Chavée, Achille (1906-1969)

A Belgium French language Surrealist poet. A trained jurist, Achille Chavée practiced as a lawyer at the Mons Bar. An advocate of cultural and political autonomy for Wallonia, he very early on became involved in political life. He published his first collection of poems in 1935 and worked on the Bulletin international du Surréalisme. He supported the Republican side during the Spanish civil war and founded the ‘Hainaut Surrealist Group’ in 1939. During the war he was a Communist resistant fighter. He dissolved the Surrealist Group in 1946 as, according to him, Surrealism had become a fashion, a label.