Section 3 Summary and Analysis

Section 3 begins by invoking "the new," one of the cornerstones of the avant-garde. Linking "the new" and the act of discovery to chance, Breton argues that surrealism always aspires to this.

Section 3 addresses the importance of the object, including both the art object and the found object. Breton relates a trip with sculptor Alberto Giacometti to a flea market in the spring of 1934. At the time, Giacometti was working on a sculpture of a female figure. Breton notes that he has observed the entire process of the sculpture's creation and observes its incompleteness, particularly in regards to the figure's face, signaled the object's "lack." When Giacometti and Breton go to the flea market together, however, they come across two objects that help Giacometti move his sculpture forward and that help Breton articulate his case in Mad Love for the relation between...