Georges Malkine

Who was Georges Malkine?

Georges Alexandre Malkine was the only visual artist named in André Breton’s 1924 Surrealist Manifesto among those who, at the time of its publication, had “performed acts of absolute surrealism." The rest Breton named were for the most part writers, including Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos, and Benjamin Peret. Malkine's 1926 painting Nuit D'amour was the precursor of the lyrical abstract school of painting.

"He has pushed individualism to the point of impertinence! But what art in his expression of the ineffable whenever he took the pains to do so!" — André Breton

"Georges Malkine has left his delicate mark on the window of time, made as with a diamond, without altering its transparence, without blurring the view, leaving the purest trace that can only be discerned from a certain angle and in a certain light." — Patrick Waldberg