre" (1926/27), written for the
Theatre Alfred Jarry The Theatre Alfred Jarry was founded in January 1926 by Antonin Artaud with Robert Aron and Roger Vitrac, in Paris, France. It was influenced by Surrealism and Theatre of the Absurd, and was foundational to Artaud's theory of the Theatre of Cruel ...
, Artaud makes a direct attack on the surrealists, whom he calls "bog-paper revolutionaries" that would "make us believe that to produce theatre today is a counter-revolutionary endeavour".:24 He declares they are "bowing down to Communism",:25 which is "a lazy man's revolution",:24 and calls for a more "essential metamorphosis" of society.:25


Théâtre Alfred Jarry (1926–1929)

(For more details, including a full list of productions, see Théâtre Alfred Jarry) In 1926, Artaud, Robert Aron and the expelled surrealist Roger Vitrac founded the Théâtre Alfred Jarry (TAJ). They staged four productions between June 1927 and January 1929. The Theatre was extremely short-lived, but was attended by an enormous range of European artists, including
Arthur Adamov Arthur Adamov (23 August 1908 – 15 March 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. Early life Adamov (originally Adamian) was born in Kislovodsk in the Terek Oblast of the Russian Empire to a wealthy A ...
, André Gide, and Paul Valéry.:249


At the Paris Colonial Exposition (1931)

In 1931, Artaud saw
Balinese dance Balinese dance ( id, Tarian Bali; ban, ᬇᬕᬾᬮᬦ᭄​ᬩᬮᬶ) is an ancient dance tradition that is part of the religious and artistic expression among the Balinese people of Bali island, Indonesia. Balinese dance is dynamic, angu ...
performed at the Paris Colonial Exposition. Although Artaud misunderstood much of what he saw, it influenced many of his ideas for theatre.:26 Adrian Curtin has noted the significance of the Balinese use of music and sound, stating that Artaud was struck by "the 'hypnotic' rhythms of the gamelan ensemble, its range of percussive effects, the variety of timbres that the musicians produced, and – most importantly, perhaps – the way in which the dancers' movements interacted dynamically with the musical elements instead of simply functioning as a type of background accompaniment."


The Cenci (1935)

In 1935, Artaud staged an original adaptation of
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...
's ''
The Cenci ''The Cenci, A Tragedy, in Five Acts'' (1819) is a verse drama in five acts by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in the summer of 1819, and inspired by a real Italian family, the House of Cenci (in particular, Beatrice Cenci, pronounced CHEN-chee). ...
'' at the Théâtre des Folies-Wagram in Paris.:250 The drama was Artaud's only chance to stage a Theatre of Cruelty production, and he emphasised its cruelty and violence, in particular "its themes of incest, revenge and familial murder".:21 In the play's stage directions, Artaud describes the opening scene as "suggestive of extreme atmospheric turbulence, with wind-blown drapes, waves of suddenly amplified sound, and crowds of figures engaged in "furious orgy", accompanied by "a chorus of church bells", as well as the presence of numerous large mannequins. Scholar Adrian Curtin has argued for the importance of the "sonic aspects of the production, which did not merely support the action but motivated it obliquely".:251 While Shelley's version of ''The Cenci'' conveyed the motivations and anguish of the Cenci's daughter Beatrice with her father through monologues, Artaud was much more concerned with conveying the menacing nature of the Cenci's presence and the reverberations of their incest relationship though physical discordance, as if an invisible "force-field" surrounded them. Jane Goodall writes of ''The Cenci,''
The predominance of action over reflection accelerates the development of events...the monologues...are cut in favor of sudden, jarring transitions...so that a spasmodic effect is created. Extreme fluctuations in pace, pitch, and tone heighten sensory awareness intensify ... the here and now of performance.:119
''The Cenci'' was a commercial failure, although it employed innovative sound effects—including the first theatrical use of the electronic instrument the Ondes Martenot—and had a set designed by
Balthus Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his image ...
.


