1
APOLLINAIRE, GUILLAUME
Les peintres cubistes. (Méditations Esthétiques.) Première série [all published]. Deuxième édition. (Tous Les Arts. Collection publiée sous la direction de M. Guillaume Apollinaire.) 84pp., 45 plates. 4to. Cloth, 3/4 leather. “Whatever its faults, ‘The Cubist Painters’ still breathes, nearly forty years later, with the immediacy of life. But Apollinaire’s enthusiasm was not blind; he saw cubism’s inner structure with great clarity for his time; he wrote his book after discussions with the painters; and many of his generalizations hold true, not only of cubism, but of the various modes of ‘abstract’ painting that keep appearing again and again, in ‘waves’....” (Robert Motherwell, in 1949).
Paris (Eugène Figuière), 1913. $750.00
Biro/Passeron 102;
2
ARP, HANS
Sciure de gamme. (Collection “Un Divertissement.”) Sm. 8vo. Self-wraps., stitched with yellow string, as issued. One of 100 copies on yellow papier Le Roy Louis teinté Béarn, from the limited edition of 110 copies in all. Five poems: “Configuration,” “Configuration [II],” “Les pieds du matin,” “Est-ce que ça se recroqueville,” and “Les pigeons bossus.” From the library of André Breton, with the book’s ticket from the Breton sale, Paris 2003. Rare.
Paris (H. Parisot), 1938. $750.00
Rolandseck 113; Hagenbach 10
3
ARTS ET MÉTIERS GRAPHIQUES
Numéro spécial consacré à la photographie. Introduction by Waldemar George. Cent trente photographies réunies avec la collaboration de Sougez. (Arts et Métiers Graphiques. No. 16. Mars 1930.) 166, (8)pp. Prof. illus. with full-page heliogravure plates. Lrg. 4to. Orig. wraps., spiral-bound. This special issue of “Arts et Métiers Graphiques,” was retroactively designated the inaugural issue of the annual “Photographie,” published in 11 volumes, 1930-1940, 1947. One of the most beautiful in the series, it contains sumptuously printed plates by Man Ray, Parry, Tabard, Kertesz, Krull, Moholy-Nagy, Steichen, Albin-Guillot, Sheeler, Bayer, and others. Covers slightly creased and chipped, but a nice copy.
Paris (Arts et Métiers Graphiques), 1930. $200.00
4
BARR, ALFRED H., JR.
Cubism and Abstract Art. Painting, sculpture, constructions, photography, architecture, industrial art, theatre, films, posters, typography. Catalogue by Dorothy C. Miller and Ernestine M. Fantl. 249, (1)pp. 223 illus. 4to. Cloth. D.j. (light wear at spine). This copy with the rare and important dust jacket, which displays Barr’s genealogical chart of the movements of modern art (the chart appears nowhere in the book itself).
Arntzen/Rainwater I237; Lucas p. 71
5
(BEUYS, JOSEPH)
similia similibus. Joseph Beuys
zum 60. Geburtstag. Herausgegeben
von Johannes Stüttgen. 280pp. Prof. illus.
Title-page stamped in blue with the seal of the
Köln (
Schellmann 380
6
(BIENERT COLLECTION)
Grohmann, Will. Die Sammlung Ida Bienert,
Spalek 307
7
BLOSSFELDT, KARL
Wunder in der Natur. Bild-Dokumente schöner Pflanzenformen. Mit einer Einführung von Otto Dannenberg. (8)pp., 120 gravure plates. Tipped-in frontis. portrait of the photographer. Sm. folio. Publisher’s cloth. Front flyleaf trimmed away; a little light wear.
8
DER BLUTIGE ERNST. NO. 4
Satirische Wochenschrift. Herausgeber: Carl Einstein, George Grosz. 1. Jahr, No. 4 (of 6 issues published in all). “Sondernummer IV. Die Schieber.” [December 1919]. (8)pp. 4 illus. by George Grosz (including full front cover and double-page spread within). Tabloid folio. Texts by Carl Einstein, Walter Mehring, Richard Huelsenbeck. “Grosz’s satirical drawings and caricatures still drew a certain amount from the Simplicissimus tradition, but with the introduction of montage (there are two lounging burghers set against a background of newspaper cuttings advertising cabarets and dance halls, with the caption ‘Work and do not despair,’ on the cover of ‘Der blutige Ernst’ no. 4, December 1919), and with the addition of photographs, the political cartoon is given a new edge, no longer relying on caricature for effect” (Ades). Some small splits and marginal tears at central foldline and elsewhere, but clean and otherwise fresh.
DadaGlobal 37; Ades pp. 83, 88; Almanacco dada 13.4; Raabe 85; Tendenzen 3.194; Andel: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950, illus. 168
9
BRETON, ANDRÉ
Manifeste du surréalisme. Poisson soluble. 190, (4)pp. Publisher’s orange wraps. Uncut. The very rare first edition. “The birth certificate of Surrealism was made out at the end of 1924, when André Breton published his ‘Manifeste du Surréalism’” (Marcel Jean). The word itself, however, had been in circulation for several years, accumulating a number of different meanings, and Breton’s manifesto was an attempt to codify and clarify these, emphasizing “pure psychic automatism.” A little light wear.
Paris (Éditions du Sagittaire, chez Simon Kra), 1924. $1,200.00
Sheringham Aa99; Pompidou: Breton p. 172; Gershman p. 7; Sanouillet 41; Rubin 454; Jean: Autobiography p. 117ff.; Milano p. 649
10
BRETON, ANDRÉ & RIVERA, DIEGO
Pour un art révolutionnaire indépendant.
Sheringham Ad298; Gershman p. 8; Biro/Passeron p. 344; Jean: Autobiography p. 375ff.; Milano p. 66; Sawin p. 21f.
11
BRETON, ANDRÉ
Autograph letter, signed and dated
An important dossier from the Breton estate documenting
his involvement in this famous 1960 exhibition. Described as the last
International Surrealist Exhibition, it was co-organized by Breton with Marcel
Duchamp, who assisted in the design of the installation and the catalogue (and
actually did most of the work). In his letter, Breton sets out three categories
of artists whose work might be exhibited (supplying a separate three-column
list of each on a separate page): first, the great pioneers, Duchamp, Picabia,
de Chirico, Ernst, etc. (he cautions it’s probably not possible to send works
for sale by these from France); second, current exponents “qui représentent
aujourd’hui dans le surréalisme les forces vitales spécifiques (Benoît,
Elléouët, Dax, Mimi Parent, sans oublier Toyen, depuis longtemps parmi nous)”;
and last, “tels artistes qui, sans participer rigoureusement de l’activité
surréaliste, offrent avec elle assez d’affinités,” among whom he mentions
Svanberg, Oelze, artists from the movement Phases, and others. Most interesting
is Breton’s elaboration of this last category in the separate list, where he
includes “Jaspers Johns” and Robert Rauschenberg, along with Alechinsky, Baj,
Copley, Fahlström, and others. He also provides a short list of contemporary
artists who he thinks merit solo exhibitions at a later date, headed by Toyen.
He closes by saying that while he will remain in
même confiance qu’à moi.”
Bonnefoy’s reply (in French, annotated here and there by Breton in pencil) is itself of considerable interest, going into the arrangements made by Édouard Jaguer, Julien Levy’s agreement to do the translation of the French texts (“une très bonne chose, si l’on considère la reputation dont il jouit içi”), and sending news about his contact with (or failure to reach) some of the artists, including Baziotes, Carrington, Maria, Hirshfield, and others. He also asks Breton for his opinion of the title Levy has proposed for the show, “Tournament of the Enchanters,” (“ce titre a l’avantage d’être à la fois charmant et de souligner un thème précis sur lequel sera basé la décoration fantasque”), next to which Breton writes “D’accord.” With the printed dossier for this lot from the Breton sale, Paris 2003.
Cf.: Sheringham Ac640; Pompidou: Breton p. 423; Biro/Passeron p. 392 (illus.); Rubin 438; Jean: Autobiography 176; Milano p. 659f.
12
(BURCHARTZ) Küpper, Hannes
(editor)
Technische Zeit. Dichtungen. (Essener
Bibliophilen-Abend. 4. Jahresgabe.) 72, (2)pp. 4to. Publisher’s bright orange
boards. Slipcase (orange boards). Edition
limited to 150 numbered copies, printed on Zerkall-Bütten. An
anthology of poems on technology, machinery, and industry, by Stefan Zweig,
Whitman, Lilienkron, Brecht, Sandburg, Goll, Graf, Küpper, and others.
Max Burchartz, then teaching at the Folkwangschule in
13
(BURTY COLLECTION)
Édition de tête: one of 20 copies
on Japon, this copy for presentation to Henri Cernuschi, the great Parisian
connoisseur of Japanese and Chinese art, whose collection was opened after his
death as the Musée Cernuschi, in 1898. The catalogue of the first collection of
Japanese objects to be sold in
14
COLLÈGE DE ‘PATAPHYSIQUE
A collection of periodical and serial publications, booklets, cards, leaflets and other items published by the Collège de ‘Pataphysique. 52 items. Prof. illus. Primarily 8vo. Orig. dec. wraps. and self-wraps. The whole is housed in an archival storage box (black boards). Among the items included are Jean Dubuffet’s “Oukiva Trene Sebot, par Jandu Bufe,” illustrated with drawings by Dubuffet and Pierre Bettencourt (from the “Collection Traître Mot”), Bonnard and Jarry’s “Soleil de printemps” and René Clair’s “Une supposition” (both published in the “Collection Haha”), Luc Étienne’s “Polka des Gidovilles” (“Collection Euterpe & Polyhymnie”) and other booklets and pamphlets in the “Collection des Phynances,” “Collection Q,” “Collection des Astéronymes,” and other series. Many of these are from numbered limited editions. Periodical items include “Organographes du Cymbalum Pataphysicum,” Nos. 2/3, 4, 12/13, 15/16, 15/16 bis, 15/16 ter, 15/16 quater, 21/22, 23, 27, and 28; “Monitoires du Cymbalum Pataphysicum,” Nos. 1-5; and “Cahiers du Collège de Pataphysique,” Nos. 26/27 and 28. Among the ephemera are pataphysical postcards (“Jean Paulhan n’existe pas”), the “Second manifeste du Collège de Pataphysique,” and circulars and prospectuses of all kinds.
15
DER DADA. NO. 2
[December 1919.] “Dada siegt!” Direction: R.
Hausmann. (8)pp. 6 illus., including superb
photomontages by Hausmann (front cover) and Baader (‘Vision of the Oberdada in
the Clouds of Heaven’), collage by Hausmann (“Gurk”), ink drawing by Grosz, and
reproductive woodcut by Höch (in an advertisement for the never-published “Dadaco.”
4to. Dec. self-wraps. Texts by Hausmann (“Der deutscher Spiesser ärgert sich,” “[Club
Dada] Tretet dada bei”), Huelsenbeck (“Ende der Welt”), and Baader (“Reklame
für
Dada Global 42; Ades p. 86f., 4.66; Almanacco Dada 33; Gershman p. 49; Bergius p. 414; Dada Artifacts 40; Motherwell/Karpel 68; Rubin 463; Verkauf p. 178; Tendenzen 3.190; Düsseldorf 454; Zürich 372; Andel: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900 1950, illus. 162-163
16
DER DADA. NO. 3
[April 1920.] Directeurs:
groszfield, hearthaus, georgemann [Raoul Hausmann, George Grosz, John Heartfield].
(18)pp. Prof. illus., including magnificent
photomontage cover design by John Heartfield (and also a facetious abstraction
by him, “Expressionistische Quintessenz”), and reproductions and documentary
photographs of work by Hausmann, Grosz, and others. Headlines,
line-drawings and other illustrations partly in red. Sm.
4to. Orig. dec. self-wraps. (printed in blue,
on pink stock). “The third and final issue of ‘Der Dada’ in April 1920 was
edited by ‘groszfield, hearthaus and georgemann.’ This, and the 1920
International Dada Fair in May, mark the maximum point of Dada’s expansion into
Berlin and the period of closest cooperation between the Herzfelde brothers and
Grosz, and the opposite pole of Hausmann, Huelsenbeck and Baader” (Ades).Texts
by Huelsenbeck [“Huel+sen+bag”] (“Dada-Schalmei,” “Ein Besuch im Cabaret Dada,”
“Trauerdiriflog”); Hausmann (“Dada in Europe”).,Herzfelde [“Progress-Dada”] (“Das
Dadalyripipidon”), Walter Mehring (“Ich”), Picabia [“Popocabia”] (“Manifest
Cannibale Dada,” “A voix basse: pensez-vous à l’honnêté?”). “‘Der Dada no. 3 is
by far the most visually complex of the issues.... a marvelous combination of
collages, photographs, illustrations, poetry, and advertisement, with
international intentions. Photographs of the Dadaists include their titles:
Marshall George Grosz and the Dadasoph Raoul Hausmann. The issue contains a
cartoon of Dada in
Dada Global 43; Ades p. 86f., 4.66; Almanacco Dada 33; Gershman
p. 49; Bergius p. 414; Verkauf p. 178; Rubin 463;
Motherwell/Karpel 68;Tendenzen 3.205; Düsseldorf 455; Zürich 372; Andel: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900 1950, illus. 164
17
DADA. NO. 7: DADAPHONE
Editor: Tristan Tzara. (8)pp. 10 illus. (halftone
photographs). 4to. Self-wraps., stapled as issued, with front cover design by
Picabia. Contributions by Tzara, Picabia (“Manifeste
Cannibale Dada”), Breton, Éluard, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Soupault, Cocteau,
Paris (Au Sans Pareil), 1920. $9,500.00
Dada Global 174; Ades p. 65; Almanacco Dada 32; Gershman p. 49; Admussen 70; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 284; Sanouillet 226; Motherwell/Karpel 66; Rubin 462; Verkauf p. 178; Reynolds p. 110; Dada Artifacts 118; Zürich 374
18
(DADA PROGRAM)
“la nourrice américaine, par Francis Picabia, musique sodomiste interprétée par
Marguerite Buffet,” “manifeste baccarat” by Ribemont-Dessaignes, enacted by
Soupault, Breton and Berthe Tessier, “système DD” by Louis Aragon, “je suis des
javanais” by Picabia, “poids public” by Paul Éluard, and “vaseline symphonique,”
by Tzara, among other things; foxtrots were played on the famous organ,
accustomed to Bach; Ribemont-Dessaignes performed his “danse frontière,”
wrapped in a large cardboard funnel oscillating at its tip. The audience,
pettishly put out by the Dadas failing to have their heads shaved as promised,
pelted the participants with tomatoes, rotten eggs, bread rolls, and, from one
corner, veal cutlets, a novel touch. Slight fading, light
browning at the original foldlines. Association copy,
from the collection of the surrealist artist Toyen, with the discreet stamp “Succession
Toyen” in the lower margin of the verso.
