page_title: Artaud (album)
section_title: Concept
hierarchical_section_title: Artaud (album) / Concept
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), théoricien du théâtre, essayiste, écrivain et poète français, dans le rôle de Gringalet, du film Le Juif errant de Luitz-Morat [1]. Épreuve retouchée et recadrée. English: Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), theatre director, poet, actor, and playwright. Restored and cropped print.
context_page_description: Artaud is the third studio album credited to Argentine rock band Pescado Rabioso, released in October 1973 on Talent-Microfón. It is essentially the second solo album by singer-songwriter Luis Alberto Spinetta, who used the group's name despite their disbandment earlier that year. The album is named after French poet Antonin Artaud, to whom it is dedicated. The album is named after and dedicated to French poet Antonin Artaud, and was conceived as a reaction to his writings. The album's original packaging is famous for its odd shape, which the record label initially resisted. Spinetta presented Artaud with two morning shows at the Teatro Astral on Avenida Corrientes, which featured him accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. He also gave each audience member a copy of his manifesto Rock: Música dura, la suicidada por la sociedad ), in which he defended his vision about the countercultural Argentine rock movement.
context_section_description: Artaud has been described as "the most literary record of rock nacional", along with Vox Dei's 1971 album La Biblia. Writer Juan Pablo Bertazza considered that the album "reaches the closest and most fertile and visceral point that there can be between music and poetry, or better: between music and literature." Spinetta was an avid reader and literature was a fundamental influence throughout his career; such as Julio Cortázar in Almendra, Carlos Castaneda in Spinetta Jade and Carl Jung and Chinese philosophy in Invisible. At the time of Artaud's composition, the poète maudits and surrealist literature were a great influence on him. In addition to Antonin Artaud, Spinetta read other French poets such as Arthur Rimbaud, René Daumal, Charles Baudelaire, Jean Cocteau, André Breton and Comte de Lautréamont. 
  Spinetta discovered Artaud through Jorge Pistocchi, a journalist and artist. In a November 1972 Pescado Rabioso interview for Gente magazine, Spinetta discussed his affinity with poetry and described Rimbaud as "a rock guy a hundred years ago", as he "developed in a way to express his inner sensuality and to express his own energy in a luminous way". He also mentioned Artaud in the same manner, stating that he: "lived the life of a rocker, like Hendrix... The vibes that Artaud threw for other men to understand were thinking, you see, thinking and thinking, really thinking about what it is that happens. Musically, that's Hendrix, for example." Artaud's influence has been linked to the "iconoclast and libertarian spirit" of the album. 
  Spinetta was particularly influenced by his essays Heliogabalus; or, the Crowned Anarchist (French: "Héliogabale ou l'anarchiste couronné") and Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society (French: "Van Gogh le suicidé de la société"). He envisioned the album as an "antidote" to the nihilistic message and "contagion of pain" conveyed in Artaud's work. Spinetta told author Eduardo Berti in 1988: "Whoever has read him can not escape a quota of desperation. To him the answer of man is madness; to [John] Lennon it is love. I believe more in the encounter of perfection and happiness through the suppression of pain than through madness and suffering. I believe that only if we worry about healing the soul we will avoid social distortions and fascist behavior, unjust doctrines and totalitarianism, absurd policies and deplorable wars. The only way to raise the weight is with love."
caption: Antonin Artaud in 1926. Spinetta was deeply impacted by the suffering conveyed in his writing.
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