His ideas were inspired by his contempt for the bourgeois values and traditional attitudes towards art that existed at the time. This volume contains the famous manifestos that first appeared between 1916 and 1921 that would become the basic texts upon which Dada was based. For Tzara, art was both deadly serious and a game. The playfulness of Dada is evident in the manifestos, both in Tzara's polemic—which often uses dadaist typography—as well as in the delightful doodles and drawings contributed by Francis Picabia. Also included are Tzara's Lampisteries, a series of articles that throw light on the various art forms contemporary to his own work. Post-war art had grown weary of the old certainties and the carnage they caused. Tzara was on the cutting edge at a time when art was becoming more subjective and abstract, and beginning to reject the reality of the mind for that of the senses.

    “Desnos more than any of us got closest to the Surrealist truth,” wrote André Breton in the first Manifesto of Surrealism (1924): “He speaks Surrealist at will.” Mourning for Mourning was published the same year, it was Desnos’s first book. This was during the early experimental period of Surrealism - the period of Sleeping-fits, of the investigation of the subconscious through dream and trance states and through automatic writing. Robert Desnos proved to be the most gifted practitioner. So gifted, indeed, that the trance sessions had to be discontinued after various disturbing incidents: on one occasion he tried to stab Paul Eluard, on another he was discovered attempting to persuade other members of the group to hang themselves.This is the first English translation of Deuil pour Deuil.

    Lumsden, the renowned etcher, Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and author of the article on etching technique in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (14th edition), was unsurpassed in his knowledge of the methods and the background of the art. His work is invaluable for the absolute beginner as well as for more advanced etchers, who will find it a matchless survey of various techniques and a major sourcebook for the history of their art. Professor Lumsden carefully and clearly explains each step in the creation of an etching, from essential materials to completed proof. Fifty-five figures in the text illustrate each implement and each phase in the process, while 24 annotated plates of etchings by the author exemplify every technique and approach that he discusses. Well acquainted with all the beginner's problems, the author shows you how to prepare etchings at home in the most economical way. He includes many different choices of method and a great variety of recipes and formulas, some dating from medieval times, and many virtually unobtainable elsewhere. His discussion covers grounds and grounding the plate; points, scrapers, burnishers, and gravers; mordants; plan of an etching room; methods of biting; printing; mistakes and their remedy; transferring; aquatint, drypoint, and mezzotint; flattening and mounting; restoring; and every other aspect of etching. In addition to these valuable practical lessons in etching, the book also features a rich historical survey of the art, illustrated by 105 annotated plates, and containing a full description of each artist's oeuvre and techniques. Fullest coverage is given to the central position of Rembrandt (27 plates) and Goya (8 plates), but such men as Callot, Piranese, Durer, Leyden, Hogarth, Blake, Whistler, and 35 others are also included.