A Surrealist with a Gun

Abstract Allen Van Newkirk sought to revitalize the surrealists’ project of transforming everyday life with practices inspired by the series of riots that swept across the United States in the 1960s. Although largely forgotten, Van Newkirk was once a key figure in the underground press, helping to shape the counterculture’s understanding of surrealism’s relationship to contemporary social movements. This article draws on archival research and interviews with Van Newkirk’s collaborators in order to reconstruct his surrealist life. His direct-action approach to surrealism is examined through a close reading of his best-known act, the mock assassination of the poet Kenneth Koch. This provocative action, organized with the anarchist group Black Mask, exemplifies their combined attempt to extricate surrealism from its legacy in the art world and wield it as an insurrectionary weapon. Riot-inspired actions like this one led Van Newkirk to develop a concept of poetry that was identical to revolution.