Andre Frénaud , 1907-1993, is one of the poets French more signifcatifs of the generation which, in second half of the 20th century, succeeds the surrealist movement .

Biography

André Frénaud was born the July 26th 1907 with Montceau-the-Mines (Saône-et-Loire). After secondary studies with Dijon, it proceeds in the ways of Philosophy and the Right to Paris. It is in 1930 French reader at the University of Lwów (in Poland at that time), voyage in Russia, Spain and Italy. It enters in 1937 a public administration which it will leave only in 1967.

Mobilized in 1939 it is made prisoner and spends two years in captivity in Brandebourg before being released and returned to France thanks to false paper. Having started to write in 1938, its poems appear, under the pseudonym of " Benjamin Phelisse" , in the clandestine publications of Resistance directed by Paul Éluard and it takes an active part in the review Messages of Jean Lescure. Its collections thereafter will be regularly published at Gallimard, as well as discussions with Bernard Pingaud on his poetry and poetic creation in general. It receives in 1973 the Grand Prix of poetry of the French Academy and in 1985 the national Grand Prix of Poetry.

Frénaud will tie durable friendships with the painters Raoul Ubac and Jean Bazaine of which it will accompany by his forewords the exposures. Its poems will be also illustrated by many other artists. He collaborated fruitfully with the editor, poet and artist Pierre André Benoit with Alès.

In 1971, André Frénaud marries the Relieur Monique Mathieu which has developed for a few years an important and personal work supported by bibliophiles of foreground. The couple acquires and restores an old house with Bussy-the-Large, in Coast-with Or, and arranges a workshop there where Monique Mathieu will connect many works of her husband as well as their friends literary men and painters.

He dies in Paris the June 21st 1993.

Selective bibliography

• the Magi , Villeneuve-the-Avignon, Seghers, 1943.
• Poems of lower part the floor followed the black Wedding , Gallimard, 1949.
• It does not have there a paradise , Gallimard, 1962.
• the Stage in the clearing , Gallimard, 1966.
• the Magi , corrected edition, Seghers, 1966; final edition, Gallimard, 1977.
• the Holy face , Gallimard, 1968.
• Since always already , Gallimard, 1970.
• Our inhabileté fatal (talks), Gallimard, 1972.
• the Witch of Rome , Gallimard, 1973.
• Haeres , Gallimard, 1982.
• No one is not mislaid , Gallimard, 1986.
• Glose with the witch , Gallimard, 1995.

Several of these collections were republished in the collection Poésie/Gallimard:

• the Magi followed the Stage in the clearing , 1987
• There is no paradise , with a foreword of Bernard Pingaud, 1967
• the Witch of Rome with Since always already , with a foreword of Peter Broome, 1984
• the Holy Face , 1985
• No one is not mislaid , with Haeres , 2006

Choices of poems of Andre Frénaud were the object of bilingual editions or in foreign languages (German, Dutch, Italian, Serbo-croatian, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Macedonian, Rumanian, Albanian, English).

The texts of Andre Frénaud on the painting of Raoul Ubac were gathered in:

• Raoul Ubac and bases of its art , Editions Adrien Maeght, 1984.

Illustrated editions (1944-1974)

• blue Cow in the city, with a Lithography of Jean Dubuffet, Paris, Pierre Seghers, 1944.
• “the black Wedding , with lithographies of Jean Bazaine, Paris, Pierre Seghers, 1946
• Poems of Brandebourg , with six engravings of Jacques Villon, Paris, French Re-examined News, 1947.
• the Woman of my life , with an engraving of Jean Fautrier, Paris, A. Blaizot, 1947.
• Enormous figure of the goddess reason”, with an engraving of Raoul Ubac, Paris, the care of Alain Trutat, 1950.
• the Peasants , with etchings of Andre Beaudin, Paris, J. Sapwood, 1951.
• whole Source , with five lithographies of Fernand Leger, Paris, Seghers, 1952.
• is to be been worth , with a drawing of Maurice Estève, Alès, P.A.B, 1955.
• Chemins of the vain hope , with stroke engraving of Roger Vieillard, Paris, Mr. de Romilly, 1956.
• Passage of the Visitation , with an etching of Jacques Villon, Paris, G.L.M, 1956.
• the Night of prestige , with a drawing of Jean Bazaine, Ales, PA.B., 1956.
• In the dark tree , with two engravings of Andre Beaudin, Ales, P.A.B., 1956.
• Poor small children , wood of Raoul Ubac, Ales, P.A.B., 1957.
• badly arrow Heart , with a gouache of Pab, Ales, P.A.B., 1957.
• Pays finds , with an engraving of Jean Hugo, Alès, P.A.B., 1957.
• the Castle and searches it poem , wood of Raoul Ubac, Alès, P.A.B., 1957.
• Christmas with the railroad , with engravings of Joan Miro, Alès, PA.B., 1959.
• Agonie of the general Krivitsky , with five drawings and an original engraving of André Masson, Paris, P.J. Oswald, 1960.
• Old memory , with an engraving of Jean Bazaine, Paris, the Couch, 1960.
• Tomb of my father , with etchings of Maurice Estève, Paris, Galanis Editions, 1961.
• For the office for the dead, with engravings on wood of Raoul Ubac, Ales, P.A.B., 1961.
• the Way of the soothsayers followed Ménerbes , engravings of Eduardo Chillida, Paris, Maeght editor, 1966.
• Old country followed Countryside , with engravings of Raoul Ubac, Paris, Maeght, 1967.
• the Mirror of the man by the animals , engravings of Joan Miro, Paris, Maeght, 1972.
• Glares and fume by the countryside , with engravings of Maria Elena Vieira da Silva, Ales, P.A.B., 1972.
• Mines of nothing, small be delirious , with engravings of Raoul Ubac, Veilhes, Gaston Puel, 1974.

On Andre Frénaud

• Jean Lescure, Andre Frénaud or poetry with breast height , in Poetry 45 , n° 22 and 23, Paris, Seghers, February and March 1945.
• Georges-Emmanuel Clancier, Andre Frénaud , Paris, Seghers, 1953 (republication in 1963).
• Andre Frénaud , texts of Raoul Ubac, Yves Bonnefoy, François Capon, Pierre Lecuire, Jacques Réda, Bernard Pingaud, poems of Andre Frénaud and bibliography), House of the Culture of Amiens and National center of art and culture Georges-Pompidou, Paris, 1977.
• Andre Frénaud , texts and testimonys, in particular of Paul Éluard, [[Jean Follain], Raymond Queneau, Jean Tardieu, Jean Lescure, Jean Bazaine, Yves Bonnefoy, Georges-Emmanuel Clancier, Pierre Seghers], Marseilles, Southern n°39-40, 1981 .
• Andre Frénaud and Jean Tardieu , Marseilles, South, 1983.
• To read Frénaud , Editions P.U.L., 1984.
• Frénaud PAB Ubac 1948 - 1981 , Ales, Museum Library Pierre Andre Benoit, 1995.

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