Travels and institutionalization


Journey to Mexico

In 1935 Artaud decided to go to Mexico, where he was convinced there was "a sort of deep movement in favour of a return to civilisation before Cortez".:11 The Mexican Legation in Paris gave him a travel grant, and he left for Mexico in January 1936, "where he would arrive one month later".:29-30 In 1936 he met his first Mexican-Parisian friend, the painter Federico Cantú, when Cantú gave lectures on the decadence of Western civilization. Artaud also studied and lived with the Tarahumaran people and participated in peyote rites, his writings about which were later released in a volume called ''Voyage to the Land of the Tarahumara'',:14 published in English under the title ''The Peyote Dance'' (1976). The content of this work closely resembles the poems of his later days, concerned primarily with the
supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
. Artaud also recorded his horrific withdrawal from heroin upon entering the land of the Tarahumaras. Having deserted his last supply of the drug at a mountainside, he literally had to be hoisted onto his horse and soon resembled, in his words, "a giant, inflamed gum". Artaud would return to opiates later in life.


Ireland and repatriation to France

In 1937, Artaud returned to France, where his friend René Thomas gave him a walking-stick of knotted wood that Artaud believed contained magical powers and was the 'most sacred relic of the Irish church, the '' Bachall Ísu'', or "Staff of Jesus".:32 Artaud traveled to Ireland, landing at Cobh and travelling to
Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
, possibly in an effort to return the staff.:33 Speaking very little English and no Gaelic whatsoever, he was unable to make himself understood.:33 He would not have been admitted at Cobh, according to Irish government documents, except that he carried a letter of introduction from the Paris embassy. Most of his trip was spent in a hotel room he was unable to pay for. He was forcibly removed from the grounds of Milltown House, a
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
community, when he refused to leave. Before deportation he was briefly confined in the notorious
Mountjoy Prison Mountjoy Prison ( ga, Príosún Mhuinseo), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed ''The Joy'', is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current prison Governor is Edward Mullins. History ...
.:152 According to Irish Government papers he was deported as "a destitute and undesirable alien". On his return trip by ship, Artaud believed he was being attacked by two crew members, and he retaliated; he was put in a straitjacket and he was involuntarily retained by the police upon his return to France.:34 His return from Ireland brought about the beginning of the final phase of Artaud's life, which was spent in different asylums. It was at this time that his best known work ''The Theatre and Its Double'' (1938) was published.:34 This book contained the two manifestos of the Theatre of Cruelty. There, "he proposed a theatre that was in effect a return to magic and ritual and he sought to create a new theatrical language of totem and gesture – a language of space devoid of dialogue that would appeal to all the senses." "Words say little to the mind," Artaud wrote, "compared to space thundering with images and crammed with sounds." He proposed "a theatre in which violent physical images crush and hypnotize the sensibility of the spectator seized by the theatre as by a whirlwind of higher forces." He considered formal theatres with their proscenium arches and playwrights with their scripts "a hindrance to the magic of genuine ritual".:6


In Rodez

In 1943, when France was occupied by the Germans and Italians,
Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' ...
arranged to have Artaud transferred to the
psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...
in
Rodez Rodez ( or ; oc, Rodés, ) is a small city and commune in the South of France, about 150 km northeast of Toulouse. It is the prefecture of the department of Aveyron, region of Occitania (formerly Midi-Pyrénées). Rodez is the seat of th ...
, well inside
Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...
territory, where he was put under the charge of Dr. Gaston Ferdière. At Rodez Artaud underwent therapy including electroshock treatments and art therapy.:194 The doctor believed that Artaud's habits of crafting magic spells, creating
astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
charts, and drawing disturbing images were symptoms of
mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
. Artaud, at his peak began lashing out at others. Artaud denounced the electroshock treatments and consistently pleaded to have them suspended, while also ascribing to them "the benefit of having returned him to his name and to his self mastery".:196 Scholar Alexandra Lukes points out that "the 'recovery' of his name" might have been "a gesture to appease his doctors" conception of what constitutes health".:196 It was during this time that Artaud began writing and drawing again, after a long dormant period. In 1946, Ferdière released Artaud to his friends, who placed him in the psychiatric clinic at Ivry-sur-Seine.


