1
ALBERT-BIROT, PIERRE
La joie des sept couleurs. Poème
orné de cinq poèmes-paysages hors-texte, le tout composé en 1918. (2), 80,
(2)pp. 5 full-page calligrammatic plates. Lrg. 8vo. Printed wraps. One of 120
numbered copies on uncut Arches, from the limited edition of 124 in all. “Like
Guillaume Apollinaire, Albert-Birot was an ingenious practitioner of the
calligramme, which has a long history in French literature, through Mallarmé
all the way back to Rabelais and beyond. ‘I walked across Futurism, Cubism,
Dadaism, but I am neither futurist nor cubist, dadaist nor surrealist,’
Albert-Birot wrote in 1928” (
Andel: The Avant-Garde Book 76
2
ALBERT-BIROT, PIERRE
Larountala. Polydrame en deux parties, composé en 1917-1918. 92, (2)pp. 1 full-page original woodcut (frontispiece). Lrg. 8vo. Wraps. One of 120 numbered copies on Arches, from the limited edition of 124 in all. Albert-Birot’s elaborate ‘polydrame,’ with musical score by Germaine Albert-Birot, entails a cast of more than 50 characters, including the sixteenth-century ceramic artist Bernard Palissy, policemen, clowns, children, dancers, and a tiger. The striking, primitivistic woodcut composition depicts a bearded writer facing out from a table, like a seated Sumerian scribe. Presentation copy, inscribed to the Czech avant-garde artist and writer Adolf Hoffmeister, “hommage de sympathie/ Pierre Albert-Birot/ Paris 12 Xer 21.”
3
ARNAULD, CÉLINE
Tournevire. Roman. (72)pp. Frontispiece by Henri Laurens, hand-colored in gouache in one portion. Sm. 4to. Fine wood-grained boards, 1/2 dark brown calf gilt, by Daniel Mercher. Orig. wraps. and spine bound in. One of 20 Roman-numeralled copies on Hollande van Gelder from the limited edition of 225 in all. The first book of the Parisian dadaist Céline Arnauld, the influential editor of “Projecteur” and contributor to “Littérature,” “Cannibale” and “391.” Other volumes of verse by her followed in 1920 (‘Poèmes à claires-voies’), 1921 (‘Point de mire’) and 1923 (‘Guêpier de diamants’). Laurens’ frontispiece is a characteristically stylish Cubist bust of a woman, painted in black in portions of the head. Presentation copy, inscribed shortly after publication by Arnauld to Louis de Gonzague-Frick, a writer and saloniste in the Paris Dada and Surrealist milieu. A very fine copy.
Sanouillet 18
4
(ARP) Tzara, Tristan
Vingt-cinq poèmes. H arp: dix gravures sur bois. 52pp. 11 original woodcuts by Arp, printed in black (8 full-page hors texte; 1 repeat). Sm. 8vo. Orig. wraps., bearing an additional woodcut by Arp printed on a gold foil panel mounted on front cover (repeat). An historic, early presentation copy from Tzara and Arp to one of their most articulate supporters, appealingly inscribed "an Dr. Jollos/ très cordial/ et sympathique/ hommage/ tristan tzara/ anno bomini 1918/ le 16.vii.1/ [undersigned:] arp," in pencil (in a carefully whimsical hand, with curlicues) on the blank leaf after the title. Clipped and mounted inside the front cover is Jollos' review of the book exactly one week later, from the "Neuer Zürcher Zeitung," 23 July 1918. The critic Waldemar Jollos, who was affectionately dubbed "le Grand-duc Vladislav de Jollos" in "391," moved easily in the avant-garde community, as an enlightened, helpful proponent; he had also lectured on Klee at the Sturm exhibition at the Galerie Corray in the spring of 1917, and in the fall of 1918 was to write the introduction to the adventurous "Die neue Kunst" exhibit at the Kunstsalon Wolfsberg, which featured Arp, Richter, and Janco. In his eloquent review of "Vingt-cinq poèmes," he praises the book for its design, and remarks admiringly how Arp's abstract woodcuts deepen the reader's understanding of Tzara's verse--poems which, though not entirely worked out from a formal point of view, offer serious opportunities to explore a deeper reality.
This copy was exhibited at the exhibition "Hans Arp zum 100. Geburtstag: at the Stiftung Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp e V., Bahnhof Rolandseck, later shown at the Kunsthaus Zürich, 1986. Fine condition, the wrappers clean and the gold foil on the front cover still somewhat bright.
Zürich (Collection dada), 1918. $8,500.00
Rolandseck 6, p. 40f. (reproducing this
copy, and its clipped review); Arntz
16-25; Hagenbach 46; Dada in Zürich 82, cf. p. 61 (reproducing
the review by Jollos), cf. no. 108; Almanacco Dada p. 593; Gershman p. 44;
Sanouillet 193; Motherwell/Karpel 416; Dada Artifacts 19; Verkauf p. 105;
Düsseldorf 108; Zürich 350; Berggruen Tzara-Bibliography 2;The Artist and the
Book 2; Castleman p. 177; Andel, Jaroslav: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950
(New York, 2002), p. 128, illus. 135
5
(ARP) GOLL, IWAN
Die siebente Rose. [Umschlagzeichnungen von Hans Arp.] (Sammlung Poesie.) (16)pp. (single sheet, folded and stapled). Cover design by Hans Arp, printed in black. Dec. self-wraps, unopened. A plaquette of fourteen poems by Goll, to which Arp contributed a striking cover design of an abstracted human figure. Arp designed related covers for the Sammlung Poesie in the same year (“Konfiguration,” a pamphlet of his own verse) and for the Librairie Fischbacher (for Jan Brzekowski’s “Kilométrage de la peinture contemporaine, 1908-1930”). All are rare. This copy is signed in pen by Arp at the end. A fine copy.
Paris (Verlag Poesie & Co.) [1930]. $1,200.00
Hagenbach 78; Rolandseck 99
6
ARP, JEAN
Souffle. (12)pp. 1 original woodcut by Arp, on the second leaf. 12mo. Self-wraps., stitched as issued. Edition limited to 50 copies in all, printed on Auvergne, of which 31 reserved for a distinguished roster of friends, “imprimé pour saluer la naissance de 1950.” This poem was the first work by Arp to be published by PAB. The woodcut, serving as a dramatic frontispiece to this tiny publication, is a Dada work dating from 1918. Loosely inserted, a typed presentation slip with Arp’s name and address.
[Alès] (P.A. Benoit), 1950. $1,400.00
Musée Fabre, Montpellier: Les livres réalisés par P.A.B. Benoit, 1942-1971 (1971), no. 114; Coron, Antoine: Le fruit donné: Éphémérides de Pierre André Benoit (Bibliothèque Nationale, 1989), pp. 15, 18; Hagenbach 22; Arntz 137; Bleikasten illus. 60; Rolandseck 37
7
BALLA, GIACOMO
Il vestito antineutrale. Manifesto futurista. Milano, 11 settembre 1914. (4)pp. (single sheet, folding). 6 illus. 4to. Self-wraps. One of the only Futurist manifestos with illustrations, Balla's call for dynamic, aggressive, joyful and assymetrical 'anti-neutral attire' includes superb drawings, both of motifs ("modificanti guerreschi e festosi") and of full-scale red-white-and-green suits to be worn by Cangiullo and Marinetti.
Milano (Direzione del Movimento Futurista), 1914. $700.00
Salaris p. 84; Scrivo 42; The Avant-Garde in Print 1.2
8
BALLA, GIACOMO & DEPERO, FORTUNATO
Ricostruzione futurista dell’universo. Milano, 11 marzo 1915. (4)pp. (single sheet, folding). 4to. Self-wraps. "Written by Balla with the younger Fortunato Depero, and illustrated by ingenious constructions by both of them…the manifesto itself had less to do with the war at hand than with playful and disrespectful inventiveness…. This Futurist Universe would feature an Artificial Landscape to replace boring Nature, and be populated with Metallic Animals, millions of them, which would, under the direction of Balla and Depero, bring about 'the greatest war (a conflict between all the creative forces of Europe, Asia, Africa and America), which will undoubtedly follow the current marvellous little human conflagration'" (Tisdall/Bozzola). The 'Plastic Complexes' illustrated in halftone photographs, are extremely interesting and witty, Depero's in particular, utilizing a whole range of metals, tissues, colored glass, celluloid, springs and noise-making devices to produce a sculpture that would rotate and decompose.
Milano (Direzione del Movimento Futurista), 1915. $600.00
Salaris p. 85; Apollonio p. 197ff.; Lista p.
202ff.; Scrivo 47; Taylor p. 123;
Tisdall/Bozzola p. 195f.
9
(BEUYS, JOSEPH)
Organisation der Nichtwähler, Freie Volksabstimmung e.v., Informationsstelle./ Organisation für direkte Demokratie durch Volksabstimmung. A group of materials relating to Beuys and his two organizations: a poster of his design for the Organisation der Nichtwähler; and publications (one signed in pen by Beuys) for the successor Organisation für direkte Demokratie durch Volksabstimmung. Contents as follows: 1. "Parteien-Wahlverweigerung" [Direkte Demokratie/ Volksabstimmung] (Weiss/Britsch 8). Typographic poster designed by Beuys, printed in green and black on cream-colored stock. 608 x 428 mm. (ca. 23 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches). 2. "Volksabstimmung." 15ff. 4to. Self-wraps., stapled as issued (the front cover being a sheet of the Organisation für direkte Demokratie stationery). Signed by Beuys on the cover, in red pen. 3. Handbill, printed in blue and black (verso blank). "Die Zeit der politischen Parteien ist vorbei." 4. A series of 8 pamphlets from the Organisation, as follows: untitled membership overview, Anarchie, Demokratie, Forschungstelle Demokratie, Gewaltenteilung, Marktwirtschaft, Organisation, Parteien. (4-8)pp. each. Lrg. 8vo. Self-wraps.
Beuys founded the "Organisation der Nichtwähler, Freie Volksabstimmung e.v., Informationsstelle" in March 1970 to protest elections in Nordrhein Westfalen, rallying supporters not to vote as a means of fighting big business and the media. His "Organisation für direkte Demokratie durch Volksabstimmung" was founded the following year. A few small tears at top edge of handbill, otherwise very fine throughout.
[Düsseldorf, 1970] $800.00
Weiss, Peter & Britsch, Florian: Joseph Beuys Plakate: Werbung für die Kunst (München, 1991), no. 8
10
(BEUYS) Düsselorf. Galerie Schmela
Joseph Beuys. Zeichnungen von 1949-1969. 3ff., 57 full-page plates. 4to. Blank blue wraps., with linen backstrip. Edition limited to 500 copies, signed and numbered by Beuys in pen on the title-page. The title, with justification, and two pages of register, are all reproduced from the artist’s handwritten text. A nice copy.
Düsseldorf, 1969. $700.00
11
BLAST
Review of the Great English Vortex. Edited by Wyndham Lewis. Nos. 1-2, June 20th 1914 and July 1915 (all published). 160, (4)pp., 23 plates; 102, (6)pp. 16 illus. Vorticist ornaments and culs-de-lampe throughout the second issue. Lrg. 4to. Wraps. (No. 1 with typographic composition, on pink stock; No. 2 with full front cover design by Lewis). Manifesto, signed by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Ezra Pound, William Roberts, Edward Wadsworth and Wyndham Lewis, among others; other texts by Pound (15 poems), Lewis, Gaudier-Brzeska, T.S. Eliot (“Preludes,” “Rhapsody of a Winter Night”), Ford Maddox Hueffer, Rebecca West, Wadsworth, et al. Illus. of work by Wadsworth, Lewis, Roberts, Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska, Nevinson, and others. The second issue was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the Vorticist group at the Dove Gallery, London.
“The arrival of Vorticism was announced, with great gusto and military defiance, in a manifesto published in the first issue of ‘Blast’ magazine.... Dated June 1914 but issued a month later, this puce-covered journal set out to demonstrate the vigor of an audacious new movement in British art. Vorticism was seen by Lewis as an independent alternative to Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism. With the help of Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska and others, he used the opening manifesto pages of ‘Blast’ to launch an uninhibited attack on a wide range of targets.... In giant black letters, ‘Blast’s inventive typography roared: ‘Blast years 1837 to 1900.’ Using humour ‘like a bomb’ to ridicule British inertia…, ‘Blast’ cried ‘We are primitive mercenaries in the modern world’” (Richard Cork). No. 1 lacking backstrip, covers chipped around all edges; no. 2 chipped at head of spine.
London (John Lane), 1914-1915. $2,000.00
Manet to Hockney 37; The Art Press p. 42; Pindell p. 100
12
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.
13
BOLTANSKI, CHRISTIAN
Les vacances à Berck-Plage (août 1975). Éditeur: Hans-Ulrich Obrist. (6)pp., 23 tipped-in color photographs. Publisher’s yellow cloth, stamped in silver. Edition limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, signed in the colophon by the artist. Designed as an album of snapshots, at the beach and in the seaside town.
Stuttgart (Oktagon), 1995. $450.00
14
(BONNARD) Terrasse, Claude
Petit solfège illustré. Illustrations de Pierre Bonnard. Deuxième mille. (2), 30, (2)pp. 30 compositions by Bonnard, mostly printed in colors, integrated with and surrounding the texts and musical passages. Oblong 4to. Publisher’s dec. boards, 1/4 cloth, with full-cover illustrations by Bonnard on both front and back. One of Bonnard’s earliest and most charming publications, a primer in musical notation for children, by his brother-in-law Claude Terrasse. The layout and illustration reflect the influence of Boutet de Monvel, among other things. “I have to think of the decorators of ancient missals, or of the art that the Japanese put into the decoration of encyclopedic dictionaries to give myself some courage,” he wrote to Vuillard in 1891, during the creation of the book. In all, 2,000 copies were printed, in two issues of 1,000 copies; this example from the second. A very fresh copy, particularly rare thus.
Paris (Ancienne Maison Quantin/Librairies-Imprimeries Réunies) [1893]. $7,500.00
Terrasse 6; Basel 27; Chapon p. 65; Söderberg p. 138; Turn of a Century 56;
Carteret IV.77
15
(BONNARD) Mirbeau, Octave
La
628-E8. Croquis marginaux de Pierre Bonnard. xx, 416pp. 125 illustrations after
pen and wash drawings, printed in the margins. 4to. Very fine 3/4 plum morocco
gilt by Creuzevault, with colored inlays at spine; raised bands; t.e.g. Orig.
dec. wraps. and backstrip bound in. One of 200 numbered copies on vélin
d’Arches from the limited edition of 225 in all. Bonnard’s witty sketches
depict Mirbeau’s motoring trip (in license 628-E8) through
Paris (Eugène Fasquelle), 1908. $3,000.00
Terrasse 20; Skira 23; Villa Stuck 18; Talvart/Place XV.257.20B; Carteret IV.283; Mornand 292; Rewald, John: Pierre Bonnard (New York, 1948), p. 44
16
(BONNARD) Vollard, Ambroise
Sainte Monique. Illustrations de Pierre Bonnard. (2), ix, (1), 222, (6)pp. 29 lithographs and 17 etchings (including 3 tables) hors texte. 178 wood-engravings (including 37 'bois non utilisés' on 15 plates hors texte). Sm. folio. Orig. dec. wrapper with wood-engraved vignette, loose, as issued (small tears at head of backstrip). Glassine d.j. Uncut. All contents loose, as issued. One of 257 copies on vélin d'Arches, from the limited edition of 390 (including 50 copies hors commerce). "Bonnard, whom one might associate with a more pagan inspiration, interpreted this story of a saint--though treated by Vollard in a contemporary style--with touching solemnity, never lapsing into jejune sentimental piety. His lines vibrate with life. It was, in fact, the last book he illustrated and saw published in his lifetime" (Strachan). Slightest intermittent foxing; a very fine and crisp copy.
Paris (Ambroise Vollard), 1930. $5,500.00
Roger-Marx 96; Rauch 27; Skira 28; Stern 11; Erving 5; Wheeler p. 98; Basel 25;
Chapon p. 281; Johnson 170; Strachan p. 56
17
(BRANCUSI) Voronca, Ilarie
Plante si animale terase. Cu desene de Constantin Brancusi. 60, (4)pp. 3 full-page line-drawings by Brancusi in text. Lrg. 8vo. Wraps. Handsomely printed on cream wove stock. Unstated limited edition, estimated by Ilk at fewer than 150 copies (apart from an édition de tête of 18 numbered copies).
Though he contributed frontispiece portraits to books by James Joyce and Benjamin Fontane, this publication, a slender volume of poems (“Plants and Animals”) is Brancusi’s only illustrated book. The three compositions, line drawings of great simplicity, depict a snail and birds, a playful cow, and a composition of abstract plant forms below a horizon. Made as a favor to the writer, Ilarie Voronca, they are clearly responsive to her lyrics, birds “springing like fountains to the sky” and “hovering like a forest of waves in a blue flight”; and the first of them is closely related to a well-known gouache abstraction of “Birds in Flight” in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum. Brancusi exhibited two of the drawings in the Black and White Exhibition in Bucharest in the autumn of 1929. “This unique attempt by Brancusi in the field of book illustration is a successful transfiguration of poetry. It astounded the public opinion of 1929 in Bucharest but for a few persons who understood the hieratic sense of Brancusi’s drawings, their purity and primary character. Once again the words of the sculptor are confirmed: ‘When we are no longer children we are already dead,’ and also: ‘What makes us truly live is the feeling of our permanent childhood in life’” (Brezianu). Presentation copy, with a delicate five-line inscription by the author on the half-title, in ink. A fine copy.