Documents Dada 20; Dada Global 229; Almanacco Dada p. 607; Sanouillet 306; Motherwell/Karpel 45, p. 111ff., illus. p. 179; Dachy p. 136 (illus. in color); Düsseldorf 257; Zürich 443; Tendenzen 3.112
19
(DADA MANIFESTO)
Dada soulève tout. [Dated:]
Documents Dada p. 53; Dada Global 234; Ades 8.45; Almanacco dada, illus. p. 620; Gershman p. 56; Sanouillet 271; Motherwell/Karpel 33, p. 182, illus. pp. 182, 190; Verkauf p. 100; Dada Artifacts 128; Düsseldorf 260; Zürich 447; Tendenzen 3.122
20
(DADA INVITATION)
Dada Global 242; Documents Dada 36 ; Sanouillet 313
21
(DADA PROGRAM)
Held during the run of the famous Salon Dada at the Galerie Montaigne (6-30
June), the evening’s entertainments, in addition to “Le coeur à gaz,” included “La
chanson du catalogue de l’exposition,” performed by a Mme. E. Bujaud on the
piano; Soupault’s “La boite d’allumettes (Le Président de la République de
Liberia visitera l’exposition)” and “Diableret,” a piano duet; Aragon’s “A l’évangile”;
a dance, “La volaille miraculeuse,” performed by Valentin Parnak; “Le livre des
rois,” by Ribemont-Dessaignes; “Par le cou des brises,” by Éluard; “Le vol
organisée,” by Péret. Faint foldline at center; a fine copy.
Documents Dada 35; Dada Global 241; Almanacco Dada p. 629; Sanouillet 340; Tendenzen 3.129; Zürich 451
22
(DADA POSTER)
Mariaburg [
Mariaburg, 1926. $1,800.00
23
(DELAUNAY/ LAURENCIN)
Les peintres R. Delaunay, Marie Laurencin [Invitée],
Vriesen, Gustav & Imdahl, Max: Robert Delaunay (New York, 1969), p. 39f.; Gordon, Donald E.: Modern Art Exhibitions 1900-1916 (München, 1974), p. 553f.
24
DEVETSIL
Revolucní sborník. J. Seifert & K. Teige,
editors. 202, (6)pp. Prof. illus. 4to. Wraps. (a few expert mends at
backstrip). Texts by J. Seifert, V. Nezval, K. Teige, J. Cocteau, I. Goll, I.
Erenburg, A. Cerník, A.M. Písa, et al.; illus. of work by Léger, Chagall,
Lipchitz, Archipenko, Zadkine, Shterenberg, Teige, and others. Conclusion in parallel French, Russian and German. The ‘Revolutionary
Almanac’ of the Czech-based Devetsil group (‘Union internationale des artistes
d’avant-garde révolutionaire’), founded in 1920 and focused on radical
political progress, social and technological utopia, and the creation of a new
role for the artist in society. “While the opening chapter, ‘New Proletarian Art,’
written by Teige and Seifert at the beginning of 1922, promotes the ideas of
Devetsil’s first phase, the closing chapter, ‘Art Today and Tomorrow’
(Seifert), opens new perspectives on international modernism and in many
respects takes a quite opposite view” (Frantiszek Smejkal, in Oxford). An important association copy, with the signature of the writer
Kamil Novotny (who was to write the introduction to the
Praha (V. Vortel), 1922. $950.00
Primus 12, illus. 1;
25
DIX, OTTO
“Syphilitiker.” (Karsch 15a.)
Original etching, inscribed and signed in the margin
in pencil: “Ätzrad. Syphilitiker Dix 1920.” Plate size: 247 x 222/225 mm.
(approximately 9 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches). Sheet size: 391 x 343 mm. (approximately
15 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches). This extremely rare print is one of the early
masterpieces of Otto Dix’s graphic oeuvre. According to Karsch, two editions of
it were made, both printed on heavy ‘Kupferdruckpapier’ of the same dimensions:
a small number of proofs (Karsch 15a; only unnumbered examples are known,
although 10 numbered proofs were apparently printed), and an edition of 20
copies (Karsch 15b) included in Dix’s portfolio “5 Radierungen,” issued by the
Dresdner Verlag in August 1921 (“Graphischen Reihe, 3. Mappe”)
under the direction of Karl Nierendorf. As auction records indicate, the
latter edition was numbered.
‘The Syphilitic’ is one of twelve etchings made by Dix in 1920, his first works
in the medium. Brilliantly savage and anarchic, the group has a brutal
immediacy which is not seen thereafter in his prints. Karsch repeatedly refers
to the relentless sense of psychological and political exposure in them, Dix (‘wielding
his burin like a scalpel’) coolly slicing open to view the vice and misery of
life in the
This copy has apparently been trimmed in the margins (Karsch gives the sheet size as 490 x 396 mm.); it also appears to bear traces of an erased pencil edition number in the margin, before the word “Ätzrad.”; it is otherwise in fine, bright condition. A very rich impression. $25,000.00
$25,000.00
26
DRESLER, ADOLF
Deutsche Kunst und entartete “Kunst.” Kunstwerk und Zerrbild als Spiegel der Weltanschauung. 79, (1)pp. 55 illus. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps. 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, with reproductions of works by Dix, Grosz, Beckmann, Schwitters, Klee and others, as well as approved National Socialist models.
München (Deutscher Volksverlag), 1938. $225.00
Spalek 204; Rifkind 424; Rifkind Bibliography p. 64; Barron: “Degenerate Art” p. 280
27
DRESLER, ADOLF
Deutsche Kunst und entartete “Kunst.” Kunstwerk und Zerrbild als Spiegel der Weltanschauung. (49)ff. (versos blank) with 56 illus. Sm. 4to. Publisher’s printed paper portfolio. Contents loose, as issued. Portfolio edition of the foregoing.
München (Deutscher Volksverlag), 1938. $250.00
Spalek 204; Rifkind 424; Rifkind Bibliography p. 64; Barron: “Degenerate Art” p. 280
28
(DUCHAMP) Transition. No. 26
Winter 1937. A quarterly review. Editor: Eugene Jolas. 220pp. Prof. illus. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps., printed in color. “Duchamp designed the cover for issue no. 26 of ‘Transition’ from a reproduction of his Readymade ‘Comb’ and an image of the journal’s masthead. The same reproduction (but without the ‘Transition’ masthead) is included in all copies of ‘The Box in a Valise,’ 1941. According to Sylvia Beach, James Joyce told her jokingly that ‘the comb with thick teeth shown on this cover was the one used to comb out ‘Work in Progress’” (Schwarz). Apart from the Duchamp design, this is one of the best issues of “Transition,” with texts and images by Agee, Arp, Eluard, Jarrell, Jolas, Joyce, Copland, Man Ray, Léger, Moholy-Nagy, Mondrian, Panofsky, Calder and others. A beautiful copy.
Schwarz 457; Naumann 5.16; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1910-1950, illus. 456
29
(DUCHAMP) VVV. No. 2/3
March 1943 [Almanac for 1943]. Poetry, plastic arts, anthropology, sociology, psychology.
Editor: David Hare. Editorial advisers: André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Max
Ernst. 143, (1)pp. Prof. illus. (including color
plates, movable tabs, inserts). Lrg. 4to. Dec. wraps., designed by Marcel Duchamp, with inset chicken-wire
panel on back cover. Presentation
copy, inscribed in pen “pour Joseph Solomon/ Marcel Duchamp” on the
title-page. The special double issue, “Almanac for 1943,” with cover
design by Duchamp, featuring the famous chicken-wire inset in the back cover
(exposing Frederick Kiesler’s “Twin-Touch-Test” beneath), as well as an
allegory of death, lifted from an anonymous engraving, on the front. Texts by Breton (“Situation du Surréalisme entre les 2 guerres”),
Rougement, Brauner (“Du Fantastique--I. en
Peinture II. au Théâtre”), Kiesler (“Design-Correlation”), Cravan, Seligmann (“Prognostication
by Paracelsus,” “Surrealist Bibliography”), Tanning (“Blind Date”), Roditi,
Carrington (“Two Young Peruvian Poets”), et al. Illustrations by and after
Brauner, Carrington, de Chirico, Dominguez, Duchamp, Ernst, Hare, Kiesler, Lam,
Laughlin, Masson, Matta, Gypsy Rose Lee, Sage, Seligmann, Tanguy, Tanning, and
others. Dominated by the distinguished exile community which in the early ‘40s
had begun to arrive in
Schwarz 495; Naumann 6.7; Gershman p. 55; Ades p. 386f.; Biro/Passeron p. 426; Rubin 483; Reynolds p. 127; Jean (1980) 135; Milano p. 577f.
30
(DUCHAMP) Dreier, Katherine S.
& Matta Echaurren [Roberto Sebastián]
Duchamp’s Glass. La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même. An analytic reflection. (18)pp. Sm. 4to. Wraps., spiral-bound. Edition limited to 250 copies. “In a milieu given to pronouncements, perhaps it was the unassertive nature of Duchamp that made him a catalytic force. Quietly a Duchamp mystique developed...and young American artists began knocking at his door. Since he did not have a gallery and little about him had appeared in print, the booklet ‘Duchamp’s Glass, an Analytical Reflection’ which Matta and Katherine Dreier published in 1945, must have contributed to this underground reputation” (Martica Sawin). Covers expertly reinforced at inner edges.
Motherwell/Karpel 246a; Rubin 230; Reynolds p. 38; Sawin p. 320
31
(DUCHAMP) View.
Vol. V, No. 1
March, 1945. [Marcel Duchamp Number. The modern magazine. Editor: Charles Henri Ford. 53, (1)pp. Prof. illus. Lrg. 4to. Dec. wraps., especially designed for this issue by Duchamp. This special issue on Duchamp represented the first major monograph on his work, involving a wide roster of his friends and supporters. Duchamp himself was directly involved in its layout and design, creating a superb new image for the cover (typographically elaborated on the back of the issue as “Quand/ la fumée de tabac/ sent aussi/ de la bouche/ qui l’exhale,/ les deux odeurs/ s’épousent par/ INFRA-mince” [When the tobacco smoke also smells of the mouth which exhales it, the two odors are married by INFRA-thin]). Another special feature of the issue was an elaborate colored foldout designed by Frederick Kiesler at the center, with volvelles and cut-outs, which was so expensive to produce that Parker Tyler dubbed it “Kiesler’s folly.” Texts by Charles Henri Ford, André Breton, James Thrall Soby, Gabrielle Buffet, Robert Desnos, Harriet Janis, Sidney Janis, Nicholas Calas, Frederick J. Kiesler, Parker Tyler, Leon Kochnitzky, Philip Lamantia, et al. Illustrations after Duchamp, Man Ray, Florine Stettheimer, Joseph Cornell, Max Ernst, Maya Deren, Yves Tanguy, and Matta. A fine copy, inscribed in pen “pour Joseph Solomon/ Marcel Duchamp” at the head of the table of contents.
Schwarz 508; Naumann 6.15;
32
(DUCHAMP/PICABIA)
Marcel Duchamp Francis Picabia. Dec. 1953 - Jan. 1954. (4)pp. (single sheet, folding), printed in orange and blue, with images by Duchamp and Picabia on front and back covers. Lrg. 8vo. Self-wraps. Francis Naumann attributes the design of the catalogue to Duchamp, who had already done this for the little catalogue Rose Fried put out the previous year, “Duchamp Frères & Soeur: Oeuvres d’Art.” The front cover reproduces “Montgolfier,” his rotorelief of a hot-air balloon; the back reproduces a mechanomorphic portrait by Picabia of Apollinaire.
Naumann 7.5
33
(DUCHAMP) Linde, Ulf
Marcel Duchamp. 65, (5)pp. Prof. illus. (tipped-in frontispiece, printed in red and black). Sm. 4to. Wraps. D.j. (small loss at top corner). Published in conjunction with the exhibition of April-May 1963. This copy is signed in pen by Duchamp on the title-page. It also contains the very rare checklist insert, printed on tissue, with facsimile statement in Duchamp’s hand printed in turquoise ink at the base: “For the show at Mrs. Buren’s I thoroughly agree with your idea to have every Readymade shown in exact replicas/ Marcel.”