Final years

At Ivry-sur-Seine Artaud's friends encouraged him to write and interest in his work was rekindled. He visited a
Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
exhibition at the Orangerie in Paris and wrote the study ''Van Gogh le suicidé de la société'' Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society" in 1947, the French magazine K published it.:8 In 1949, the essay would be first of Artaud's to be translated in a United States based publication, the influential literary magazine ''Tiger's Eye''.:8


'

He recorded '' (To Have Done With the Judgment of God)'' on 22–29 November 1947. The work remained true to his vision for the theatre of cruelty, using "screams, rants and vocal shudders" to forward his vision.:1 Wladimir Porché, the Director of French Radio, shelved the work the day before its scheduled airing on 2 February 1948. This was partly for its scatological, anti-American, and
anti-religious Antireligion is opposition to religion. It involves opposition to organized religion, religious practices or religious institutions. The term ''antireligion'' has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship ...
references and pronouncements, but also because of its general randomness, with a cacophony of xylophonic sounds mixed with various
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
elements. While remaining true to his Theatre of Cruelty and reducing powerful emotions and expressions into audible sounds, Artaud had utilized various, somewhat alarming cries, screams, grunts,
onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
, and glossolalia. As a result, Fernand Pouey, the director of dramatic and literary broadcasts for French radio, assembled a panel to consider the broadcast of ' Among approximately 50 artists, writers, musicians, and journalists present for a private listening on 5 February 1948 were
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
,
Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
,
Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau w ...
,
Jean-Louis Barrault Jean-Louis Bernard Barrault (; 8 September 1910 – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist who worked on both screen and stage. Biography Barrault was born in Le Vésinet in France in 1910. His father was 'a Burgund ...
,
René Clair René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...
,
Jean Paulhan Jean Paulhan (2 December 1884 – 9 October 1968) was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine ''Nouvelle Revue Française'' (NRF) from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member (Seat 6, 1963–68 ...
,
Maurice Nadeau Maurice Nadeau (21 May 1911 – 16 June 2013) was a French teacher, writer, literary critic, and editor. He was born in Paris. He was the father of the actress Claire Nadeau and the film director Gilles Nadeau. Biography Orphaned during th ...
,
Georges Auric Georges Auric (; 15 February 1899 – 23 July 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, France. He was considered one of ''Les Six'', a group of artists informally associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie. Before he turned 20 he ...
, Claude Mauriac, and René Char. Porché refused to broadcast it even though the panel were almost unanimously in favor of Artaud's work. Pouey left his job and the show was not heard again until 23 February 1948, at a private performance at Théâtre Washington. The work's first public broadcast would not take place until 8 July 1964, when the Los Angeles-based public radio station KPFK played an illegal copy provided by the artist Jean-Jacques Lebel.:1 The first French radio broadcast of ' occurred 20 years after its original production.


Death

In January 1948, Artaud was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He died shortly afterwards, on 4 March 1948 in a psychiatric clinic in Ivry-sur-Seine, a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. He was found by the gardener of the estate seated alone at the foot of his bed holding a shoe, and it was suspected that he died from a lethal dose of the drug chloral hydrate, although it is unknown whether he was aware of its lethality.


Legacy and influence

Artaud has had a profound influence on theatre,
avant-garde art The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
, literature, psychiatry and other disciplines.