N.p. [Paris] (Colectia Integral), 1929. $7,000.00
Ilk K519, illus. p. 85; Brezianu, Barbu:
Brancusi in
18
(BRAUNER) Pana, Sasa
Diagrame. Un portret si desene de Victor Brauner. (28)pp. 3 tipped-in plates of line drawings in text. Lrg. 8vo. Dec. wraps., with portrait by Brauner. Printed d.j. Unstated limited edition (“tiraj restrins”), estimated by Ilk at 150 copies, with text on pale brown wove stock, and the illustrations on cream-colored card. Pana was the founder of “Unu” in 1928. A very fine unopened copy, complete with the dust jacket. Very rare.
[Bucharest] (Editura UNU), 1930. $1,850.00
Ilk K485, illus. p. 89; Biro/Passeron 2164
19
(BRAUNER) Pana, Sasa
Sadismul Adevarului. Ilustratil de Victor Brauner, Marcel Iancu, Alfred Jarry, Kapralik, S. Perahim, Picasso, Man Ray, si Jacques Vaché. 287, (1)pp. Numerous illus., including a collage group portrait by Brauner (using photographs by Man Ray), with captioned glassine overlay. Lrg. 8vo. Wraps. (lightly foxed). One of 358 hand-numbered copies, from the limited edition of 370. Presentation copy, inscribed by Pana on the half-title, 1965.
Ilk K490, illus. p. 100
20
(BRAUNER) Roll, Stephan
Moartea Vie a Eleonorei. Desene de Victor Brauner. (34)pp. 2 tipped-in plates of line drawings in text. Lrg. 8vo. Wraps. Unstated limited edition, estimated by Ilk at circa 150 unnumbered copies, the text printed on brown wove stock. Covers a little soiled. Very rare.
[Bucharest] (Editura UNU), 1930. $4,500.00
Ilk K502, illus. p. 89
21
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
22
BRETON, ANDRÉ
Le surréalisme et la peinture. 72, (28)pp., 77 plates. 4to. Later full bottle-green calf. Orig. printed wraps. bound in. First edition, imprinted “S.P.” (Service de Presse) on the front wrapper. An historic presentation copy, inscribed “A Giuseppe Ungaretti/ souvenir de l’Hotel des Grands Hommes/ André Breton” on the half-title. Giuseppe Ungaretti, born (like Marinetti) in Alexandria, in 1888, and one of the great Italian poets of the century, was intimately tied to the literary and artistic French avant-garde, beginning with his arrival at the Sorbonne in 1912. The Hôtel des Grands Hommes, in the Place du Panthéon, where Breton and Soupault composed “Les champs magnétiques” in 1919, has always been considered the cradle of Surrealism. A little light wear.
Paris (Librairie Gallimard), 1928. $2,000.00
Sheringham Aa154; Pompidou: Breton p. 186f.; Gershman p. 7; Ades 9.93; Biro/Passeron p. 390; Rubin 138; Milano p. 650; Reynolds p. 18
23
BRETON, ANDRÉ, et al.
Violette Nozières. Par André Breton, René Char, Paul Eluard, Maurice Henry, E.L.T. Mesens, César Moro, Benjamin Péret, Guy Rosey, Salvador Dalí, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Victor Brauner, René Magritte, Marcel Jean, Hans Arp, Alberto Giacometti. 41, (5)pp. 8 full-page illus. Lrg. 8vo. Wraps. One of 2000 unnumbered copies on vélin, from the edition of 2020. Front cover photograph by Hans Bellmer. A collective homage in verse and image by the surrealists in defense of the young parricide Violette Nozières, whose case at the time was the subject of violent political opinion. Though not noted internally, this copy derives from the library of Julien Levy. Covers slightly chipped and worn.
Bruxelles (Nicolas Flamel), 1933. $700.00
Sheringham Ac214; Ades 13.31; Biro/Passeron p. 424; Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950 nos. 409, 433
24
BRETON, ANDRÉ & ELUARD, PAUL (editors)
Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme. 75, (1)pp. Prof. illus. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps., designed by Yves Tanguy. Contributions by L. Aragon, H. Arp, A. Artaud, H. Bellmer, A. Breton, R. Crevel, S. Dalí, R. Desnos, M. Duchamp, P. Eluard, M. Ernst, M. Heine, G. Hugnet, M. Leiris, G. Lély, J. Lély, P. Mabille, Man Ray, E.L.T. Mesens, P. Naville, V. Nezval, P. Nougé, W. Paalen, H. Pastoureau, B. Péret, P. Picasso, J. Prévert, G. Rosey, J. Scutenaire, P. Soupault, T. Tzara. Conceived and developed by Breton and Eluard, the “Dictionnaire” was published in January 1938 on the occasion of the great Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts. “[Ce] document demeurent, quarante ans après sa parution, un miroir exemplaire de l’illumination surréaliste à la fin des années trente. A nôtre époque de slogans et d’explications simplistes, son pouvoir éclairant, par contraste, n’a fait que grandir. Il est également significatif que le premier ‘dictionnaire du Surréalisme’ ait été écrit par les surréalistes eux-mêmes” (Biro/Passeron). A fresh copy.
Biro/Passeron p. 130, and no. 917; Gershman p. 8; Rubin 141; Reynolds p. 36
25
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.
26
BRETON, ANDRÉ
Autograph letter, signed and dated Paris, 5 March 1960 to Maurice Bonnefoy at the D’Arcy Galleries, New York, relating to plans for the exhibition “The Surrealist Intrusion in the Enchanters’ Domain.” 3ff. on 2 sheets of blue airmail paper. Together with this: Breton’s retained carbon typescript copy, fully signed by him in pen at the closing (3ff.); Bonnefoy’s typed and signed reply, New York, 11 August 1960 (2ff., on D’Arcy Gallery letterhead, with envelope); and retained carbon typescript of a letter from Bonnefoy to Raymond Cordier in Paris, 1 August 1960, forwarded to Breton (2ff.).
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 Paris, he places himself “comme d’ordinaire, aux côtés de Marcel Duchamp, avec délegation de pouvoirs, chaque fois que nécessaire, à mon ami José Pierre, à qui je vous prie de faire la 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.
Paris, 1960. $2,500.00
Cf.: Sheringham Ac640; Pompidou: Breton p. 423; Biro/Passeron p. 392 (illus.); Rubin 438; Jean: Autobiography 176; Milano p. 659f.
27
CAHUN, CLAUDE
Aveux non avenus. Illustré d'héliogravures composées par Moore d'après les projets de l'auteur. Préface de Pierre Mac Orlan. (2), iii, (1), 237, (5)pp. 10 full-page collotype photomontage/photocollage plates. 1 collotype photographic illustration at the conclusion. 4to. Printed wraps. One of 370 numbered copies on uncut vélin pur fil Lafuma, from the edition of 500 in all. “‘Aveux non avenus’ (‘Avowals Not Admitted’) is Claude Cahun’s first book, produced in collaboration with her lover and stepsister Suzanne Malherbe (who signed herself ‘Marcel Moore’).... Following an elegant preface by Pierre Mac Orlan, Cahun’s text consists of disjunctive mediations [sic] and philosophical aphorisms on love and self-knowledge in writing influenced by the Symbolists, to whom Cahun was linked through her uncle, the Symbolist critic Marcel Schwob.... A photomontage appears before the introduction and each chapter with titles corresponding to nine ‘deadly elements’ (éléments capitaux instead of deadly sins, péchés capitaux)” (Roth). Uncut. A fine copy.
Paris (Editions du Carrefour), 1930. $4,000.00
Roth p. 62; Surrealism: Desire Unbound (London, Tate Gallery, 2001), p. p. 186ff.;
Andel Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950
no. 445
28
CHICAGO. The Art Institute of Chicago
Surrealism and Its Affinities. The Mary Reynolds Collection. A bibliography compiled by Hugh Edwards. 131, (3)pp. 44 illus. and vignettes. 4to. Wraps. First edition, limited to 1375 copies. The foreword, dated New York 1956, is by Marcel Duchamp, who also executed the title-page calligraphy. This copy is signed in pen by Duchamp at the end of the foreword. An exceptionally fresh, bright copy.
Chicago, 1956. $800.00
Schwarz: bibl. 112; Arntzen/Rainwater A109; Gershman p. 17; Rubin 1; Jean Autobiography 8
29
CARTIER-BRESSON, HENRI
The Decisive Moment. Foreword by the photographer. Afterword by R.L. Simon. (160)pp. 126 heliogravure plates. Caption booklet (12pp.) loosely inserted, as issued. Folio. Dec. boards, designed by Matisse. Dec. d.j., of the same design (small chips at edges, slightly worn at backstrip). Conceived and composed by Tériade (and simultaneously published in France by Éditions Verve); plates printed by Draeger Frères. The binding design, an elaborate and classic cut-out composition by Matisse, was made especially for the work. An exceptionally fine copy, clean and fresh.
New York (Simon and Schuster), 1952. $2,000.00
Roth p. 134
30
(CHICAGO TRIBUNE TOWER)
The International Competition for a New Administration Building for the Chicago Tribune MCMXXII. Containing all the designs submitted in response to the Chicago Tribune’s $100,000 offer commemorating its seventy fifth anniversary, June 10, 1922. (8), 103, (5)pp., 281 full-page plates with facing captions. 27 illus. Lrg. stout 4to. Original burlap-covered boards, rebacked in buckram, preserving the original label. As noted by Sigfried Giedion, “the competition...drew entries from everywhere. The projects submitted give an invaluable crosssection of the architecture of this period.” The pervasive preference for ‘Woolworth Gothic’ notwithstanding, there are a few brave essays in modernism by Walter Gropius, Bruno and Max Taut, Adolf Loos and others, as well as submissions by Bragdon, Burnham, Goodhue, Holabird & Roche, Eliel Saarinen, et al. Raymond Hood was the winner. Binding very slightly cocked, but quite a fine copy, tight and clean, the perishable spine in excellent condition.
Chicago (The Tribune Company), 1923. $1,450.00
31
CLAUDEL, PAUL
Sainte Geneviève. Poème. (34)ff. 14 illus. by Audrey Parr, printed in woodcut by Bokotsu Igami, in shades of blue and grey. On the verso, a double-page color woodcut design by Keisen Tomita; title-page and justification, designed by Noemi Pernessin. Tall narrow 4to. Leporello, printed on double leaves Japanese-bound within polished sandalwood boards, with printed dec. cover mounted on the front board, as issued. Publisher’s folding cloth case, with ivory clasps. Edition of 1000 numbered copies, on watermarked Hôcho paper.
When they worked together on this book, Claudel and the artist Audrey Parr (1892-1940) had been friends for several years, beginning in 1917 in Brazil, where they had both been part of the French diplomatic community. There, living in Petropolis, they had collaborated on the ballet "L'homme et son désir," for which Parr designed the sets and production (and Darius Milhaud, who had come along as Claudel's secretary, composed the music). For "Sainte Geneviève," Claudel had imagined a sequence of female figures, turning in spiritualized movements, which Parr was able to bring to life in sketches. The design of the book, however, and the integration of text and image, resolutely failed to come together to Claudel's satisfaction until his diplomatic career brought him to to Japan, where, as he wrote Parr back in Paris, his vision of the work suddenly fell into place. He was also very pleased with the skill of the Japanese engraver, who was able to translate the wash drawings vividly into woodcuts. Parr’s dramatically cloaked, faceless dancers, moving in an interrupted frieze across the top of the sheet, evoke the dramatic gestures of the choreographer and performer Mary Wigman.
Tokio (Chinchiocha), 1923. $2,750.00
Talvart & Place III.33; Malicet, Michel (ed.): Lettres de Paul Claudel à Sainte-Marie Perrin et à Audrey Parr [Cahiers Paul Claudel 13] (Paris, 1990), p. 259ff., 395
32
LE COEUR À BARBE
Journal transparent. Gérant: G. Ribemont-Dessaignes. No. 1, avril 1922 [all published]. (8)pp., printed on pale pink stock. Sm. 4to. Orig. self-wraps., with typographic and wood-engraved collage composition. Texts by Duchamp (“Rrose Sélavy”), Éluard, Fraenkel, Huidobro, Josephson, Péret, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Satie, Serner, Soupault and Tzara. A counterattack launched by Tzara following Picabia’s insulting “La pomme de pins” of the previous month; one more missile hurled during the spring of 1922, which Breton was later to comment witnessed the ‘obsequies of Dada.’ The cover design is one of the best-known and most appealing graphic inventions of Paris Dada. A fine copy.
Paris (Au Sans Pareil), 1922. $2,500.00
Dada Global 182; Ades p. 147f. (illus.); Almanacco Dada 26; Gershman p. 48f.; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 282; Admussen 58; Sanouillet 224; Motherwell/Karpel 64; Dada Artifacts 138; Verkauf p. 177; Düsseldorf 234; Zürich 369; Milano p. 648; Andel, Jaroslav: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950 (New York, 2002), p. 136, illus. 144
33
CZYZEWSKI,
TYTUS
Waz, Orfeuszi i Euridika. Wizja antyczna [The Serpent, Orpheus and Eurydice. An ancient vision]. Risunki graficzne w tekscie przez T. Czyzewskiego. Wykonal grafik Franciszek Benisz. (32)pp., including 15 numbered plates of typographic abstractions. Printed in green throughout. Dec. pale peach wraps., printed in green with text and typographic abstraction. Presentation copy, inscribed by Czyzewski on the title-page in pencil to the Polish Constructivist Henryk Berlewi.
The painter and poet Tytus Czyzewski (1885-1945) was one of the leading figures of the Krakow avant-garde, which preceded Warsaw and then Lodz as the center of artistic experiment in Poland. A key personality in the group known as the Formists, which began to exhibit in 1917, Czyzewski developed a unique pictorical and poetic idiom, a mélange of Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, with strong Dadaist elements. Around 1920, "Czyzewski began an extremely creative period: he composed strange paintings that had elements of Expressionism, Futurism and the Dadaist spirit, combining signs and colours with no relationship to reality. More importantly, he created three-dimensional works with constructions of multicoloured wood, fixed to the surface of the picture. His writing was permeated with the same bizarre spirit, which for a certain time he called "Formist'; he wrote poems, collected in 'Green Eye--Electric Visions' (1920), 'Night-Day' (1922) and 'The Serpent, Orpheus and Eurydice' (1922). These poems are neither calligrammes nor free words, strictly speaking, but they use interesting typographical effects and layouts that recall the work of Cangiullo and Albert-Birot rather than that of the Constructivists, with whom he was to collaborate during the Twenties and Thirties" (Serge Fauchereau, in "Futurism and Futurisms"). "Contrary to the Italian futurists, who proclaimed the cult of the machine, Polish artists--closer to the art of Picabia or Duchamp, and with a distancing characteristic of the Dadaist position--doubted the value of a 'mechanical' program elevated to be the highest symbol of the contemporary age…. Tytus Czyzewski's poetic images from…'Waz, Orfeusz I Eurydyka' (The Serpent, Orpheus and Eurydice) recall the lyrical schemes of Picabia's mechanical paintings: 'a burst of red light,' we read in Czyzewski's text, 'a phallus transforms itself into a giant electric lightbulb'" (Andrzej Turowski). 'The Serpent, Orpheus and Eurydice' was produced on stage in Krakow in 1933. Top outer corner slightly dog-eared, with little loss; other light wear. Extremely rare.
Krakow (Odbito czcienkami Grafji Przemyslowej/ Instytut wydaniczy “Niezalezych”), 1922. $3,000.00
Hultén, Pontus (ed.): Futurism and Futurisms
(New York, 1986), p. 458; Turowski,
Andrzej: “Dada Contexts in Poland,” in: Janecek, Gerald & Omuka, Toshiharu
(eds.): The Eastern Dada Orbit (Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, Vol.
4 [New York, 1998]), pp. 112, 122f.; cf.
Benson, Timothy O. (ed.): Central European Avant-Gardes: Exchange and
Transformation (Los Angeles, 2002), p. 329f.; Wilhelmi 77
34
DADA. NO. 2
Décembre 1917. Recueil littéraire et artistique. [Editor: Tristan Tzara.] (16)pp. + (6)-pp. loose insert (“Notes,” tipped in after the last leaf). 8 illus., by Otto van Rees, Arp, Robert Delaunay, Prampolini (woodcut), Kandinsky, Helbig, Janco and de Chirico. Sm. 4to. Orig. orange wraps. with woodcut by Hilla de Rebay on front cover. Contributions by Tzara (“Note 2 sur l’art,” “2 poèmes nègres,” “Printemps”), Albert-Birot (“Rasoir mécanique”), G. Cantarelli, M. d’Arezzo, S. de Vaulchier, and B. San Miniatelli. This issue is uniform in format with the first; subsequently, the design of “Dada” changed considerably with each appearance. Front cover a bit spotted at right edge; a little foxing on first and last leaves.
