A Potted Biography of Antonin Artaud
Portrait of the Short Life of the Influential French Artist
Sep 16, 2009
Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud was born in Marseille on 4 September 1896 to a wealthy shipping agent and his wife. At the age of five he became seriously ill and was diagnosed with meningitis.
At the age of nineteen, he spent time in a sanatorium for nervous disorders. When he left he was called up into the army, but after nine months at a military training camp he was released on medical grounds. For the next few years, Artaud spent time in a number of sanatoria and started taking laudanum.
Artaud's Move to Paris
In 1920, he moved to Paris and lodged with Dr Edouard Toulouse, head psychiatrist at the asylum at Villejuif and founder of the literary periodical Demain. At first Toulouse gave Artaud light work, but soon left him to run Demain in which he published a number of his own poems and articles.
Artaud met major figures of Parisian artistic society, including the director of the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre, Aurélien Lugné-Poe. He appeared as an actor at Lugné-Poe’s theatre, then later joined the Atelier led by Charles Dullin, one of the first proponents of a total theatre in which movement, gesture, mime and sound are at least as important as words. He left to join Georges Pitoeff’s company at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées.
Artaud and Surrealism
After his father died in 1924 Artaud was no longer financially supported, so he acted in films to earn an income. He also became involved in the Surrealist movement, becoming director of the Surrealiste Bureau de Recherches. He edited the third edition of La Révolution Surréaliste, in which he published open letters to the heads of institutions that the Surrealists opposed: the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the Schools of Buddha, head doctors of asylums and rectors of European universities.
In 1926, Artaud and playwright Roger Vitrac created the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, named after the controversial playwright. The November issue of NRF published the First Manifesto of the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, containing the seeds of his Theatre of Cruelty. The Surrealists accused Artaud of commercialism and Artaud disagreed strongly with their decision to join the Communist party, so they formally expelled him in November 1926.
In 1927 he played Marat in Abel Gance’s Napoléon and the friar in Carl Dreyer’s La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc on film. His script, The Seashell and the Clergyman, was filmed by Germaine Dulac and Artaud loudly proclaimed his dissatisfaction with it, but when Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou and Cocteau’s The Blood Of A Poet were hailed as Surrealist classics, he claimed that they merely followed his lead.
Balinese Dance
Artaud saw a display of Balinese dancing in 1931 that he believed realised many of his ideas on theatre. His article on Balinese theatre in NRF began a series of articles and lectures which later formed the heart of his book The Theatre and its Double. The First Manifesto of the Theatre of Cruelty was published in October 1932 in the NRF.
He adapted Seneca’s Atreus and Thyestes, wrote a scenario for Conquest of Mexico, worked on a play based on Shelly’s The Cenci, completed his book Heliogabalus and wrote the Second Manifesto of the Theatre of Cruelty over the next couple of years. The Cenci opened in May 1935 at the Théâtre des Folies-Wagram but was a critical and a box office failure. Artaud took this badly, believing, correctly, that it signalled the end of his career in theatre writing and directing.
In 1936, Artaud went to Mexico to study the culture of the tribal indians and experienced the hallucinogenic drug peyotl. The following year he became engaged to be married to Cécile Schramme and had treatment for his drug addictions, but neither was to last long. By this time he was fascinated by magic and mysticism and was convinced that a sword he had obtained in Havana had magical powers and a walking stick he had been given by a friend once belonged to St Patrick. In 1937, he travelled to Ireland to return St Patrick’s cane to its homeland.
Dublin and Artaud's Arrest
The events of September 1937 in Dublin are unclear, but Artaud was detained by the police and put onto the SS Washington bound for Le Havre. Whilst on this ship, Artaud attacked a steward and a mechanic but was overpowered and put into a straitjacket. In Le Havre he was handed over to the French authorities who imprisoned him in an asylum.
As Artaud was moved between asylums, his friends campaigned for his release but it was six years before they managed to have him transferred to Rodez under psychiatrist Gaston Férdière. Although he continued to behave strangely and to fantasise, he did some translation work and wrote essays about his trip to Mexico. Férdière began to use the new electric shock therapy, which Artaud found extremely traumatic.
Artaud's Release
In 1946, Férdière agreed to Artaud's release provided that he was financially supported. Artists and writers including Picasso, Duchamp, Giacommetti, Braque and Sartre donated work for auction. A benefit performance at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt included Breton, Dullin, Adamov, Barrault and Collette Thomas. He was given lodgings at a private clinic at Ivry-sur-Seine.
Artaud began to write furiously, day and night. He was to read three of his poems in January 1947 at the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, but instead launched into a tirade against his psychiatrists. After seeing a Van Gogh exhibition he wrote the essay Van Gogh, ‘suicided’ by society. In November 1947 he began recording To Have Done with the Judgement of God for French radio, but it was banned from broadcast the day before it was due to go out, despite furious protests from the artistic community.
By this time Artaud was suffering from cancer of the anus and was taking increasing amounts of laudanum for the pain. On the morning of 4 March 1948, he was found dead sitting at the foot of his bed. His funeral, without religious rites, took place at the cemetery at Ivry.
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