“Braque once asked whether his ’still life’ would hold its own if it were placed in the middle of a field of wheat. And Picasso inserted, attached, integrated, factored in, in addition to a completely withered leaf and other objects pasted into the picture, a real butterfly. Speaking about that picture Breton notes that in it, the living and the dead, objective and subjective life and the so–called three kingdoms (animal, plant and mineral) are in unity and that it is the first time that a real butterfly was incorporated into a system of human representation without destroying the system, nor harming it in any way... As a human creation, that world of Picasso’s, that poetic microcosm, manages to hold its own before the inimitable and miraculous work of nature itself.” Marko Ristic, Pablo Picasso, 1937

It was only with the appearance of Salvador Dali, the rising “star” in the somewhat thinned out circle of Breton’s followers after the ideological rifts resulting from the politicization of the movement, that the object came into the focus of the theoretical and practical activities of the Surrealists. We know that after the Second Manifesto, Surrealism followed “two parallel paths: that of political revolution and that of a comprehensive exploration of the unknown forces dwelling in man’s soul. The spearheads of these two streams are Aragon who, with Sadoul, took part in the Second International Congress of Revolutionary Authors in Kharkov, and Dali, who advances his thesis on critical paranoia and applies it to the production of so–called Surrealist objects. Breton assumes the role of conciliator and arbitrator.”104 We have already spoken about Dali’s collaboration with representatives of Serbian Surrealism and the NDIO journal, with researchers to date particularly focusing on the correspondence between Vane Bor and Salvador Dali.105 We can still learn something about its beginnings from the preserved legacy of Marko Ristic. Namely, during his studies in Paris, Vane Bor spent much time in the company of the French Surrealists. Among other things, he also described to Ristic his first encounter with Dali in 1931: “I also met Dali who is physically appalling and who had inanely made himself comfortable in Eluard’s apartment in white socks and black patent leather slippers... It is quite disturbing that such a person, no matter how brilliant his experiencing of things may be, can influence the general orientation of Surrealism.”106 The discomfort of the first encounter was forgotten later, but it is important to note Bor’s observation on Salvador Dali’s great, in fact decisive influence, then felt even outside the Paris circle. At the time Dali already had behind him two films, successful exhibitions and lectures, numerous poems and theoretical texts devoted to the “paranoiac revolution”, which was written about as a new theory of cognition and representation of the world. In the framework of all those activities, in 1931, namely at the time he was collaborating with NDIO, he also published the texts Objets surréalistes and Objets psycho–atmosphériques –anamorphiques, defining the nature of the Surrealist object, which was of far–reaching significance for the influence of Surrealism on future art trends, especially those in the second half of the 20th century.107

The Surrealist object, Dali believes, functions symbolically. It can be of extremely varied origin and composed of bizarre elements, but must radically change the relationship between subject and object. The original Dada relationship towards the readymade is redefined in keeping with Freud’s teaching on the fetish. The mental and affective processes incited by ordinary objects as well as the actual process of their selection and “second–hand” use are identified in Surrealism with the mechanisms of the “work” of dreams and daydreams. However absurd and impractical, the Surrealistic object was irreplaceable in the role of mediator. It was, primarily, a symbol of overcome traumatic experiences and repressed impulses and at the same time a sign of the roundabout ways to fulfill desires. The readymade was thus rid of Dada interpretations and placed into the context of Surrealism, i.e., of the subconscious. It was interpreted in a new light of inter–reaction between subject and object, simultaneously appearing also as the lost part of the personality and a part of reality. Needless to say, such objects, as modern fetishes, enjoy a special status, but it is interesting that Dali calls them “psycho –atmospheric–anamorphic objects”. They possess infinite force and power, which cannot be identified and understood fully, but can, according to Dali, be represented as follows: one should imagine a man staring at a luminous point, thinking it a star, but it is merely the tip of a burning cigarette, which represents a typical relationship between the visible and uncognizable elements of psycho–atmospheric –anamorphic objects.108

In his theoretical texts Breton also emphasized the specific nature of the Surrealist object which abandons its usual utilitarian context, and whose parts have “somehow freed themselves and established new relationships with other elements which have also departed from the principles of the real world, although still functioning in the sphere of reality.”109 In identifying the Surrealist object he invoked the new knowledge arrived at by physics when it abandoned the Euclidean system. Accordingly, the idea of reality remained a field open to different interpretations, including Surrealist ones. The now famous statement on the meeting, on a dissection table, of a sewing machine and an umbrella, offered the principle of a new, Surrealist beauty, but also a concept of the object. It can be reinterpreted as it equally touches upon the Dada readymade and Freud’s fetish. After all, Breton wrote that the juxtapositioning of the above–mentioned objects can also be understood in the light of “sexual symbolism”, and that “the umbrella can represent a man, the sewing machine a woman, and the table a bed uniting life and death.”110 Actually, in the theoretical and philosophical sphere and also through actively experimenting with Dali, Giacometti, Ernst and many other members of the Paris circle, Breton simultaneously theoretically and practically explored the characteristics of the Surrealist object.111