Zürich, 1917. $4,000.00
Dada in Zürich 88; Ades p. 64; Gershman p. 49; Admussen 70; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 284; Almanacco Dada 32; Sanouillet 226; Motherwell/Karpel 66; Rubin 462; Verkauf p. 177; Reynolds p. 110; Dada Artifacts 4; Zürich 371
35
DADA. NO. 4-5: ANTHOLOGIE DADA
15 mai 1919. Editor: Tristan Tzara. (32)pp. Prof. illus. in a variety of media, including original prints, line drawings and tipped-in halftone reproductions. 4to. Printed wraps., with Arp woodcut. Text printed on rose, blue, orange and white stocks. Texts by Picabia, Tzara, Cocteau, Serner, Hardekopf, Soupault, Aragon, Breton, Radiguet, Albert-Birot, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Buffet, Arp, Huelsenbeck, Hausmann, Richter, et al. Original woodcuts by Arp (5, including that on the front cover; Arntz 40-44), Hausmann (2), Richter and Janco; 2 original lithographs by Viking Eggeling. The most important and synoptic issue of “Dada,” and the most beautiful. This copy is in the German edition (with texts in both German and French); there was also a French edition, in which texts by Pérez-Jorba, Reverdy, Ribemont-Dessaignes and Tzara were substituted for those by Arp, Hardekopf, Hausmann, Huelsenbeck, Richter and Serner. “‘Dada 4/5,’ christened ‘Anthologie Dada,’ is a further collaboration by Tzara and Picabia, and was published almost simultaneously with the number 8 of Picabia’s review ‘391.’ Picabia executed the famous frontispiece for the ‘Anthologie,’ ‘Reveil Matin,’ by using as templates the wheelworks of an alarm clock dipped in ink. Possibly also through Picabia’s connections, contributors to this issue of ‘Dada’ were heavily weighted towards the Parisian writers of ‘Littérature’.... Typographic experimentation continued to challenge established ideas about the printing medium and are characterized in this issue by the use of randomly colored pages or imprints” (Dada Artifacts). A very fine copy, the covers slightly worn at extremities.
Zürich, 1919. $7,000.00
Dada in Zürich 90; Ades p. 64f.; Gershman p. 49; Admussen 70; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 284; Almanacco Dada 32; Sanouillet 226; Motherwell/Karpel 66; Rubin 462; Verkauf p. 177; Reynolds p. 110; Dada Artifacts 6; Düsseldorf 113; Zürich 371
36
DADA. NO. 6: BULLETIN DADA
5 février 1920. Editor: Tristan Tzara. (4)pp. (single sheet, folding). 2 mecanomorphic drawings by Picabia (1 printed in red over text). Folio. Tabloid format, with enormous masthead in red on the front (as well as red overprinting on front and back, at variance with, and superimposed on, the text in black. Including the program for “Matinée du mouvement dada, 5 février 1920, Salon des Indépendants,” “Manifeste du mouvement dada,” “Quelques présidents et présidentes,” and aphorisms by Picabia, Tzara, Breton, Duchamp, Aragon, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Dermée, Éluard, Cravan, Soupault, De Zayas and others. “Tzara followed Picabia to Paris early in January 1920 and brought out ‘Dada’ nos. 6 and 7 (‘Bulletin Dada’ and ‘Dadaphone’) from Picabia’s apartment. They belong to Paris, in the sense that they contain predominantly the work of Paris dadaists, apart from Tzara himself and Picabia, and have grown closer to ‘391’ in appearance” (Ades). Two small clean marginal splits at foldlines; an excellent copy, clean and uncreased.
Paris, 1920. $6,000.00
Dada
Global 173; Ades pp. 63, 65; Gershman p. 49; Admussen 70; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 284; Almanacco Dada 32;
Sanouillet 226; Motherwell/Karpel 66; Rubin 462; Verkauf p. 177; Reynolds p.
110; Düsseldorf 116
37
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, Dermée, Aragon, Arnauld, Evola and others. The penultimate issue of “Dada,” brought out by Tzara in March 1920, at a moment of inspired Dada activity in Paris, just before the Manifestation Dada at the Maison de l’Oeuvre (March 27), the first appearance of “Cannibale” (April), the Festival Dada at the Salle Gaveau (May). Reminiscent of “391” and with a strong Parisian bias along “Littérature” lines (like “Dada” 6), “Dadaphone”’s visual interest is mostly in its insistent typographic density, rather than its illustration--though it does include a beautiful abstract Schadograph, purporting to show Arp and Serner in the Royal Crocodarium in London, as well as the spiralingly zany Picabia drawing on the front cover. An exceptionally fine copy. Extremely rare.
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
38
(DADA HANDBILL)
Excursions & visites dada. 1ère visite: Eglise Saint Julien le Pauvre. Jeudi 14 avril à 3 h. [1921]. Single sheet, printed on recto only. Typography by Tristan Tzara. The central text of the handbill, ascribable to Andé Breton, explains that “The Dadaists passing through Paris, wishing to remedy the incompetence of suspect guides and cicerones, have decided to organize a series of visits to selected spots, particularly those which really have no reason for existing.....” this first excursion did in fact take place, but it rained, and hardly anyone came. As George Hugnet later recalled “In itself, this demonstration, which took place at three o’clock on April 14, almost exlusively under the influence of André Breton, who was keenly sensitive to the outward effect of monuments and localities, proved, more than anything, demoralizing. It consisted of only a few individuals, almost improvised acts; one of the ‘numbers,’ perhaps the most successful (which does not mean much), was a tour conducted through the churchyard, stopping here and there to read definitions taken at random from a big dictionary.... The result was what followed every Dada demonstration: collective nervous depression.”
“Par la variété des fontes, la réparition des volumes encrés, le jeu des couleurs, ce document constitue une des plus heureuses réussites de la typographie dadïste” (Sanouillet). Blue paper stock faded, as usual; minute chips at edges; quite a good copy.
Paris, 1921. $950.00
Ades 8.46; Motherwell-Karpel p. 114ff.; Sanouillet 279, p. 244ff.; Documents Dada 28; Richter p. 183f.; Rubin p. 459
39
(DADA INVITATION)
Paris. Galerie Montaigne. Venez voir du 6 au 30 juin Salon Dada. Invitation, typeset on buff-colored laid paper (verso blank). 138 x 93 mm. This frequently reproduced card, with splendid dada typography by Tristan Tzara (who also designed the catalogue) was issued for the last major Dada exhibition. Under the cryptic formulation “dada escargot du ciel” are strewn the names of various movement luminaries: Arp, Baargeld, Joseph Stella, Duchamp, Eluard, Man Ray, Evola, Gala [Eluard-Dalí], Charchoune, Ernst, Aragon, Soupault, Tzara, Rigaud, Péret, Cantarelli, Mehring, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Vaché, Fraenkel and others. A fresh example.
Documents Dada 33; Sanouillet 304; Motherwell/Karpel p. 181f. (illus.); Almanacco dada p. 621 (illus.); Tendenzen 3.126; Düsseldorf 262
40
(DADA INVITATION)
Dada Global 242; Documents Dada 36 ; Sanouillet 313
41
(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
42
(DADA POSTER)
Mariaburg [
Mariaburg, 1926. $1,800.00
43
(DADA PROGRAM)
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
44
(DADA PROGRAM)
Documents Dada 35; Dada Global 241; Almanacco
Dada p. 629; Sanouillet 340;
Tendenzen 3.129; Zürich 451
45
DALI,
Babaouo. Scenario inédit,
précédé d’un Abrégé d’une histoire critique du cinéma, et suivi de Guillaume
Tell, ballet portugais. 58, (4)pp. Lrg. 8vo. Publisher’s printed apple-green
wraps. One of 600 numbered copies on "vélin Outheninchalandre," from
the limited edition of 623 in all. “Scénario non réalisé de Salvador Dalí,
datant de la période la plus inspirée et paru en 1932 aux éditions des Cahiers
libres (
Gershman p. 15; Ades 11.47; Biro/Passeron p.
44
46
DÉ-COLLAGE
Bulletin aktueller Ideen [und Kunst nach 1960]. Herausgegeben von Wolf Vostell. Nos. 1, 3-7 (of 7 nos. published in all). 6 vols. Prof. illus. in various media, with numerous multiples, plates and inserts. Format varies: lrg. 4to. to sm. 4to. Dec. wraps. and portfolios. Editions limited to 500 copies (No. 5), 700 copies (No. 6) and 1000 copies. No. 2, not present in this run, was a mimeographed program for Dick Higgins’ “The Broadway Opera.”
Wolf Vostell’s “Dé-collage” (a title he later refined as “dé-coll/age”) was unquestionably the most important German review dedicated to the writings, manifestos and performances of Happenings, Fluxus, Nouveau Réalisme, and the intermedia avant-garde. It was also the first of its kind, Vostell in fact anticipating “Fluxus 1” (something for which George Maciunas never forgave him). Beyond this, in addition to its texts and scores, “dé-collage” contains major original works of art. The best known of these, Joseph Beuys’ early and very important multiple in issue no. 5, "Zwei Fräulein mit leuchtendem Brot" (Schellmann 2)--a text assemblage with a mounted block of chocolate and rolled scroll beneath--is present in this set in exceptionally fine condition. Contents as follows:
No. 1, Juni 1962. 7 folding leaves, each allocated to a different artist: Arthur Köpcke, George Maciunas, Benjamin Patterson, Braun, Name [sic] June Paik, Pera, Wolf Vostell, La Monte Young. Sq. 4to. Self-wraps., with original wrap-around band at front; stamp and cancellation on back cover, from original mailing.
No. 3, Dezember 1962. Texts and images by 14 contributors, including Christo, Henry Flynt, "Fluxus," Dick Higgins, György Ligeti, Franz Mon, Paik, and Vostell. Numerous folding leaves; portions printed in red and on differing stocks. 4to. Wraps. D.j.
No. 4, Januar 1964 ("happenings"). Texts and images by 14 contributors, including George Brecht, Tomas Schmit, Stanley Brouwn (tipped-in multiple), Allan Kaprow, Higgins, Bazon Brock, Paik, Robin Page, Frank Trowbridge, Claes Oldenburg, H.J. Dietrich, J.J. Lebel, and Al Hansen. Numerous folding leaves; portions printed in red and on differing stocks. Lrg. 4to. Wraps. D.j.
No. 5, Februar 1966 ("happenings,
stücke, partituren"). A portfolio of original multiples and other
contributions, limited to 500 hand-numbered copies. Contents include Joseph
Beuys' "Zwei Fräulein mit leuchtendem Brot" (text on card stock, with
mounted block of actual chocolate and additional rolled scroll of attached
text); Vostell's "Skelett" (text on card stock, covered with loose
yellow-orange pigment, in cellophane envelope); Ben Vautier's "Spucke Ben
1960" (bandaid multiple, on card); H.J. Dietrich's "Aufhaenger"
(plastic hook, mounted on yellow card stock, signed in pencil on the verso);
Eckhart Rahn "Vergessen sie…" (strip of acoustic tape, mounted around
text on card stock, numbered by hand); Ludwig Grosewitz's
"Dazwischen" (text on die-cut card stock, three-dimensional if
opened); and other texts and compositions by Higgins, Kaprow, Mon, Patterson,
René Block, Claus Bremer, Henning Christiansen, Bernhard Hoeke, Gerhard Ruehm,
Vagelis Stadtanzeiger, and members of the Gruppe Zaj, mostly on loose sheets of
card stock. Lrg. 4to. Printed folding cardboard case.
No. 6, Juli 1967 ("bulletin der
fluxus und happening avantgarde").Texts and images, including multiple by
Diter Rot ("das blaue Geheul," blue marker on blank photo stock, in
envelope); Daniel Spoerri, Stefan Wewerka, Gustav Metzger, Lebel, Mon,
Tinguely, Vostell, Hansen, Kaprow, and others. Lrg. 4to. Dec. wraps., stapled.
No. 7, Februar 1969. Wolf Vostell: Elektronischer dé-coll/age Happening Raum 1959-1968 (Frankfurt: Typos Verlag, 1969). (96)pp., on folded leaves. Prof. illus. Published in conjunction with the EdHR section of the exhibition "Von der Collage zur Assemblage" at the Institut für moderne Kunst, Nürnberg and "Linee della ricerca: dall'informale alle nuove strutture" at the XXXIV Venice Biennale. Sm. sq. 4to. Self-wraps.
Together with this run, a printed handbill program for Dick Higgins’ “The Broadway Opera” (the full program of which constituted issue No. 2 of “dé-coll/age,” an order form for “dé-coll/age 6,” and 2 other printed advertising ephemera. Exceptionally fine condition throughout.
Köln/Frankfurt, 1962-1969. $19,500.00
Kellein, Thomas: “Fröhliche Wissenschaft”: das Archiv Sohm (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986), no.176, p. 110; Schellmann, Jörg (ed.): Joseph Beuys: The Multiples (Cambridge, 1997), no. 2
47
(DELAUNAY) Apollinaire, Guillaume
Robert Delaunay. 5ff. letterpress text, printed on golden wove paper; 11 plates (the first in color), tipped onto heavy indigo-colored card mounts, through-numbered in silver at lower right. Sm. folio. Original heavy cream-colored wraps. The cover of this copy has been mounted with the clipped decorative letterhead of the Delaunays, printed in color pochoir with an abstract design by Sonia Delaunay and the words “DELAUNAY” “PARIS” (BN item 331, reproduced in color p. 96)--an added element (pasted over the printed title "Robert Delaunay") which most copies do not have. The history of this beautiful album, printed in a very small edition, is well known. Designed by Sonia Delaunay, it was published on the occasion of the exhibition of Robert Delaunay’s great abstract series, "Saint-Séverin," "La Tour Eiffel," and "Les Fenêtres" at Der Sturm in Berlin, in January and February of 1912. Apart from two leaves of catalogue and table, its only text is Apollinaire’s famous poem, "Les Fenêtres," written for this publication, and his magniloquent statement "J’aime l’Art d’aujourd’hui parce que J’Aime avant tout la Lumière et tous les hommes Aiment avant tout la Lumière ils ont inventé le feu," grandly isolated in letterpress on the first golden leaf of the album. It commemorates one of the most electrifying breakthroughs in the history of abstract art, and the show provoked widespread excitement throughout Europe. In the spring of 1998, an exhibition was devoted to these pictures at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Covers somewhat worn, with small losses at extremities (old mends), and without original cord; backstrip paper-taped; internally very fine, and noteworthy for the extra pochoir on the front cover.
Paris (Imprimerie André Marty) [1912]. $4,500.00
Inventaire des Collections Publiques Françaises 15: Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne: Robert et Sonia Delaunay, 1967; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale: Sonia et Robert Delaunay, 1977; Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris: Robert/Sonia Delaunay,1985; New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: Visions of Paris: Robert Delaunay’s Series, 1998.
48
DEPERO, FORTUNATO
Depero Futurista. (116)ff. (2 folding), printed on various paper stocks, of which some colored; most versos blank. 28 halftone plates in text (2 color). Line-block illus. and typographic designs throughout (many printed in red and black). Oblong lrg. 4to. Flexible blue boards, printed in black and white, secured with massive metal bolts, as issued. Stated limitation of 1000 copies (never completed), signed and dated Milano 1927 by Depero in black ink on the verso of the title-page. Design by Depero. Depero’s famous ‘bolted book,’ an anthology of his own theatrical and commercial designs from 1913 to 1927, “one of the avant-garde masterpieces in the history of the book-object. It exemplifies all the Futurist innovations: witty typographical effects, the use of colored inks and decorated paper, and the brilliant idea of dynamo binding, making the book seem like a machine" (Jentsch). “[This] book is Mechanical, bolted like a motor, Dangerous, can constitute a projectile weapon. Unclassifiable, cannot fit into a library with the other volumes. And therefore it is in its exterior form Original, Invasive, and Assaulting, like Depero and his art” (from the preface to the work). A spectacularly fine, bright and fresh copy.
Milano/
Andel, Jaroslav: Avant-Garde Page Design
1900-1950 (New York, 2002), p. 112; Andel
50; Jentsch: The Artist and the Book
in Twentieth-Century Italy, no. 177; Lista
p. 108; Hultén p. 467; Salaris p. 35
49
DEUTSCHER WERKBUND
Werkbundausstellung ‘Die
Wohnung,’
50
(
Sezession Gruppe 1919. Mit einem Textbeitrag von Walter Rheiner. Herausgegeben vom Verlag. 36pp., 23 plates (11 reproductive woodcuts, 12 halftone). 3 original woodcuts hors texte, by Conrad Felixmüller (front cover, “Sezession Gruppe 1919,” Söhn 163b), Constantin von Mitsch-Collande (untitled print for Walter Hartmann’s poem “Der begeisterte Weg”), and Otto Lange (“Fischpredigt”). Lrg. 4to. Orig. dec. wraps. In this copy, the front cover woodcut by Felixmüller is signed in pencil by the artist, though this is not called for (and not recorded by Söhn). Marking the formal debut of the Dresdner Sezession Gruppe 1919, the publication opens with the group's founding manifesto, and contains a portfolio of illustrations, including original woodcuts, introduced by the poet Walter Rheiner. It also served as the catalogue for their first exhibition, held at the Galerie Emil Richter in April 1919. The Dresdner Sezession Gruppe 1919 was begun largely at the instigation of Conrad Felixmüller, who provided the powerful cover woodcut, the figure of a youth shouting "1919" under the heading "Sezession Gruppe." In addition to Felixmüller, the original group included Otto Dix, Lasar Segall, Peter August Boeckstiegel, Gela Forster, Will Heckrott, and Otto Schubert, all of them represented with illustrations in this publication, as well as the influential architect and writer Hugo Zehder, who is not. Speaking of the Sezession's not very long life, which came to an end in 1925, some time after its initial vitality had expired, Stephanie Barron writes "What emerges is a picture of intense activity, particularly in the years 1919-21, led primarily by Dix and Felixmüller, both of whom convinced many others to join with them. The attitude of the young artists is expressed by the poet Walter Rheiner in his introduction to the catalogue…: 'The painters who now make their entrance are young. Heralds of a new world. They are the hunted, tormented, blissful, dithyrambic prophets of the Wonder of Wonders…. They call out to you…. Don't look for what your eye, your all-too-weary eye expects to see… That world of yours is falling apart! Can't you see?… Turn from your blindness! School the eye! School the spirit! You are human and this is about you.'" Covers lightly browned, lightly foxed at lower edge, neatly detached at spine.