Cf. Schwarz 557b
34
(DUCHAMP)
Marcel Duchamp. A retrospective exhibition.
Oct.-Nov. 1963. Introduction by Walter Hopps. (54)pp. Prof. illus. 4to. Wraps. The largest exhibition thus far on the artist’s work, organized by
Walter Hopps with Duchamp’s close participation. Duchamp designed the
cover of the catalogue and the poster of the show, as well as supervising its
installation. A fine copy, handsomely
inscribed in pen “pour Joseph Solomon/ en revenant de
Schwarz 589; Naumann 8.37
35
(DUCHAMP) )
Not Seen and/or Less Seen of/by Marcel Duchamp/Rrose Selavy, 1904-1964. Mary Sisler Collection. Jan.-Feb. 1965. Foreword
and catalogue texts by Richard Hamilton. (80)pp.
Prof. illus. Lrg. 4to. Wraps. “The Mary Sisler
Collection was the most important private collection of works by Duchamp, and
the exhibition, a historical event. It was the first and the most inclusive
Duchamp retrospective to be held by a private gallery in the
Schwarz 616; Nauman 9.1
36
(DUCHAMP)
Marcel Duchamp. Schilderijen, Tekeningen, Ready-mades, Documenten. Feb.-May 1965 (28)pp., 16 plates with 18 illus. 1 fig. Sm. 4to. Wraps. Inscribed in pen “pour Joseph Solomon/ Marcel Duchamp” on the title page.
37
(DUCHAMP)
“Hommage à Caissa.” For the
Marcel Duchamp Fund of the American Chess Foundation. Group
exhibition
38
(DUCHAMP-VILLON, RAYMOND)
Keller, Jean & Duchamp-Villon, Raymond. Les sémaphores. Bouffonnerie sensorielle en 1 acte. 63, (1)pp. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps. (very slightly dusty). One of 100 hand-numbered copies on vélin, probably constituting the entire edition. Published posthumously, after Duchamp-Villon’s tragic death at the age of forty-one, this comic spoof was written while he was convalescing in an army hospital, in collaboration with a doctor friend. “Suivront des pièces des jeux d’échecs, le rédaction d’une ‘petite comédie burlesque écrite avec un camarade [Jean Keller] pour une représentation dans un hôpital du front. Elle est très spéciale de la guerre et n’a rien qui vise le grand public’ [Walter Pach]. Pour cette pièce, intitulée ‘Les Sémaphores,’ il dessine également des costumes.” “Si l’austerité qui caractérise la ‘Tête du Professeur Gosset’ suggère la direction que la sculpture de Duchamp-Villon aurait pu prendre, ‘Les Sémaphores,’ avec ses personnages absurdes, ses accessoires bizarres, et ses situations incongrues, révèlent la possible affinité du sculpteur avec Dada et le théâtre surréaliste d’après-guerre” (Judith Zilczer, in the Centre Pompidou catalogue).
The front cover--with its amusing line-drawing of a mantle clock with no hands, the dial simply reading “Il est trois heures” in script--is surely Duchamp-Villon’s design, as must be the surrealistic vignette in the justification, showing a pipe stem curling
out of an open window (and its smoke curling back
again in the shape of a question mark). That, remarkably, no trace of the work
seems to exist in the Duchamp-Villon or Duchamp literature prior to 1998
(including the careful 1967 monograph by George Heard Hamilton and William C.
Agee, with bibliography by Bernard Karpel) is one index of its great rarity. A
fine copy, from the library of André
Breton, with the ticket for this book from the Breton sale,
Châlons-sur-Marne (Imprimerie-Librairie de l’Union Républicaine), 1918. $3,000.00
39
ERNST, MAX
La femme 100 têtes. Avis au lecteur par André Breton. (328)pp. 147 captioned full-page illustrations after collages of
steel engravings. 4to. Dec. wraps., with vignette
illustration by Ernst on the front cover. New fitted
clamshell slipcase (cloth and boards). Preferred edition: one of 88 numbered copies on Hollande
Pannekoek, from the limited edition of 1000 in all.
“Ernst produced the first of the three collage novels in 1929 while staying at
a farm in the Ardèche. He had taken with him a collection of nineteenth- and
early twentieth-century magazines and journals whose wood-engraved
illustrations had fascinated him for years as he browsed among the bookstalls
of the
Paris (Editions du Carrefour), 1929. $6,500.00
Tours 7; Spies/Metken 1417-1563 (after); Rainwater no. 21, p. 63ff.; Gershman p. 20; Skira 113; Ades 9.98; Reynolds p. 43; Villa Stuck 38; Franklin Furnace 132; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1910-1950, illus. 428-429
40
ERNST, MAX
Une semaine de bonté, ou les sept éléments capitaux.
Roman. 5 vols. (10)pp., 182 full-page plates of
collages of steel engravings. 4to. Publisher’s dec. carton slipcase, the front
cover with mounted illustration by Ernst on green stock. One of 800 copies on
papier de
Ernst’s third and final collage novel, assembled in a great burst of energy in
just three weeks, and much the longest and most complex, serially issued in
five separate cahiers from April through December 1934. The work is orchestrated
in seven sections, corresponding to the days of the week, and correlated also
with the alchemical elements. “In the five books of ‘Une semaine de bonté,’
Ernst developed a set of iconographical forms based on a wide variety of
sources, including Freudian dream theory, alchemy, and his personal life
experiences. Taken together, his three collage novels exhibit a poetic and
pictorial genius that establishes them as some of the most extraordinary
monuments of twentieth-century art. Their unique character was recognized by
Breton, who proclaimed that ‘it is Max Ernst’s magic passes that have awakened
the book, physically, from its centuries-long slumber: the pages which he has
enchanted, rather than merely ‘decorated’ are so many eyelids that have started
to flutter. It is the ‘verdant paradise’ of the child’s first picture-book, as
well as the herbarium in which every plant consents to flower a second time’”
(Evan M. Maurer). Light wear to spines and slipcase.
Paris (Jeanne Bucher), 1934. $6,500.00
Spies/Metken 1904-2085; Hugues/Poupard-Lieussou 11; Beyond Painting 51; Rainwater 33a and pp. 78-91; Ades 12.150; Hubert pp. 269-286; Andel 134; Reynolds p. 44; Stuttgart 76; Villa Stuck 36; Milano p. 651; Castleman p. 161; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1910-1950, illus. 430-431
41
FRIEDLANDER, LEE
Cray at
42
GLEIZES, ALBERT
Vom Kubismus. Die Mittel zu
seinem Verständnis. 56pp., 17 plates. Printed wraps. Originally published in
43
GRÄFF, WERNER (editor)
Innenräume. Räume und Inneneinrichtungsgegenstände
aus der Werkbundausstellung “Die Wohnung,” insbesondere aus den Bauten der
städtischen Weissenhofsiedlung in
44
(GRAMATTÉ) Büchner, Georg
Lenz. Ein Fragment. Mit zwölf Radierungen von Walter Gramatté. (Hamburger Handdrucke der Werkstatt Lerchenfeld. 7. Buch.) 51, (3)pp., 12 original etchings. Tissue guards. Folio. Publisher’s heavy pastepaper boards. Edition limited to 150 hand-numbered copies on uncut van Gelder paper, printed for the Buchbund Hamburg; etchings printed by Alfred Ruckenbrod in Berlin.
One of Gramatté’s most important works as a printmaker, followed a year later by a suite after Büchner’s “Wozzeck,” also of 12 etchings but not in book form. “In the same way that they turned to spiritual, religious, or mystical subjects, the second-generation [Expressionist] artists were drawn increasingly to the depiction of states of mind. Walter Gramatté executed a series of illustrations for the novella ‘Lenz’ by Georg Büchner, which tells the story of a young man in eighteenth-century German who is torn between his search for God and the unrelenting suffering that thrusts him towards atheism. Gramatté’s prints convey the sympathy that he and his fellow artists felt for this questing soul” (Stephanie Barron, in “German Expressionism 1915-1925”). Slightest scuffing at edges of the binding; an exceptionally fine copy.
Eckhardt, Ferdinand: Das graphische Werk von Walter Gramatté (Zürich, 1932), nos. 182-193; Lang 95; Jentsch 157; Rifkind/Davis 846; Schauer II.82; Barron, Stephanie (ed.): German Expressionism 1915-1925: The Second Generation (Los Angeles, 1988), p. 35, no. 78
45
HERZOG, OSWALD
Zeit und Raum. Das Absolute in Kunst und Natur. 62, (2)pp., 2 plates with 3 halftone illus. 3 full-page diagrams in text. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps. A work of aesthetic theory by the Expressionist sculptor. An early member of the Novembergruppe, Herzog was actively promoted by Herwarth Walden, who sponsored an exhibition of his sculpture at the Galerie Der Sturm in 1919. Rare, this book is overlooked in standard discussions of the artist and his writings. Light wear.
Berlin-Frohnau [1928]. $275.00
Cf. Barron, Stephanie: German Expressionist Sculpture, p. 100f.
46
DAS HOHE UFER
Eine Zeitschrift. Herausgegeber Hans Kaiser.
Erster [-zweiter] Jahrgang (all published). vii, (1),
314, iv, 168pp., advts. Prof. illus., including
original prints by Max Burchartz (lithograph) and Bernhard Dörries (woodcut). Sm. 4to. Contemporary boards, 3/4 red cloth gilt. A complete run of this avant-garde review. “In
Raabe 55; Perkins 203; Söhn VI.626; Almanacco Dada 68; Barron, Stephanie: German Expressionism 1915-1925: The Second Generation (Los Angeles, 1988), p. 112; Dietzel/Hügel 1364; Diesch 3000
47
HUELSENBECK, RICHARD
En avant Dada. Eine Geschichte des Dadaismus. 1.-5. Tsd. (Die Silbergäule. Band 50/51.) 44, (4)pp. Lrg. 8vo. Orig. wraps., with elaborate dada typographic composition, printed in red. “[An] extraordinary positioning of German Dada in 1920. In it Huelsenbeck relates his perspective on the Zürich Dadaists, the Futurists, the Cubists, and on psychology. Taking a position against Tristan Tzara, he sets up the German position that all art and culture is a fraud, a moral safety valve, and should be renounced; and that one’s ideas should only be transformed into life through action” (Dada Artifacts). A little light wear.
Hannover/Leipzig/Wien/Zürich (Paul Steegemann), 1920. $800.00
Dada Global 67; Bergius p. 388; Dada Artifacts 47; Motherwell/Karpel 6; Verkauf p. 101; Gershman p. 24; Rubin 118; Düsseldorf 425; Zürich 325
48
ICHIUJI, GIRYO
Rittai-ha, Mirai-ha, Hyogen-ha [Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism]. (378)pp., 51 plates (6 color). Sm. 4to. Dec. boards, 1/4 cloth. Cardboard slipcase, with mounted illustration after Archipenko. Extensively illustrated, including several plates of comparable new Japanese paintings. The leftist critic Giryo Ichiuji was a figure of some importance in the ideological schisms--Marxist, anarchist, and aesthetic--that began to appear in the Sanka milieu in 1925. “In 1924 Ichiuji published two books on modern art and in both discussed Dada to some extent (‘Rittai-ha, Mirai-ha, Hyogen-ha’...; [and] ‘Kindai Bijutsu 16-kou [16 Lectures on Modern Art].... In the earlier work he accepted Dada’s decadence as the purity of the modern consciousness....” (Omuka). Following this, in 1925, Ichiuji became an advocate of a new Marxist art movement, Zokei, which had come out of Sanka. “While at the time of its formation Zokei artists were still continuing their experimentation in abstract painting and expressionism, their rhetoric was strongly indebted to Ichiuji’s forceful proletarian convictions” (Weisenfeld). Intermittent red-pencilling in text.
Omuka, Toshiharu: “Tada=Dada (Devotedly Dada) for the Stage: The Japanese Dada Movement 1920-1925,” in: Janecek, Gerald & Omuka, Toshiharu: The Eastern Dada Orbit... (Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, Vol. 4; New York, 1998), pp. 291 n. 46, 333; Weisenfeld p. 118f.
49
JARRY, ALFRED
César antéchrist. 146, (8)pp. 14 color illus. on 12 leaves hors texte, of which 2 designed by Jarry, both printed in orange (one original woodcut by Jarry, and another, possibly also in woodcut, derived from a pen drawing by him). Fine jansenist morocco, gilt (Alix). A.e.g. Orig. black gilt wrappers and backstrip bound in. Slipcase (boards, trimmed in morocco). One of 197 copies on carré vergé à la cuve, from the limited edition of 206 in all.
“Aptly enough, Jarry constructed his two earliest books on a cyclic scheme: they contain all his styles. ‘Minutes de sable mémorial’ begins and ends with the refinements of symbolism, yet it holds some of Ubu’s coarsest escapades. Even more patently, the four acts of ‘César-Antéchrist,’ Jarry’s second volume, display a circular development. The drama recounts the collapse of the divine realm (‘God is sleepy’) into the second ‘Heraldic Act,’ during which Antichrist rules, descends further into the third ‘Terrestrial Act,’ where Père Ubu, the ubiquitous, dominates the scene with his oaths and his outrages, and then rises again in final judgment of it all. In this short play, Jarry carries us literally from the sublime to the ridiculous. Better than any statement of values or elaborate cosmology, it expresses his concept of how the universe is arranged. He presents Ubu as the representative of primitive earthly conduct, unrelieved by any insight into his own monstrosity, uncontrollable as an elephant on the rampage, earnest in his blundering.... It is consistent with an almost teleological scheme of things...that Ubu-Jarry should never encounter a convention or a common-sense precept of a belief that need be held sacred. Jarry molested and destroyed, for in the end he knew that his function would be constructive.... Beyond Jarry’s nihilism there is a positive side to his work. Creating in Ubu a one-man demolition squad twenty years before Dada, he incorporated this figure
into works that go on to broach transcendental values” (Shattuck).
