Magic Art - A New Enquiry

In his 1957 book L’Art magique, the founder of the surrealist movement, André Breton, sought to place surrealism as a successor to a magical sensibility that, he believed, began with the prehistoric cave art of Europe. Dr Robert J. Wallis, Senior Lecturer in Art History, is one of 32 contributors to the first English translation of Breton’s work, recently published by Fulgur Press as Magic Art – A New Enquiry, who offer contemporary responses to Breton's concerns. Wallis’ article, ‘Re-enchanting the Anthropocene’, questions Surrealism’s colonial fascination with the ‘art’ and ‘religion’ of prehistoric and Indigenous peoples and explores how several Indigenous artists working today offer a radical decolonising of modern art.