The aim of this thesis is to provide a survey of E.L.T
Mesens' activities within the Dada and Surrealist movements and an
initial assessment of his work.
The thesis outlines Mesens' career and considers his work
as an organiser and polemicist of the Dada and Surrealist movements in
Belgium and the Surrealist movement in England. The period in which
Mesens initiated Dada activities in Brussels and developed important
contacts with Paris, though brief, affected his whole outlook on art and
poetry. The development of Dada and the work of a number of
European Dadaists whose work influenced Mesens' own development and
the Dada movement in Antwerp and Brussels is discussed. Differences
emerged between the theory and practice of Surrealism in Paris and
Brussels and the thesis considers the diverging development of
Surrealism in each of these centres. Mesens' involvement in the
Surrealist movement in Belgium is examined and his theoretical position
is appraised. The thesis also briefly outlines late nineteenth and early
twentieth century art movements in Belgium, in particular Symbolism
and Expressionism, in order that the Dada and Surrealist movements may
be seen in context.
Mesens' main efforts were concentrated in his work as
an art dealer in Brussels and London, where he promoted the work of
Dada and Surrealist artists in particular. From 1954 onwards, however,
he turned to the making of collage, a medium which he hod already
explored during the 1920's. The thesis will provide an examination of
Mesens' work as an art dealer in Belgium between 1928 and 1938, and in England between 1938 and 1950. It will provide an analysis of
Mesens' poetry, mostly written between 1923 and 1940, and his collages
both of the early period in the 1920's, and later from 1954 until his
death in April 1971
