Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud, better known asAntonin Artaud (/ɑːrˈtoʊ/;[1]French:[ɑ̃tɔnɛ̃aʁto]; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), 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.[2][3] Widely recognized as a major figure of the Europeanavant-garde, he had a particularly strong influence ontwentieth-century theatre through his conceptualization of theTheatre of Cruelty.[4][5][6] 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.[7][8][9][10]
Antonin was born in Marseille, to Euphrasie Nalpas and Antoine-Roi Artaud. His parents were first cousins: his grandmothers were sisters fromSmyrna (modern dayİzmir, Turkey).[3] 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 localship chandler.[11] Euphrasie gave birth to nine children, but four were stillborn and two others died in childhood.[3]
At age five, Artaud was diagnosed withmeningitis, which had no cure at the time.[12] Biographer David Shafer argues, however, that
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.[3]
Artaud attended the Collège Sacré-Coeur, a Catholic middle and high school, from 1907 to 1914. At school he began reading works byArthur Rimbaud,Stéphane Mallarmé, andEdgar Allan Poe and founded a private literary magazine in collaboration with his friends.[citation needed]
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".[6]:3 Distressed, his parents arranged for him to see a psychiatrist.[3]:25 Over the next five years Artaud was admitted to a series ofsanatoria.[13]:163
In 1916, there was a pause in Artaud's treatment when he wasconscripted into theFrench Army.[3]:26 He was discharged early due to "an unspecified health reason" (Artaud later claimed it was "due to sleepwalking", while his mother ascribed it to his "nervous condition").[6]:4
In May 1919, the director of the sanatorium prescribed Artaudlaudanum, precipitating a lifelong addiction to that and otheropiates.[13]:162 In March 1921, he moved to Paris where he was put under the psychiatric care of DrÉdouard Toulouse who took him in as a boarder.[3]:29
His core theatrical training was as part of Dullin's troupe,Théâtre de l'Atelier, which he joined in 1921.[14]:345 As a member of Dullin's troupe, Artaud trained for 10 to 12 hours a day.[15]: 119 He was originally a strong proponent of Dullin's teaching and they shared a strong interest in east Asian theater, specifically performance traditions from Bali and Japan.[6]:10 He stated, "Hearing Dullin teach I feel that I'm rediscovering ancient secrets and a whole forgotten mystique of production."[14]:351 However, their disagreements increased over time, particularly in relation to the differing logics of Eastern and Western theatre traditions.[14]:351-2 Their final disagreement was over his performance as the Emperor Charlemagne inAlexandre Arnoux'sHuon de Bordeaux; he left the troupe in 1923 after eighteen months as a member.[2]:22;[14]:345
Shortly thereafter he joined the troupe of Georges and Ludmilla Pitoëff. He remained with them through the next year, when he shifted his focus to work in the cinema.[6]:15-16
In 1923, Artaud submitted poems toLa Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF), a prominent French literary journal. The poems were rejected, butJacques Rivière, the journal's editor, found Artaud intriguing and invited him for a meeting. This initiated a written correspondence, which resulted in Artaud's first major publication, theepistolary workCorrespondance avec Jacques Rivière.[6]:45 Artaud continued to publish some of his most influential works in theNRF. Later, he would revise many of these texts for inclusion inThe Theatre and Its Double, including the "First Manifesto for aTheatre of Cruelty" (1932) and "Theatre and the plague" (1933).[2]:105
Artaud also wrote a number of film scenarios, ten of which have survived.[6]:23 Only one of the scenarios was produced during his lifetime,The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928).[17] Directed byGermaine Dulac, many critics and scholars consider it to be the first surrealist film, though Artaud's relationship to the resulting film was conflicted.[17][18]
Artaud was briefly associated with the surrealists, beforeAndré Breton expelled him from the movement in 1927.[6]:21 This was in part due to the Surrealists increasing affiliation with the Communist Party in France.:[19] 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."[20]
In "The Manifesto for an Abortive Theatre" (1926/27), written for theTheatre 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".[7]:24 He declares they are "bowing down to Communism",[7]:25 which is "a lazy man's revolution",[7]:24 and calls for a more "essential metamorphosis" of society.[7]:25
In 1931, Artaud sawBalinese dance performed at theParis Colonial Exposition. Although he misunderstood much of what he saw, it influenced his ideas for theatre.[6]:26 Adrian Curtin has noted the significance of the Balinese use of music and sound for Artaud, and particularly
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.[22]: 253
In 1935, Artaud staged an original adaptation ofPercy Bysshe Shelley'sThe Cenci at theThéâtre 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.[22]:250 It had a set designed byBalthus and employed innovative sound effects—including the first theatrical use of the electronic instrument theOndes Martenot.[citation needed] It was, however, a commercial failure.[23]
