ars libri ltd.
rare and scholarly books
on the fine arts
ars libri ltd.
rare and scholarly books
on the fine arts
Catalogue 130-N: Modern Art: Rarities of the Avant-Garde
112
GOVONI, CORRADO
Rarefazioni e parole in libertà. 4º migliaio. 49, (7)pp. Drawings and parole in libertà throughout. Sm. folio. Printed wraps. One of the most enchanting books in the literature of parole in libertà, filled with lyrical freehand drawings and typographic compositions enhanced by the spaciousness of the unusual large format. "Govoni's poetry is punctuated with flashes of humor that strongly recall Rimbaud. Elsewhere it swings between lines, handwritten in a deliberately simple and childlike style, and quite extraordinary typographical fantasies which forecast the techniques of concrete and minimalist poetry. Govoni's literary background is stressed by bold page designs which set up a contrapuntal theme throughout the typographical experimentation that changes from one page to the next" (Luciano Caruso, in Jentsch). Covers a bit foxed.
Milano (Edizione Futuriste di "Poesia"), 1915. $2,000.00
Salaris p. 41; Falqui p. 68; Jentsch p. 321
113
GROSZ, GEORGE
Kleine Grosz-Mappe. 20 Originallithographien. (4)pp. (single folding sheet, with title, table and text) and 20 transfer lithographs, loose, as issued. 4to. (290 x 212 mm.). Publisher’s portfolio (pale gold foil over boards, 1/4 cloth, with front cover illustration by Grosz). No. 29 of 100 hand-numbered copies on vélin, from the limited edition of 120 in all. The textual portion is printed on a leaf of pale pink stock, collaboratively designed by Grosz and John Heartfield, with an elaborate dada typographical layout incorporating a large drawing by Grosz on the front, and some 14 vignette embellishments (derived from commercial illustration) within. In Schneede’s estimation, this sheet signals nothing less than the arrival of Dada in Berlin.
"The ‘Kleine Grosz Mappe’ made explicit the close relationship between Grosz’s poems and his drawings by the inclusion of his longest poem, ‘From the Songs,’ in the portfolio. On the title page of the portfolio, a leering, grinning bestial man’s head introduced the theme underlying both the poem and the drawings: man is an animal; man as animal is besotted, beserk; man’s surroundings are staggering, tumultous, reeling. As in the poems of 1918, this poem seems to be a kaleidoscope of images colliding in Grosz’s head while he drank cocktails in a bar. Through a seemingly irrational progression of phrases and ideas, Grosz evoked a vision of the modern city with its stock exchanges, filthy streets, decrepit tenement houses, baroque town houses, grey cement factories, and its incessant advertising--all of which conspired to dehumanize man. In the darkness of this city at night gangsters, murderers, executioners, condemned men, lovers, doctors, drunkards and syphillitics danced the inevitable dance of life and death. The artist, however, drank, stuffed his bulldog pipe, and saw visions of exotic adventure and freedom in South America--the land one longed for--in Colorado, Cuba, Rio, and London, where Jack the Ripper could be found" (Lewis).
The subjects of the lithographs are, in sequence, "Fräulein und Liebhaber," "Strasse," "Strassenbild," "Kaffeehaus," "Goldgräberbar," "Krawall der Irren," "Strasse des Vergnügens," "Werbung," "Gesellschaft," "Cafe," "Spaziergang," "Häuser am Kanal," "Vorstadthäuser," "Die Fabriken," "Die Kirche," "Das einzelne Haus," "Der Dorfschullehrer," "Jägerlatein," "Mord," and "Hinrichtung." Endpapers of the portfolio renewed; a very fine copy. Very rare.
Berlin-Halensee (Der Malik-Verlag), 1917. $20,000.00
Dückers M II; Lang 2; Bülow 7; Hermann 166; Berlin: Malik 5; Siepmann A2; Lewis p. 47f; Motherwell/Karpel 274; Ades 4.23; Düsseldorf 356; Dada Artifacts 32; Rifkind (Davis) 951
114
(GROSZ) Firn, Edgar
Bibergeil. Pedantische Liebeslieder. (16)pp. Lrg. 8vo. Dec. wraps., stitched as issued, with fine cover drawing by Grosz. Rare. One of 1000 copies, from the edition of 1020. "Edgar Firn" is a pseudonym for the writer Karl Döhmann.
Berlin (A.R. Meyer) [1919]. $800.00
Lang 5; Bülow 9
115
(GROSZ, GEORGE)
Wieland. Kalender für das Jahr 1919. [From: Wieland. Deutsche Monstasschrift. Jahrgang 1918/1919, Heft 10. Pp. 1-13.] (14)pp., including full-page cover drawing in black and peach, and 12 full-page plates in blue, yellow, green, peach and black, each with calligraphic monthly calendar (after Grosz’s manuscript) beneath the image. Sm. folio. Self-wraps. One of Grosz’s earliest publications, with fine seasonal drawings in his early Dada manner, though with an almost complete absence of vitriol. Browned and somewhat chipped at extremities. An impressive publication, and very rare.
Berlin, 1919. $2,000.00
Lang 4; Bülow 12
116
GROSZ, GEORGE
Das Gesicht der herrschenden Klasse. 55 politische Zeichnungen. 1.-12. Tausend. (Kleine revolutionäre Bibliothek. Band IV.) 61, (1)pp. 55 plates in text. 4to. Printed boards, 1/4 cloth. As noted by Hermann (and unknown to Lang), two different issues were published: those designated "1.-6. Tausend," bound in wrappers and printed on wood-pulp paper, and those marked "1.-12. Tausend" (as here), which were bound in quarter cloth and printed on non-acidic stock. (There was also a Vorzugsausgabe of 50 copies bound in half vellum, signed).