Söhn II.280.1-3; Perkins 141; Raabe/Hannich-Bode 245.9; Spalek 847; Barron, Stephanie (ed.): German Expressionism 1915-1925: The Second Generation (New York, 1988), p. 57ff.
51
(DUBUFFET)
"Les gens sont bien plus beaux qu’ils croient. Vive leur vraie figure. Portraits. A ressemblance extraite, à ressemblance cuite et confite dans la mémoire, à ressemblance éclatée dans la mémoire de Mr. Jean Dubuffet. Du mardi 7 au 31 octobre. [At the base, corresponding to the top:] “Plus beaux qu’ils veulent/ Beaux malgré eux.” Poster, with manuscript text and portrait drawing at the center, printed on salmon-colored wove stock, in offset lithography. 580 x 400 mm. (22 7/8 x 15 5/8 inches). 2 cancelled taxe d’affichage stamps affixed at blank portion at lower left.
The
extremely rare, graphically riveting poster for one of the most radical
exhibitions in postwar
Franzke, Andreas: Dubuffet (New York, 1981), p. 41f. (discussing the exhibition); Varnedoe, Kirk & Gopnik, Adam: High & Low (New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1991), p. 144ff.
52
(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 by Duchamp “pour Joseph Solomon/ Marcel Duchamp” at the head of the table of contents.
Schwarz 508; Naumann 6.15;
53
(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
54
(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 by Duchamp “pour Joseph Solomon/ en revenant de
Schwarz 589; Naumann 8.37
55 54
(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
56
(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 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
57
(ERNST)
Ouverture de la Grande Saison
Dada/ Exposition Max Ernst. Small
handbill, printed in various fonts on pale pink stock. 111 x 139 mm. (ca. 4 1/2
x 5 1/2 inches). This double-sided announcement served to advertise both the
opening of the “Grande Saison Dada,” on
Documents Dada 29; Dada Global 236; Ades p. 165f. (illus.); Almanacco Dada p. 619; Motherwell/Karpel p. 184 (illus.); Zürich 448; Russell Ernst p. 61
58
(ERNST)
Vernissage Exposition Max Ernst. Small invitation card, printed on
recto only of a sheet of brown card stock. 77 x 125 mm. (ca. 3 x 5 inches).
“dada invite 1_ petit ___ au vernissage de l’exposition max ernst.... à 22 h le
kanguroo/ à 22 h 30 haute fréquence/ à 23 h distribution des surprises/ à
partir de 23 h 30 intimités/ saison dada.” A seductively understated example,
set entirely in lower case, of Dada typography and promotion, for this
high-water mark among Dada happenings. “Le vernissage de l’exposition Max Ernst fut
l’un des événements les plus marquants de la chronique dadaïste parisienne.
Soigneusement préparé et annoncé a grand renfort de publicité, it attira le
Tout-
Documents Dada 30; Dada Global 237; Ades 8.43; Sanouillet 286; Russell: Ernst p. 60f.
59
(ERNST)
Exposition Max Ernst. Du 3 mai au 3 juin [1921]. Text by
André Breton. (6)pp. Single sheet, folded twice as issued, opening to reveal an
interior text printed on a brilliant teal blue ground. 220 x 400 mm. (ca. 8 1/2
x 15 3/4 in.). 1 illus. (serving as a frontispiece to the text). In addition to
being the catalogue for Ernst's first exhibition in
Documents Dada 31; Dada Global 238; Almanacco
Dada p. 619; Sanouillet 285;
Motherwell/Karpel 269, p. 176 (illus.); Zürich 444; Russell: Ernst p. 60f.
60
ERNST,
MAX & ELUARD, PAUL
Les malheurs des immortels.
Révélés par Paul Eluard et Max Ernst. (44)pp. Frontis. and 20 full-page
collages of steel-engravings by Ernst. 4to. Wraps. The very rare original
edition, printed in an unspecified very small run on Simili Japon, of one of
Ernst’s greatest achievements in collage and book illustration. The prose poems
represent a collaborative effort, begun in the summer of 1921 (when Ernst was
in the
Paris (Librairie Six), 1922. $6,000.00
Spies/Metken 471-491; Tours 3; Rainwater 15; Russell p.
186f.; Gershman p. 18; Manet to Hockney 66; Skira 112; Reynolds p. 44; Verkauf
p. 178; Paris-Berlin 307; Wheeler p. 101
61
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. New cloth. Original wraps. (a bit worn) bound in. One of 900 numbered copies on vélin teinté, 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 Seine in Paris. An illness confined him to bed for a couple of weeks, and in that concentrated period of mental activity was born ‘La femme 100 têtes,’ a visual novel containing 147 collages that Ernst divided into nine chapters. The unusual title is a pun that relates to his Surrealist quest for multiple identities, and...establishes both the name and character of Ernst’s main heroine, who has both 100 heads and is without a head at the same time: a heroine of mythic proportions, she represents the essence of womanhood who bears no single face but is constantly changing” (Evan Maurer, in Rainwater). From the library of Maurice Henry, with his signature in pencil on the front flyleaf.
Paris (Editions du Carrefour), 1929. $3,000.00
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
62
(ERNST) Brzekowski, Jan
Spectacle métallique. Avec un frontispice par Max Ernst. (Les Feuillets de “Sagesse.” Collection Anthologique. No. 37.) (14)pp. Frontispiece by Ernst. Sm. 4to. Wraps., stitched as issued. Glassine d.j. Edition limited to 200 numbered copies on pale green vélin Muller. Werner Spies has pointed out that Ernst’s composition--utilizing engravings of primitive marine life, a ribboned straw hat, and a cabinet opened to reveal yet more crustacea--recalls another collage he had made for Brzekowski’s “Zacisniete dookota ust” in 1934. This copy with an extra example of the Ernst frontispice loosely inserted.
Paris (Éditions Sagesse), 1937. $850.00
Tours 54; Spies, Werner: Max Ernst Collages (New York, 1991), p. 237, illus. 532
63
(ERNST) Carrington, Leonora.
La dame ovale. Avec sept collages par Max Ernst. (34)pp., 7 plates. Wraps. Glassine d.j. Partly unopened. A fine copy. One of 500 numbered copies on vélin blanc, from the edition of 535 in all.
Paris (G.L.M.), 1939. $1,250.00
GLM 208; Rainwater 39; Hugues/Poupard-Lieussou
16; Gershman 12; Biro/Passeron 609
64
ERNST, MAX & ÉLUARD, PAUL
Misfortunes of the Immortals. Translated by Hugh Chisholm. 44, (10)pp. 22 full-page illus. 4to. Dec. boards. Plain pink d.j. Edition limited to 610 copies. "This edition is further augmented by Three drawings Twenty Years After. The Misfortunes of the Immortals was first published in Paris in 1920, originally revealed in French by Paul Eluard and Max Ernst, and now translated into English by Hugh Chisholm. This edition has been designed and published by Caresse Crosby, handset in Spartan type twelve point and printed at the Gemor Press in the city of New York, March 1943." Though not noted internally, this copy derives from the library of Julien Levy.
New York (Black Sun Press), 1943. $750.00
Hugues/Poupard-Lieussou 18; Spies 555-557
65
ERNST, MAX & ELUARD, PAUL
Les malheurs des immortels. Révélés par Paul Eluard et Max Ernst. (44)pp. Frontis. and 20 full-page collages of steel-engravings by Ernst. Sm. 4to. Wraps. Glassine d.j. One of 500 numbered copies on pink vélin, from the limited edition of 1800. The preferred issue of the 1945 edition.
Paris (Editions de la Revue Fontaine), 1945. $650.00
Tours 19; Gershman p. 18; Andel 129
66
ERNST, MAX & PÉRET, BENJAMIN
La brebis galante. 124pp. 3 original color etchings with aquatint (including title) and 22 full-page illustrations, of which 18 colored by hand in pochoir. Cul-de-lampe, lettrines. 4to. Dec. wraps. (original color lithograph). One of 300 numbered copies on grand vélin d’Arches, from the limited edition of 316. A Surrealist fairy tale by Péret, illustrated by Ernst both with etchings and with punning collages, drawn from textbooks on palaeontology and marine micro-organisms, among other sources. “The book can in a way be considered the most representative Surrealist art form, and the manner in which it evolved adds one more paradox. Volumes that we consider masterpieces of this Janus-faced genre, such as Péret and Ernst’s ‘La brebis galante’ or Eluard and Miró’s ‘A toute épreuve’, appeared after World War Two--long after the heyday of surrealism” (Hubert). Short tear at edge of the cover expertly mended.
Paris (Les Éditions Premières), 1949. $6,000.00
Spies/Leppien 28G; Hugues/Poupard-Lieussou 22; Rainwater 49, p. 113f.; The Artist and the Book 100; Hubert p. 26; Gershman p. 33; Ades 17.57; Reynolds p. 67f.; Villa Stuck 40
67
EVOLA, JULIUS
Arte astratta. Posizione teorica/ 10 poemi/ 4 composizioni. (Collection Dada.) 24pp., 4 plates of abstract compositions by Evola. Layout and design by Evola. 4to. Grey wraps., printed in red and green with an abstract design by the artist. One of the very few, and very rare, publications of Italian Dada. Julius Evola (1898-1974), painter, writer, Orientalist, and mystic, was the leading exponent of Dada in Italy. Co-editor, with Gino Cantarelli and Aldo Fiozzi, of the short-lived Dada review “Bleu,” Evola also organized the first and only Italian Dada group exhibition, “Mostra del movimento italiano Dada” at the Casa d’Arte Bragaglia in Rome, in April 1921, where he showed abstract paintings and participated in its attendant soirées. He had a one-man show at Der Sturm in Berlin in January 1921, shortly after the publication of this book. The “Mystical Abstraction” of his Dada compositions--essentially a strain of Purism in the service of a transcendental dreamscape-- replaced a brief quasi-Futurist phase of “Sensorial Idealism,” as he called it. Two paintings of ‘paesaggi interiori’ are reproduced in the book, along with a woodcut and a line drawing; the Dada verse is in the manner of Tzara. Presentation copy, inscribed “hommage de sympathie à Paul Dermée/ J.Evola/ 197 Corso V. Emanuele, Roma.” A fine copy, the covers fresh and bright.
Roma (P. Maglione & G. Strini), 1920. $9,500.00
Cf. Dada Global pp. 68 (illus.),326; Motherwell/Karpel 105; Dachy p. 161, illus. p. 164; Zürich 320; Tendenzen 3/290; Salaris p. 109f.; cf. Hultén p. 474
68
EVOLA, JULIUS
La parole obscure du paysage intérieur. Poème à 4 voix. Traduit de l’italien par l’auteur et Maria de Naglowska. (Collection Dada.) (10)ff., printed on rectos only of sheets of lightweight laid paper. Full-page abstract title drawing. 4to. Self-wraps., with portion of slender gold cord (copies normally also have a blue outer wrapper). Edition limited to 99 copies in all, signed and numbered in pen by the author in the justification. “A postscript to Zürich Dada was added in summer 1920 [when, in Italy,] Tzara visited the Mantuan Dadaists Gino Cantarelli and Aldo Fiozzi, editors of 'Procellaria' (1917 and 1919) and 'Bleu' (1920). They introduced him to the writer and abstract painter Julius Evola (1898-1974), who immediately became Dada's most provocative Italian agent. With encouragement from Schad, who had moved from Rome, and from Serner, Evola launched a Rome Dada season in April 1921, with an exhibition (including Cantarelli and Fiozzi) at the Galleria d'Arte Bragaglia and performances at the Grotte dell'Augusteo cabaret. His readings of his own writings, and of Tzara's 'Manifeste dada 1918,' and his declaration of the death of Futurism, caused uproar" (Dawn Ades and Matthew Gale in "The Dictionary of Art").
This 'Poem for Four Voices,' which Evola recited at the Grotta dell'Augusteo on 15 June 1921, is one of the two works (together with "Arte Astratta," 1920) published by him in his series "Collection Dada." The four voices, symbolizing “les 4 élémentaires de la vie intérieure,” are introduced as M. Ngara (“volonté”), Mlle. Lilan (“sentiment”), M. Raaga (“contemplation descriptive”) and M. Hhah (“abstraction désintéressée”); opening with a stave of music, and punctuated with nonsense syllables and unexplained black dots, the work bears a certain resemblance to Schwitters’ “Ursonate.” The elaborate Dada landscape on the title, primordial but with urban (and extraterrestrial?) elements, incorporates the word 'dada' in broken pieces in the foreground, along with ancient mystical symbols.
By the time of its first recitation, Evola had already established an international reputation in the Dada world, having published in “Dada” 7 (‘Dadaphone’) and been a signatory to "Dada soulève tout," and having shown at Der Sturm (a solo exhibition in January 1921), and the Salon Dada at the Galerie Montaigne (at Tzara's invitation), where he exhibited his painting "Picture No. 69." It was a meteorically brief career; shortly thereafter, apparently as a result of a personal crisis, he abandoned his artistic career for the study of hermetic philosophy.
There is disagreement, even self-contradiction, among standard references as to where and when the book was published: "Tendenzen der zwanziger Jahre" states both '1920,' omitting place (in the catalogue entry) and 'Rome 1921' (in Giovanni Lista's catalogue essay); Dachy and Arturo Schwarz ("Almanacco Dada") agree on Rome, 1921; "Dada Global" states 1924 ("ohne Ortsangabe," though suggesting Paris elsewhere in the catalogue). Presentation copy, inscribed (and flamboyantly signed) “à Francis Picabia/ bien cordialement/ J. Evola/ 197 corso V. Emanuele/ Rome.” An historic association copy of one of the rarest of all books in the entire Dada canon.
N.p. [Rome], n.d. [1921]. $13,500.00
Dada Global 251, cf. pp. 67f.,326; Almanacco Dada p. 626; Dachy p. 161; Tendenzen no. 3/289 and p. 3/119; cf. Hultén p. 474
69
FONDANE, BENJAMIN
Tagaduinta lui petru. Literatura biblica. Cu o lamurire despre simbolism. [By: B. Fundoianu.] [Desenuri si vignete de Ross.] 31, (1)pp. Illustrations by Ross. Sm. 8vo. Dec. wraps. An unnumbered copy from the tirage of 25 on vélin, from the limited edition of 42 copies in all. Benjamin Fondane’s first book. An unopened copy. Covers slightly worn. Of utmost rarity.
Iasi (Editura “Chemarea”), 1918. $4,500.00
Ilk K449
70
FRANK, ROBERT
The Lines of My Hand. 119, (1)pp. Prof. illus. Loosely inserted, as issued: Japanese-language text translation, printed and illustrated in white on black stock (32pp.). Sm. folio. Black cloth, embossed in white with the photographer’s signature. Matching slipcase. First edition, limited to 1000 copies. Graphic design by Sugiura Kohei, also responsible for Frank’s “Flower Is...” and Kikuji Kawada’s “The Map.” The mounted photographic illustration on the slipcase of this copy is Frank’s famous “New York City 1948.” A mint copy, in a mint publisher’s original shipping carton.
Tokyo (Yugensha), 1972. $4,500.00
71
FRONTA [FRONT]
Mezinárodní sbornik soudobé aktivity/ internationaler almanach der activität der gegenwart/ recueil international de l’activité contemporaine.../ kunst, technik, literatur, soziologie, wissenschaft, modernes leben.... Redaktion: Fr. Halas, Vl. Prusa, Zd. Rossmann, B. Václavek. 203, (9)pp., 48 plates with 171 illus. Prof. illus. in text. Sm. folio. Dec. wraps. designed by Zdenek Rossmann, featuring the title in a large red disc, and a column of illustrations of the almanac’s primary areas, arranged like a strip of film. Texts in Czech, German and French.
One of the major publications of the Devetsil group, appearing after “Disk” and “ Pásmo” had come to an end, and “ReD” had not yet begun. Its emphasis was on abstraction and Functionalism, and, to some extent, Surrealism. Similar to the “Buch neuer Künstler” edited by Kassák and Moholy-Nagy, but including literature and theory in addition to the visual arts, “Fronta” marked the third phase of Devetsil’s activity, when the group was attempting to establish itself internationally, and it succeeded in soliciting original texts (“written for ‘Fronta’ and printed from the manuscripts,” the editors proudly noted) by a remarkable roster of figures in the European avant-garde: Kassák, Albert-Birot, Schwitters, Walden, Styrsky and Toyen, Nerzval, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Biebl, Breton, Honzl, Goll, Richter, Eggeling, Herzfelde, Burian, Antheil, Arp, Branko ve Poliansky, Teige, Doesburg, Ozenfant, Tzara, Moholy-Nagy, Baumeister, Seifert, Gropius, Rossmann, Václavek, and many others; illustrations of work by Grosz, Bellmer, de Chirico, Klee, Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, Murayama, Sima, Albers, Brandt, Le Corbusier, Doesburg, Domela, Eggeling, Garnier, Gropius, Kiesler, Krejcar, Lipchitz, Lissitzky, Lurçat, Malevich, Meyerhold, Mendelsohn, Moholy-Nagy, Puni, Richter, Rössler, Schlemmer, Schwitters, Shterenberg, Styrsky, Tatlin, Toyen, et al. Covers very slightly dusty; a fine copy.