Arrivé, Michel: Peintures, gravures et dessins d’Alfred Jarry (Charleville-Mézières, 1968), pls. 28, 43, pp. 115, 118; Kunsthaus Zürich: Alfred Jarry (1982) 31; Shattuck, Roger: The Banquet Years (New York, 1958), p. 175; Lake, Carlton: Baudelaire to Beckett (Austin, 1976) 250
50
JARRY, ALFRED
Le moutardier du pape. Opérette bouffe en trois actes, orné d’un portrait de l’auteur par F.-A. Cazals et de vignettes par Paul Ranson. 122, (2)pp. Gravure frontis. 8 vignettes. 4to. Wraps., bearing an original woodcut of Père Ubu by Jarry on the back cover. Uncut. One of 100 copies on heavy cream laid paper, from the limited edition of 120 in all, printed by subscription by Jarry’s friends, in order to raise money for the author, who was to succumb to tuberculosis several months later, largely as a result of his prolonged addiction to ether. Jarry’s powerful woodcut of Père Ubu, signed AJ in the block, is one of the key images in the iconography of the avant-garde. A fine copy, from the library of André Breton, with the book’s ticket from the Breton sale, Paris 2003.
Saint-Amand (Imprimerie Bussière), 1907. $1,650.00
Arrivé, Michel: Peintures, gravures et dessins de A. Jarry (Charleville-Mézières,1968), pl. 53, p. 120; Giedion-Bolliger 45; Shattuck, Roger: The Banquet Years (New York, 1958), p. 221
51
JARRY, ALFRED
Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien. Roman néo-scientifique. Suivi de Speculations. 323, (1)pp. Printed wraps. First edition. “Docteur Faustroll,” begun in 1898, but not published until after his death, is Jarry’s attempt to elaborate the doctrine of Pataphysics, “the science of imaginary solutions,” into a full system. “Jarry is aiming not merely at the limit, but beyond the limit of man’s conceptual powers, and this without ever abandoning the pretense of reason. He applied the resulting science to the ‘practical construction of a time machine’ after H.G. Wells, and explained his conclusions in a brilliant article in the ‘Mercure’ which inspired Valéry to write on the same questions of time and duration. But ‘Pataphysicks’ finds its best expression in the deeply Rabelesian ‘Faustroll’” (Shattuck). Shattuck also points at subtle but striking correspondences between passages of “Faustroll” and imagery in the work of Gauguin, as well as Rousseau, Redon and others in the Symbolist milieu. Backstrip chipped with several splits at spine; light browning, as always. From the library of André Breton, with the book’s ticket from the Breton sale, Paris 2003.
Paris (Bibliothèque Charpentier/ Eugène Fasquelle), 1911. $1,200.00
Shattuck, Roger: The Banquet Years (New York, 1958), p. 187f.; Jean: Autobiography of Surrealism, p. 30f.
52
JARRY, ALFRED
L’amour absolu. Avec des souvenirs du docteur Saltas et des notes de Charlotte Jarry. (Collection de la Petite Ourse. Vol. 4.) 165, (5)pp. Wraps. Uncut. One of 77 copies hors commerce, of 367 on watermarked Arches, from the limited edition of 372 in all. Calling this “the most difficult and personal” of all Jarry’s texts, Roger Shattuck writes that “the totally plastic identity of the two main characters allows the action to take place from a constantly shifting point of view, and the effects are as breath-taking as those of Joyce or Virginia Woolf or Jean Genet, who use comparable techniques.” From the library of André Breton, with occasional annotations and corrigenda in his hand, in pink ink. With the book’s ticket from the Breton sale, Paris 2003.
Paris (Les Marges/ Marcel Seheur), 1932. $350.00
Shattuck, Roger: The Banquet Years (New York, 1958), p. 180f.
53
(KAHNWEILER SALES I)
54
(KAHNWEILER SALES II)
55
KANBARA, TAI
Pikaso [Picasso]. (2), 2, (2), 100, (10)pp., 78
plates (70 halftone, including frontispiece portrait of the artist, and 1 in
color; and 8 line-drawn). Lrg. 8vo. Cloth. D.j. (minor chips). A major figure in the early Japanese
avant-garde, the painter, poet and theoretician Tai Kanbara (b. 1898) was the
leading spirit of the group Action in 1922. A prodigy, he was already
publishing Cubist poetry and exhibiting abstract paintings at the age of 19.
From the time of his first one-man show and simultaneous first manifesto, in
1920, “Kanbara began to act as the theoretical leader of the new artistic
movements of the Taisho period (1912-26), forming the avant-garde group Action
in 1922.... In 1924 he was one of the founders of the Sanka, which brought
together many avant-garde artists of the Taisho period, and which showed
Kanbara’s ‘A Subject from “The Poem of Ecstacy” by Skryabin’ (1922) at its
first exhibition.... Kanbara was one of the earliest Japanese artists to paint
abstract works, and he is responsible for introducing and explicating the work
of the Cubists and Futurists in
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des
avant-gardes 1910/1970 (
56
KANDINSKY, WASSILY & MARC,
FRANZ (editors)
Der Blaue Reiter. Zweite Auflage. (8), 140, (10)pp. 141 illus., including 38 plates hors texte, of which 4 hand-colored. 3 musical scores hors texte, by Schönberg, Berg and Webern. 8 initial letters and vignettes designed by Arp and Marc. 4to. Orig. dec. cloth, printed in orange, blue and black with a design by Kandinsky. Texts by Marc, Burljuk, Macke, Schönberg, Kusmin, Allard, Hartmann, Busse, Sabanejew, Kulbin, and Kandinsky.
The second edition with two new prefaces by Kandinsky and Marc, and with a
few changes in the plates; Marc, for example, selected a new subject for his
color plate. “In order to explain to the public the difference between the
intentions and practice of 19th-century painting and the entirely different
expressive means of the new generation of artists, an almanac was produced in
May 1912 by Piper-Verlag of
An exceptionally fine copy, the binding bright, with only minor rubbing and a trace of light foxing; accompanied by the original prospectus (single folding sheet, including reproductions of a Kandinsky woodcut, a New Caledonian wood carving, and Matisse’s “The Dance” ; small tears), and the original order form for the book.
München (R. Piper & Co.), 1914. $5,500.00
Rifkind 160; Perkins 126; Spalek 1190; The Artist and the Book 139; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1910-1950, illus. 42
57
KIRCHNER, ERNST LUDWIG
Illustrations for Edwin Redslob’s “Die Neue Stadt” (1918). Trial proofs of 6 original woodcuts, of which 2 signed in pencil (1 of these annotated by him in the lower margin “Handdruck/ Traumkopf des Drama Die neue Stadt”). Dube 351-353, 354.I, 355.I, 356. 4 of the series are printed on lightweight printing paper, and each measure 242 x 167 mm. (ca. 9 1/2 x 6 9/16 inches); the other 2 are on differing heavy wove stocks, and measure 230 x 197 mm. (ca. 9 x 7 3/4 inches) and 140 x 110 mm. (6 1/2 x 4 3/8 inches); all are slightly irregular. All six woodcuts are matted together in a single mat with six windows.
This suite of woodcuts by Kirchner was inspired by Edwin Redslob’s 1918
drama, “Die neue Stadt,” the manuscript of which Redslob had given him as a
present. In his reminiscences, “Von Weimar nach Europa.
Erlebtes und Durchdachtes” (Berlin, 1972), Redslob marvelled at the wholly new
character that Kirchner’s woodcuts lent to the original drama (“Er [Kirchner]
hat später in seiner Davoser Zeit zu einer Dichtung von mir eine Reihe von
Holzschnitten gemacht, die gegenüber meinem dramatischen Versuch eine ganz neue
Schöpfung aufblühen liessen”). Contra
Dube, who refers to the manuscript as unpublished, the text was in fact
published (by the Stierpresse der Künstlergruppe Jung-Erfurt in 1919), though
with illustrations by Alfred Hanf. Marginal creases
throughout; fine strong impressions. Provenance: Edwin Redslob
collection,
[Davos, 1918] $18,000.00
Dube-Heynig, Annemarie & Dube, Wolf-Dieter: E.L. Kirchner, das graphische Werk (München, 1980), 351-353, 354.I, 355.I, 356
58
KITAZONO, KATSUE
Haiburau no funsui [Highbrow]. 267, (3)pp. 4to. Publisher’s boards. D.j. (with composition of various photographs). Tsuruoka Yoshihisa, writing in “Japon des avant-gardes,” translates the title as “Jet d’eau collet monté,” but the English-language “Highbrow” appears on a separate title-page and on the spine of the binding. Kitazono (1902-1978) was a member of the ‘Shi to shiron’ movement, advocating, among other things, a form of pure poetry responsive to Surrealism and stream of consciousness composition. “Les membres de ‘Shi to shiron’ introduisent avec ferveur, au Japon, les diverses manifestations de la littérature avant-garde européenne et américaine d’après la Première Guerre mondiale. Simultanément, ils développent, eux-mêmes, autour de ce noyau, une intense activité créatrice.... Kitazono Katsue fonde en 1935 la revue ‘Vou’ et, tout au long de sa vie, poursuit des recherches formelles sur la dimension visuelle de la poésie.... Bref, chez Kitazono, le formalisme consiste, dans la mesure du possible, à exclure du langage toute signification, et à utiliser les mots comme signes (couleurs, lignes, points). Ce que l’on pourrait définir, en d’autres termes, comme une application rigoureuse de l’abstraction” (Yoshihisa). A fine copy.
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des
avant-gardes 1910/1970 (
59
(KLIMT) Wien. Vereinigung
Bildender Künstler Österreichs Secession
XVIII. Ausstellung, Nov.-Dez. 1903. Kollektiv-Ausstellung Gustav Klimt. Preface by Ernst Stöhr. 71, (1)pp. 28 full-page plates in text. Title-page border, dec. lettrine and full-page illus. in text after designs by Klimt. Sq. 4to. Full stiff vellum, stamped in silver with the Ver Sacrum logo, designed by Klimt. A.e.g. (but in silver). This, the only one-man exhibition put on by the Secession, was held at a turning point in Viennese art, 1903, marking the last year of “Ver Sacrum” and the first of the Wiener Werkstätte. The beautiful catalogue is designed by Koloman Moser, and includes lavish decorations by Klimt, including an allegorical dedication drawing for Rudolf v. Alt, honorary president of the Secession. This deluxe copy (there is no colophon specifying the edition) is printed on japon, and bound in silver-stamped vellum. A beautiful copy.
Wien, 1903. $1,200.00
Nebehay: Gustav Klimt Dokumentation p. 311f.; Rifkind 241/3
60
(KLIMT)
Die Hetaerengespraeche des Lukian. Deutsch von Franz Blei. Mit fünfzehn Bildern von Gustav Klimt. (4), 37, (3)pp., 15 collotype facsimile plates. Tissue guards. Folio. Publisher’s dec. red cloth, the front cover gilt with title panel designed by the artist. T.e.g. D.j. Slipcase (matching red boards). One of 300 hand-numbered copies on Bütten, from the limited edition of 450 in all, printed in black and ochre letterpress at the Offizin W. Drugulin, and published by subscription. Lucian’s “Dialogues of Greek Courtesans,” illustrated with characteristically neurasthenic erotic drawings of female nudes by Klimt; one of the classic illustrated books of the Vienna Secession. Slipcase slightly rubbed; a superb copy.
Nebehay: Gustav Klimt Dokumentation pp. 158f., 359f.; Manet to Hockney 23; Turn of a Century 130; Hofstätter p. 173
61
KUNST UND KÜNSTLER
Illustrierte Monatsschrift für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe. Karl Scheffler, editor. Vols. 1 - 32 No.1/6 (all published). (all published) Lrg. stout 4to. and sm. 4to. Vols. 1-18: Boards, 1/4 vellum, balance in orig. wraps. Though traditional in its orientation, and focused largely on earlier art history, “Kunst und Künstler” contains very important critical texts and illustrations of the Expressionist era. Original prints by Max Beckmann (7 lithographs for “Aus einem Totenhaus”), Ernst Barlach (numerous lithographs, including a series of 13 for “Eine Steppenfahrt”), Willi Geiger, Rudolf Grossmann, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth, Hans Meid and Renoir (etching). Extremely rare.
Söhn 634; Rifkind 286; Arntzen/Rainwater Q216; Chamberlin 2264
62
LANG, HEINZ
Entwürfe von Metall-Geräten für Luxus und Hausgebrauch. Ein Hilfsbuch für Zeichner, Modelleure, Gold- und Silberschmiede, Ziseleure, Gürtler und Bronzearbeiter etc. Entworfen und gezeichnet von Heinz Lang, Modelleur in Berndorf a/T., N.-Ö. (4)pp., 16 collotype plates (most with multiple illustrations). Lrg. 4to. Portfolio (boards, 1/4 cloth). Contents loose, as issued. Wash designs for silver and vermeil chafing dishes, jardinières, tea services, lighting fixtures and other luxury objects, in neoclassical and Jugendstil styles (as well as a fusion of the two). A little light foxing and wear.
