Emma

André Breton, 1900
Emma, André Breton
Emma, zoomed in

Emma is a Dadaist Hair Sculpture created by André Breton in 1900. It lives at the Collection of André Breton in Paris. The image is used according to Educational Fair Use, and tagged Sculpture and Hair. See Emma in the Kaleidoscope

A gift from André Breton to Jean-Jacques Lebel, and possibly a reference to the unsettling short story “A Tress of Hair” by Guy Maupassant which contains the passage:

“... One evening, I realized, feeling the thickness of a panel, then there had to be a hiding place. My heart began to beat, and I spent the night looking for the secret without being able to discover. I succeeded the next day by sticking a knife into a slit of the woodwork. A board slipped and I saw, spread out on a black velvet background, a wonderful woman’s hair! Yes, a hair, a huge mat blond hair, almost red, which had to be cut against the skin, and bound by a golden cord. I was startled, trembling, confused! An almost imperceptible perfume, so old that it seemed the soul an odor, flew this mysterious drawer and this amazing relic ... “

Reed Enger, "Emma," in Obelisk Art History, Published March 04, 2015; last modified May 05, 2021, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/andre-breton/emma/.

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