Theatre and Performance

Artaud's has exerted a strong influence on the development of experimental theatre and performance art. His ideas helped inspire a movement away from the dominant role of language and rationalism in performance practice. Many of his works were not produced for the public until after his death. For instance, Spurt of Blood (1925) was not produced until 1964, when Peter Brook and Charles Marowitz staged it as part of their "Theatre of Cruelty" season at the
Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...
. Artists such Karen Finley,
Spalding Gray Spalding Gray (June 5, 1941 – January 11, 2004) was an American actor, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and performance artist. He is best known for the autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for the theater in the 1980s a ...
, Liz LeCompte, Richard Foreman, Charles Marowitz, Sam Shepard, Joseph Chaikin, and more all named Artaud as one of their influences. His influence can be seen in: * Barrault's adaptation of Kafka's '' The Trial'' (1947). * The
Theatre of the Absurd The Theatre of the Absurd (french: théâtre de l'absurde ) is a post– World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style o ...
, particularly the works of Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett. * Peter Brook's production of ''
Marat/Sade ''The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade'' (german: Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgrupp ...
'' in 1964, which was performed in New York and Paris, as well as London. * The Living Theatre. * In the winter of 1968, Williams College offered a dedicated intersession class in Artaudian theatre, resulting in a week-long "Festival of Cruelty," under the direction of Keith Fowler. The Festival included productions of ''The Jet of Blood, All Writing is Pig Shit'', and several original ritualized performances, one based on the Texas Tower killings and another created as an ensemble catharsis called ''The Resurrection of Pig Man''. * In Canada, playwright Gary Botting created a series of Artaudian "happenings" from ''The Aeolian Stringer'' to ''Zen Rock Festival'', and produced a dozen plays with an Artaudian theme, including ''Prometheus Re-Bound''. * Charles Marowitz's play ''Artaud at Rodez'' is about the relationship between Artaud and Dr. Ferdière during Artaud's confinement at the psychiatric hospital in Rodez; the play was first performed in 1976 at the Teatro a Trastavere in Rome. * The writer and actor Tim Dalgleish wrote and produced the play ''The Life and Theatre of Antonin Artaud'' (1999) for the English physical theatre company Bare Bones. The play told Artaud's story from his early years of aspiration when he wished to be part of the establishment, through to his final years as a suffering, iconoclastic outsider.


Philosophy

Artaud also had a significant influence on philosophers.:22 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, borrowed Artaud's phrase "the body without organs" to describe their conception of the virtual dimension of the body and, ultimately, the basic substratum of reality in their ''
Capitalism and Schizophrenia ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et Schizophrénie) is a two-volume theoretical work by the French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, respectively a philosopher and a psychoanalyst. Its volumes are ''Anti-Oedipus'' ...
''. Philosopher Jacques Derrida provided one of the key philosophical treatments of Artaud's work through his concept of "''parole soufflée''". Feminist scholar Julia Kristeva also drew on Artaud for her theorisation of "subject in process".:22-3


Literature

Poet
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
claimed Artaud's work, specifically "To Have Done with the Judgement of God", had a tremendous influence on his most famous poem " Howl". The Latin American dramatic novel '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' by Giannina Braschi includes a debate between artists and poets concerning the merits of Artaud's "multiple talents" in comparison to the singular talents of other French writers.


Music

The band
Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
included a song about the playwright, called "Antonin Artaud", on their album '' Burning from the Inside''. Influential Argentine hard rock band
Pescado Rabioso Pescado Rabioso (Rabid Fish) were an Argentinian rock band led by Argentine musician Luis Alberto Spinetta from 1971 to 1973. Initially a trio accompanied by drummer Black Amaya and bassist Osvaldo "Bocón" Frascino, they became a quartet with the ...
recorded an album titled ''
Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...
''. Their leader Luis Alberto Spinetta wrote the lyrics partly basing them on Artaud's writings. Composer
John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of j ...
has written many works inspired by and dedicated to Artaud, including seven CDs: "
Astronome ''Astronome'' is an album by American musician John Zorn featuring the "Moonchild Trio" of Joey Baron, Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn. It is the second album by the trio, following '' Moonchild: Songs Without Words''. Theater director Richard Forema ...
", " Moonchild: Songs Without Words", "
Six Litanies for Heliogabalus ''Six Litanies for Heliogabalus'' is an album by John Zorn. It is the third album to feature the "Moonchild Trio" of Mike Patton, Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn, following '' Moonchild: Songs Without Words'' (2005) and '' Astronome'' (2006) and the f ...
", " The Crucible", " Ipsissimus", " Templars: In Sacred Blood" and "The Last Judgment", a monodrama for voice and orchestra inspired by Artaud's late drawings "La Machine de l'être" (2000), "Le Momo" (1999) for violin and piano, and "Suppots et Suppliciations" (2012) for full orchestra.