In the context of Serbian art, the Surrealist object appears as The Frenzied Marble from 1930. The principle of juxtapositioning also determines the structure of this work or “apparatus”, as its authors Dusan Matic and Aleksandar Vuco called it. The Frenzied Marble was made of a “black marble in a rotting, gray atmosphere. Marbles, of different sizes and colors, will always appear in different apparatuses. Mima (Milan Dedinac, M. T.) speaks about the humorous objects he had found: a sewing machine, a rolling pin, a frying pan”, as Aleksandar Vuco writes to Marko Ristic.112 He goes on to say that this object ’is completely different than the first one’, so that one might conclude that by the summer of 1930 at least two Frenzied Marbles had been made, of which only one, perhaps the first one, still exists. Namely, the assemblage from the Legacy of Marko Ristic in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade called The Frenzied Marble is partly damaged, but there still remain enough elements for it to be considered the oldest Surrealist object. Different materials were used to construct it: wood, straw, metal, clay, paper, and the wooden base is painted green, black and orange, which does not correspond to the “rotting gray” atmosphere Vuco spoke about in his letter when explaining to Ristic what it was that he and Matic had made.

As only one Frenzied Marble has been preserved, we can doubt whether two existed, for Vuco and Matic could have at a certain point of time decided not to execute in physical form the conceived Surrealist object mentioned in the letter. Although it seems that The Frenzied Marble was designed as an object in a sequence, namely a series of assemblages with marbles of different sizes and colors, it is not possible to claim that with certainty today. In addition, if we recall the already quoted Surrealist position that the “real, if it means anything at all, if the thoughts and chimeras dreamed in the waking state or in dreams are not just as real”, then it is clear that artistic practice in Surrealism never in fact implied that envisaged works necessarily had to exist physically. The realization of a work of art could have remained at the design level, at the level of mental activity, as shown by Ogledalo (TheMirror) of Aleksandar Vuco.

The Mirror is a Surrealist object the general design of which is documented, namely there exists a detailed description. Actually, Aleksandar Vuco described it to Marko Ristic in the following words, and we suggested the name: “Take a broken mirror. Paste the broken pieces of glass on a piece of cardboard so that they do not touch, do not abut, always leaving a space of uncovered cardboard between them, like a river, a path. Cut out photographs of celebrities from newspapers, picture magazines, specialized journals. Mirror the desired photographs in these broken abysses. If you wish to have a permanent apparatus, make a cardboard cube with a changeable upper side. Punch a hole and stick a magnifying glass into it< you will get a panorama which you will find interesting, an illusion of ungraspable reality”.113 That was the project for TheMirror, a Surrealist object from 1930, which was shown for the first time in reconstructed form at an exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 2002.

Perhaps The Mirror was never intended to be executed as a concrete work, i.e., to shift from the sphere of imagination and conceptualization to the world of real objects. The mirror is, after all, a frequent motif in the art of Surrealism. It is one of the preferred props which can present different levels of interpretation of the world.114 Nevertheless, the detailed instructions on the material and techniques of execution indicate the thoroughness of Vuco’s initial conception. In addition, some other preserved assemblages, such as Une atmosphere du printemps et de jeunesse, also from 1930, show that, in those years, in the spirit of the multimedia artistic practice of the Surrealists, he had extended his initial preoccupation with poetic language to the exploration of collage and assemblage. The mentioned assemblage Une atmosphere du printemps et de jeunesse is a result of close cooperation between Dusan Matic and Lula and Aleksandar Vuco. It seems that to a certain extent, as regards material, it was very similar to The Mirror, because in both works cardboard features as the basis on which other materials, pieces of mirror, wood, leaves, photographs, etc. are pasted.

In their attempts to shape a Surrealist object, the 1930 efforts of Aleksandar Vuco and Dusan Matic, as well as Marko Ristic’s 1939 Assemblage, only partially correspond to the aesthetic of convulsive beauty and the automatic stream of thought. The anarchy of fantasy and abandonment to chance in creating Surrealist objects in which, according to Breton “everything predictable should be avoided’ were suppressed by their visible intention for the objects to preserve their recognizability and artistic features. Even when they started engaging in manipulations with objects they actually relied on the experience of juxtaposing the visual and the verbal from collage. That is why in their experiments with assemblage, i.e., the Surrealist object, they retained the bidimensional concept of the collage. Even The Frenzied Marble, perhaps because it is partially damaged, looks like a relief and not like a three–dimensional object freely articulating space. The habit of Dusan Matic, Aleksandar Vuco, Marko Ristic and Vane Bor to juxtapose picture and word prevented them from seriously devoting themselves to the exploration of space which the object counts on without fail. Bor’s assemblage Sachet de sel. Le serf–volant (1927) also, although using unconventional materials, salt and cellophane, remains on a level plane, it is more a relief than an object because it does not take up space. The revolution of the object in art, which began which Duchamp, continued in Surrealism, but it can be recognized only partially in the preserved examples of exploration of the object in Serbian Surrealism.