Wien (Anton Schroll & Co.), 1908. $250.00
63
LECK, BART VAN DER
Paper shopping bag designed for Metz & Co. Offset lithography in red
and black on fine wove paper, with closure flap on verso and original string
tie. 235 x 235 mm. (9 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches). A classic
example of De Stijl applied design, set out in van der Leck’s famous typeface
and punctuated characteristically with a rectangle in red. “Since 1900, Metz
& Co. had been under the far-sighted management of J. de Leeuw, who
imported the internationally renowned
Amsterdam/Den Haag (Metz & Co.) [ca. 1935]. $850.00
Minneapolis Institute of Arts: Letter Perfect: The Art of Modernist Typography 1896-1953 (2001), p. 56f.
64
LEVY, JULIEN
Surrealism. (10), 191, (1)pp.
64 illus. hors texte. 4to. Orig. dec. boards, designed by
Joseph Cornell. Dec. d.j., also designed by
Cornell. Texts printed on pink, yellow, green, and white stocks. Edition
limited to 1500 copies, printed at the Marstin Press under the direction of,
and for, Caresse Crosby. One of the landmark publications of
Surrealism, anthologizing texts and images by virtually everyone of importance,
and remarkable for the inclusion of the scenarios of Buñuel’s “Un chien andalou”
and “L’age d’or,” Dalí’s “Babaouo,” and Cornell’s “Monsieur Phot,” among other
things. The cover is also one of Joseph Cornell’s finest designs. An historic presentation copy, inscribed by
Levy to André Breton. A superb copy, very fresh, in a
very fine example of the rare Cornell dust jacket. With
the ticket for this book from the André Breton sale,
Gershman p. 27; Biro/Passeron 1780; Motherwell/Karpel 166; Rubin 157; Reynolds p. 59; Milano p. 652
65
(MALEVICH/ ROZANOVA) Kruchenykh, Aleksei
Vozropshchem [Let’s Grumble]. 12pp. 3 tipped-in full-page original
lithographs as frontispieces, of which 2 by Kazimir Malevich, signed and titled
in the stone (“Arithmetic” and “A Peasant Woman Goes for Water,” Karshan 3-4
respectively), and 1 by Olga Rozanova (untitled and unsigned). Print size: 176
x 117 mm. (ca. 7 x 5 5/8 inches). 1 halftone plate in text.
Printed wraps. (slight
crease). Edition of 1000 copies. “‘Vozropshchem’
consists mainly of three longer-than-a-page pieces, which are poetry, drama,
and prose, respectively. The whole book may be described as an exercise in
alogism, bordering (especially in the third piece) on automatic writing. The
dramatic fragment is an especially good example, and may be called a
predecessor of modern dramas of the absurd, in many respects more avant-garde
and consistent than its descendents. It begins with a brief parenthetical
preface attacking the
The two lithographs by Malevich are extremely fine. “A Peasant Woman Goes for
Water” is based on a painting now in the Museum of Modern Art, New York,
entitled “Peasant Woman with Buckets” (1912), and contains clearly identifiable
figurative elements within the abstract cubist scheme; likewise, a variety of
arabic numerals can be found in the denser abstraction of ‘Arithmetic,’
transposed, inverted, and partly cropped in the composition. Rozanova’s
lithograph, actually quite reminiscent of some of the monotonic abstractions in
Kandinsky’s “Klänge,” is sometimes identified as “Head.” All three lithographs
are present in fine impressions and are in extremely bright and fresh
condition.
[
MOMA 50, illus. p. 75; Getty 389; Compton p. 76f., 125; Knizhnaya letopis’ 15182; Markov p. 200f.; Janecek p. 92; Paris/Moscou 168; Barron/Tuchman 175; Stein 22; Siena 55; Andel 58; Andel: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950, illus. 84
66
MASSOT,
A dossier of manuscript Dada poems, puns and other texts, by Pierre de Massot, from the library of André Breton. The majority of these texts would seem to have been submitted to Breton for “Littérature.” Breton, who broke Massot’s arm with a cane during the brawl that broke out at Tzara’s “Coeur à gaz” in 1921, was not always on the best of terms with him, but they reconciled in 1925. The whole is contained in an orange file folder, labelled by Breton at an early date with Massot’s name. Contents as follows:
1. “Petite suite de poëmes.” (2)pp., in purple ink on a folded half-sheet of paper, signed
and dated November 22 at the conclusion. Scurrilous and funny Dada texts, the
first beginning “Les testicules d’André Gide sont plats comme le miroir des
sports….”
2. “Tournoi [Pour
Rrose Sélavy]. (1)p., in purple ink. A
collection of Dada puns and aphorisms, signed and dated “Septembre 1922 (Pour
Littérature).” Examples: “Les flueurs du mâle. -poëmes par Tristan Tzara ou
Fluctuations du laid roumain,” “Equation Tabu: Verre de montre [divided by]
Oeil de verre = Oeil de monstre.” The October 1922 issue of
“Littérature” includes numerous things along this Rrosean line, but none by Massot.
3. “Mariage d’inclination.” (1)p., in purple ink. Opening with two columns of
partialities: “Je n’aime pas” (la
4. “Après réflexion.” 2pp., in blue ink, on two sheets of graph paper. “Je porte, autour de mon cou, les testicules des grands hommes: les votres, naturellement, chers collaborateurs de Littérature, vous qui êtes de plus grands hommes encore…. Pierre de Massot.” There are two postscripts after this, the first of them addressed “Mon cher Picabia.” “Vous avez trouvé banale et fausse ma chronique parue au début d’octobre dans les ‘feuilles libres.’ Vous aviez raison, comme toujours. Mais, entre nous, pouvais-je écrire ceci: ‘ce que je n’aime pas dans Mistingett, c’est ce qu’elle aime. Ce que j’aime dans Mistinguett,c’est ce qu’elle n’est pas.’“
5. “Après la mort de Krassine.” 1 1/2 pp., in blue ink on 2 sheets. A closely written text, concluding “Vive l’Internationale Communiste! Pierre de Massot (décembre 26).”
Intermittent light browning, but in generally good condition. With the printed dossier for this lot from the André Breton sale, Paris 2003.
67
(MEYER-AMDEN) Schlemmer, Oskar
Otto Meyer-Amden. Aus Leben, Werk und Briefen. (Johannespresse. 8. Druck.) (24)pp., 48 mounted plates (33 color facsimile). Folio. Portfolio (cloth-backed boards). Text fascicle and loose plates, as issued. One of 227 hand-numbered copies on handmade Bütten, from the limited edition of 310 in all. A little light foxing in the text, a few pale spots on the portfolio; generally fine.
Zürich (Verlag der Johannespresse), 1934. $600.00
68
MOHOLY-NAGY, LASZLO
Malerei, Fotografie, Film. Zweite veränderte Auflage. 3. bis 5. Tausend. (Bauhausbücher. 8) 140pp. 102 halftone illus. (primarily full-page). 4to. Dec. wraps. Typography, binding and dust jacket designed by Moholy-Nagy. “Gropius had invited the twenty-eight-year-old Hungarian phenom onto the Bauhaus faculty in 1923, and ‘Malerei Fotografie Film’ is Moholy-s first attempt to lay out his entire theory and program for photography, and ultimately, for the transformation of human vision.... The book’s bold typography and design enacted Moholy’s concept of ‘typofoto,’ involving the integration of type and images, which was further elaborated in his two later theoretical works, ‘Von Material zu Architektur’...and ‘Vision in Motion’...” (Roth). Wraps. somewhat chipped and torn at extremities and spine; internally fine.
München (Albert Langen), 1927. $850.00
Roth: The Book of 101 Books p. 44f.; Wingler p. 628; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1910-1950, illus. 341-343; Freitag 8487; Chamberlin 2386
69
(MOHOLY-NAGY)
L. Moholy-Nagy. Exhibition
70
MURAYAMA, TOMOYOSHI
Koseiha Kenkyu [Studies on Constructivism]. Third edition. (10), 81, (5)pp., 32 plates. Dec. wraps., with cover design by Murayama, printed in red and black. Glassine d.j. The plates include, in addition to work by Tatlin, Baumeister, Doesburg, Malevich and others, a brilliant selection of Japanese Mavo and Sanka constructions and theatre designs, such as Murayama’s stage set for Georg Kaiser’s “From Morning til Midnight” at the Tsukiji Little Theater, December 1924, Sadanosuke Nakada’s lost “Bubikopf Venus,” Tatsuo Okada’s amazing “Gate and Ticket-Selling Machine,” and the collaborative “Sanka Exhibition Entance Tower.” The graphic design of the book is also notable. “While Yanase’s work generally expressed raw intensity, Murayama’s was lighter and more playful, as in his designs for two of his own books, ‘Genzai no geijutsu to mirai no geijutsu’ and ‘Koseiha kenkyu’.... [The] cover for ‘Koseiha kenkyu’ combined a stark black band along the left border, the title at the top, and in the center a whimsical red dinosaur with its silhouette outlined in black. On the interior pages were rectilinear vertical and horizontal bands, clearly demonstrating the influence of Bauhaus book designs” (Weisenfeld). Intermittent light foxing.
71
NAKAGAWA, KIGEN
Pikaso to ritsutaiha [Picasso and Cubism]. 59, (5)pp., 10 halftone plates. 4 illus. (including halftone portrait of the artist). Lrg. 8vo. Printed boards. D.j. “Action was a much publicized splinter group of the Nika association and showed primarily fauvist, cubist, and futurist-styled works.... When [Yabe Tomoe] and his friend Nakagawa Kigen, another yoga painter who had studied in France from 1919 to 1921 under Matisse as well as Lhote, first returned from abroad, they exhibited with Nika. But their advocacy of the new styles they had learned abroad caused tension within the group, and led to the secession of several artists under the name Action...” (Weisenfeld). Weisenfeld notes that Nakagawa was one of three Nika artists who refused to join Sanka. His study of Picasso is remarkably early, even by European standards.
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des
avant-gardes 1910/1970 (
72
DAS NEUE
Grossstadtprobleme. Herausgeber: Martin Wagner. Schriftleiter: A. Behne. [Heft 1-12 (all published)]. (4), 258pp., 2 color plates. Prof. illus. Lrg. 4to. Publisher’s red cloth, titled in white. A complete set, bound in one volume, of this short-lived monthly periodical, with texts by Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Erich Mendelsohn, Bruno Taut, Henry van de Velde, Adolf Behne, Martin Wagner, Gottfied Benn, Alfred Döblin, Salomo Friedlaender (Mynona), and others, and photographs by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Sasha Stone, Lotte Jacobi, et al. Covers slightly soiled, otherwise very fine. Extremely rare.
73
DIE NEUE KUNST
Zweimonatsschrift. Herausgegeben von Heinrich Franz Bachmair, in Verbindung mit Josef Amberger, Johannes R. Becher und Karl Otten. Erstes Jahr, erster Band (all published). vii, (1), 351, (1)pp. 4 full-page original woodcuts by Richard Seewald in text (“Ostsee [Hiddensee],” “Jahrmarkt,” “Variété,” and “Strasse”: Jentsch H5, H12, H13, and H15); additional illus. after Léger, Engert, et al. Sm. 4to. Publisher’s boards, 1/4 vellum (slightly soiled). Texts by B. Altmann, J. Amberger, H.F. Bachmair, Hugo Ball, J.R. Becher, A. Behne, G. Benn, M. Brod, T. Däubler, A. Ehrenstein, W. Hasenclever, E. Hennings, F. Jung, H. Kehrer, E. Lasker-Schüler, A.R. Meyer, A. Suarès, A. Wolfenstein and others. “Wichtige frühexpressionistische Münchener Zeitschrift” (Raabe); the participation of key Dadakreisler is also significant. Rare.
München (Heinrich F.S. Bachmair), 1913-1914. $950.00
Raabe 14; Perkins 191; Schlawe II.41f.; Söhn II.274; Almanacco Dada 99; Rifkind/Davis 2694, cf. 2695,5, 2695.4, 2695.7
74
Surrealist Intrusion in the Enchanters’ Domain. Directed by: André Breton, Marcel Duchamp. Managed by Édouard Jaguer, José Pierre. Translated
from the French by Julien Levy, Claud Tarnaud. 124pp. Prof. illus. Lrg.
8vo. Dec. wraps., designed by Marcel Duchamp. Held
from
Schwarz 576; Naumann 8.7; Sheringham Ac640; Pompidou: Breton p. 423; Biro/Passeron p. 392 (illus.); Rubin 438; Jean: Autobiography 176; Milano p. 659f.
75
(ONCHI) Keishi, Oze
Shin Rosia Gakan/ Siluet novoi Rossii [Silhouette of the New Russia]. (6),
3, (1), 155, (5)pp. Prof. illus. with halftone
documentary photographs (graphic frontispiece printed in red and black). Sm. sq. 4to. Dec. boards, printed in red, yellow, blue and
black, with a semi-figurative composition designed by Koshiro Onchi. Dec.
slipcase, printed in red and black with a montage including Soviet propaganda
photograps. Sometimes mistranslated as “New Russian Painting,” the book is in
fact a panoramic sociological, political, geographical and cultural
introduction to the contemporary
76
(ONCHI) Trotskii, L.
Jiko Bakuro [My Life]. Translation by Rikichi Aoki. Sm. 4to. Cloth, printed in red, grey and black, with an abstract typographic composition by Koshiro Onchi. Slipcase, with dynamic propaganda design, printed in red, brown and black (boards). Glassine d.j. Koshiro Onchi’s superb cover design of this Japanese edition of Trotsky’s autobiography integrates a timeline with the title, in an abstract grid underlaid with coils. A fine bright copy.
