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
132
GROSZ, GEORGE
Das neue Gesicht der Herrschenden Klasse. 60 neue Zeichnungen. 1.-9. Tausend. 126, (2)pp. 60 full-page plates in text. 4to. Dec. wraps., with front cover drawing by Grosz. Book design by John Heartfield and Wieland Herzfelde.
Berlin (Malik-Verlag), 1930. $350.00
Lang 54; Bülow 90; Hermann 170; Berlin: Malik 232; Lewis p. 276; Spalek 2403
133
(GROSZ, GEORGE)
Le crapouillot. Ancien journal du front français. Revue mensuelle. Numéro special: Les allemands. Avec un grand reportage de Galtier-Boissière et Bernard Zimmer. 109, (11)pp. Prof. illus. Lrg. 4to. New marbled boards, 1/4 cloth gilt. Orig. wraps. bound in. First edition on papier couché with a special cover, limited to 500 numbered copies (apart from the trade issue). It includes 10 drawings by Grosz, drawn from various sources (1 on special paper hors texte at the conclusion).
[Paris, 1930]. $250.00
134
GROSZ, GEORGE
Bagdad-on-the-Subway. A portfolio of six signed watercolors depicting O’Henry’s New York. (The Print Club Portfolio Number Two, Spring 1935.) Letterpress title and table, printed in red and black, and six collotype and pochoir color facsimile plates, each signed and numbered in pencil by the artist. Sheet size: 523 x 380 mm. Large folio. Publisher’s cloth portfolio (burlap over boards, with gilt cloth label on the front cover). All contents loose, as issued. Edition limited to 150 copies in all, printed on Arches paper by Daniel Jacomet in Paris. The Limited Editions Club, with which The Print Club was affiliated, had earlier in the same year published a selection of short stories by O’Henry entitled "The Voice of the City," for which Grosz had furnished 20 watercolor illustrations. Six of these were chosen for reproduction, in a larger format, in "Bagdad-on-the Subway." In May 1935, the six watercolors were exhibited at the Contempora Galleries in New York next to the facsimiles, to show the fidelity of the reproduction. Backstrip of the portfolio expertly renewed (with the original surface relaid); a fine copy.
New York (The Print Club), 1935. $3,500.00
Dückers M VII; Lang 68; Bülow 106
135
(GROSZ) Henry, O.
The Voice of the City and Other Stories. A selection, with an introduction, by Clifton Fadiman and illustrations by George Grosz. xi, (3), 220, (6)pp., 20 color plates of watercolors by Grosz. 27 line-drawn illus. Title-page illus. in color. 4to. Cloth. Slipcase. Edition limited to 1500 hand-numbered copies, signed in the colophon by Grosz.
New York (The Limited Editions Club), 1935. $400.00
Lang 69; Bülow 107; Wheeler p. 103
136
(GROSZ) Dresler, Adolf
Deutsche Kunst und entartete "Kunst." Kunstwerk und Zerrbild als Spiegel der Weltanschauung. 79, (1)pp. 55 illus. Sm. 4to. Cloth. D.j. (taped at edges). An historic association copy, from the library of George Grosz, inscribed "Grosz 1938 March/ Douglaston" (with paraph under signature) in pen on the front flyleaf. This fulminating work is, in all essentials, an amplification of the guide to the notorious "Entartete Kunst" exhibition held in München in 1937, from which many of the illustrations have been drawn. Now more closely resembling a textbook, it expatiates on the bases of Aryan and degenerate (or ‘Jewish-Bolshevist’) art. Grosz, whose work was richly documented in the exhibition, is prominently represented here with a full-page plate at the beginning of the volume, carrying the comment ‘George Grosz, one of the most miserable daubers, excels in many of his so-called "works" in mocking our soldiers at the front. The illustration above is included in an "art" portfolio with the title "Murder in the Ackerstrasse." One of the Jewish critics praises this Grosz as "a natural-born aristocrat" and galleries are eagerly buying this criminal junk.’ The illustration is tendentiously made to face a full-page plate of "Appel am 23. Februar 1933," a Nazi propaganda painting of two heroically square-jawed soldiers buckling themselves into uniform, their eyes gazing far into an idealistic distance as they respond to the call. Interestingly, Grosz’s illustration is not "Mord in der Ackerstrasse" at all (a print of a sex crime, dating from the earlier twenties or before) but a caustic attack on the clergy from his portfolio "Die Räuber." Evidently, the publishers (or author) slipped up in the course of production, a fact which may have given Grosz a moment of wry satisfaction. A little light foxing.
München (Deutscher Volksverlag), 1938. $850.00
137
GROSZ, GEORGE
Drawings. With an introduction by the artist. 14, (2)pp., 52 collotype plates (3 color). Lrg. 4to. Cloth, 3/4 blue morocco. T.e.g. Slipcase (cloth). A unique presentation copy, inscribed by Grosz on the first blank leaf "to my uralde friends Erich & Lene [Cohn] in friendship as ever/ George Grosz." With elaborate paraph ornament of a pen and a brush tied with a ribbon, and at left an impressionistic drawing of the New York skyline, dated January 55. Following this is an original watercolor and pencil drawing of a dignified older gentleman in a homburg hat, executed in yellow, pink, blue, grey and black washes on cream colored paper (sight 53 x 95 mm.), tipped onto a blank leaf under a small cut paper frame. The drawing is inscribed in pencil at lower right "George Grosz/ to my dear friends Erich & Lene/ NY 1951; before our departure for the old country." Beneath the frame, the supporting leaf is signed once again in ink. Loosely inserted in the copy is a sheet of Erich Cohn’s letterhead stationery, with several pencil sketches noted to be by Grosz. Additionally laid in is a postcard from Grosz to Cohn, dated New York, February 7, 1946, expressing pleasure at seeing some of his older drawings in Cohn’s collection, and asking them to forward an issue of Life magazine (typed, but signed, and also addressed, in pen). A remarkable ensemble. Erich Cohn was one of Grosz’ oldest and closest friends, both in Germany and later in the U.S.; their correspondance figures in "George Grosz Briefe, 1913-1959" (Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1979). Grosz’ reference to the "old country" in the inscription alludes to his brief return to Germany in the summer of 1951.