Brno (Edition Fronta), 1927. $3,500.00
Primus 289, illus. 247; Central European Avant-Gardes: Exchange and
Transformation, 1910-1930 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2002), p. 123ff.;
IVAM: The Art of the Avant-Garde in
Czechoslovakia 1918-1938 (Valencia, 1993), p. 448f.; Oxford, Museum of Modern Art: Devetsil: Czech avant-garde art,
architecture and design of the 1920s and 30s (1990), p.23; Andel, Jaroslav:
Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950 (New York, 2002), p. 191 ill. 240
72
GENIUS
Zeitschrift für alte und werdende Kunst. Herausgegeben von Carl Georg Heise, Hans Mardersteig, Kurt Pinthus. Vols. I - III in 6 parts (all published). viii, 319, viii, 332, viii, 356pp. Prof. illus., including 16 original prints: woodcuts by K. Schmidt-Rottluff (2: “Kopf,” Schapire 189, “Lesender Mann,” Schapire 274), R. Seewald (hand-colored “Der Hirte,” Jentsch H77.iii), F. Marc (“Tierlegende,” Lankheit 831), E. Heckel (“Mädchenkopf,” Dube 264), F. Masereel, et al.; and lithographs by A. Archipenko (“Figürliche Komposition,” Karshan 23), K. Hofer (“Das Nest,” Rathenau L34), E. Scharff, K. Caspar and others. Numerous tipped-in color plates, facsimiles, etc. Folio. Publisher’s green boards gilt, 1/4 vellum; publisher’s cloth. Literary and critical contributions by M.J. Friedländer, W. Hausenstein, G. Swarzenski, W.R. Valentiner, W. Worringer, H. Hesse, F. Kafka, R. Rolland, F. Werfel, et al.
München (Kurt Wolff), 1919-1921. $3,500.00
Söhn 120; Raabe 74; Raabe/Hannich-Bode 234.8; Rifkind 275; Perkins 175; Schlawe p. 47
73
(GIACOMETTI) Péret, Benjamin, et al.
Manuscript drafts for a formal statement censuring Alberto Giacometti by members of the Surrealist community. 2ff. (graph paper), with four manuscript drafts, each roughly a paragraph in length: three are in the hand of Benjamin Péret, and one of these is signed by him; the fourth, a partial recapitulation, appears to be in the hand of André Breton. (Breton may also have added some phrases to the third draft.) All show revisions, to varying degrees, some with extensive cross-outs and added passages, occasionally difficult to read.
Rare documentation of an important episode in Surrealist history, the peremptory expulsion of Alberto Giacometti from the Surrealist fold, by Breton, Péret and others, in December 1934. Yves Bonnefoy recounts that Giacometti, who had recently disavowed his earlier work, and whose new aim was to produce a satisfactory sculpture of the human head, was then working intensively on portrait studies of his brother Diego, a turn in his aesthetic that displeased the Surrealist orthodoxy. "Giacometti readily used to relate how he was excluded from the group. Breton, whom he had not seen for a while, and precisely because this new preoccupation with the human head did not please the Surrealists, had invited him through Tanguy to dinner, along with Péret. A meal in a bistro, during which Breton courteously inquires after Giacometti's work and makes him describe his new ideas. Then it was suggested that they finish the evening at Georges Hugnet's, who lived nearby. Once at Hugnet's, Péret let Alberto enter first: he finds himself in the presence of the whole group and he understands the trap. Furthermore, Péret immediately changes his attitude toward Alberto, and accuses him, beginning by relating the dinner conversation. 'I will not let myself be judged by you,' Alberto shouts, and leaves." Marcel Jean, who may be viewed as an apologist for this affair, wrote "The conflict with the surrealists that resulted from this change of front was limited to a few mildly acidulous discussions and the signing by some members of the group of a 'motion of defiance' which was never made public." Giacometti nonetheless lost most of his friends as a result of this excommunication.
Writing on behalf of "les soussignés A.B., Y.T., M.J., G.H., B.P." (Breton, Tanguy, Jean, Hugnet and Péret), Péret charges that Giacometti "a fait à propos les conférences projetées par S.D., A.B., B.P., etc." (Dalí, Breton, Péret) "une obstruction systématique au nom du préoccupations esthétiques réactionnaires qui l'éloignent des surréalistes," and that he has created a situation of such distrust that they must include him among "les ennemis du surréalisme." By the third draft, adopting yet more formal language, they add grievances that Giacometti has been revealed to have "une attitude hostile fondamentale à l'attitude récente de Dalí," and criticize him for "difficultés personelles" and the inappropriate ("excessivement plastique") nature of his current work. It is possible that some of these complaints relate to plans for the "Cycle systématique de conférences sur les plus récentes positions du Surréalisme" in June 1935, in which Dalí was to be a major participant; Marcel Jean states that Giacometti's contribution to the prospectus for it (two little drawings in the margin) were his final contribution to Surrealism. Further research will undoubtedly shed light on other portions of these very interesting manuscripts, which are unpublished, to our knowledge.
[
Cf. Bonnefoy, Yves: Alberto Giacometti: A
Biography (
74
GOVONI, CORRADO
Rarefazioni e parole in libertà. 4º migliaio. 49, (7)pp. Drawings and parole in libertà throughout. Sm. folio. Printed wraps. One of the most enchanting books in the literature of parole in libertà, filled with lyrical freehand drawings and typographic compositions enhanced by the spaciousness of the unusual large format. "Govoni's poetry is punctuated with flashes of humor that strongly recall Rimbaud. Elsewhere it swings between lines, handwritten in a deliberately simple and childlike style, and quite extraordinary typographical fantasies which forecast the techniques of concrete and minimalist poetry. Govoni's literary background is stressed by bold page designs which set up a contrapuntal theme throughout the typographical experimentation that changes from one page to the next" (Luciano Caruso, in Jentsch). Covers a bit foxed.
Milano (Edizione Futuriste di “Poesia”), 1915. $2,000.00
Salaris p. 41; Falqui p. 68; Jentsch p. 321
75
(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”). Binding scuffed, as usual, otherwise a fine, fresh 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
76
(GONTCHAROWA / LARIONOW )
Exposition
Natalie De Gontcharowa et Michel Larionow.
17 juin au 30 juin 1914 inclus. Introduction by Guillaume Apollinaire.
(12)pp. 2 plates after drawings (Larionov’s from “Worldbackwards”). Lrg. 8vo.
Printed self-wraps. (uncut laid paper). This major exhibition, which travelled
to Der Sturm in
Early catalogues of the Galerie Paul Guillaume, which opened in the year of this exhibition, are extremely rare. The inside back cover of this advertises work by de Chirico and Picabia, and “sculptures nègres.” A notation in pen on the back cover, seemingly about a deposit by a M. and Mme. G., appears to be in the hand of Apollinaire himself. Trace of foxing on front cover; a fine copy.
Gordon, Donald E.: Modern Art Exhibitions, 1900-1916 (München, 1974), p. 850; Parton, Anthony: Mikhail Larionov and the Russian Avant-Garde (New Haven, 1993), p. 143f.; Breunig, LeRoy C. (ed.): Apollinaire on Art, p. 412f. (translating the text in full)
77
(GRIS) Dermée, Paul
Beautés de 1918. (Op. 4.) Illustré de quatre dessins de Juan Gris. (30)pp. 4 illus. after drawings by Gris. 4to. Dec. wraps., repeating the design on the title-page. Glassine d.j. One of 200 copies on papier bouffant, signed and numbered in pen by Gris and Dermée in the justification, from the limited edition of 216 in all. In a letter to Dermée of September 1918, full of poetic uncertainties (“I’m immersed in a dream about such important work that I think of nothing else. Time and space only exist in my life as ideas or elements of my work”), Gris wrote happily, and whimsically, to accept the commission of these illustrations. “With great pleasure will I give the hand of my daughter (a daughter whom I shall create specially) to your newest-born, always provided that my daughter’s guardian has no objections” (the guardian in this case being his dealer, Léonce Rosenberg). The four vignettes are Cubist still-lifes, a bit reminiscent in format of Braque’s woodcuts for Satie’s “Le Piège de Méduse.” An important presentation copy, inscribed “A André Salmon/ en hommage amical et confraternel/ Paul Dermée.”
Skira 140;
78
GROSZ, GEORGE
Ecce Homo. (4)pp. 100 photolithographic plates (16 color). Folio. Dec. wraps. Ausgabe C. This mercilious exposure of the pretense, self-righteousness and guile of bourgeois morality led to Grosz’s arrest on the ground of offending public decency. He was fined 6000 marks. He wrote in 1925, ‘Man has created a rotten system: a top and a bottom. Some make millions, while others can barely scratch out a minimal existence. I drew and painted out of protest, and tried to portray in my work the world in all its ugliness, sickness and mendacity.’ “Ecce Home” is unquestionably Grosz’s single most famous production, and one of the most important statements of social criticism in twentieth-century art. Neat early inscription on front flyleaf; slight traces of wear, generally a handsome and clean copy.
Dückers SI; Lang 38; Bülow 54; Hermann 155;
79
GROSZ, GEORGE
Interregnum. Introductory comment by John Dos Passos. 19, (3)pp., 64 plates
(loose, as issued). Original four-color lithograph, signed in pencil by Grosz,
as frontispiece. Folio. Orig. dec. boards, 1/4 cloth, with cover design by
George Grosz. One of 280 numbered copies from the limited edition of 300,
printed on hand-moulded Rives paper. Typography by Joseph Blumenthal. The
binding is styled as a box, in which the text fascicle (including the
frontispiece) is hinged to the interior of the lid, and the loose plates housed
in an open compartment opposite. Dückers has discussed the somewhat uncertain
date of the drawings illustrated in the portfolio. The work was first
advertised in the prospectus issued by the Black Sun Press as "a pictorial
record of modern
Dückers SII; Lang: George-Grosz-Bibliographie 70; Lewis p. 277; Spalek 2399; Minkoff A-44; Wheeler p. 103
80
(GROSZ) Herzfelde, Wieland
Tragigrotesken der Nacht. Träume. Einbandentwurf und Zeichnungen von George Gross [sic]. 88, (2)pp. 20 line-drawn illus. by Grosz in text. Title-page signed and double-page endpapers (repeated front and back) also by Grosz. Sm. 4to. Dec. boards, printed in red and green with a drawing by Grosz. The text, eighteen prose poems written by Herzfelde between the summer of 1913 and the fall of 1919, reflect the horrors of the First World War, as evoked in expressionistic dreams. The book is dedicated to John Heartfield’s son Tom, then two years old, “in the hope that he will prove to be an upstanding Communist.” An unusually fine and fresh copy, and rare in boards.
Lang 12; Bülow 15; Hermann 192;
81
(HAUSMANN) Kandinsky, Wassily
Über das Geistige in der Kunst. Insbesondere in der Malerei. Mit acht Tafeln und zehn Originalholzschnitten. Zweite [Dritte] Auflage. (10), 125, (5)pp., 8 plates. 3 diagrams hors texte. 10 original woodcuts by Kandinsky in text. 4to. Publisher’s boards, printed in green with a design by Kandinsky.
“One of the most important manifestos of modern art” (The Artist and the Book). Though still designated “Zweite Auflage” on the title-page, this is actually the third edition, as stated on the front cover, as is often the case. Raoul Hausmann’s copy, given by him to Hannah Höch on her thirtieth birthday, and delicately watercolored on the front cover by either Hausmann or Höch. The half-title is inscribed “RHausmann/ April 1916” in pencil at top, and then, with an arrow boldly drawn to the center of the page, is inscribed by him in pen, “Hanna Höch/ 1. Nov. 1919.” The Kandinsky illustration on the front board, printed in green, is glowingly painted in loose washes of blue, red, yellow, and pale green, with an expressive swash of blue beneath the printed green horizon, suggesting water. The sweetly arcadian quality this coloring lends to the image may possibly relate to the significance of the gift, and perhaps of this day, in Hausmann’s and Höch’s turbulent relationship, which lasted from 1915 to 1922. Either artist might plausibly have done it, when it is compared with watercolors by each of this period. Hairline split in surface of backstrip, a few fox marks on the cover; generally in very fine condition. From the library of Hannah Höch, as offered by Hans Bolliger in 1980.
München (R. Piper & Co.), 1912. $5,000.00
Hans Bolliger: Katalog 7 (Zürich 1980), no. 45 (this copy, with illus.); Rifkind 161; Perkins 12; Spalek 2719; The Artist and the Book 137; Andel: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950 no. 43
82
(HECKEL)
Erich Heckel: Drucke 1905-1922. (4)pp., on two folded leaves, with 4 original woodcuts (Dube 331-334), of which 3 signed and dated (“23”) by Heckel in pencil (the title cut is unsigned). The woodcuts are as follows: title (Dube 331), “Badende” (‘Bathers,’ Dube 334), “Begegnung” (‘Encounter,’ Dube 333), and “Im Atelier” (‘In the Studio,’ Dube 332). The sequence of the prints is identical to that in the Rifkind copy. 4to. 270 x 185 mm. (ca. 10 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches). Copy no. 1 of the limited edition of 30 proof copies on Bütten, without text, apart from the normal edition. This is the Heinrich Stinnes copy, bearing his red collector’s stamp (Lugt 1376a) and characteristic inscription in ink at the base of each leaf. Of Stinnes and his collection, renowned for the earliest impressions of modernist prints, Lugt notes "Sa collection était, déjà avant la première guerre mondiale, une des meilleurs et plus riches de l’Allemagne. Il rechercha surtout des premières épreuves… Très intéressé dans l’art moderne, Stinnes exerça une influence stimulante sur beaucoup de peintres-graveurs allemands; il en connut plusieurs personnellement. Le collectionneur annotait ses meilleures pièces ou y mettait sa signature." Rich, extremely fine impressions.
Rifkind/Davis 1054
83
(HEISLER) Breton, André
Le
cadavre exquis: son exaltation. Exposition du 7 au 30 octobre 1948. 13, (3)pp.
Frontispiece by Jindrich Heisler, hand-colored
by the artist in red, yellow, orange and green crayon. 12mo. Self-wraps.
Glassine d.j. Édition de tête: one of 15 colored copies on pur fil de Marais,
from the limited edition of 515 in all. “En 1948 eut lieu à La Dragonne
(Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris) une exposition consacrée à l’exaltation du
Cadavre exquis. On y voyait des dessins collectifs, réalisés entre 1925 et
1934. Dans sa présentation, Breton fait valoir ce qui doît être retenu pour
important dans cette activité: création collective (au sens de Lautréamont),
instinct de jeu mis à jour, suspension du jugement critique, dépassement de
l’antinomie sérieux -- non sérieux, libération de l’activité métaphorique de
l’esprit, satisfaction du principe de plaisir, communication tacite entre les
participants (pour ne pas dire transmission de pensée), enfin (pour les
dessins) invention anthropomorphique où monde extérieur et monde intérieur sont
en relation” (Jean-Clarence Lambert, in Biro/Passeron). At the back of the
catalogue is an advertisement for the latest number of “N.E.O.N.,” of which
Heisler (who had moved permanently to
Paris (La Dragonne/ Galerie Nina Dausset), 1948. $3,000.00
Sheringham Ac418; Pompidou: Breton p. 402; Biro/Passeron p. 74f.; Jean: Autobiography of Surrealism p. 221f. (translated at length)
84
HUELSENBECK, RICHARD (editor)
Dada Almanach. Im Auftrag des Zentralamts der Deutschen Dada-Bewegung. 159, (1)pp., 9 plates. Lrg. 8vo. Orig. printed wraps., designed by Huelsenbeck. Published in the autumn of 1920, just after the close of the Erste Internationale Dada Messe, the ‘Dada Almanach’ was “the first attempt to give an account of the movement’s international activities, at least in Europe.... Published on the initiative of Huelsenbeck, who was absent from the exhibition,...it contained important articles on the theory of Dadaism...valuable statements by the Dada Club and some pages by some less well-known Dadaists, such as Walter Mehring (‘You banana-eaters and kayak people!’), sound and letter poems by Adon Lacroix, Man Ray’s companion in New York, not to mention a highly ironical letter by the Dutch Dadaist Paul Citroën, dissuading his Dadaist partners from going to Holland. The volume was also distinguished by the French participation of Picabia, Ribemont-Dessaignes and Soupault, quite unexpected in Berlin; their contributions were presumably collected and sent on from Paris by Tristan Tzara. The latter, living in Paris with the Picabias since early January 1920, gave in the ‘Dada Almanach’ a scrupulous and electrifying account of the doings and publications of the Zürich Dadaists....one of the most dizzying documents in the history of the movement” (Chapon). A fine copy.