77
PANSAERS, CLÉMENT
Le Pan Pan au cul du nu nègre. Avec
une gravure par l’auteur. (Collection AIO.) (28)pp.
2 woodcut illus. (frontispiece and justification). Orig. wraps.,
with printed label. Uncut. Unopened.
One of 375 numbered copies on Simil Japon, of a limited edition of 515. A
scurrilous pamphlet, “Bang-Bang at the Ass of the Negro Nude,” the first of
three dadaist books by the author. Pansaers, a
latter-day poète maudit whose early
death in 1922 signalled the end of the dada movement in
Bruxelles (Éditions Alde), 1920. $1,200.00
Gershman p. 31; Dada Global 78; Motherwell-Karpel (“1922? copy not available to compiler”); Sanouillet p. 46; Verkauf p. 164; Bruxelles, Bibl. Royale Albert Ier: Cinquante ans d’avant-garde (1983), no. 15
78
PFLEIDERER, WOLFGANG
Die Form ohne Ornament. Werkbundausstellung 1924. Mit einem Vorwort von Walter Riezler. (Bücher der Form. Erster Band.) viii, 22, (11)pp., 89 plates with numerous illus. 4to. Boards (backstrip torn).
Stuttgart/Berlin/Leipzig (Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt), 1924. $175.00
79
PICABIA, FRANCIS
L’athlète des pompes funèbres. Poème en cinq
chants. 27, (1)pp. Sm. 4to. Wraps.
Glassine d.j. One of three volumes of poetry published
by Picabia in 1918, together with “Poèmes et dessins de la fille née sans mère”
and “Rateliers platoniques,” this one, “Funeral Parlor Athlete,” is noticeably
influenced by Nietzsche. Though written in
N.p. [
Almanacco Dada p. 435 (illus); Gershman p. 34; Sanouillet 138; Biro/Passeron p. 332; Verkauf p 181; Borràs p. 198
80
PICABIA, FRANCIS
Pensées sans langage. Poème. Précédé d’une préface par Udnie. 119, (3)pp. Wraps., with fine full-page mechanical drawing by Picabia on the front cover. Uncut. With fictive mention “4. Édition” at base of the front cover. Picabia’s first Paris Dada publication, dedicated to Gabrielle Buffet, Duchamp, Tzara, and Ribemont-Dessaignes. “The title...undoubtedly reveals Picabia’s fundamental preoccupation in 1918: thought-poetry, a poetry freed from the servitude of language. In short, an idea-poetry that paralleled the idea-art of works like ‘Music is Like Painting,’ or ‘American Woman’ (in which a magnetic field or bulb represented idea-art proposals) the year before” (Borràs). “I am reading the ‘Pensées sans langage,” wrote Éluard to Tzara in November 1919, “and for me it is though the Marquis de Sade had become a poet I love.” Slight wear at backstrip; a very fine, unopened copy.
Paris (Eugène Figuière, Éditeur), 1919. $1,500.00
Dada Global 209; Ades 7.22, p. 145; Almanacco Dada p. 435; Gershman p. 34; Gershman p. 34; Sanouillet 141; Motherwell/Karpel 321; Dada Artifacts 107; Verkauf p. 181; Düsseldorf 207; Zürich 338; Borràs p. 199; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1910-1950, illus. 143
81
PICABIA, FRANCIS
Jésus-Christ Rastaquouère. Dessins par Ribemont-Dessaignes. (Collection Dada.) 66, (4)pp. 3 full-page linocuts of drawings by Ribemont-Dessaignes. Sm. 4to. Orig. wraps. with printed label. Glassine d.j. One of 1000 numbered copies, from the edition of 1060 in all. Theoretical reflections on the philosophy of Dada, regarded by Sanouillet as perhaps the single most important Dada text of the period. Occasionally misdated 1919, the book was completed in July 1920, after the demise of “Cannibale.” Borràs notes that “‘Rastaquouère’ (together with its abbreviation, ‘rasta’), which signifies a rather flashy foreigner living on a magnificent scale without anybody knowing where his means come from, was a favorite word and concept of Picabia’s.” A brief introduction is provided by Gabrielle Buffet. Unopened. A fine copy.
[
Dada Global 211; Ades 7.23; Almanacco Dada p. 436; Gershman p. 34; Sanouillet 143; Biro/Passeron p. 332; Dachy p. 219; Motherwell/Karpel 317; Dada Artifacts 124; Verkauf p. 181; Reynolds p. 69; Düsseldorf 208; Zürich 335; Borràs p. 214 n.63
82
(PICABIA)
Francis Picabia. Exposition dada. 16-30 avril 1920. Text by Tristan Tzara.
(4)pp. (single sheet, folding). Printed
in black on rust-colored stock, with full-page mechanomorphic line drawings in
red superimposed on the text throughout. Self-wraps.
Design by Picabia and Tzara. Picabia’s first
Documents Dada 16; Dada Global 228; Sanouillet 290; Motherwell/Karpel 334, illus. p. 177; Verkauf p. 181, illus. p. 66; Zürich 442
83
PICABIA, FRANCIS
Unique eunuque.
Avec un portrait de l’auteur par lui-même et une
préface par Tristan Tzara. (Collection Dada.) 38, (2)pp. 1 line-drawn illus. Loosely inserted: Autograph letter,
signed, from Picabia to André Breton,
This copy from the library of André
Breton, signed by him at the head of the title-page, and accompanied by an
historic two-page autograph letter from Picabia to Breton, dated Paris 6 August
1920, illustrated with a superb large self-portrait drawing by Picabia at
the conclusion. The text of the letter is published in full by Michel
Sanouillet in “Dada à
moins extraordinaire. Excusez, mon cher Breton, cette lettre assommante, mais indispensable.”
In his reply five days later (also published by Sanouillet), Breton
confessed he found the whole business quite surprising, but that it wasn’t the
first time he had encountered this kind of timidity at Au Sans Pareil. Camfield
notes that Breton then intervened on Picabia’s behalf, and succeeded in getting
the book published uncensored--but, on the other hand, refused to write the
preface he had promised for it--an impasse which led Picabia to break off
communications with him entirely.
The self-portrait at the end of the letter shows Picabia in profile, exactly as
he appears in the frontispiece drawing for Marie de La Hire’s monograph on him,
published later that year for his exhibition at the Galerie La Cible (Galerie
Povolozky). In the comic-styled bubble emanating from his profile, Picabia says
he is now at work on a big picture titled “Fougère Royale.” A
little light browning to the book; the letter (with the usual foldlines) in
excellent condition. With the ticket for this lot from
the Breton sale, Paris 2003.
Paris (Au Sans Pareil), 1920. $9,500.00
Sanouillet p. 510f. (Pièce no. 122) and no. 142; Camfield, William: Francis Picabia (Princeton, 1979), p. 152f.; Dada Global 210; Ades 7.24; Almanacco Dada p. 436; Gershman p. 34; Motherwell-Karpel 323; Verkauf p. 103; Richter p. 177; Zürich 339
84
(PICABIA)
Francis Picabia Vernissage Le jeudi, 9 Xbre [1920] à 9hs du soir. Entrée pour 2 personnes. 1f., printed in black and red on pale turquoise stock (verso blank). 116 x 212 mm. (ca. 4 3/8 x 8 3/8 inches). Oblong 8vo. This ticket advertises a number of entertainments for the opening, including a “jazz-band parisien,” composed of Georges Auric, Jean Cocteau and Francis Poulenc, and a reading by Tzara (“un manifeste sur l’amour faible et l’amour amer”). Coming soon: Ribemont-Dessaignes lecturing on ‘that of which it is not permitted to speak, in art.’ Faint center foldline. A handsome example of Dada typography. Rare.
Dada Global 233; Almanacco Dada p. 606; Sanouillet 293 ; Düsseldorf 209
85
(PICABIA) La Hire, Marie de
Francis Picabia. 36, (8)pp. Frontispiece drawing, 10 tipped-in collotype and halftone plates (2 colored in pochoir). Sm. 4to. Printed wraps. Uncut. Unopened. One of 1040 numbered copies on vergé teinté, from the limited edition of 1100 in all. The first monograph on Picabia, a slender volume by an old friend and former classmate at the Academie Cormon. With a checklist of 53 items at the end, it served as a catalogue for the Picabia exhibition at Jacques Povolozky’s Galerie La Cible (also called the Galerie Povolozky) in December 1920--the dada event of the season. A fine copy.
Paris (Galerie La Cible), 1920. $600.00
Borràs p. 204; Camfield p. 157; Gershman p. 34; Sanouillet 101; Motherwell/Karpel 329; Verkauf p. 181; Freitag 9556
86
PICABIA, FRANCIS
Portrait of Man Ray. Original drawing in pen and brown ink, and pencil, on letterhead stationery from the Restaurant du Grand Café des Bains, Saint-Raphaël. 270 x 203 mm. (ca. 10 5/8 x 8 inches; slightly irregular). Boldly inscribed in brown ink at left by Picabia, “Man Ray à Cassis réveillé par Jean Crotti/ Francis Picabia/ 29 janvier 1925.” It bears a second Picabia inscription in pencil at top right, “Toujours un soleil magnifique/ il fait aussi chaud qu’en juillet.”Pale traces of tape at corners (top corner with small tear at end inscription).
Man Ray must have had a hard night, to judge from the circles under his
eyes, stubble, and general look of bleary good humor. As Picabia’s inscription
indicates, this portrait of him was drawn by shortly after he was awakened by
Jean Crotti on the morning of
The drawing has a fine history, as follows:
Provenance:
Arturo Schwarz,
Exhibitions:
Vence. Galerie Beaubourg: “Francis Picabia: classique et merveilleux,”, July-Oct. 1988 (full-page color illus., p. 88).
Publications:
Biro, Adam & Passeron, René (eds.). Dictionnaire général du Surréalisme et de ses environs (Friboug, 1982), p. 341 (illus.).
Borras, Maria Lluisa. Picabia (New York, 1985), cat no. 409, fig. 560.
Monsel, Philippe (ed.). Picabia
(
Saint-Raphaël, 1925. $35,000.00
87
(PICABIA)
Exposition Francis Picabia. Trente ans de peinture. Dec. 1930. Introductions by Francis Picabia and Léonce Rosenberg. 16pp. 4 plates in text. Sm. 8vo. Silver foil wraps., printed in black and red. Catalogue of 62 works, lent by Mme. André Breton, Mme. Fernand Léger, H.P. Roché, Max Ernst, Rose Adler, Rolf de Maré and others, and including a number of his new ‘transparencies,’ begun in 1928. “As usual, his painting were intensely personal: ‘...these transparencies with their corner of oubliettes permit me to express for myself the resemblance of my interior desires.... I want a painting where all my instincts may have a free course’” (William Camfield, quoting Picabia’s introductory statement). A fine copy.
Camfield, William: Francis Picabia (Guggenheim Museum, 1970), p. 42
88
(PICASSO) Zervos, Christian
Pablo Picasso. [Catalogue de l’oeuvre de Pablo Picasso.] Vols. 1 - 33 in 34 parts. Folio. Vols. 1-12 (in 13) bound in uniform green cloth with gilt leather labels (orig. front covers bound in); Vols. 13-33 in publisher’s wraps., with glassine d.j.s. Vols. 1 and 2 (and 2*) published in limited editions of 537 and 700 numbered copies, respectively. A beautiful complete set of the monumental catalogue raisonné, entirely in the original edition. Very rare.
Freitag 9679; Lucas p. 177
89
PLOWERT, JACQUES [i.e. PAUL ADAM]
Petit glossaire pour servir à l’intelligence des auteurs décadents et symbolistes. iii, (1), 98, (2)pp. Printed wraps. (backstrip loosening). Glassine d.j. A guide to Symbolist terminology, compiled by the writer Paul Adam under the pseudonym Jacques Plowert, includes extensive quotations from Fénéon, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Laforgue, Moréas, Kahn and Adam himself, among others. “[Like] fragile plants growing luxuriantly in a hothouse, these poets seemed to thrive in the protected atmosphere of their publications, somewhat oblivious to the climate outside, heroically and almost arrrogantly proud of being obscure and eccentric, unintelligible to whoever was not initiated. Their fondness for bizarre and unconventional syntax, spiced with the most precious, archaic and unusual words (unearthed from the depths of dictionaries and texts of bygone days, if not altogether made up by the various poets) took such proportions that Paul Adam soon felt compelled to issue a ‘Small Glossary to Serve for the Comprehension of the Decadent and Symbolist Authors’” (Rewald). This copy is printed on fine, uncut laid paper. A little foxing.
Rewald, John: Post-Impressionism: From van Gogh to Gauguin (New York, 1956), p. 152
90
(POIRET COLLECTION)
91
PRASSINOS, GISÈLE
Le feu maniaque. (8)pp. Lrg. 8vo. Self-wraps. Prassinos, a prodigy whose automatic poems were first published by Breton in “Minotaure” when she was a girl of fourteen, “combined with a constant felicity the most preposterous and disconcerting images” (Nadeau). From the library of André Breton, with the book’s ticket from the Breton sale, Paris 2003. Rare.