New York (H. Bittner & Co.), 1944. $4,000.00
Lang 76; Bülow 111; Freitag 4912
138
GROSZ, GEORGE
Autograph letter, signed, dated Huntington, Long Island, 31 July 1958. 1f., written in a bold hand in fountain pen, on the recto of Grosz’s decorated letterhead. 4to. A wryly amusing letter (in German), in which Grosz thanks the Baron for the Zarrañaga cigars, a marvelous blessing in this age of filtered cigarettes. He is smoking one now, as he writes, and it goes well with the coffee and the tv--no cognac, unfortunately, as he is on the wagon. His teeth are gone; he says he looks like Rembrandt’s last self-portrait. Grosz’s dada-inspired stationery features the slogan "Time Marches On" at top, most appropriately.
Huntington, 1958. $750.00
139
GROSZ, GEORGE
George Grosz: An Autobiography. Translated by Nora Hodges. vii, (1), 309, (3)pp. Prof. illus. Dec. boards, 1/4 morocco. Clamshell box (cloth, 1/4 morocco.) Special collector’s edition, limited to 150 numbered copies, each accompanied by an original page from one of Grosz’s sketchbooks, from the estate of the artist. A new edition of "Ein kleines Ja und ein grosses Nein." The leaf with this copy (loosely inserted in cloth folder, as issued) is a fine early drawing, heavily worked in blue and ink, of a young man hunched over a table, reading beside a large glass-domed oil lamp. It is dated "24.12.12" in pen by the artist, and bears the blind-stamp of the George Grosz Estate at lower left.
New York (Macmillan Publishing Company), 1983. $2,500.00
Bülow 118b
140
HEARTFIELD, JOHN
AIZ ("Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung") and VI ("Volks Illustrierte"). A collection of issues with photomontages by John Heartfield. In all, the collection includes a total of 63 of the famous political photomontages made by Heartfield for these two radical weekly newspapers in the 1930s, during the rise of Nazism and the time of the Spanish Civil War. Altogether, the collection contains 50 photomontages for issues of the "Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung," commonly known as "AIZ" ('Workers' Illustrated Newspaper'), and 13 for issues of "Die Volks-Illustrierte," known as "VI" ('People's Illustrated'). Heartfield's photomontages in these publications are among the most brilliant and influential examples of political satire of the century. Though published in large editions, these newspapers were seldom preserved, and are consequently quite rare, particularly in fine condition. The present group includes some of Heartfield's best designs, such as "Ob schwarz, ob weiss" (Vol. 10, No. 26), "Zum Brandstifter-Prozess in Leipzig" (12/41), "Der Henker und die Gerechtigkeit" (12/47), "Folgt dem Beispiel Spaniens!" (15/9), "Stimme aus dem Sumpf" (15/12), "Normalisierung" (15/31), "Seit einem Jahr kämpft Spanien für die Freiheit und den Frieden!" (VI 1937/30), and the unforgettable "Mahnung" (VI 1937/41), inevitably seen as a prefiguration of the Vietnam war.
Contents as follows:
AIZ : 50 assorted issues: 1930: Vol. 9, No, 41. 1931: Vol. 10, No. 2. 1932: Vol. 11, No. 44. 1933: Vol. 12, Nos. 21, 22, 25, 26, 29, 31, 32, 34, 41, 47, 50. 1934: Vol. 13, Nos. 3, 6, 12, 16, 18, 21, 25, 26, 29. 1935: Vol. 14, Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 33, 35, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 50. 1936: Vol. 15, Nos. 1, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 28, 29, 31.
VI : 13 assorted issues: 1936: Nos. 12, 14, 19, 20. 1937: Nos. 4, 9, 20, 24, 30, 32, 34, 41, 46.
The collection is unbound and in exceptionally fine condition. Altogether, 28 of the issues of "AIZ" are complete (in addition to the Heartfield photomontage); while in the group of "VI," 3 of the issues are complete (the remainder being partial issues or, in 4 cases, the individual photomontage pages alone). Further details on request.
Berlin/Prague, 1930-1937 $35,000.00
Evans, David. John Heartfield: AIZ/VI, 1930-1938 (New York: Kent Fine Art, 1992).
141
(HEARTFIELD) Tucholsky, Kurt
Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles. Ein Bilderbuch von Kurt Tucholsky und vielen Fotografien, montiert von John Heartfield. 231, (5)pp. Prof. illus. 4to. Publisher’s yellow cloth, with complex colored photomontage design by Heartfield laid into embossed portions of both covers, as issued. First edition of Tucholsky’s scathing anthology, filled with both documentary photographs and photomontages by Heartfield. Heartfield’s brilliantly colored binding is among the masterpieces of the twentieth-century avant-garde book design. Second printing (31.-50. Tausend). Covers very slightly faded and rubbed, generally fine.
Berlin (Neuer Deutscher Verlag), 1929. $750.00
The Avant-Garde in Print 5.7; Andel 89