Berlin (Erich Reiss), 1920. $2,200.00
Gershman p. 24; Almanacco dada 34; Ades 4.68;
DadaGlobal 68; Bergius p. 108f.; Chapon
p. 111; Motherwell/Karpel 7; Rubin 464; Reynolds p. 51; Verkauf p. 100; Richter
p. 235; Dada Artifacts 46
85
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.
86
KANDINSKY, WASSILY
Conversation de salon. Un poème de Kandinsky traduit par Seuphor. (8)pp. (single sheet, folding). 16mo. Self-wraps. Edition limited to 50 copies (contra Montpellier, which states only 10), printed on an uncut sheet of Ingres paper. One of the minuscule publications of P.A. Bénoit. Vertical crease.
[Alès] (P.A. Bénoit), 1948. $200.00
Montpellier 64
87
(JOHNS) London. Anthony d’Offay Gallery
Dancers on a Plane. Cage, Cunningham, Johns. Susan Sontag: In Memory of their Feelings. Texts by Richard Francis, Mark Rosenthal, Anne Seymour, David Sylvester, David Vaughan. Oct.-Dec. 1989. 165, (1)pp. Prof. illus. (partly in color). 4to. Special edition: one of 200 numbered copies signed by Cage, Cunningham and Johns on the half-title, bound in silk over boards, in matching slipcase. A fine copy.
88
(KIRCHNER) Bosshart, Jacob
Neben der Heerstrasse. Erzählungen. Mit Holzschnitten von E.L. Kirchner. 434, (6)pp. 24 original woodcuts by Kirchner, integrated with text (Dube 808-831). Sm. stout 4to. Publisher’s salmon-boards, 1/4 red cloth, with woodcut illustration and typography by Kirchner on front cover and spine. This copy with the rare multi-colored woodcut dust jacket (Dube 808), of which a number of variants were published. This one is Dube’s state IV, here printed in violet and black on salmon-colored stock. Very fine.
Zürich/Leipzig (Grethlein & Co.), 1923. $2,500.00
Dube (1980) 808-831; Lang 174; Rifkind/Davis 1478, 1478.1; Rifkind 103; Vom Jugendstil zum Bauhaus 88; Schauer II.119; Jentsch 143
89
(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,” 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.
Leipzig (Julius Zeitler), 1907. $3,500.00
Nebehay: Gustav Klimt Dokumentation pp. 158f., 359f.; Manet to Hockney 23; Turn of a Century 130; Hofstätter p. 173
90
(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
91
KÖLN. Brauhaus Winter
Dada-Ausstellung. Dadavorfrühling. Gemälde, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, Fluidoskeptrik, Vulgärdilettantismus. [April-May 1919.] (4)pp. Single sheet, folding, opening to reveal an interior text printed on a spectacular bright scarlet ground. Dada typographic designs on the exterior (attributable to Johannes Baargeld), including a hand with occult symbols, and a text in Hebrew. Sm. 4to. Self-wraps. Texts by Johannes Baargeld and Max Ernst.
One of the most brilliant ephemera of German Dada. “This dada exhibition has spawned more anecdotes than any other, some of them contradictory. Certainly it opened, and ended, turbulently, and was equally eventful while it was running.... [It] was organized hurriedly, as a separate manifestation after the montages and sculptures by Ernst and Baargeld had been removed from a juryless exhibition organised by the Artists’ Union of Cologne in the Museum of Decorative Arts. They hired a glass-roofed court partly exposed to the rain at the rear of the Brasserie Winter, reached through the gentlemen’s lavatory. Visitors were challenged to destroy what they didn’t like, and everything stolen and destroyed was constantly replaced. Several of the works which disappeared were reproduced in “Die Schammade”: Baargeld’s ‘Antropofiler Bandwurm,’ a relief construction of odds and ends like a frying pan, cog, springs and a bell, and Ernst’s wire sculpture, which has certain similarities with Janco’s ‘Construction,’ reproduced in the Zürich ‘Dada’ 1. The critics tended to be bemused” (Ades). The public, however, appears more than anything else to have been disoriented. It seems that the manifestation which most scandalized the audience was not the spectacle of a young girl in first communion dress reciting obscene poetry, but a “pornographic” image reported to the police which, on investigation, proved to be a reproduction of Dürer’s ‘Adam and Eve’ incorporated in an Ernst collage. Tiny chip at back lower edge; a fine copy, the red interior in bright condition. Very rare.
Köln, 1919. $5,000.00
Dada Global 133; Ades p. 105f.; Motherwell/Karpel 152; Dada Artifacts 57; Düsseldorf 338; Zürich 433
92
LACERBA
(Periodico quindicinale; Periodico settimanale. Fondata da Giovanni Papini e Ardegno Soffici.) Vol. I no. 1--Vol. III No. 22 (sic: No. 21), 1 gennaio 1913--22 maggio 1915 (all published), lacking Vol. III, no. 14 (April 1915). 296, 336, 168pp. Illus. Folio. Vols. I and III in dec. boards, 3/4 vellum; Vol. II in contemporary dec. boards (neatly mended at backstrip). The cardinal Futurist periodical, founded by Papini and Soffici after their departure from “La Voce”. Though never the official organ of the movement, and eventually, with the outbreak of War, a purely political newspaper, Lacerba was nonetheless the principal outlet for its critical and theoretical texts. In the course of its brief existence, Lacerba published no fewer than ten of the fundamental Futurist manifestos selected by Apollonio in his standard anthology, including four by Boccioni, two by Carrà, two by Marinetti, and one each by Soffici and Sant’Elia. Other contributors included Russolo, Pratella, Cangiullo, Apollinaire, Gourmont, Tavolato, Buzzi, Folgore and Ungaretti. The masthead designs, which assumed sledgehammer dimensions in January 1914, and then ran to boiling red on August 15th after the declaration of war, were devised by Soffici. Occasional light browning and brittleness; a few issues with expert mends; generally an excellent set.
Taylor p. 136; Falqui p. 37; Tisdall &
Bozzolla 165-175; Bartolini,
Sigfrido: Ardegno Soffici, l’opera incisa (1972), p. 318; Jentsch p. 317f.
93
(LAURENS) Radiguet, Raymond
Les Pélican. Pièce en deux actes, illustré d’eaux-fortes par Henri Laurens. (24)pp. 7 original etchings (including 1 on front wrapper; 2 full-page). Sm. folio. Original wraps. (slightly worn). One of 90 copies on Hollande van Gelder, signed in pen by Laurens and Radiguet in the justification, from the limited edition of 112 in all; the etchings printed by Delâtre. Laurens’ first livre d’artiste, with exquisitely droll cubist etchings of Radiguet’s ménage Pélican: Pélican père smoking a cigar, his children Anselme and Hortense, and his mistress Mlle. Charmant the governess. Radiguet, who was to die shortly after the appearance of the book, at the age of twenty, had actually wanted the illustration entrusted to Juan Gris, and it took some tenacity on Kahnweiler’s part to hold out for Laurens. Tiny hole at edge of title-page; a little light wear, otherwise a fine copy.
Paris (Éditions de la Galerie Simon), 1921. $12,500.00
Hugues 9; Bozo p. 181; Castleman p. 174; The Artist and the Book 156; Manet to Hockney 62; Skira 194; Rauch 125; Chapon p. 284; Stein 70; Siena 45; Basel 140
94
LE CORBUSIER
Original blueprint, dated La Chaux-de-Fonds, 18 mars 1913 in the plan, and boldly signed in pencil by Le Corbusier as architect (“Charles-Édouard Jeanneret”), for renovations to the apartment of M. Jules Ditisheim, rue de la Paix 11, La Chaux-de-Fonds. 440 x 540 mm. (17 1/4 x 21 1/4 inches), folded twice. Stamped “1913” and “10” on the verso. Early in his career, Le Corbusier worked on a number of projects for various branches of the Ditisheim family, one of the leading dynasties of clock and watch manufacturers of La-Chaux-de-Fonds. Among these were interior remodelling schemes such as this, making structural and design changes to the flat of Jules Ditesheim, who shared a nineteenth-century apartment building with his brothers Paul and Georges. H. Allen Brooks, in “Le Corbusier’s Formative Years,” notes that Le Corbusier redesigned the entrances on all three floors and the entrance from the street as well, in an elegant neoclassical French spirit. In these, as in other decorating commissions of the period, Le Corbusier demonstrated a perfectionist’s zeal for the refinement of every detail--at, apparently, some considerable cost to his clients, who balked at the bills. A dispute arose in his dealings here with Jules Ditisheim, who “accused Jeanneret of overestimating his artistic value, having a swollen head, and overcharging” (Brooks). The specifics of the project, as itemized in the plan, are nonetheless fairly utilitarian. “Nota: les fourneaux sont enlevés; le chauffage installé à l’eau chaude (chaudière dans la Cave); les cloisons du Bout de corridor est sont déplacées pour former un fumoir. La Chambre No 4 est de ce fait réduite. Quelques ports sont ouvertes ou agrandies ou déplacées.…” Fine, bright condition. Ex-coll. H. Allen Brooks.
La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1913. $3,500.00
95
LE CORBUSIER
Les Maisons “Murondains.” [Manuel technique publié sous le patronage du Sécretariat Général de la Jeunesse.] (34)pp. 30 line-drawn illus. Oblong 8vo. Dec. wraps. “[Primitive] building modes repeatedly appeared in Le Corbusier’s work throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, first in an unrealized ‘log cabin’ projected for the Jaoul family in 1937 and then in the rubble-walled, pitched-roofed, low-rise housing designed for the Lannemean company three years later. This approach became even more basic in the ‘Maisons murondins’ project of 1940, in which Le Corbusier adapted traditional ‘pisé’ (rammed-earth) construction to the provision of temporary postwar housing” (Kenneth Frampton). ‘Murondins,’ a neologism coined by Le Corbusier from the words for wall and logs, were envisaged specifically for refugee populations disrupted by war. Their application to school buildings is a particular focus, and in fact 1000 copies were sent officially to youth centers (eliciting a total of one response--from an imbecile, in Le Corbusier’s opinion). The pamphlet is filled with freehand sketches by Le Corbusier; his cover design is a fascinating colored abstract composition of mysteriously floating logs and walls, and biomorphic shapes incorporating the phrases “entreprises des jeunes, gestion par les jeunes, vitalisation des villages.” A little light wear. Rare.
Paris/Clermont-Fd (Étienne Chiron), 1942. $900.00
Brady, Darlene: Le Corbusier: An Annotated
Bibliography (New York, 1985) 60; Centre
Georges Pompidou: Le Corbusier: une encyclopédie (
96
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.
97
(LÉGER) Cendrars, Blaise.
La fin du monde, filmée par l’ange N.-D. Roman. Compositions en couleurs par Fernand Léger. (58)pp. 22 colored pochoir compositions and ornaments by Léger. Lrg. 4to. Orig. dec. wraps. (interiors of covers neatly mounted with backing sheets). One of 1200 copies on vélin Lafuma, of a limited edition of 1225 copies (many of which are thought to have been lost or destroyed due to difficulties with the pochoir printing). Léger’s most brilliant venture in book illustration, inspired by the anarchic, Americanized cosmology of Cendrars’ scenario. A bright, attractive copy.
Paris (Editions de la Sirène), 1919. $5,500.00
Saphire p. 299; Castleman p. 170; Manet to
Hockney 54; The Cubist Print 77;
Skira 97; Reynolds p. 24; Lilly 10; Villa Stuck 65; Wheeler p. 105; Andel,
Jaroslav: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950 (New York, 2002), p. 96, illus.
94-99
98
(LÉGER) Goll, Iwan
Die
Chapliniade. Eine Kinodichtung. Mit vier Zeichnungen von Fernand Léger. 42,
(2)pp. 4 full-page cubist designs by Léger. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps. designed by
Hans Blanke, printed in black with appliques in pink and green. “Au cours de
son séjour en Suisse durant la guerre, [Goll] avait commencé à écrire en
français et à lire avec attention la nouvelle poésie française,
Saphire p. 299; Centre Georges Pompidou: Paris-Berlin, 1900-1933 (
99
LICHTENSTEIN,
Untitled original woodcut, 1957 (Corlett III.1). [In: “Polemic. A journal of contemporary ideas,” Vol. II, No. 1, Spring 1957.] 195 x 265 mm. (ca. 7 5/8 x 10 3/8 inches). Printed in black on Mulberry paper, in an edition of unknown size, bound hors texte in the issue (which contains 80pp. and 4 prints altogether). 4to. Dec. wraps., with lithograph by B.F. Ford. The print is credited in the table of contents to “Roy F. Lichtenstein.” One of Lichtenstein's earliest woodcuts, hand-printed by a commercial printer on a letterpress. “For a brief time in the late 1950s, Lichtenstein was a latecomer to the abstract expressionist style. This is visible in his last two prints of that decade. Both were made for ‘Polemic,’ a literary-art journal published by the student council at Adelbert College, Western Reserve University (now part of Case Western Reserve), in Cleveland, Ohio. Lichtenstein contributed a single-page woodcut in 1957 for an issue meant to explore ‘the relation of the individual to society, particularly the artist and the intellectual’” (Corlett). Small stain on back cover; a fine copy, the Lichtenstein woodcut richly printed and fresh.
Oberlin
(
Corlett, Mary Lee: The Prints of Roy
Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné 1948-1993 (New York, 1994), III.C, p. 17
100
(LISSITZKY) Wendingen. Vol. IV, No. 11
[November 1921]
Frank Lloyd Wright. Special number of the English edition of the art magazine “Wendingen.” Introduction by H.P. Berlage. Typography by H. Th. Wijdeveld. 18, (2)pp., folded and Japanese-bound. 20 halftone illus. 330 mm. (13 inches) square. Publisher’s lithographed dec. boards, designed by El Lissitzky, stitched with raffia, as issued. The very rare deluxe edition, in boards rather than wrappers. Though dated 1921, the publication (which came in both Dutch and English editions) was probably not actually issued until the late summer or early autumn of 1922, according to Nisbet. It was meant as a general introduction to Wright, with photographs of Taliesin, the Imperial Hotel, the Barnsdale Theatre, and other projects. Lissitzky’s cover--a departure from “Wendingen”’s (and in fact Frank Lloyd Wright’s) rectilinear arts-and-crafts esthetic--is one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century abstract graphic design: a ‘proun’ composition in red, grey and black on a cream-colored ground, which works both as a single square composition on the front, and as a lateral composition spreading across both covers. Light dustiness: a superb copy, bright and fresh, the best we have ever encountered.
Sweeney 143; Nisbet, Peter (editor): El Lissitzky, 1890-1941 (Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums, 1987), no. 1922/15; Lissitzky-Küppers 1980, pl. 70; Rowell, Margit & Wye, Deborah: The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2002), no. 346, color plate p. 196; Getty 446; Barron/Tuchman 143; The Avant-Garde in Print 2.5
101
LOOS, ADOLF
Das Andere. Ein Blatt zur
Einfuehrung abendlaendischer Kultur in Oesterreich. Geschrieben von Adolf Loos.
I. Jahr, Nr. 1 [-2] (all published). 14, 14pp. Intermittent halftone and other
illus. Sm. 4to. Self-wraps. New fitted cloth portfolio. Written singlehandedly
by Adolf Loos, “Das Andere” (‘a journal for the introduction of western
civilization into
Wien, 1903. $650.00
Prause p. 321; Rennhofer p. 153; Dictionary
of Art XIX.651 (article by Yehuda Safran).
102
LUCA, GHERASIM
Inventatorul iubirii. Urmat de Parcurg Imposibilul si de Moartea Moarta. 116, (4)pp. 10 full-page halftone plates in text. Lrg. 8vo. Wraps. One of 500 numbered copies on Vergé-chamois, from the limited edition of 520 in all. Luca’s illustrations--five grid compositions of photographic fragments, and five photographs of his sometimes Giacometti-influenced wire sculptures--show him to be an advanced and interesting artist, as well as littérateur.
Bucuresti (Editura Negatia Negatiei), 1945. $2,500.00
Ilk K459, illus. p. 104
103
LUCA, GHERASIM
Un Lup Vazut Printr’o Lupa. Ilustrata cu trei vaporizari de Trost. 105, (7)pp. 3 illus. Lrg. 8vo. Wraps. One of 250 numbered copies on offset paper, from the limited edition of 269. Trost’s three “vaporizations” are angular ink drawings reminiscent of tree branches. A little light wear; index leaf mended, without loss.
Bucuresti (Editura Negatia Negatiei), 1945. $1,800.00
Ilk K458, illus. p. 105
104
LUCA, GHERASIM & TROST [DOLFI]
Dialectique de la dialectique. Message addressé au mouvement surréaliste international. 30, (2)pp. Wraps. One of 330 numbered copies on vergé, from the limited edition of 553. An important Rumanian surrealist manifesto.
Bucarest (Surréalisme), 1945. $1,500.00
Ilk K463
105
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.
106
(MATISSE) Reverdy, Pierre
Les jockeys camouflés. Trois poèmes agrémentés de cinq dessins inédits de Henri Matisse. (40)pp. 5 full-page reproductions of ink drawings hors texte. Text printed in green, orange and blue. 4to. Printed wraps. Glassine d.j. Fitted quarter-calf slipcase and chemise. One of 300 numbered copies on uncut vergé d’Arches, from the limited edition of 343 in all.