Film

Filmmaker
E. Elias Merhige Edmund Elias Merhige, known as E. Elias Merhige (, pronounced like ''marriage''; born June 14, 1964), is an American film director born in Brooklyn, New York City. Work Merhige is known to mainstream audiences for his work on the 2000 film ''Shad ...
, during an interview by writer
Scott Nicolay Scott Nicolay (born April 16, 1963) is an American author of weird fiction. Nicolay's "Do You Like to Look At Monsters?" received the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 2015. He resides on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Nicolay ho ...
, cited Artaud as a key influence for the experimental film '' Begotten''.


Filmography


Bibliography


Selected works


French


English translation


Critical and biographic works


In English

Books *Barber, Stephen. ''Antonin Artaud: Blows and Bombs'' (Faber and Faber: London, 1993) *Bradnock, Lucy. ''No More Masterpieces: Modern Art After Artaud'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021). * Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. ''
Anti-Oedipus ''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et schizophrénie. L'anti-Œdipe) is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first vol ...
:
Capitalism and Schizophrenia ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et Schizophrénie) is a two-volume theoretical work by the French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, respectively a philosopher and a psychoanalyst. Its volumes are ''Anti-Oedipus'' ...
''. Trans. R. Hurley, H. Seem, and M. Lane. (New York: Viking Penguin, 1977). *Esslin, Martin. ''Antonin Artaud''. London: John Calder, 1976. *Greene, Naomi. ''Antonin Artaud: Poet Without Words''. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971). *Goodall, Jane. ''Artaud and the Gnostic Drama.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press; Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. *Jamieson, Lee. ''Antonin Artaud: From Theory to Practice'' (Greenwich Exchange: London, 2007) . *Jannarone, Kimberly. ''Artaud and His Doubles'' (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Press, 2010). *Knapp, Bettina. ''Antonin Artaud: Man of Vision''. (Athens, OH: Swallow Press, 1980). *Morris, Blake. ''Antonin Artaud'' (London: Routledge, 2022). *Plunka, Gene A. (ed). ''Antonin Artaud and the Modern Theater''. (Cranbury: Associated University Presses. 1994). *Rose, Mark. ''The Actor and His Double: Mime and Movement for the Theatre of Cruelty''. (Actor Training Research Institute, 1986). *Shafer, David. ''Antonin Artaud''. (London: Reaktion Books, 2016) Articles and chapters * Bataille, George. "Surrealism Day to Day". In ''The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism''. Trans. Michael Richardson. London: Verso, 1994. 34–47. * Bersani, Leo. "Artaud, Defecation, and Birth". In ''A Future for Astyanax: Character and Desire in Literature''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976. * Blanchot, Maurice. "Cruel Poetic Reason (the rapacious need for flight)". In ''The Infinite Conversation''. Trans. Susan Hanson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. 293–297. * Deleuze, Gilles. "Thirteenth Series of the Schizophrenic and the Little Girl". In ''The Logic of Sense''. Trans. Mark Lester with Charles Stivale. Ed. Constantin V. Boundas. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. 82–93. * Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. "28 November 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?". In ''
A Thousand Plateaus ''A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: link=no, Mille plateaux) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It is the second and final volume of their collaborativ ...
: Capitalism and Schizophrenia''. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987. 149–166. * Derrida, Jacques. "The Theatre of Cruelty" and "La Parole Souffle". In ''Writing and Difference''. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. *Ferdière, Gaston. "I Looked after Antonin Artaud". In ''Artaud at Rodez''. Marowitz, Charles (1977). pp. 103–112. London: Marion Boyars. . *Innes, Christopher. "Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty". In ''Avant-Garde Theatre 1892–1992'' (London: Routledge, 1993). *Jannarone, Kimberly. "The Theater Before Its Double: Artaud Directs in the Alfred Jarry Theater", ''Theatre Survey'' 46.2 (November 2005), 247–273. *Koch, Stephen. "On Artaud." ''Tri-Quarterly'', no. 6 (Spring 1966): 29–37. *Pireddu, Nicoletta. "The mark and the mask: psychosis in Artaud's alphabet of cruelty," ''Arachnē: An International Journal of Language and Literature'' 3 (1), 1996: 43–65. *Rainer, Friedrich. "The Deconstructed Self in Artaud and Brecht: Negation of Subject and Antitotalitarianism", ''Forum for Modern Language Studies'', 26:3 (July 1990): 282–297. * Shattuck, Roger. "Artaud Possessed". In ''The Innocent Eye''. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984. 169–186. * Sontag, Susan. "Approaching Artaud". In ''Under the Sign of Saturn''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980. 13–72. lso printed as Introduction to ''Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings'', ed. Sontag.*Ward, Nigel "Fifty-one Shocks of Artaud", ''New Theatre Quarterly'' Vol. XV, Part 2 (NTQ58 May 1999): 123–128


