Frederic Delanglade (1907–1970)
Zodiac Signs, 1960s
colored lithograph on paper, 50.5 x 33 cm (plate)
signed lower right: Delanglade
Fascinated by psychiatric and psychoanalytic research into the role of the unconscious and dreams in mental life, as well as by the artistic work of people with mental illness, Frédéric Delanglade joined the Surrealist movement in 1933.
In 1939, he organized an exhibition titled “Dreams in Art and Literature” (French: *Le Rêve dans l’art et la littérature*), in which he devoted significant space to Surrealist painters such as Victor Brauner, Óscar Domínguez, Esteban Francès, Jacques Hérold, André Masson, Matta, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, Kurt Seligmann, Yves Tanguy, Raoul Ubac, Remedios Varo, and Delhy Tejero.
Taken prisoner during the German offensive in June 1940, he escaped and joined the writers André Breton and Victor Serge, as well as the painters Max Ernst, Masson, Dominguez, Brauner, and Wifredo Lama at the Air-Bel villa in Marseille. They were all awaiting visas to America that would allow them to escape the Vichy police and the Nazis. Delanglade took part in group activities, such as drawing “exquisite corpses” (French: cadavres exquis), and in the creation of the Game of Marseille (French: Jeu de Marseille), based on the rules of the Marseille tarot.
In 1943, he went into hiding in Rodez at the home of his friend, Dr. Gaston Ferdière, who was then directing the psychiatric hospital where Antonin Artaud was a patient. After the liberation, he returned to Paris.
In 1946, Frédéric Delanglade was the principal artist behind a large “collective” fresco in the doctors’ lounge (guardroom) of Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris, which had been destroyed during the occupation. Among those who participated in the project were Francis Bott, Oscar Dominguez, Maurice Henry, Jacques Hérold, Marcel Jean, and Manuel Viola.
In 1947, at the request of André Breton, he created one of the Twelve Altars for the International Exhibition of Surrealism at the Maeght Gallery and provided the graphic design for a surrealist deck of cards that was to be published at that time.
He collaborated on the illustrations for The Apocalypse of Saint John alongside Salvador Dalí, Bernard Buffet, and Jean Cocteau in a book presented as the most expensive in the world.
He corresponded regularly with several writers, including Marguerite Yourcenar.
As a fan of Lewis Carroll, he composed the piece *À Lys* —a dreamlike digression on *Alice in Wonderland*. He also illustrated Henry de Montherlant’s *Le Bestiaire céleste*.
The sale of André Breton’s collection led to the rediscovery of this Surrealist.
