Jacques Baron

Jacques Baron (1905–1986) was a French surrealist poet whose first collection of poems was published in "Aventure" in 1921. Although he was initially involved with the Dada movement, he became a founding member of the Surrealist movement following his meeting with André Breton in 1921, and contributed to "La Révolution surréaliste". In 1927, like many of his contemporaries, Baron joined the Cercle Communiste Démocratique. Although fascinated by dream-like states of the nomadic unconscious and other imaginary worlds of the "marvelous", a dispute with Breton in 1929 got him expelled from the movement, and prompted him to contribute to "Un Cadavre", an anti-Breton pamphlet. After the break with Surrealism, Baron became associated with Georges Bataille and "Documents", in which he published a short essay on "Crustaceans for the Critical Dictionary" (1929, issue 6), an article on the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1930, issue 1), and a poem dedicated to Picasso, "Flames" (1930, issue 3). He later collaborated on a number of reviews such as "Le Voyage en Grèce", "La Critique Sociale" and "Minotaure". Baron also wrote a novel, "Charbon de mer" (1935), a mémoire, "L’An 1 du Surréalisme" (1969), and a collection of poems, "L’Allure poétique" (1973).