Babylon: Surreal Babies

Description

A weird and wonderful collection of postcards of babies. Babies as never seen before! They hatch from eggs, bubble from cauldrons, are fished from rivers, emerge in the cabbage patch, sit atop clouds, ride in zeppelins, play instruments, drive automobiles, fly in balloons, harvest the fields. This is an anarchistic world of baby heaven. James Birch first came across them in France: A froth of smiling babies boiling away in a cauldron caught his eye and he bought the card. Years later, in the 1980s, he visited the Pompidou Centre, Paris, for an exhibition on Surrealism. On display was a collection of the cards, shown because of their importance to both the Dadaists and the Surrealists. For many artists in the 1920s and 30s, they were a source of inspiration and were collected by Salvador Dali, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Hannah Höch, Herbert Bayer, and Man Ray, amongst others. James Birch gathered this collection together as the result of his personal interest in Surrealism. The foreword to the book is one of the very last pieces to be written by George Melly. Probably best known as a jazz and blues singer, writer and broadcaster, Melly was also a respected art critic, a devotee of the Surrealists and an acknowledged expert in the subject. Review: Really cool book