Paul Nougé

Paul Nougé (1895–1967), a biochemist by trade, was a leading light of Belgian Surrealism and its primary theorist, as well as a decisive influence on such future Lettrists and Situationists as Guy Debord and Gil J Wolman, who would take inspiration from his conception of plagiarism for what would come to be termed “détournement.” Decidedly unambitious when it came to literary celebrity, Nougé’s guidance nevertheless steered the Brussels Surrealist group toward a more rational approach to visual and verbal language that contested the Parisian Surrealists’ proclivity for irrationality and occultism.