exquisite corpse

English

Etymology

Calque of French cadavre exquis. First coined in 1925 by surrealists André Breton, Marcel Duhamel, Jacques Prévert, and Yves Tanguy in a similar manner to consequences; the first example was constructed from the following prompt: Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau (“the exquisite corpse will drink new wine”).

Noun

exquisite corpse (countable and uncountable, plural exquisite corpses)

1. (uncountable) A collective art game in which several collaborating artists assemble a sentence or image, usually by following a prompt, or being allowed to see the only last contribution.
   • 1983, Janet A. Kaplan, Remedios Varo (1913–1963): Spanish-born Mexican Painter, Woman Among the Surrealists, page 25:

     […] had collaborated on the Surrealist game of cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse), in which artists made collective collages of words or images.

2. (countable) A sentence or image created as a result of this game.
   • 2019, Kate Haanzalik, Nathalie Virgintino, editors, Exquisite Corpse: Studio Art-Based Writing Practices in the Academy, Parlor Press LLC, →ISBN, page xvi:

     Breton insisted that the collective endeavor to compose an exquisite corpse leads to a pool of epiphanies, analogies, connections that would have been impossible otherwise.

Translations

art game

• French: cadavre exquis (fr) m