Toulouse Le Grandfig
(From the Oxfjord Compendium of Not-So-Good Painters)

Born in Sarlat (France) in 1895, Toulouse Le Grandfig was a minor painter and surrealist writer who's most important contributions are the dadaist works: "Le singe de vol mange le ciel," [1922 ("Flying monkey eats the sky")] and "Singe dans la casserole de cerveau" [1923 "Monkey in the brain pan")]. Though Grandfig's paintings were shockingly original, and showed flashes of technical brilliance, he never evolved as the other surrealists did. (He even refused to acknowledge that dadaism was dead, a stance that even Marcel Duchamp found ridiculous by the late 1920s.) A stern critic of Grandfig, Duchamp once said of him: "If only he were a fucking monkey, then the roto-tiller would certainly ingest my bodily wastes."

Grandfig's surrealist autobiography and masterwork is "Ma batte est une cheminée." ["My bat is a chimney" (Presse De Boue De Porcs, 1937.)] Recently, a previously unpublished collection of photography was uncovered by an afficionado of all things Grandfig, and remains safely obscure in his collection. Little is known of this work, except the title, predicably: "My monkey burns... a holiday in photographs."

It is suspected that he may have left other unpublished and highly toxic manuscripts lying about somewhere.

Click here to see the web version of "My monkey burns ..."

--"Scholarship" by The Squire

Toulouse Le Grandfig liked his silly hats.