Paris (Éditions Sagesse) [1935]. $300.00
Gershman p. 36; Biro/Passeron 2387
92
PRASSINOS, GISÈLE
Facilité crépusculaire. (Collection des Cahiers des Poètes. 17.) 14, (2)pp. Self-wraps. No limitation is stated, but the edition size was undoubtedly very small, probably 200 copies or fewer (as with the author’s other books of this time). “Gisèle Prassinos est l’éternelle Mab de Shakespeare, découverte et fêtée par André Breton et Éluard, à qui elle lit ses premiers poèmes. Intronisée au café surréaliste, elle y est photographiée par Man Ray. Elle séduit les surréalistes par le merveilleux de sa poésie, par sa personnalité de femme-enfant....” (Marianne van Hirtum, in Biro/Passeron). From the library of André Breton, with the book’s ticket from the Breton sale, Paris 2003. Rare.
Paris (Éditions René Debresse) [1937]. $450.00
Gershman p. 36; Biro/Passeron 2386
93
DER QUERSCHNITT
Mitteilungen der Galerie Flechtheim [Marginalien der Galerie Flechtheim]. Editors: Wilhelm Graf Kielmannsegg, Alfred Flechtheim, Hermann von Wedderkop, Victor Wittner, Alfred Semank, Wolfram von Hanstein, E.F. von Gordon. Jg. 1-13 (of 16 published in all), bound in 22 vols. Jg. 1 in 8vo; Jg. 2-13 in 4to. Jg. 1-4 in boards; Jg. 5-8 in publisher’s half cloth, with title-pages and indices (but without covers); Jg. 9-13 bound uniform with the foregoing, with covers (but without title-pages and indices, if published). Frequency and format vary: the first two years were titled “Der Querschnitt durch 1921 [durch 1922]” while the third and fourth years were titled “Das Querschnittbuch.” Limited editions of the first four years were also issued in book form (1-3 in editions of 400 copies, and 4 in 700 copies); in this set, the first year is present in both the regular and the limited edition.
Begun as an Expressionist-era gallery publication, with catalogues for the Galerie Flechtheim in Düsseldorf, “Der Querschnitt” evolved into a periodical proper in 1922, and grew to encompass virtually all aspects of modern northern European culture, including the performing and popular arts, with a dazzling roster of contributors: d’Annunzio, Benn, Blei, Gorki, Joyce, Klabund, Lasker-Schüler, Maiakovskii, Sternheim, and Virginia Woolf, among others. The final three years (not present in this run) were compromised by National Socialist taste, which eliminated most traces of the journal’s vitality.
Düsseldorf/Frankfurt/Berlin, 1921-1933. $9,500.00
Perkins 194; Schlawe II.58f.; Rifkind 296
94
RIBEMONT-DESSAIGNES, GEORGES
L’empereur de Chine, suivi de Le serin muet. (Collection Dada.) 151, (3)pp. Black wraps., with mounted red title label on front cover, as issued. One of 100 numbered copies on vélin Lafuma de Voiron, from the édition de tête of 162 in all. “Following a moral crisis in 1913, Ribemont-Dessaignes had abandoned painting, but after induction into the army in 1915 he began to compose music and poetry, and, in 1916, he wrote ‘L’Empereur de Chine,’ which has been considered the first Dada play. Throughout the war years, Picabia maintained contact, seeking Ribemont-Dessaignes’ collaboration on ‘391’ and recommending him to Tzara for ‘Dada.’ Picabia’s regard for Ribemont-Dessaignes’ work is understandable, for his writings are similar in style and spirit to Picabia’s own work, though perhaps even more biting” (Camfield). A very fine, fresh copy.
Paris (Au Sans Pareil), 1921. $1,500.00
Dada Global 214; Almanacco Dada p. 443; Gershman p. 38; Sanouillet 150; Biro/Passeron 2504; Motherwell/Karpel 350; Verkauf p. 181; Zürich 340; Camfield p. 128
95
RIBEMONT-DESSAIGNES, GEORGES
L’autruche aux yeux clos. Roman. 189, (1)pp. Printed wraps. Glassine d.j. Ribemont-Dessaignes’ second book. Presentation copy, boldly inscribed “A André Breton/ à cause de sa destinée/ et en souvenir d’amitié/ G. Ribemont-Dessaignes” across the top half of the first blank leaf. Light browning. With the ticket for this lot from the Breton sale, Paris 2003.
Paris (Au Sans Pareil), 1924. $1,500.00
Gershman p. 38; Sanouillet 151; Biro/Passeron 2492
96
RIBEMONT-DESSAIGNES, GEORGES
Le bourreau du Pérou. 185, (5)pp. Wraps. Glassine d.j. Uncut. Unopened. One of 100 numbered copies on vélin Montgolfier d’Annonay, from the édition de tête of 140 copies. A very fine copy.
Paris (Au Sans Pareil), 1928. $350.00
Biro/Passeron 2495
97
ROERICH, NIKOLAI KONSTANTINOVICH
& MAKOWSKY, SERGE
Talachkino. L’art décoratif des ateliers de la Princesse Ténichef. 75, (3)pp. 180 illus. hors texte (18 color, of which most full-page, and several tipped-in). 4to. Printed wraps. A substantial, heavily illustrated survey of work done at the artists’ colony and workshops of Talashkino, established in the 1890s by the noted patron Princess Mariya Tenisheva. Focused on reviving traditional crafts and folk art, Talashkino attracted the gratin of contemporary Russian art world, including Repin, Benois, Troubetskoy, and Roerich; Sergey Malyutin and Mikhail Vrubel’ ran workshops particularly admired for their fusion of ancient techniques and motifs with art nouveau styles. The book is fascinating not only for its coverage of these activities, but also for its own graphic design, incorporating ornaments and decorative illustrations extremely close to the early work of Kandinsky. Very light wear; an attractive copy.
St. Pétersbourg (Édition “Sodrougestvo”), 1906. $650.00
The Dictionary of Art 30.464: “Tenisheva” (by Jeremy Howard)
98
(SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF) Schapire, Rosa
Karl Schmidt-Rottluffs graphisches Werk bis 1923. (2), 94, (2)pp. 7 full-page original woodcuts (including 3 compositions, “Schnitter,” “Mädchenkopf,” and “Männer im Boot,” and 4 sectional titles, each with abstract elements). 2 further woodcuts in text (full-page signet and 1 initial letter). 4to. Publisher’s boards, 1/4 cloth, embossed in black after woodcut designs by the artist. One of 330 hand-numbered copies on Johann-Wilhelm-Bütten, signed in pencil by the artist in the colophon, from the limited edition of 400 in all. Rare. A little foxed, as usual, the binding slightly worn.
Berlin-Charlottenburg (Euphorion Verlag), 1924. $2,500.00
Schapire R64; Rathenau 1-3, 69-74; cf. Rifkind II/2574-2580; cf. Freitag 11387 (citing reprint)
99
SCHWITTERS, KURT
Memoiren Anna Blumes in Bleie. Eine leichtfassliche Methode zur Erlernung des Wahnsinns für Jedermann. (Schnitter-Bücher. Die Hohe Reihe.) 25, (3)pp. 2 collage illustrations by Schwitters; musical and typographical compositions in addition. Cloth with leather label. Orig. plain wraps. and illus. d.j. (designed by Schwitters) bound in.
‘Anna Blume’s Memoirs in Lead.’ “The extraordinary, even though garish, success of ‘Anna Blume’ caused two further collections of poetry and prose by Schwitters to imitate it in their titles: ‘Die Blume Anna,’ which was published by Verlag der Sturm in 1922 with the subtitle ‘A Collection of Poems from the Years 1916-1922,’ and ‘Memoiren Anna Blumes in Bleie,’ subtitled ‘A Method for Learning Madness, within the Grasp of All,’ also published in 1922, by Walter Heinrich (Freiburg)” (Schmalenbach). The hauntingly beautiful frontispiece collage, with its mixture of machine parts, corsets, horse-drawn carriages, luggage, and lovely young ladies (including one in a stylish hat who Elderfield points out can be identified with Anna Blume) is one of Schwitters’ most distinctly proto-Pop creations, and intriguing also in its typographic references to El Lissitzky and Der Sturm. Also bound in in this example is an illustrated folding brochure from the publishers for this series, “Die Hohe Reihe,” illustrating Schwitters’ frontispiece design, and quoting from his introduction. A beautiful bibliophile’s copy. Rare, most especially in anything like fine condition.
Schmalenbach/Bolliger 5, p. 178, illus. p. 42; Elderfield p. 80, illus. 94; Schwitters-Archiv 977; Verkauf p. 182; Rubin 388; Dada Artifacts 67; Andel: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900 1950, p. 141, illus. 157
100
SCHWITTERS, KURT
Merz. No. 11. Typoreklame. Pelikan-Nummer. (8)pp. Printed in orange and black on cream-colored stock, with typographic compositions incorporating text, diagrams, and halftone and other illustrations throughout. Lrg. 4to. Self-wraps., stapled as issued. The superbly orchestrated Merz issue devoted to advertising typography and design, as shown in Schwitters’ projects for the Pelikan-Werke. Pelikan had hired Schwitters’ friend Christof Spengemann as advertising manager from 1912 to 1914, and later employed Lissitzky; Schwitters worked actively for them as a free-lance advertising consultant and graphic artist from about 1923 on. Miniscule chip at one corner; a beautiful copy, fresh and clean.
Schmalenbach/Bolliger 240; “Typographie kann unter Umständen Kunst sein”: Kurt Schwitters Typographie und Werbegestaltung (Wiesbaden, 1990) 20; Dada Global 114; Ades p. 131; Almanacco Dada 91; Gershman p. 51; Motherwell/Karpel 78; Verkauf 180; Rubin 469; Dada Artifacts 73; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1910-1950, illus. 265
101
SCHWITTERS, KURT
Einladung zum MERZ Vortragsabend. Kurt
Schwitters, Eigene Dichtungen: Groteske, Satire, Lyrik, Epik, dadá,
Urlautdichtungen. Am Freitag d. 18.5.28 in meiner
Wohnung,
In the right margin is printed a charming appeal that recipients tell others about the evening, and how much they enjoyed themselves, and send him these new addresses for his guest list. This copy is addressed (on a carbon-paper typed label) to a Frl. Lotte Steinbicker in Kleefeld, and was mailed four days before the performance. In fresh condition.
“Typographie kann unter Umständen
Kunst sein”: Kurt Schwitters Typographie und Werbegestaltung (
102
SEGAL, ARTUR
Vom Strande. Acht Original-Holzschnitte. Afterword by
Rudolf Leonhard. (Erstes der graphischen Eine
Mark-Flugblätter.) (8)pp. 8 original woodcuts
by Segal (including that on front cover). Image size: average 199 x 247 mm.
(ca. 7 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches). Oblong sm. folio. Dec. self-wraps., with original woodcut on the front cover. Edition of 1000 copies. The Rumanian-born Arthur Segal
(1875-1944) was one of the founders of the Neue Sezession in
Berlin-Wilmersdorf (A.R. Meyer), 1913. $3,500.00
Rifkind 219; Rifkind/Davis 2731
103
STEINHARDT, JAKOB
Neun Holzschnitte zu ausgewählten Versen aus dem Buche Jeschu ben Elieser ben Sirah. Mit einer Einleitung von Arnold Zweig. (Soncino-Gesellschaft der Freunde des jüdischen Buches e.V. 9. Publikation.) (24)pp. 9 full-page woodcuts by Steinhardt in text (Behrens 370-378; Kolb 85-93). 4to. Publisher’s boards, 1/4 vellum. Japanese-bound. Edition limited to 800 copies on Bütten, signed in pencil by Steinhardt in the colophon. Following the introduction, the texts are in parallel German and Hebrew, facing the woodcuts. Light trace of foxing.
Rifkind/Davis 2852; Rifkind 180; Europäische Moderne: Buch und Graphik aus Berliner Kunstverlagen 1890-1933 (Kunstbibliothek Berlin, 1989), X.22 (Abb. 161); Rodenberg Dt. Bibliophilie 202
104
(SUDEK) Linhart, Lubomír
Josef Sudek Fotografie. 54pp., 232 sepia-toned plates (6 folding). 4to. Cloth. Beautifully printed in gravure.
Praha (Státní Nakladatelství Krásné Literatury, Hudby a Umení), 1956. $500.00
Freitag 12102; Roth p. 144
105
SURREALISM AND POLITICS: PRAGUE
SPRING 1938
A highly important archive of letters and manuscripts from the library of
André Breton, documenting a central episode in the history of Surrealism, and
of the Eastern European avant-garde: the political crisis which split apart the
Prague Surrealist group in the spring of 1938. The crisis was singlehandedly
provoked by the poet Viteslav Nezval, one of the leading figures of the
Surrealist movement in
This archive contains letters from members of the group to André Breton in the days that followed, appealing to him, and to the French Surrealist community at large, for support. Passionate in tone, and at the same time extremely deliberate and formal in setting out the history of the affair, the correspondence resembles a series of eloquent arguments in court, with appended documents marshalled like exhibits at a trial. It contains two very long and formal letters to Breton jointly signed by the group’s central membership--Karel Teige, Toyen, Jindrich Styrsky, Konstantin Biebl and Bohuslav Brouk (joined in the second letter by Jindrich Honzl)--imploring him to intervene. Following this, there are two letters from Teige to Breton, and another from Teige to Benjamin Péret. Teige’s letters include a searching discussion of the ominous political climate in Prague, as well as assessments of the internal politics of the Surrealist situation, and remarks about the pamphlet he was soon to publish, “Surrealismus proti proudu [Surrealism against the Current],” as a polemical defense against Nezval’s attacks. In addition, the archive contains a letter from Nezval to Péret, bitterly asking for assistance on his own side of the case; and the typescript of a major poem by Nezval, heavily annotated in colored ink and colored pencil by both Nezval and
Péret, who worked on its translation.