“Les jockeys camouflés” has sometimes been called Matisse’s first illustrated book, a claim which is not strictly true, as it incorporates drawings made, in a few cases, years before, between 1903 and 1917. Nonetheless, it is the first book to contain a multitude of images by him integrated in this fashion. Two editions of it were printed, both in 1918. This one, the first, has the text beautifully set in three colors, rather like Blaise Cendrars’ and Fernand Léger’s ‘J’ai tué,’ also published by François Bernouard in this year. Reverdy, who had not authorized this typographical caprice and was infuriated by it, forced Bernouard to issue a second version of it, in black-and-white. A few small spots on front cover; a copy, fresh and crisp, from the library of Albert Skira (though not marked as such).
Paris (La Belle Édition), 1918. $3,500.00
Duthuit 41; Nice 55; Skira 255; Chapon pp. 140,142
107
(MATISSE) Baudelaire, Charles
Les fleurs du mal. 169, (3)pp. 1 original etching on chine appliqué (frontispiece), 33 full-page photo-lithographs, 38 line-drawn decorations (10 full-page), of which 2 on the covers, and 33 wood-engraved lettrines; all by Matisse. Lrg. 4to. Dec. wraps., designed by Matisse. Slipcase and chemise (boards, 1/4 leather). One of 300 numbered copies on papier de Rives, signed by Matisse in the colophon, from the limited edition of 320 in all. Etching printed by R. Lacourière, lithographs by Mourlot Frères, wood-engraving by Theo Schmied. A brief afterword by Louis Aragon recounts the technical difficulties which led to the use of the photolithographic process. Three different models posed for the full-page portraits of women which illustrate the book. When each sitting was finished, Matisse would pin the drawings to the wall, and choose among them while immersing himself in Baudelaire’s poems, to find the closest equivalence (“le dessin doit être un équivalent plastique du poème,” to cite his dictum). Slipcase rubbed; a very fine copy.
[
Duthuit, Claude: Henri Matisse: Catalogue
raisonné des ouvrages illustrés (
108
(MIRO) Tzara, Tristan
L’arbre des voyageurs. Orné de quatre lithographies de Joan Miró. 98, (4)pp., 4 original lithographs by Miró. Sm. 4to. Orig. wraps. Fitted clamshell case (cloth, 1/4 black morocco with leather label). One of 65 numbered copies on vélin d’Arches, from the limited edition of 503, signed in pen by Tzara and Miró in the justification. These lithographs are among Miró’s first prints, and are indeed his first book illustrations (those in Liese Hirtz’s “Il était une petite pie” of 1928 having been pochoir reproductions). A fine copy of this important Surrealist illustrated book.
Paris (Éditions de la Montagne), 1930. $6,000.00
Cramer 1; Mourlot 2-5; Berggruen 9; Harwood 12; The Artist and the Book 205; Manet to Hockney 87 ; Skira 263; Rauch 163; Strachan p. 64; Berggruen 163; Andel 144
109
(MIRO) Tzara, Tristan
Parler seul. Poème. Lithographies de Joan Miró. 111, (9)pp. 73 original lithographs, including 20 hors-texte in color, and 50 in text (27 color), as well as on the cover (in color, with collage elements, partly printed on hand-torn newspaper), and on the slipcase sleeve (color) and slipcase box (repeat of sleeve). Sm. folio. 380 x 280 mm. Signatures loose, as issued. One of 200 copies on malacca pur chiffon, from the limited edition of 250 in all, signed in pen by Tzara and Miró in the justification. Text printed by Fequet et Baudier, lithography by Mourlot Frères.
One of Miró’s most important and beautiful livres d’artiste. “Of texts illustrated in some form of surrealist idiom, the late Tristan Tzara’s poem ‘Parler seul,’ published in 1950 with Miró’s lithographs in black and colour, holds a particular interest, having been composed by the poet--one of the famous originators of the Dadaist movement--while undergoing treatment in a psychiatric clinic... The gaiety of colour, the Bosch-like imagination, the rightness of the placing on the page combine to arouse a shudder of delight or horror. They evoke moods of apprehension--’Le couteau dans la plaie’ with black scimitar-like shapes, the almost tachiste splodge of black with a circle of red above it and two pages later two creatures, one blue, one red, suspended like street lights with vestigial arms composed of a bow, with blobs of colour for hands and attached to long black bodies and elegant ideographic legs” (Strachan). A pristine copy.
Paris (Maeght), 1948-1950. $15,000.00
Cramer 17; Mourlot 102,104-107; Berggruen 34; Harwood 42; The Artist and the Book 206 (full-page
illus. in color), p. 145; Chapon p.
290f., cf. p. 178; Rauch 165; Strachan p. 339, cf. p. 126; Villa Stuck 75;
Basel 200; Stern 77; Bareiss 48; Bibliothèque Nationale: 50 livres illustrés
depuis 1947, no. 9
110
(MOHOLY-NAGY) Giedion, Sigfried
Bauen in Frankreich: Bauen in Eisen, Bauen in Eisenbeton. (6), 127, (1)pp. 139 illus. 4to. Cloth. D.j. An important example of Moholy-Nagy’s graphic design of the Bauhaus period, the binding emphatically stamped in silver with block letters, with quite unusual blind raised text on the back cover; and with an especially dramatic dust jacket, a negative photograph of industrial engineering overprinted with scarlet text. Moholy-Nagy was also responsible for the layout and typography within. The rare jacket with a few clean tears and chips (a little taped on the verso), but still striking and fine; internally very fine.
Leipzig/Berlin (Klinkhardt & Biermann) [1928]. $650.00
Fleischmann p. 297; Andel, Jaroslav: Avant-Garde Page Design 1900-1950 (
111
MOI VER
Paris (Éditions Jeanne Walter), 1931. $18,000.00
Roth, Andrew (ed.): The Book of 101 Books (
112
MUNARI, BRUNO
Disegni astratti. Disegni
astratti di Ciuti,
Milano (G.G.Görlich), 1944. $950.00
Tanchis, Aldo: Bruno Munari: Design as Art (
113
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.
114
(NOVEMBERGRUPPE)
115
International Nutidskunst.
Konstruktivisme, Neoplasticisme, Abstrakt kunst, Surrealisme. Udstillingen
arrangeret for Kunstnerforbundet i
116
LES PAGES LIBRES DE LA MAIN À PLUME
[Une série de douze cahiers.] 12 nos. (all published). (8)-(16)pp. each, printed on variously tinted coated stock. Illus. by Tanguy, Dalí, Miró, Magritte, Picasso and others. 12mo. Self-wraps. Handsome new slipcase by Devauchelle (boards, 1/4 black morocco). Edition of 265 copies. A clandestine series of texts published by the Paris Surrealist community during the Nazi occupation, under the direction of Noël Arnaud and J.-F. Chabrun. “La main à plume” was both the name adopted by this formally organized group--some twenty writers and artists, from various sectors of the Surrealist milieu-- “le seul groupe surréaliste solidement constitué et discipliné en Europe occupée, défendant avec intransigeance les positions théoriques définies par Breton avant son départ” (Arnaud himself, in Biro/Passeron); and also the title of the group’s first collective publication. The cahiers (in order of appearance) are devoted to Noël Arnaud, Maurice Blanchard, Gérard de Sède, J.-F. Chabrun, André Breton (“Pleine marge”), Léo Malet, J.-V. Manuel, Benjamin Péret (“Les malheurs d’un dollar”), Laurence Iché, Robert Rius, Christian Dotremont (“Lettres d’amour”), and anonymous (on “Picasso”). Arnaud’s cahier has a few corrections in pen, presumably by the author. Subscription form loosely inserted. A few tears along foldlines, altogether a very nice set. Rare.
[
Ades p. 409, 16.39.1-12; Biro/Passeron p. 256f.
117
PANSAERS, CLÉMENT
Bar Nicanor. Avec un portrait de Crotte de Bique et de Couillandouille par eux-mêmes. 52pp. 2 original relief prints by Pansaers, printed in brown, at outset of text. Contents printed on salmon-colored stock. Printed wraps. (lightly browned at edges). Glassine d.j. One of 300 numbered copies on bouffant, from the limited edition of 305. An important presentation copy, inscribed at the head of the first woodcut leaf “A Maurice Van Essche/ Ça Ira/ C Pansaers.” Together with Pansaers and Paul Neuhuys, Van Essche was the co-editor, of the Belgian Dada review “Ça ira.”
A fresh copy.
Bruxelles (Editions A I O), 1921. $1,500.00
Gershman p. 31; Dada Global 79; Bruxelles, Bibl. Royale Albert Ier: Cinquante ans d’avant-garde (1983), no. 18
118
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
119
"Exposition internationale du surréalisme. A partir du 17 janvier 1938." Poster for the exhibition, printed in red-orange with a large design by Kurt Seligmann, on cream-colored stock, overprinted with text in black. 560 x 380 mm. (ca. 22 x 15 inches). Affixed at lower right, 6 “taxe d’affichage” stamps, inscribed by Andre Breton in green pen across their surface “annulé/ le 18 janvier 1938/ André Breton.” The extremely rare poster for this epochal exhibit, signed and dated by Breton. Interestingly, an alteration in the date of the opening is visible at the top, where the original “14” janvier is pasted over with a clipped square with the number “17.” The extravagant Seligmann image is a silhouetted creature with voluptuous breasts, one hand and one wing, her lower half a tree trunk with coiling roots; she wears, perhaps, a trailing cap reminiscent of Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People.” Tiny loss at top right corner, small split at left edge of central fold, a few other small clean tears, a pinhole; a bright copy, much superior to the copy in the Breton estate (which was badly faded and worn, and nonetheless preëmpted at the sale).
Hauser, Stephen E.: Kurt Seligmann
1900-1962: Leben und Werk (
120
PARKETT. Kunstzeitschrift./ Art magazine. Nos. 1-69. 4to. Wraps.
Zürich/Berlin/New York, 1984-2004. $5,000.00
121
PÉRET, BENJAMIN
Il était une boulangère. (Les Cahiers Nouveaux. 11.) 75, (5)pp. Collotype frontis., showing a page of the manuscript of the book. Wraps. One of 750 numbered copies on vélin de Rives, from the limited edition of 800. Presentation copy, inscribed to the Surrealist poet Robert Valançay “En attendant qu’il broute sur le boulevard Magenta/ Cordialement/ Benjamin Péret.” Fine.
Paris (Éditions du Sagittaire), 1925. $1,250.00
Gershman p. 32; Milano p. 649
122
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
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 mouth, Picabia writes he is now at work on a big picture titled “Fougère Royale.” The book a little browned, stitching renewed (apparently by Breton); a fine copy. 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
123
PICABIA, FRANCIS
“La chasteté punie/ ou/
assurances maritimes des varices/ mentales.” Original drawing and prose poem,
in blue ink on the verso of a printed invitation to the opening of his exhibition
at the Galerie Jacques Povolozky,
Cf. Vente Bibliothèque Tristan Tzara, Paris
4 mars 1989, lot 324 (another example with an original Picabia drawing on the
verso); for the card itself, cf.:
Dada Global 232; Almanacco Dada p.
607 illus.; Sanouillet 232;
Motherwell/Karpel p. 166 illus.; Düsseldorf 210
124
(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
125
(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 paintings 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
126
LA POMME DE PINS
Numéro unique. 25 février 1922. [Directeur:] Francis Picabia. Le gérant: Christian. (4)pp. (single sheet, folding). 380 x 280 mm. (ca. 15 x 11 in.). Tabloid folio. The only issue published. Texts and aphorisms by Picabia (“L’idéal”), Roland Dorgelès, Jacob, Suzanne Duchamp, Jean Crotti, and Christian; advertisements; all contents set in the most hectic Dada typography. In the center of the front page, a “fetish” drawing of a strange pelican-like bird whose roughly feathered body is actually a pinecone (pomme de pin), labeled on the head, beak and feet with the names of Christian, Crotti and Picabia. “Publication of ‘391’ now ceased for three years because Picabia was busy painting, pursuing other projects, and leading an eventful social life. In 1922, now reconciled with Breton and at war with Tzara, he brought out ‘La pomme de pins’ to support Breton’s proposed ‘Congrès de Paris,’ an attempt at a conference to draw up a ‘balance sheet of the modern spirit.’ It is a huge fold-out sheet, densely packed with greetings, announcements, and aphorisms, using the full resources of the typesetter’s fonts, and containing classic statements by Picabia, like ‘Our head is round to allow our thought to change direction.’ It is also full of the ambiguity of the best dada reviews. Picabia devotes a sustained passage to Ribemont-Dessaignes: ‘A great philosopher in the genre of Claudel: he has the deepest admiration for Totor [Duchamp], who does nothing any more except play chess and imitate windows, thus giving G.D.R. a modernist personality.’ Tzara responded with a pamphlet, smaller in format but equal in invective, ‘Le coeur à barbe,’ attacking the Congrès de Paris, Breton, Picabia and their allies” (Ades). Light browning; chipped at extemities, with loss at top fold, not affecting text or design; this copy could be handsomely conserved. Of the greatest rarity.
Saint-Raphael, 1922. $8,500.00
Ades pp. 154, 148; Almanacco Dada 121; Sanouillet 249; Motherwell/Karpel 80, reproduced in complete facsimile pp. 268-271; Gershman p. 52; Admussen appendice 27 (unlocated in any Paris library); Zürich 389
127
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
128
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. $1,750.00
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
129
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
130
(RICHTER, HANS) München. Neue Kunst Hans Goltz
Abende-für-neue-Litteratur. Poster, printed in black offset
lithography on buff-colored stock. 882 x 710 mm. (34 3/4 x 28 inches). This
apparently unrecorded poster by Hans Richter promotes a series of “soirées for
new literature” which the
Depicting a disembodied hand about to shoot a note through the air on a bow and arrow, the poster presents a kind of emblematum, still Expressionist in the character of the drawing (and roughhewn style of the handwritten text), but tinged with an incipient Dada sensibility. It is unmistakably close in style to another poster Richter designed that year, for a four-man exhibition he shared with Heckel at Goltz’s gallery in June--until now, so far as we know, the only one surviving from this moment in his career--but the enigmatic minimalism of this new poster seems to signal a change of direction. A few pale traces of foxing, inconspicuous trace of center fold; backed with japon; invisible pinholes at corners; a very fresh and bright example.
München [1916]. $12,000.00
Literature: Cf. DadaGlobal p. 87f. (cf.
illus. p. 87); Gray, Cleve (ed.):
Hans Richter by Hans Richter (New York, 1971), p. 26;
131
ROTH, DIETER
Diter Rot Book AC 1958-64. 26ff., including title leaf (white), backsheet (black), and 24 die-cut plates (12 black and 12 white, in six different formats). Folio. Publisher’s black cloth clamshell portfolio. All contents loose, as issued. Copy no. 2/250, signed and numbered by Roth on the title-page. The simple and elegant conception, which immediately yields complex op-art effects, juxtaposes sheets of black and white stock, each die-cut with anywhere from two to thirty-three die-cut slots at their centers, creating grids which change radically depending on the sequence of the leaves. Its dazzling effects notwithstanding, the format calls to mind works of minimalist art, such as that of Donald Judd. “Book AC” was part of an evolving project of artists’ books by Rot in this die-cut slot format, issued in 1958, 1959 and 1964, in Reykjavík, Paris and New Haven. A very fine copy.
[
Dieter Rot Books and Graphics (part I), from
1947 until 1971 (
132
ROTH, DIETER
2 times 5 TROPHIES. (Assistant: Björn Roth.) 1 original Speedy drawing on fine wove paper, signed and dated at the base (482 x 642 mm./ 19 x 25 1/4 inches), and 11 offset lithographs (including title-page), printed in black and silver on chamois-colored card stock, each fully signed and numbered 93/100 in pencil by Roth at the lower edge. Sheet size 500 x 352 mm. (19 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches). Folio. Folding cardboard portfolio, with mounted cover panel in the same format as the plates within (here numbered but not signed). All contents loose, as issued. Edition limited to 100 signed and numbered copies. The very large and exuberant calligraphic drawing depicts a cherubic abstract figure holding a pennant in each hand; designed in the manner of a Rorschach blot, it is roughly symmetrical on each side of the central fold. At its heart is the word ‘Trophy,’ and beneath that, the word ‘trophy’ backwards. A beautiful copy.
Stuttgart/London (Edition Hansjorg Meyer & Dieter Roth’s Verlag), 1978. $3,000.00
Dieter Roth Bücher und Grafik (2. Teil),
u.a.m. aus den Jahren 1971-1979 (
133
ROTH, DIETER
Stupidogramme. Gedruckte Beispiele der handgezeichneten Originalserien von 1961 bis 1966. (206)ff., each page with a different composition by Roth, embellishing a grid of 121 commas (some pages printed in red or blue). 4to. Cloth. Orig. card wraps. bound in. D.j. Matching cloth slipcase. This 1980 special edition of 200 copies adds an original pencil drawing by Roth to copies of the regular edition of the original 1975 printing, limited to 1000 copies. The loosely inserted drawing, a “stupidogramme,” in the same format as those in the book, is executed on the interior of a folded sheet of white card stock with the printed title “Selfportrait as Stupido,” and is signed and dated ‘80 in pencil at the base of the composition. Very fine.
