Surrealist Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 20 Mar 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Rach	20 Mar 2004
Hello All! Im doing a dissertation on the significance of Tarot in Surrealist art and I saw mention somewhere of a 'Breton' Tarot, has anyone else heard of this deck? Im kinda new to all this, but Im finding it fascinating, so much has been written on the influence of occultism in Surrealism, but the specific influence of Tarot is relatively unexplored despite Breton and co. loving it to peices! Ta! Love Rach x

baba-prague	20 Mar 2004
Interesting dissertation! I've never heard of a Breton tarot. Of course there is the Dali tarot, but it's questionable how much Dali had to do with it (it's frankly a bit disappointing, though interesting enough in its own way perhaps). I hope someone else here will be able to add more - and of course it would be good to hear how you get on.

Aoife	20 Mar 2004
There is a Breton Tarot at www.playingcardsales.com but it bears no resemblace to what I would describe as surrealist images. edited to say: ooops...sorry..... yes, there is It's called Le Jeu de Marseille If you type 'Breton' into search - it's under general packs.... "a collective effort by eight surrealist artists....." Looks fascinating, and very cheap. Do let us know what you make of it if you get it!

laura_borealis	20 Mar 2004
I don't know much about the surrealist Victor Brauner, but I recently ran across a painting of his that is an interpretation of The Juggler/Magician. Here's a link to the Guggenheim page And here's a bigger version. P.S. just re-read your post and realized you are asking specifically about the Breton deck and not about surrealists and tarot in general. Sorry about just bleeming over your question the first time. But I'll leave my comment because other people might find the painting interesting. As your research progresses, I'd love to hear about what you find out -- and I'm sure others here would too. So feel free to talk about your dissertation!

Cocobird55	20 Mar 2004
I have the Pumariega deck, which is definitely surrealist. The art reminds me of Picasso. Here is a link-- http://www.themysticeye.biz/pics/pumariega.htm If you do a google search, there is some information about Carlos Pumariega. He is a Spanish artist, and has a website, which is interesting but in Spanish, so I didn't quite get all of it. Sue

The Surrealist Tarot thread was originally posted on 20 Mar 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.