While Shelley's version ofThe 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".[6]:21 Artaud was 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.[15]: 123
Artaud's opening stage directions demonstrate his approach. He 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.[15]: 120
Scholar Jane Goodall writes ofThe 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.[15]:119
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".[22]:251
In 1938, Artaud publishedThe Theatre and Its Double, one of his most important texts.[6]:34 In it, 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.[24]: 6
TheTheatre 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".[24]:6
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".[25]:11 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]".[6]: 29–30 ;[26]:73
Artaud also lived in Norogachi, aRarámuri village in the Sierra Tarahumara.[26]:77 He claimed to have participated inpeyote rites,[9] though scholars have questioned this.[27][28] During this time he stopped using opiates and suffered withdrawal.[3][26]:77[28]
In 1937, Artaud returned to France, where his friend René Thomas gave him a walking-stick of knotted wood that Artaud believed was the "most sacred relic of the Irish church, theBachall Ísu, or 'Staff of Jesus'" and contained magical powers.[6]:32 Artaud traveled to Ireland, landing atCobh and travelling toGalway, possibly in an effort to return the staff. Speaking very little English and no Gaelic whatsoever, he was unable to make himself understood.[6]:33 In Dublin, Artaud found himself penniless and spent most of his trip in "hostels for the homeless".[6]:34 After "several violent alteractions with the Dublin police" he was finally arrested after an incident at aJesuit college.[6]:34 Before deportation he was briefly confined in the notoriousMountjoy Prison.[3]:152 According to Irish Government papers he was deported as "a destitute and undesirable alien".[29] On his return voyage, Artaud believed he was being attacked by two of the ship's crew members. He retaliated and was put in astraitjacket; upon his return to France he was involuntarily retained by the police and transferred to a psychiatric hospital.[6]:34
Artaud spent the rest of his life moving between different institutions, depending on his condition and world circumstances.[citation needed]
In 1943, when France was occupied by the Germans and Italians,Robert Desnos arranged to have Artaud transferred to thepsychiatric hospital inRodez, which was well insideVichy territory.[30] There he was put under the charge of Dr.Gaston Ferdière.[30] At Rodez, Artaud underwent treatments includingelectroshock and art therapy.[31]:194 The doctor believed that Artaud's habits of crafting magic spells, creatingastrology charts, and drawing disturbing images were symptoms ofmental illness.[32] 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".[31]: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".[31]:196 It was during this time that Artaud began writing and drawing again, after a long dormant period.[33] In 1946, Ferdière released Artaud to his friends, who placed him in the psychiatric clinic atIvry-sur-Seine.[34]
At Ivry-sur-Seine Artaud's friends encouraged him to write.[citation needed] He visited aVincent van Gogh exhibition at the Orangerie in Paris and wrote the studyVan Gogh le suicidé de la société ["Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society"]; in 1947, the French magazine K published it.[35]:8 In 1949, the essay was the first of Artaud's to be translated in a United States–based publication, the influential literary magazineTiger's Eye.[35]:8 This rekindled interest in his work.[citation needed]
He recordedPour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu (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.[35]:1 Wladimir Porché, the Director of French Radio, shelved the work the day before its scheduled airing on 2 February 1948.[2]:62 This was partly for itsscatological,anti-American, andanti-religious references and pronouncements, but also because of its general randomness, with a cacophony ofxylophonic sounds mixed with variouspercussion elements, as well as cries, screams, grunts,onomatopoeia, andglossolalia.[citation needed]
As a result, Fernand Pouey, the director of dramatic and literary broadcasts for French radio, assembled a panel to consider the broadcast ofPour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu.[2]:62 Among approximately 50 artists, writers, musicians, and journalists present for a private listening on 5 February 1948 wereJean Cocteau,Paul Éluard,Raymond Queneau,Jean-Louis Barrault,René Clair,Jean Paulhan,Maurice Nadeau,Georges Auric,Claude Mauriac, andRené Char.[36] Porché refused to broadcast it even though the panel were almost unanimously in favor of Artaud's work being broadcast.[2]:62 Pouey left his job and the show was not heard again until 23 February 1948, at a private performance at Théâtre Washington.[citation needed] The work's first public broadcast did not take place until 8 July 1964 when the Los Angeles–based public radio stationKPFK played an illegal copy provided by the artistJean-Jacques Lebel.[35]:1 The first French radio broadcast ofPour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu occurred 20 years after its original production.[37]
In January 1948, Artaud was diagnosed withcolorectal cancer.[38] He died on 4 March 1948 in a psychiatric clinic inIvry-sur-Seine, a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris.[39] 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 drugchloral hydrate, although it is unknown whether he was aware of its lethality.[39][16]
