Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud (), was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Known for his raw, surreal and transgressive work, his texts explored themes from the cosmologies of ancient cultures, philosophy, the occult, mysticism and indigenous Mexican and Balinese practices.

Early life

Antonin was born in Marseille, to Euphrasie Nalpas and Antoine-Roi Artaud. His parents were first cousins: his grandmothers were sisters from Smyrna (modern day İzmir, Turkey). Euphrasie gave birth to nine children, but four were stillborn and two others died in childhood. Biographer David Shafer argues, however, that <blockquote>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.</blockquote>Artaud attended the Collège Sacré-Coeur, a Catholic middle and high school, from 1907 to 1914. At school he began reading works by Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Edgar Allan Poe and founded a private literary magazine in collaboration with his friends.

Towards the end of his tenure at the Collège, Artaud noticeably withdrew from social life and "destroyed most of his written work and gave away his books".<sup>:163</sup>

In 1916, there was a pause in Artaud's treatment when he was conscripted into the French Army.<sup>:345</sup> As a member of Dullin's troupe, Artaud trained for 10 to 12 hours a day. He was originally a strong proponent of Dullin's teaching and they shared a strong interest in east Asian theatre, specifically performance traditions from Bali and Japan. This included his performance as Jean-Paul Marat in Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927) and the monk Massieu in Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Directed by Germaine Dulac, many critics and scholars consider it to be the first surrealist film, though Artaud's relationship to the resulting film was conflicted.

Association with surrealists

Artaud was briefly associated with the surrealists, before André Breton expelled him from the movement in 1927. 274</sup> 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, 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".<sup>:24</sup> He declares they are "bowing down to Communism", 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, André Gide, and Paul Valéry.</blockquote>

The Cenci (1935)

In 1935, Artaud staged an original adaptation of Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Cenci at the Théâtre des Folies-Wagram in Paris. The drama was Artaud's first and only chance to stage a production following his manifestos for a Theatre of Cruelty.

While Shelley's version of The Cenci conveyed the motivations and anguish of the Cenci's daughter Beatrice with her father through monologues, Artaud's adaptation emphasized the play's cruelty and violence, in particular "its themes of incest, revenge and familial murder".</blockquote>The Theatre of Cruelty, he theorized in the text, abandoned the formal proscenium arch and dominance of the playwright, which he considered "a hindrance to the magic of genuine ritual", in favor of "violent physical images", which would "crush and hypnotize the sensibility of the spectator", who would be "seized by the theatre as by a whirlwind of higher forces".<sup>:11</sup> The Mexican Legation in Paris gave him a travel grant, and he left for Mexico in January 1936. After arriving the following month, he "became something of a 'fixture' in the Mexican art scene", though he was often under the influence of opiates, and spent much of his time "seated and immobile, cual momia [like a mummy]".<sup>:73</sup>

Artaud also lived in Norogachi, a Rarámuri village in the Sierra Tarahumara. During this time he stopped using opiates and suffered withdrawal. On his return voyage, Artaud believed he was being attacked by two of the ship's crew members. He retaliated and was put in a straitjacket; upon his return to France he was involuntarily retained by the police and transferred to a psychiatric hospital. At Rodez, Artaud underwent treatments including electroshock and art therapy.<sup>:194</sup> The doctor believed that Artaud's habits of crafting magic spells, creating astrology charts, and drawing disturbing images were symptoms of mental illness. 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". 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. He visited a Vincent van Gogh 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.<sup>:1</sup> Wladimir Porché, the Director of French Radio, shelved the work the day before its scheduled airing on 2 February 1948. Porché refused to broadcast it even though the panel were almost unanimously in favor of Artaud's work being broadcast.

Death

In January 1948, Artaud was diagnosed with colon cancer. He died 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.

  • The Theatre of the Absurd, particularly the works of Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett.
  • Peter Brook's production of Marat/Sade 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.

Philosophy

Artaud also had a significant influence on philosophers. Philosopher Jacques Derrida provided one of the key philosophical treatments of Artaud's work through his concept of "parole soufflée". Feminist scholar Julia Kristeva drew on Artaud for her theorisation of "subject in process". 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. The 2022 novel, Plague Theatre by Ansgar Allen engages Artaud's writings on plague and theatre and his suggestion that plague approaches theatre, and theatre approach the paroxysms of plague. A novel, Traitor Comet, was published in June 2023 as the first in a series on Artaud's life and his friendship with the poet Robert Desnos. The sequel, L'Etoile de Mer (The Starfish), was published in November 2024, and continues the story of Artaud as he defies André Breton and forms the Theater Alfred Jarry with Roger Vitrac.

Music

The band Bauhaus included a song about the playwright, called "Antonin Artaud", on their album Burning from the Inside. Influential Argentine hard rock band Pescado Rabioso recorded an album titled Artaud. Their leader Luis Alberto Spinetta wrote the lyrics partly basing them on Artaud's writings.

Venezuelan rock band Zapato 3 included a song named "Antonin Artaud" on their album Ecos punzantes del ayer (1999).

Composer John Zorn has written many works inspired by and dedicated to Artaud, including seven CDs: "Astronome", "Moonchild: Songs Without Words", "Six Litanies for Heliogabalus", "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, during an interview by writer Scott Nicolay, cited Artaud as a key influence for the experimental film Begotten.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!Year

!Title

!Role

!Director

!Notes

|-

|1923

|Fait-divers

|Monsieur 2

|Autant-Lara

|<sup>:182</sup>

|-

|1925

|Surcouf

|Jacques Morel, a traitor

|Luitz-Morat

|

|-

|1926

|Graziella

|Cecco

|Marcel Vandal

|

|-

|1926

|Le Juif Errant

|Gringalet

|Luitz Morat

|<sup>:182</sup>

|-

|1928

|The Passion of Joan of Arc

|Massieu

|Carl Dreyer

|

|-

|1928

|Verdun: Visions of History

|Paul Amiot

|Léon Poirier

|

|-

|1928

|L'Argent

|Secretary Mazaud

|Marcel L'Herbier

|

|-

|1929

|Tarakanova

|Le jeune tzigane

|Raymond Bernard

|

|-

|1931

|La Femme d'une nuit

|A traitor

|Marcel L'Herbier

|

|-

|1931

|Montmartre

|Unidentified

|Raymond Bernard

|

|-

|1931

|L'Opéra de quat'sous

|A Thief

|G. W. Pabst

|

|-

|1932

|Coups de feu à l'aube

|Leader of a group of assassins

|Serge de Poligny

|

|-

|1932

|Les Croix de bois

|A delirious soldier

|Raymond Bernard

|

|-

|1932

|L'enfant de ma soeur

|unidentified role

|Henri Wullschleger

|

|-

|1933

|Mater Dolorosa

|Lawyer

|Abel Gance

|

|-

|1934

|Liliom

|Knife-seller

|Fritz Lang

|

|-

|1934

|Sidonie Panache

|Emir Aba-el Kadcr

|Henri Wullschleger

|

|-

|1935

|Lucrezia Borgia

|Savonarola

|Abel Gance

|

|-

|1935

|Koenigsmark

|The Librarian

|Maurice Tourneur

|}

Bibliography

Selected works

French

{| class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

!Original Publication/Publisher

!Notes

|-

|1913

|Sonnets mystique

|

|

|-

|1922

|Tric-Trac du ciel

|

|

|-

|1925

|L'Ombilic des limbes

|

|

|-

|1927

|Le Pèse-Nerfs

|

|

|-

|

|L'Art et la mort

|

|

|-

|

|La Coquille et le clergyman

|

|film scenario

|-

|

|Sorcellerie et cinéma

|

|

|-

|1934

|Héliogabale ou l'Anarchiste couronné

|

|

|-

|1938

|Le Théâtre et son double

|Gallimard, Collection Métamorphoses

|seminal collection of texts on theatre

|-

|1946

|Lettres de Rodez

|

|

|-

|1947

|Van Gogh, le suicide de la société

|

|

|-

|

|Au pays des Tarahumaras

|

|

|-

|1948

|Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu

|

|

|-

|

|Lettre contre la Kabbale

|

|

|}

English translation

{| class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

!Translator

!Publisher

!Notes

|-

|1958

|The Theatre and Its Double

|Mary Caroline Richards

|New York: Grove Weidenfeld

|

|-

|1963

|Artaud Anthology

|Jack Hirschman

|San Francisco: City Lights Publishers

|Edited and with an introduction by Susan Sontag

|-

|1971

|Collected Works of Antonin Artaud

|Victor Corti

|London: Calder and Boyars

|

|-

|1976

|Selected Writings

|Helen Weaver

|New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

|Edited and with an introduction by Susan Sontag

|-

|1995

|Watchfiends and Rack Screams: works from the final period

|Clayton Eshleman, with Bernard Bador

|Boston: Exact Change

|

|-

|2008

|50 Drawings to Murder Magic

|Donald Nicholson-Smith

|London: Seagull Books

|

|-

|2019

|Heliogabalus or, the Crowned Anarchist

|Alexis Lykiard

|London: Infinity Land Press

|

|-

|2024

|The Theatre and Its Double

|Mark Taylor-Batty

|Bloomsbury Publishing: Methuen Drama

|ISBN 9781350288720

|-

|2024

|Journey to Mexico: Revolutionary Messages & The Tarahumara

|Rainer J. Hanshe

|New York: Contra Mundum Press

|

|}

References

Further reading

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: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 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: 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.&nbsp;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. [Also 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).
  • an anachronistic film account of Artaud's life.