In French

*Blanchot, Maurice. "Artaud" (November 1956, no. 47): 873–881. *Brau, Jean-Louis. ''Antonin Artaud''. Paris: La Table Ronde, 1971. *, 1969 * Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud, Portraits et Gris-gris'', Paris: Blusson, 1984, new edition with additions, 2008. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud, Voyages'', Paris: Blusson, 1992. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud, de l'ange'', Paris: Blusson, 1992. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''Sur l'électrochoc, le cas Antonin Artaud'', Paris: Blusson, 1996. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''C'était Antonin Artaud'', biography, Fayard, 2006. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''La Chine d'Antonin Artaud / Le Japon d'Antonin Artaud'', Paris: Blusson, 2006. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''L'Affaire Artaud'', journal ethnographique, Paris: Fayard, 2009. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud dans la guerre, de Verdun à Hitler. L'hygiène mentale'', Paris: Blusson, 2013. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''Vincent van Gogh, Antonin Artaud. Ciné-roman. Ciné-peinture'', Paris: Blusson, 2014. * Florence de Mèredieu, ''BACON, ARTAUD, VINCI. Une blessure magnifique'', Paris: Blusson, 2019. *Virmaux, Alain. ''Antonin Artaud et le théâtre''. Paris: Seghers, 1970. *Virmaux, Alain and Odette. ''Artaud: un bilan critique''. Paris: Belfond, 1979. *Virmaux, Alain and Odette. ''Antonin Artaud: qui êtes-vous?'' Lyon: La Manufacture, 1986.


In German

*Seegers, U. ''Alchemie des Sehens. Hermetische Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert. Antonin Artaud, Yves Klein, Sigmar Polke'' (Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2003).


References


External links

* * * an anachronistic film account of Artaud's life. {{DEFAULTSORT:Artaud, Antonin 1896 births 1948 deaths 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French male actors 20th-century French poets 20th-century male writers Deaths from cancer in France Deaths from colorectal cancer French acting theorists French artists French male film actors French male poets French male silent film actors French male stage actors French military personnel of World War I French people of Greek descent French surrealist writers Male actors from Marseille Modern artists Modernist theatre People with schizophrenia Poètes maudits Prix Sainte-Beuve winners Surrealist dramatists and playwrights Surrealist poets Theatre practitioners Writers from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur