Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse

Techniques. Resources. Creative Processes. Genres

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Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite corpse is a technique of collective creation (several artists cooperate) that was born in the literary field and then applied to the visual arts.

It is a kind of game where each participant makes his or her contribution without knowing what the others’ contribution is. And the sum of these individual contributions generates a work that has not been previously imagined.

Since reason has not intervened in the result, it is as if it were the revelation of the collective unconscious of the participants.

That is why it is not surprising that this technique was born during the height of Surrealism, whose basis is the total liberation of the unconscious (creation from what is called “psychic automatism,” automatic creation without thinking).

As an example, we have chosen a work where one of the artists is André Breton, who wrote the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924.

To create an exquisite corpse, the first participant generates a spontaneous image (or writes a word or part of a sentence) on a section of a sheet of paper and then folds it, leaving only the last strokes visible (which will be joined to the next image, which will be created by the second participant). The second participant, in turn, folds the sheet again to leave a new participant with only a hint of the last strokes. When everyone involved in the creation has finished making their contribution, the sheet is spread out, and the individual images end up being assembled into the delirious final result.

Why is it called “exquisite corpse”? Because in the first game, in 1925, when the phrase created collectively and automatically by a group of writers and poets was unveiled, it read, “The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine.” (“Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.”)

Image: Exquisite Corpse (1938). André Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, Yves Tanguy

Recommended links:

The Exquisite Corpse Game.

Psychic automatism.

Surrealism.

Constellations by Miró.

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting: The Persistence of Memory,  Salvador Dalí.

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting: The Treachery of Images, Magritte.

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