Kurt Tucholsky, writing in the "Weltbühne," 18. August 1921, remarked "Neben der Mappe ‘Gott mit uns’ das meisterlichste Bildwerk der Nachkriegszeit....Und ich weiss keinen, der das moderne Gesicht der Machthabenden so bis zum letzten Rotweinäderchen erfasst hat wie dieser Eine."
Berlin (Der Malik-Verlag), 1921. $500.00
Lang 25; Bülow 26; Hermann 159; Berlin: Malik 29; Ades 4.31; Motherwell/Karpel 273
117
GROSZ, GEORGE
Im Schatten. 9 Lithos. Title/justification leaf, and 9 photolithographic plates, each signed in pencil by Grosz. Sheet size: 480-494 x 352-391 mm. (18 7/8 - 19 7/16 x 13 7/8 - 15 3/8 inches). Folio (495 x 400 mm.). Publisher’s portfolio (printed boards, 1/4 linen). Contents loose, as issued. Ausgabe D: one of 50 copies on light handmade Bütten paper, from the limited edition of 100 copies in all (Ausgaben A-B-C-D). The title-page contains one additional full-page photolithograph by the artist.
"1921 was one of Grosz's most productive years. The political situtation continued to be unstable. The Free Corps went underground, but nationalist secret societies dispensed "justice" to "traitors" by means of widespread political assassinations. Former minister of finance Matthias Erzberger and foreign minister Walther Rathenau were the most eminent victims in the 354 political murders committed by rightists from 1919 to 1922. In March communist-inspired workers' uprisings were crushed in the industrial-mining centers of central Germany. Reacting in his drawings to the continued disturbances, Grosz, who was busy in IAH affairs that year, was able to produce a portfolio and an educational book, and to illustrate eleven books. His portfolio Im Schatten (In the Shadow) reflected his work with IAH for oppressed and starving workers. The nine original lighographs portrayed the sick side of life in the city and the types who inhabited it. Against a backdrop of factories spewing smoke and apartment houses falling into decay, ranks of workers march in grim determination. One drawing showed the constrasting scenes caught in the shadows of dawn: outside on the street the proletariat begin a day of work, while inside the houses the capitalists finish a night of drink and sex. The rest of the lithographs presented other street types: the crippled war veterans, the beggars, the profiteers, the prostitutes. The worker is only one of all of these types not portrayed as a degenerate figure" (Lewis). Dückers MIV.5 with small clean tear at top edge; intermittent light dustiness, generally very fine.
Berlin (Malik-Verlag), 1921. $20,000.00
Dückers M IV; Lang 24; Bülow 27; Hermann 174; Berlin: Malik 32
118
(GROSZ) Andersen-Nexö, Martin
Die Passagiere der leeren Plätze. Ein Buch in 14 Erzählungen und einem Vorspiel. Mit 12 Zeichnungen von George Grosz. 77, (3)pp. 12 illus. 4to. Dec. wraps., with cover drawing by Grosz. First edition.
Berlin (Der Malik-Verlag), 1921. $350.00
Lang 15; Bülow 23; Hermann 1/3; Berlin: Malik 28; Düsseldorf 366
119
(GROSZ) Daudet, Alphonse
Die Abenteuer des Herrn Tartarin aus Tarascon. Neu übersetzt von Klabund. Mit vielen Vollbildern und Vignetten von George Grosz. 6.-10. Tausend. 163, (1)pp. 98 illus. (20 full-page). 4to. Dec. cloth, printed in color with designs by Grosz on both covers. Layout and design by John Heartfield. This second issue was printed on paper superior to that of the first edition (apart from the Vorzugsausgabe of 100 copies, which were on handmade Bütten). "Ein Hauptwerk in der Illustrationskunst von George Grosz" (Lang).
Berlin (Erich Reiss Verlag), 1921. $400.00
Lang 16; Bülow 25; Siepmann p. 291; Düsseldorf 367; cf. Dückers BA-I, Rifkind (Davis) 959
120
(GROSZ) Jung, Franz
Die rote Woche. (Die Rote-Roman-Serie. Bd. III.) 66, (2)pp. 9 illus. by George Grosz. Lrg. 8vo. Dec. boards, with photomontage by John Heartfield. Discreet contemporary ownership inscription at top of half-title.
Berlin (Der Malik-Verlag ), 1921. $450.00
Lang 19; Bülow 32; Hermann 216; Berlin: Malik 40; Melzwig 313.1; Raabe/Hannich-Bode 145.14; Herzfelde pl. 10
121
(GROSZ) [Simons, Hi]
Grosz. [Musterbook I.] 10, (2)pp., 12 plates. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps., with designs by Grosz, printed in red on both covers. The first publication on Grosz to appear in America. The illustrations are drawn entirely from the "Kleine Grosz-Mappe." "The lithographs here reproduced are published with the permission of Mr. Herman Sachs, director of the Dayton Museum of the Arts, personal representative in America of Mr. Grosz" (prefatory note). Wrappers neatly split at backstrip.
Chicago (Musterbookhouse), 1921. $650.00
Lewis p. 300; Bülow p. 73