Antonin Artaud

Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, known as Antonin, was born in Marseille on 4 September 1896. From adolescence he stayed in nursing homes, and the laudanum prescribed to him in 1919 made him dependent. Settled in Paris in 1921, he acted in the theatre under Charles Dullin and in cinema for Dreyer and Abel Gance, and for a time associated with the Surrealists. He left in 1936 for Mexico, to the Tarahumaras, then in 1937 for Ireland, from where he was repatriated and confined. He spent nine years in psychiatric hospital, three of them at Rodez, where he underwent electroshock, left in 1946 and died in 1948.

In the catalogue 1

• EssayThe Theatre and Its DoubleLe Théâtre et son doubleAntonin Artaud · 1938LiteraturePublic domain