If, according to Dali’s definition, the Surrealist object had to be psycho–atmospheric–anamorphic, then the assemblages of the Serbian Surrealists can hardly meet all those requirements. Also in 1931, in theoretical debates on the art of Surrealism, Koca Popovic and Marko Ristic emphasized the psycho-logical–sensual qualities which are released when objects taken from different spheres of reality are juxtaposed. For them it was particularly important for art to free the “contents of the subconscious and the complex affective and emotional relations of man with material, the visible world”, which were suppressed through the everyday use of the object. 115 In that context, closest to meeting Dali’s requirements was perhaps exactly Vane Zivadinovic Bor, for whom his paint box was that psycho–atmospheric –anamorphic object. After all, he himself says that he “read an article on the Surrealist object in the magazine This Quarter. Your article – he says to Dali – made me aware of the symbolic function of the “game of squeezing and smelling the paint from the tube”.116 The other members of the Belgrade group retained, primarily, a psychological–sensual relationship towards the world of the object, with the act of finding and isolating it constituting the height of Surrealist activity. No revolutionary about–turn in the subject–object relationship occurred because the processes of composing took precedence over techniques of decomposing objects. In other words, a new afunctional form was organized from the found objects in which traces of awareness of visual artistic models were perceptible.

Nevertheless, the group activities of the Serbian Surrealists were sometimes oriented if not towards the revolutionary then towards the bold articulation of objects in space. Only visual testimony to their activities of this kind has been preserved – on Nikola Vuco’s 1930 photograph negatives: Garaza u noci (The Garage at Night), Bez naslova (Untitled), and :ovek–velosiped (Man–Bicycle). These are performances in front of a still camera which have not been analysed so far as, in fact, their existence was not known of. Hence, one of the mentioned negatives, Untitled, is a shot of an outhouse with discarded old newspapers, but the very act of photography indicates the concept of the readymade and also the symbolical context in which the Surrealist object functions. Needless to say, the photograph of the bizarre object also has a documentary level in presenting ordinary habits and behaviour, but in the system of Surrealist rhetoric it, primarily, points to the hidden and metaphoric meanings of the selected object.

It has already been said, in connection with Aleksandar Vuco’s letter, that in the circle of the Serbian Surrealists the term “apparatus” referred to the Surrealist object, and Nikola Vuco also uses it in that sense. In a 1930 letter from Paris to Marko Ristic, among other things, he wrote: “I simply cannot find my first pictures of the big apparatus which include Kusakovic’s mirror. In that batch I had two very nice pictures: The Garage at Night and Milan’s radio”.117 The photographs of Kusakovic’s mirror and Milan’s radio have still not been found, but The Garage at Night and Man–Bicycle have. In that letter, under the title Man–Bicycle, Vuco described an amorphic vertical construction with a bicycle and ropes suspended in space, which corresponds to the apparatus identified on the two negatives donated by the author to the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade.

All the elements which, according to Dali’s methodology of the paranoiac delirium of recognition, built the Surrealist object originated in the world around us. Asked how such tangible things could be translated into an anamorphic state, Dali replied: “The object definitely must be photographed, but always so that the photographer cannot see it. Good lighting and field of vision can be arranged in advance. Processes which have been rigorously blinded will always be resorted to for developing the photographs, and the obtained picture will be shut up at once, without anyone having seen it, in the back part of a hollow metal box. That is how we will ensure that the action which we will put there will be preserved (the original objects and the object we photographed are meticulously destroyed and its smallest remnants voluntarily lost prior to this operation). Finally, the metal box containing the photograph will be immersed into an amorphous mass of iron for amalgamation, which will, after being poured out, unite everything. That formless piece of metal, having melted, will have a certain weight and volume and will, for any reason, become an object of the psycho–atmospheric –anamorphic type.”118 That is, thus, the finale in the complicated process of building the Surrealist object with the act of photography a decisive factor of its creation. Photography, from Dali’s standpoint, was an unavoidable step in the process of metamorphosis of the real into the amorphous.

The fact that Nikola Vuco photographed, as said in the letter, “big apparatuses” which were then deliberately disassembled and lost, convinces us that the Serbian Surrealists mainly adhered to Dali’s instructions on the psycho–atmospheric–anamorphic object, which, among other things, “definitely had to be photographed”. The parallelism between the French and Serbian groups of Surrealists is also borne out by the fact that Vuco refers to photographs of Surrealist objects already in 1930, while Dali’s text Objets psycho–atmospériques–anamorphiques, giving a detailed analysis and describing the entire procedure, was published in 1931. The process of transforming an ordinary object into a Surrealist one, thus, could not be performed without photography. Photography is a crucial and unavoidable act in the process of metamorphosis. All the material parts of the object are left to disappear, and the only proof and only trace of the physical existence of the Surrealist object lies in the light recording, the photographic image. Naturally, it cannot be the same as the photographed object, since the tautology of which Magritte’s famous picture This is Not a Pipe explicitly warns also applies to it. Surrealism thus introduced the psycho–atmospheric–anamorphic object into the system of art, intent on “manifesting all the different versions of infinity.” According to one of them, again pointed out by Salvador Dali, “the tip of the cigarette cannot, but sometimes does, burn in the human eye with much more lyrical brightness than the twinkling of the brightest and farthest star.”119