Fragment 2, 1971

Joseph Sima  

Josef Šíma (francized as Joseph Sima), born in Jarom, region of Hradec Králové, on March 18, 1891 and died in Paris on July 24, 1971, is a French painter of Czech origin. In Prague, he was a member of the Devtsil group, founded in 1920. He moved to Paris in 1921 as a correspondent for the Devtsil group and met the Dada painter and poet Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, the painters Amédée Ozenfant and Albert Gleizes , and Pierre Jeanneret who are also contributors to the review L'Esprit Nouveau. In 1926, Josef Sima met André Breton and Max Ernst. In 1928, he was one of the founders of Le Grand Jeu and the artistic director of the magazine of the same name. Around Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, René Daumal and Roger Vailland, this group of surrealists refuses Breton's tutelage. Sima acquired French nationality in 1926. He collaborated at length with the poet Pierre Jean Jouve: portrait for Prière (Stock, 1924), engravings for Beau Regard (Au Sans pareil, 1927), La symphonie à Dieu (nrf, 1930), Kyrie (GLM, 1938), Le Paradis perdus (GLM, 1938), Langue (with André Masson and Balthus, 1952). Many drawings and paintings (private collections) are portraits of Jouve or his relatives, or illustrations of his poems, such as La Putain de Barcelona; themes are common to the poet and the artist: crystal, storm. He remains closely linked to the poetic avant-garde of Prague and in 1934 founded the group of the Surrealists of Czechoslovakia.