Böcker av Malcolm de Chazal

"Sens-Plastique has now been a companion of mine for nearly 20 years, and so far as I am concerned, Malcolm de Chazal is much the most original and interesting French writer to emerge since the war." -W.H. AudenAfter seeing an azalea looking at him in the Curepipe Botanic Gardens (and realizing that he himself was becoming a flower), Malcolm de Chazal began composing what would eventually become his unclassifiable masterpiece, Sens-Plastique, which would take its final form in 1948. Containing over 2,000 aphorisms, axioms and allegories, the book was immediately hailed as a work of genius by André Breton, Francis Ponge, Jean Dubuffet and Georges Braque. Embraced by the Surrealists as one of their own, Chazal chose to avoid all literary factions and steadfastly anchored himself in his solitary life as a bachelor mystic on the island nation of Mauritius, where he would proceed to write books and paint for the rest of his life. Sens-Plastique employs a strange humor and an alchemical sensibility to offer up an utterly original world vision that unifies neo-science, philosophy and poetry into a new form of writing. Mapping every human body part, facial expression and emotion onto the natural kingdom through subconscious thinking, Chazal presents a world in which humankind is not just made in the image of God, but Nature is made in the image of humankind: a sensual, synesthetic world in which everything in the universe, be it animal, vegetable, mineral or human, employs a spiritual copula. Malcolm de Chazal (1902-81) was a Mauritian writer and painter. Forsaking a career in the sugar industry, he spent the majority of his life in a solitary, mystical pursuit of the continuity between man and nature.

Malcolm de Chazal (Sens Magique):Tout au long de sa vie et de son œuvre, Malcolm de Chazal fut un poète et un artiste alchimique et transcendant. Inutile de dire que le mystère qui l'entoure est en grande partie lié à son écriture. Mais son histoire ne s'arrête pas là.Sa relation avec le mouvement surréaliste et son ésotérisme jouent également un rôle. Il s'est même imposé une existence recluse et méditationnelle qui lui a permis de voir et d'expérimenter la réalité différemment, telle qu'elle est réellement. Ainsi, de son propre aveu, cette expérience l'a guidé vers une approche complètement unique dans sa façon d'écrire.Chacune de ces différentes facettes nous aide à mieux comprendre l'homme derrière son art et son écriture. Mais c'est sans doute son histoire familiale intrigante et ses liens avec l'alchimie qui nous en donne une vision plus précise.Malcolm de Chazal est né en 1902 à l'île Maurice. Il était le treizième et dernier enfant. Sa famille était issue d'une longue lignée d'aristocrate français qui possédait des terres en Auvergne et dans le Loiret. Son ancêtre le Comte François de Chazal de la Genesté s'était installé sur l'île Maurice en 1763, pendant le siècle des Lumières. François était un Rose-Croix qui, dit-on, fabriquait de l'or alchimique à volonté et, grâce à ses dons de voyance, avait prédit tous les événements qui devaient se dérouler pendant la Révolution française.Dans une lettre du pasteur René Agnel à André Breton en 1949, Malcolm de Chazal est décrit comme un «poète, explorateur en cosmologie et en ethnologie, expert en ésotérisme, hétérodoxe, théologien et militant indépendant qui le restera jusqu'à son dernier souffle. Un individu tourmenté par la quête d'une spiritualité véritablement libérée et purifiée, à l'instar de Rimbaud, «l'homme aux semelles de vent» à la recherche de la vie transformée…Malcolm de Chazal et André Breton partageaient une amitié de longue date; en effet, celui-ci figurait sur la liste des surréalistes de Breton. Il était également très apprécié de Georges Braque qui le premier lui suggéra de se lancer dans la peinture, ainsi que de Jean Dubuffet, fondateur de l'Art Brut. Malgré toutes ces recommandations, de Chazal ne souhaitait cependant pas être qualifié uniquement de surréaliste... (Jean Bonnin)

Malcolm de ChazalMalcolm de Chazal (1902-1981) - was born in Mauritius to French parents... To begin with he was a writer and a poet. His most notable books being: Sens Plastique and Sens Magique... W.H. Auden said of him that he was "...the most original and interesting French writer to emerge since the war." And André Breton hailed him as a surrealist.In 1950, at the suggestion of Georges Braque, he began to paint... Better known in the French-speaking world - as an influential artist who stands alone in both his approach and his style - he is now becoming appreciated in the English-speaking world as a free-thinker who is deserving of his place in art history. He was a surrealist, a mystic and an alchemist... Occasionally one glimpses similarities between his work and Van Gogh's, Matisse's and Derain's. He has been described as a post-modernist expressionist. Or, possibly he could be defined as a post-Fauvist. If that is what he was, then he was the essence of what that approach was supposed to embody in its purest form: an animalistic and feral interpretation of the world through bold colours, harnessing the emotions whilst rejecting a rigid representational approach to art. But ultimately, and this is what is exciting about Chazal, he is unlike any other artist... or writer.Magical Sense - is the translation by the author and poet Jean Bonnin of Sense Magique. Seven hundred and fifty-five aphorisms that look at nature, light, colour and sensuality in a unique way. This is one of Malcolm de Chazal's most significant works that should be appreciated for its beauty, originality and quirky otherworldliness. A unique man whose painting and writing is finally beginning to get the appreciation it deserves.