Contents as follows:
1. Formal letter, 17 March
1938, to André Breton “et à tous les camarades du groupe Surréaliste de Paris”
from the five constitutent members of the Surrealist Group in Prague--Bohuslav
Brouk, Konstantin Biebl, Jindrich Styrsky, Karel Teige, and Toyen--appealing
for Breton’s counsel and intervention. The letter is formally signed in pen by all five writers (in alphabetical order)
at the conclusion. Text in French. 8pp.,
typed on 4 long folding folio sheets, with numerous emendations in the hand of
Karel Teige. Together with this: (as originally enclosed): 5 numbered “Annexes,”
consisting of clippings from the
Defying Nezval’s announcement in the Communist daily press that he has
dissolved their group, the signers state that they
have no intention of complying, and denounce him for his Stalinist tactics.
They recall the circumstances of the pivotal group meeting on March 7th, at
which Nezval insisted they pass a motion unanimously applauding the progress of
the
2. Formal letter, 23 March 1938, to André Breton “et à tous les camarades
du groupe Surréaliste de Paris” from the six constitutent members of the
Surrealist Group in Prague --Bohuslav Brouk, Konstantin Biebl, Jindrich Styrsky,
Karel Teige, and Toyen, and now also Jindrich Honzl--continuing in their
appeal. The letter is formally signed in
pen by all six writers at the conclusion. Text in French.
5pp., typed on folded and unfolded long folio sheets,
with numerous emendations in the hand of Karel Teige (including a half-page
postscript). Together with this: (as originally enclosed): 5 numbered “Annexes,”
with clippings from the Prague press, all with accompanying typed complete
translations into French. And: original envelope, hand-addressed to Breton by
Toyen, with her return address on the back.
The group fervently thanks Breton for the support he lent in his letter to
Teige of March 18th, and will try sincerely to follow his directive in looking
for a way to heal the rupture with Nezval, though it is not their fault, and
they have already made overtures to him which he has ignored. Furthermore,
Nezval has persisted very aggressively in attacking them. They give a
chronology of the events of the case, listing the statements published by both
sides in the press, and pointing out their own forebearance. Now Nezval’s
public declarations on the matter are being applauded in the Communist press,
and his attacks now include outrageous falsehoods, phrased in the language of a
police informer par excellence. It is a complete press campaign, promoted by
the Fascists, who praise him for his acts of courage. The group is enclosing,
among other things, a copy of a recent poem by Nezval which exemplifies his
party line. Feeling that an overture on their own part is pointless, they ask
Breton if he would be willing to intervene by counseling Nezval to explain
himself to the group--as soon as possible, so that the crisis might be resolved
before Breton leaves for
3. Teige, Karel. Autograph letter,
signed, to André Breton,
This very serious and touching letter gives an unnerving account of the
dangerous and complex political conditions which prevail in
4. Teige, Karel. Autograph letter,
signed, to André Breton,
Teige hopes Breton will write before he leaves for
5. Teige, Karel. Autograph letter,
signed, to Benjamin Péret,
In this letter to Péret, Teige writes that the fifteen days that Péret extended to Nezval in his letter of 18 April are now up; Nezval has ignored the advice that Péret and Breton have offered him. Since his last article in the Communist press, Nezval’s attacks have been smaller and sneakier, but nothing has changed. The group has no choice but to respond in print. They are now preparing a booklet of some 50 to 60 pages, exposing their poetic and political situation in the face of the Communist “critique.” It is likewise a response to Nezval. The manuscript, edited by Teige and signed by all members of the group, is already in press, and will appear, under the title “Surréalisme contre-courrent” in eight days. It contains a very objective analysis, with no verbal attacks at all. He would be very gratified if Péret would send, by return courier, a few lines on behalf of the French Surrealist group about the Nezval affair--which is, it would seem, quite similar to the Louis Aragon case. Only, given that the censors are very strict, it must be couched in mild language: merely a couple of words, to the effect that the French group is informed about both sides of the dispute, and has concluded that Nezval’s attitude is antithetical to the Surrealist viewpoint, and that the French group will continue to collaborate with the group in Prague. He despairs that a resolution is impossible; he regrets not sending word on the general situation there, which is very grave, but there is no time, if he is to finish the tract.
6. Nezval, Viteslav. Autograph
letter, signed, to Benjamin Péret,
7. Nezval, Viteslav. “La femme au
pluriel.” Original typescript poem, heavily annotated by both
Nevzal and Benjamin Péret in green and black ink, and red and black pencil.
Text in French. 2pp., on long
sheets of cream-colored typing paper. 340 x 210 mm. (ca. 13
3/8 x 8 1/4 inches). “La femme au pluriel [Woman in the Plural]” is the
title of one of Nezval’s most important collections of poems, published in 1936
(“Zena v mnozném cisle”), with layout and photomontage illustration by Teige. Cf. Král, Petr: Le surréalisme en
Tchécoslovaquie. Choix de textes, 1934-1964 (
Fine condition, with the printed dossiers for these lots from
the André Breton sale, Paris 2003.
Cf. Houston.
106
TAKIGUCHI, SHUZO
Kindai geijutsu [Modern Art]. (2), 4, 233, (7)pp. 13 illus. Cloth with paper label. Publisher’s
carton. The illustrations include well-selected examples of Picasso
(including the new ‘
Centre Georges Pompidou: Japon des
avant-gardes 1910/1970 (
391. Editor: Francis Picabia.
19 issues published in all, as follows: Nos. 1-4, 25 January -
107
391. NO. 8
Zürich, Février 1919. (8)pp., printed on pale
pink stock. 7 illus., including 4 drawings by Picabia (2 of which full-page: “Construction
moléculaire” on front cover, and “Tamis ou vent” within), 1 drawing by Alice
Bailly, and 2 tipped-in halftone reproductions (Hans Arp relief and “Vagin
brillant” by Picabia). Tabloid folio. Self-wraps. Texts by Gabrielle Buffet (“Petit manifeste”),
Tzara (“Chronique,” “Exegèse sucre en poudre sage”), Picabia (“C’est assez
banal”, 3 poems, and also a chronicle “New-York,
Following its
Zürich, 1919. $4,500.00
Dada Zürich 98; Ades p. 151; Gershman p. 54; Chevrefils
Desbiolles p. 316; Almanacco Dada 160; Motherwell/Karpel 86;
Sanouillet 257; Verkauf p. 183; Düsseldorf 245; Zürich 396
108
391. NO. 14
Dada Global 168; Ades pp. 146, 153; Gershman p. 54; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 316; Almanacco Dada 160; Motherwell/Karpel 86; Sanouillet 257; Verkauf p. 183; Dada Artifacts 102; Düsseldorf 249; Milano p. 648
109
391. NO. 19
Ades pp. 150 (illus.), 154; Gershman p. 54; Almanacco dada 160; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 316; Motherwell/Karpel 86; Sanouillet 257; Verkauf p. 183
110
TOYEN
Les spectres du désert. Accompagné des textes de Henri Heisler. (26)pp. 12 full-page plates of drawings by Toyen, with text beneath. Lrg. 4to. Wraps. Edition limited to 300 hand-numbered copies in all, printed on buff-colored card stock. Translation from the Czech by Benjamin Péret, with Jindrich Heisler.
“It is in Toyen’s three great drawing cycles, ‘The Spectres of the Desert’ (1937-38), ‘The Rifle-Range’ (1939-40), and ‘Hide Yourself War!’ (1944) that the psychological and emotional power of the fragmented or violated image is combined with a sustained vision of a reality now at the mercy of the forces of unreason.... As the image of intellectual and artistic freedom cultivated first by the Devetsil group and then by the Czech Surrealists gave way to overwhelming despair, Toyen turned to an anguished interrogation of the idea of human liberation... ‘The Spectres of the Desert,’ printed in Prague under an imprint of Albert Skira’s obtained through the intervention of Benjamin Péret, is a relentless examination of the precise forms assumed by the specters that had first appeared in her painting during the 1930s and that now haunted her mental landscape, a landscape that would become ever more severe and forbidding in subsequent cycles of drawings. As the world around her crumbled into war, Toyen began to assert a terrifying precise clarity in her drawings that begins to suffocate all vestiges of life around her, freezing birds and animals into cracked shells from which all life and vitality has long since been extruded” (Whitney Chadwick). Presentation copy, handsomely inscribed on the half-title by Toyen and Heisler. Very fine.
Paris (Editions Albert Skira), 1939. $2,500.00
Chadwick, Whitney: Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement, p. 230; Biro/Passeron p. 406; Marseille: La planète affolée, p. 238; Jean p. 263; Houston p. 82; Centre Georges Pompidou: Styrsky, Toyen, Heisler (1982), p. 93
111
(WAGNER) Lux, Joseph August
Otto Wagner. Eine Monographie. 167, (1)pp., 120 plates. 4to. Boards, 1/4 cloth. A little light foxing.
München (Delphin-Verlag), 1914. $475.00
Freitag 13270; Sharp p. 138
112
(YANASE) Kaiser, Georg, et al
Hyogenha gikyoku shu [Collected Works of Expressionist Drama]. Translation by Reiji Kuroda. 387pp. Title-page abstraction by Masamu Yanase. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps., printed in red and black with an elaborate abstract composition by Masamu Yanase. The designer of this book, Masamu Yanase (1900-1945) was one of the five signers of the founding manifesto of Mavo (“Mavo no sengin”) in 1923, and a figure of considerable distinction, both as an artist and political activist. Following a precocious start as a post-impressionist painter (successfully exhibiting by the age of 15), Yanase was producing wholly abstract work, drawn from elements of cubism, futurism and expressionism, by 1922, when he became actively involved in the Futurist Art Association. Under the guidance of several powerful intellectual mentors, Yanase began to develop the radical political ideology which he steadfastly avowed through all his short life, often at great personal cost, eventually leaving the Mavo movement with Tomoyoshi Murayama to join the proletarian (Marxist) movement at the end of 1925, and devoting his artistic energies to politically motivated graphic design.
This publication owes its existence to Murayama’s enthusiasm for the work
of the expressionist dramatist Georg Kaiser, with which he became acquainted
during his eleven-month stay in
113
(YANASE) Wakizo, Hosoi
Kojyo [Factory]. (2), 427, (9)pp. Sm. 4to. Orig. dec. wraps., with cover composition by Masamu Yanase. Glassine d.j., imprinted with the same Yanase design (small losses at folds). “After he renounced fine art in 1925, Yanase worked principally for the proletarian arts movement. The tremendous boom in leftist literature, which was especially popular among university students, generated a significant amount of work for illustrators and book designers like Yanase and Murayama. Yanase considered the book a central weapon of the proletarian movement, and saw his book designs as revolutionary. In designs he executed for the leftist author-textile laborer Hosoi Wakizo in 1925-1926, Yanase focused on a single image of intricately interwoven abstract and figural elements. His cover for Hosoi’s ‘Kojo’ (Factory) consisted of a round form encircling the outline of a factory, a smokestack, interlocking cogs, and several links of a chain, all surrounded by billowing smoke. Near the bottom of the design, a noxious-looking sludge oozed from the factory complex. In these graphic designs, Yanase skillfully integrated starkly abstracted and geometric forms with recognizable leftist symbols, a technique he would use repeatedly, refining and transforming it over time” (Weisenfeld). Extremely rare with the fragile Yanase glassine d.j.
Weisenfeld, Gennifer: Mavo: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905-1931 (2002), illus. 94
114
Z
Directeur: Paul Dermée. [No.] 1, mar 1920 (all published). (8)pp. (single sheet, twice folded vertically). Tall narrow 4to. Self-wraps. Texts, verse, apothegms by Dermée (“Qu’est-ce que Dada!” “Dans
les cartes”), T.S.F. [Theodor Fraenkel] (“Radios,” “Dernière heure”), Ribemont-Dessaignes
(“Za”), Tzara (“Mauvais désir clé du vertige”), G. Ferré (“Art Poétique”),
Breton (“J’ai beaucoup connu”), Aragon (“Ici, Palais des Délices”), Arnauld (“Advertisseur”),
Picabia (“Auric-Satie à la noix de Cocteau”), Soupault (“Les sentiments sont
gratuits”), Éluard (“Rendez-vous, n’importe où”). “In Paris, Dada appeared
before the Club du Faubourg, with the newspapers carrying the following
announcement: ‘The 291 presidents of the Dada movement have asked Messrs
Breton, Aragon, Dermée, Éluard, Fraenkel, Picabia, Ribemont-Dessaignes,
Soupault and Tzara to rule on the following questions: locomotion, life,
Dadaist skating: pastry, architecture, Dada ethics: chemistry, tattooing,
finance and Dada typewriters: next Thursday, 8:30 p.m., at the Université
Populaire du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine.’ The meeting consisted in the reading of
manifestos and in discussions by
Dada Global 181; Ades 8.35; Almanacco Dada 169; Gershman p. 55; Chevrefils Desbiolles 318; Admussen 238; Sanouillet 260; Motherwell/Karpel 91; Verkauf p. 183; Düsseldorf 251; Zürich 400
115
ZEITLER, JULIUS
Presse Hauptquartier. (20)pp. Dec. front cover
design after a woodcut credited to “Xylodada C.E.P.” Self-wraps., stitched with
yarn, as issued. Printed on yellow and blue-green stocks
(cover and text, respectively). An extremely rare instance of Pseudodada,
a category confined to a mere handful of examples: apart from this,
Friedrich-Hardy Worms’ “Das Bordell,” “Der Moloch. Zeitschrift für internationale Blutokratie,” “Dada-Foxtrott”; from
Bergius p. 414