Though many of his works were not produced for the public until after his death—for instance, "Spurt of Blood" (1925) was first produced in 1964, whenPeter Brook and Charles Marowitz staged it as part of their "Theatre of Cruelty" season at theRoyal Shakespeare Company—he has exerted a strong influence on the development of experimental theatre and performance art.[6]: 73 In the introduction to his Selected Works,Susan Sontag asserts that his impact is "so profound" that Western theatre traditions can be divided into two periods – before Artaud and after Artaud".[40]:xxxviii
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 ofKeith Fowler. The Festival included productions ofThe Jet of Blood, All Writing is Pig Shit, and several original ritualized performances, one based on theTexas Tower killings and another created as an ensemble catharsis calledThe Resurrection of Pig Man.[43]
In Canada, playwrightGary Botting created a series of Artaudian "happenings" fromThe Aeolian Stringer toZen Rock Festival, and produced a dozen plays with an Artaudian theme, includingPrometheus Re-Bound.[44]
Charles Marowitz's playArtaud 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.[45]
Artaud also had a significant influence on philosophers.[35]:22Gilles Deleuze andFélix Guattari, borrowed Artaud's phrase "the body without organs" to describetheir conception of the virtual dimension of the body and, ultimately, the basic substratum of reality in theirCapitalism and Schizophrenia.[46] PhilosopherJacques Derrida provided one of the key philosophical treatments of Artaud's work through his concept of "parole soufflée".[47] Feminist scholarJulia Kristeva drew on Artaud for her theorisation of "subject in process".[35]:22-3
PoetAllen Ginsberg claimed Artaud's work, specifically "To Have Done with the Judgement of God", had a tremendous influence on his most famous poem "Howl".[48] The Latin American dramatic novelYo-Yo Boing! byGiannina 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.[49]A novel,Traitor Comet, was published in June 2023 as the first in a series on Artaud's life and his friendship with the poetRobert Desnos.[50] The sequel,L'Etoile de Mer (The Starfish), was published in November 2024, and continues the story of Artaud as he defiesAndré Breton and forms the Theater Alfred Jarry withRoger Vitrac.[51]
^abcdefghiShafer, David A., 1958– (15 April 2016).Antonin Artaud. London, UK. p. 16.ISBN9781780236018.OCLC954427932.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Sellin, Eric (2017) [1975].The dramatic concepts of Antonin Artaud. Thompson, Peter. New Orleans, Louisiana: Quid Pro Books.ISBN9781610273718.OCLC988943807.
^abcJannarone, Kimberly. (2012).Artaud and his doubles (1st paperback ed.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.ISBN978-1280880506.OCLC802057630.
^abcdeDeák, František (October 1977). "Antonin Artaud and Charles Dullin: Artaud's Apprenticeship in Theatre".Educational Theatre Journal.29 (3):345–353.doi:10.2307/3206180.JSTOR3206180.
^abcPatteson, Joseph (2021).Drugs, violence and Latin America: global psychotropy and culture. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-3-030-68923-0.
^LeClézio, Jean-Marie G. (1984). "Antonin Artaud: le reve Mexicain".Europe: Revue Littéraire Mensuelle.667–668.
^Lotringer, Sylvere (2003).Mad Like Artaud (1st ed.). Univocal Publishing. p. 20.ISBN9781937561413.He was no less susceptible to all sorts of delirious ideas, which had continuously justified his internment in an asylum. Dr. Ferdiere, a poet himself, seems not to have doubted for an instant that his symptoms were of a pathologic nature and not a poetic one, as if the two didn't flow from the same source.
^Lotringer, Sylvere (2003).Mad Like Artaud (1st ed.). Univocal Publishing. p. 21.ISBN9781937561413.
^Morfee, Adrian. "Antonin Marie Joseph Artaud".Modern French Poets. Literature Resource Center. Retrieved12 April 2016.
^"Marowitz, Charles (1977).Artaud at Rodez. London: Marion Boyars.ISBN0-7145-2632-0.
^Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari (1980), "28 November 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?" InA Thousand Plateaus. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 149–166.ISBN978-0816614028.
^Derrida, Jacques (1986).Forcener le subjectile (in French). Schirmer/Mosel Publishers.
^Ginsberg, Allen (1995). Miles, Barry (ed.)."Howl" Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography. Harper Perennial. p. 130.ISBN978-0-06-092611-3.
^Sommer, Doris (1998). "Introduction".Yo-Yo Boing! by Giannina Braschi. Pittsburgh: Latin American Literary Review Press.ISBN9780935480979.
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Bersani, Leo. "Artaud, Defecation, and Birth". InA Future for Astyanax: Character and Desire in Literature. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.
Blanchot, Maurice. "Cruel Poetic Reason (the rapacious need for flight)". InThe Infinite Conversation. Trans. Susan Hanson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. 293–297.
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Deleuze, Gilles andFélix Guattari. "28 November 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?". InA Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987. 149–166.
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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.
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