Dobke, Dirk: Dieter Roth Books + Multiples (
134
RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE SAMMELBAND
Three important theoretical texts of the Russian avant-garde, bound together at an early date: Burliuk, attacking Alexander Benois and conservative art critics (1913); Kruchenkykh, Kliun and Malevich, criticizing retrograde Symbolist taste (illustrated with lithographs by Kliun; 1916); and Yaklulov, Livshits, and Lur’ye, on the unique, innate capability of Russian artists to move into new dimensions, which the West is no longer capable of reaching (1914). Contents as follows:
1. Burliuk, David, et al. Galdiaschie 'benua' i novoe russkoe natsional'noe iskusstvo [Noisy 'Benoises' and the new Russian national art]. Razgovor g. Burliuka, g. Benua i g. Repina ob iskusstve [A conversation between Mr. Burliuk, Mr. Benois, and Mr. Repin on art]. 20, (2)pp. Edition of 450 copies. Wraps.
A pamphlet "written in the form of a dialogue between Burliuk himself and one of the leading artists, art critics and art historians of that time, Alexander Benois (whose name was spelled by Burliuk with a lower-case 'b' to show contempt). Actually it is no dialogue at all, but rather Burliuk's comments about Benois' criticism of the Russian avant-garde over a period of several years. Quotations (or semiquotations) from Benois are given in smaller print, and in his comments, Burliuk tries to demonstrate that Benois has evolved from an ignorant open foe of the new art to a wolf in sheep's clothing who now hypocritically recognizes it, while actually continuing to hate it" (Markov). Also included is Nikolai Burliuk's "O parodii I o podrazhanii [On Parody and Imitation]," a discussion of the collection of poems and drawings in "Neofuturizm."
St. Petersburg (Soiuz Molodezhi), 1913
Getty 112; Markov p.181
2. Kruchenykh, A., et al. Tainye proki akademikov [Secret Vices of Academicians]. By Aleksei Kruchenykh, Ivan Kliun and Kazimir Malevich. 32pp. Full-page halftone frontis., and 3 lithographic vignette illus. (1 on front cover) by Kliun. Wraps. "The book is an attack by Kruchenykh, Malevich and Kliun on the decadent Symbolist past in literature and the visual arts" (Barron/Tuchman). Though written primarily by Kruchenykh, it is of special interest for its contribution by Kliun, including three striking graphic compositions. "[His] lithographs for the book 'Secret Vices of Academicians' (published 1915, with cover date 1916) carries abstraction further: Kliun is at the transition point between Cubist fragmentation and Suprematist assertion of flat, geometric shapes."
Moskva, (Twersk I Oruscheinago), 1916
Getty 384;MOMA 105 Compton p. 126; Markov p.
334f.; Barron/Tuchman 90, p. 168
3. Yakulov, Georgy, et al. My i Zapad/ Nous et l'Occident. Plakats No. 1/ Placard No. 1. By Georgy Yakulov ["Georges Jacouloff"], Benedikt Livshits ["Benoît Livschitz"] and Artur Lur'ye ["Arthur-Vincent Lourié"]. Large folding placard (verso blank). Parallel texts in Russian and French, in a side-by-side dual-language format. Several clean tears at folds.
A very rare and important broadside manifesto, 'We and the West,' by Georgy Yakulov, the poet Benedikt Livshits, and the Futurist composer Artur Lur'ye, dating from the moment just before Marinetti's famous 1914 visit to St. Petersburg, an epochal event that triggered a round of soirées and symposia. It relates particularly to a lecture delivered by Livshits on February 11, arguing the superiority of Russian Futurism to Italian. "It is appropriate to remember that the ideas Livshits expressed in this lecture go back to the leaflet manifesto published by him in Russian, French and Italian at the very beginning of 1914, nearly a month before Marinetti's arrival. The signatories of the manifesto were, in addition to Livshits, Lourié and George Yakulov, an artist who had just returned from Paris, where simultaneism was the vogue at the time, both in poetry and in painting. Livshits was skeptical about Cendrars' and Apollinaire's recent experiments in this direction; and Yakulov considered himself robbed by Robert Delaunay, who, he claimed, stole his ideas, so they decided to write a manifesto under the title 'We and the West.' In this manifesto, Europe was declared to be in a state of artistic crisis, one of whose manifestations was a current interest in oriental art. The West was represented as organically unable to understand the East, having lost the idea of the precise limits of art. European art was found to be not only archaic, but also incapable of developing in a new direction, yet desparately trying to create a priori aesthetics for a nonexistent art. Russia, on the other hand, was represented as building on 'cosmic elements,' and moving from subject to object. The manifesto ended with the positing of several abstruse aesthetic points, first those common to all arts, then, in three adjacent columns, specifically those for painting, poetry, and music" (Markov). Yakulov's vanguard internationalism in these years is remarkable, having taken him to Italy in 1910, before Paris, and to Berlin in 1913, where he participated in the Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon at Der Sturm. "In his work, Yakulov used Cubist and Futurist conventions, but he remained outside Russian artistic groups, exhibiting at the avant-garde Dobychina Gallery in Petrograd as well as with the World of Art group…. After the Revolution of 1917 he became, however, an active member of the 'leftist federation' of painters in Moscow, and he recruited Vladimir Tatlin and Aleksandr Rodchenko, among other avant-garde artists, to design the Café Pittoresque in Moscow, which turned out to be a demonstration of the decorative possibilities of abstract art" (Dictionary of Art).
St. Petersburg ("Tabiti"), 1914
Cf. Dictionary of Art, 33.486f.
("Yakulov, Georgy" by V. Rakitin); Markov p. 156f.
Sm. 4to. Early boards, 1/4 cloth (small tear in front board). Orig. wraps. bound in, for the first work, orig. front cover bound in, for the second. $5,500.00
135
S.M.S.
Published by the Letter Edged in Black Press, Inc. [Editor: William Copley.] Nos. 1-6, February-December, 1968. 6 issues, consisting of boxed portfolio albums of multiples especially created for each number. All contents loose, as issued. 4to. Publisher’s dec. printed folders within printed white cardboard shipping cartons (3 with addresses, as mailed). Contributions by James Byars, Walter de Maria, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, Kasper König, Richard Hamilton, Su Braden, Christo, Julien Levy, Ray Johnson, Nicolas Calas, Meret Oppenheim, Bruce Conner, Clovis Trouille, Enrico Baj, Dick Higgins, Joseph Kosuth, Roland Penrose, Man Ray, H.C. Westerman, Terry Riley, On Kawara, Hollis Frampton, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Watts, John Cage, Mel Ramos, Bruce Nauman, Neil Jenny, Diane Wakoski, Yoko Ono, Richard Artschwager, Diter Rot, Claes Oldenburg, Bernar Venet, John Giorno, and many others. Printed matter, found objects, toys, graphs, confetti, index cards, pamplets, vitamin capsules, faux postage stamps, decals, burnt bowties, party-hats, facsimile manuscripts, plastic gloves, photo albums, fake currency, and a great deal else, apart from the numerous text and images. Tables for each issue make it possible to collate the diverse contents precisely. Light wear to some of the outer shipping cartons. Both tapes in this set are the original reel-to-reel versions (Terry Riley in No. 3, LaMonte Young in No. 4).
New York, 1968. $3,000.00
Pindell p. 107
136
SCHWITTERS, KURT
Anna Blume. Dichtungen. (Die Silbergäule. Band 39-40.) 37, (11)pp. Sm. 4to. Orig. wraps. First issue of the first edition, with Schwitters’ splendid design on the front cover, printed in red and black on green stock. “Like today’s Pop artists, Schwitters does not consider himself one apart from the bourgeois world: he is Anna Blume, even as he makes fun of her, just as he is the “Blue Bird” (a title that might well derive from a sentimental cabaret song of the twenties)” (William Rubin, in 1968). Small split at foot of spine; a little light browning.
Hannover (Paul Steegemann), 1919. $1,500.00
Schmalenbach/Bolliger 1; Dada Global 121; Ades 6.34; Andel 80; Motherwell/Karpel 366; Verkauf p. 104
137
(SCHWITTERS) Vischer, Melchior
Sekunde durch Hirn. Ein unheimlich schnell rotierender Roman. (Die Silbergäule. Band 59-61.) 49, (3)pp. Sm. 4to. Orig. wraps. With the magnificent dada cover design by Kurt Schwitters, printed in black on the buff-yellow stock. Small, very faint stain at foot of text; an attractive, crisp copy, the cover in fine condition.
Hannover (Paul Steegemann), 1920. $1,500.00
Schmalenbach/Bolliger p. 22; Motherwell/Karpel 129a; Verkauf p. 105
138
(SCHWITTERS/ LISSITZKY) Merz. No. 8/9
Nasci. [Band 2, Nr. 8/9.] April/Juli 1924. Doppelheft unter der Redaktion von El Lissitzky und Kurt Schwitters. Redaktion des Merz Verlages: Kurt Schwitters. (18)pp. 18 line-drawn and halftone illus. 4to. Orig. wraps., printed in blue and orange. Texts by Lissitzky (introduction, “Es ist schon genug immer Maschine”) and Schwitters (“Die einzige Tat des Künstler bei i ist entformeln...”). Illus. of work by Malevich, Lissitzky, Mondrian, Schwitters, Archipenko, Arp, Mies van der Rohe, Leger, Tatlin, Braque, Ray and others. Typography by Lissitzky. Parallel texts throughout in German and French.
An esthetic credo on the evolutionary character of form in nature and art, this issue is famous for Lissitzky’s suave, dynamic design. “We have had enough of perpetually hearing MACHINE, MACHINE, MACHINE, MACHINE when it comes to modern art-production.... Modern art, following a completely intuitive and obvious course, has reached the same results as modern science. Like science, it has reduced the form to its basic elements, in order to reconstruct it according to the universal laws of nature; and in doing this, both have arrived at the same formula: Every form is a frozen instantaneous picture of a process. Thus a work is a stopping-place on the road of becoming and not the fixed goal.... We wish to design peace, the peace of nature, in which enormous tensions hold the heavenly bodies, rotating uniformly, in equal balance. Our work is not a philosophy, and not a system for acquiring cognition of nature, it is a limb of nature and as such can itself be only an object of cognition” (Lissitzky). A remarkable copy, containing, loosely inserted, the extremely rare variant of Lissitzky's introduction, printed in blue on a leaf of brilliant red coated stock (verso blank). This version, essentially a broadside by Lissitzky, is fascinating as a proclamation of the text, and a brilliantly colorful restatement of his elaborate typographic design. Apart from the color, it is identical in layout and dimensions to the version in the issue. As he explained in a letter to Sophie Küppers of February 1924, Lissitzky and Schwitters agreed that this colored version of the text should accompany copies of the issue. "Ich habe mit Kurtchen verabredet, dass es auf farbiges Papier gedruckt und hineingeheftet. Der Satz soll derselbe wie im ganzen Heft klein sein, nur das stark hervorgehoben, was im Manuskript ist." Nisbet records a copy of this at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Additionally, the inside front cover of this copy of "Nasci" bears two clipped and pasted notices by Schwitters, printed on 2 pieces of teal-colored stock--an intervention undoubtedly by Schwitters himself. One of these clippings is a statement about the "Nasci" issue, while the other is a section of an order form for "Hahepeter" (Merz 16/17). The latter is trimmed completely without reference to the text (most of which is missing), so that this two-piece composition is, in effect, a kind of collage by Schwitters.
A little light wear to the issue, generally fresh; small tears, and two small losses, at edges of the Lissitzky insert, reinforced on the verso.
Hannover (Merzverlag), 1924. $8,500.00
Nisbet, Peter: El Lissitzky 1890-1941
(Cambridge: Harvard University Art Museums, 1987), no.
1924/15; Schmalenbach/Bolliger 239;
“Typographie kann unter Umständen Kunst
sein”: Kurt Schwitters Typographie und Werbegestaltung (Wiesbaden, 1990), no. 19;
Dada Global 113; Ades p. 130; Almanacco
Dada 91; Gershman p. 51; Motherwell/Karpel 78; Dada Artifacts 72; Verkauf p.
180; Rubin 469; Düsseldorf 525; The Avant-Garde in Print 2.7
139
SCHWITTERS, KURT & STEINITZ, KÄTE
[Merz. No. 16/17.] Die Märchen vom Paradies. Band 1 [all published]. 1. Die Hahnepeter. 2. Der Paradiesvogel. 3. Das Paradies auf der Wiese. (Aposs No. 2.) 31, (1)pp. Prof. illus., including 18 drawings by Kate Steinitz. Typographic design throughout by Schwitters. 4to. Orig. wraps., decorated in red and black with drawings by Steinitz. The complete anthology of the fairy tales (‘Tales of Paradise’) written by Schwitters and illustrated, with swiftly improvised drawings, by Steinitz. In part, the characters were based on the Schwitters’ family and friends: the Hahnemann, of “Hahnepeter,” for example, was his son Ernst, and Uncle Ungeflochten the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim. This follow-up to the separately published “Hahnepeter” (already declared out-of-print) was issued first in this edition by Apossverlag; the following year, Schwitters retroactively designated some copies of it (not this one) issue no. 16/17 of Merz by pasting printed labels on the front cover. The drawings on the wrappers of this copy are printed in orange (rather than the usual pale green), a rare variant not discussed in the Wiesbaden catalogue. An extremely fine copy.
Hannover (Apossverlag), 1924. $5,500.00
Schmalenbach/Bolliger 244; “Typographie kann unter Umständen Kunst
sein”: Kurt Schwitters Typographie und Werbegestaltung (Wiesbaden, 1990) 26;
Dada Global 116; Ades p. 131; Almanacco Dada 91; Verkauf p. 180; Motherwell/Karpel 78
140
(SCHWITTERS) Merz. No. 20
Kurt Schwitters. Katalog. (8)pp. 8 halftone illus. reproducing work by Schwitters and two photographic portraits of him. 4to. Self-wraps., stapled as issued. Prefaced by a lengthy and important autobiographical text, the issue lists (with prices) the 150 works by Schwitters which figured in the Grosse Merz-Austellung of 1927, a circulating exhibition which had been shown in part at Der Sturm in November 1926. A little light wear.
Hannover (Kurt Schwitters), 1927. $4,500.00
Schmalenbach/Bolliger 246; “Typographie kann unter Umständen Kunst
sein”: Kurt Schwitters Typographie und Werbegestaltung (Wiesbaden, 1990) 44;
Dada Global 118; Ades p. 131; Almanacco Dada 91; Gershman p. 51; Motherwell/Karpel 78;
Verkauf p. 180; Rubin 469
141
SECESSION. Director: Gorham B. Munson. Nos. 1, 5, 7 (Spring 1922; July 1923; Winter 1924), of 8 issues published in all. 24, 28, 32pp. Sm. 4to. Printed self-wraps. Texts by Louis Aragon, Tristan Tzara, Malcolm Cowley, Matthew Josephson, Marianne Moore, E.E. Cummings, Gorham B. Munson, Hart Crane, Waldo Frank, Yvor Winters, Kenneth Burke and others. Edited by Gorham Munson (together with Matthew Josephson and Kenneth Burke, at various junctures), the short-lived, highly controversial little magazine“Secession” was published in typically intinerant avant-garde fashion in various cities throughout Europe--Vienna, Reutte (Austria) and Florence--before settling down conclusively in New York. Set up as a rival to, and repudiation of, “Broom,” “Secession” took a pro-Dada stance in its first issue, with work from Aragon (excerpts from “Les aventures de Télémaque”), Tzara (“Unpublished Fragment from Mr. AA the Antiphilosopher,” and a poem, “instant note brother”), and a bracing critical salute to the Parisian Dadaists by Josephson (who had done all of the translations, under the nom de plume ‘Will Bray’). Ironically, it was eventually “Broom” that took up the Dada cause, as Munson and Josephson fell out, and the two magazines in effect switched positions. Small marginal tears; backstrip of one issue unobtrusively reinforced. No. 5 with manuscript corrections in pen, probably by the editors, and with the signature, possibly, of Hanna Josephson on the front cover. Very rare.
Dada Global 150; Almanacco Dada 142; Sanouillet
253; Hoffman pp. 93-101, 267f.;
Tashjian, Dickran: Skyscaper Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde
1910-1925 (
142
(SELIGMANN) Breton, André
Pleine marge. (4)pp., 1 original etching by Seligmann, signed in pencil in the margin (Mason 112). Sheet size: 383 x 247 mm. 15 x 9 3/4 in.). Folio. Self-wraps. Contents loose, as issued. Edition limited to 50 copies, signed by Breton in red pencil, at the conclusion of the text; this copy hors de commerce (designated H.C. rather than numbered, in pencil). Printed on leaves of red stock (cover) and uncut Rosaspina wove paper (text). Breton wrote the rhapsodic “Pleine marge” at the end of August 1940 in the south of occupied France, shortly before his departure for Marseilles, and escape to the U.S., where Seligmann had already arrived. When he left, Breton turned over the manuscript to the editor of “Cahiers du Sud,” but this Gallery Nierendorf folio was actually its first edition (preceding, according to most authorities, its publication in the clandestine series “Pages libres de la Main à Plume”). It was also the first and the only folio published in a series planned by Nierendorf of Breton poems accompanied by etchings. Seligmann’s extremely complex and highly wrought composition bristles with hermetic iconography of every kind, including classic occult symbols such as a magic ring central to Satanic ritual, and arcane personal references, such as the number 1713 at lower left, which Breton used as a disguised version of his own initials. Rare, unseen by a number of key bibliographers. A beautiful copy.
New York (Nierendorf Gallery) [1943]. $4,500.00
Sheringham Aa341; Pompidou: Breton p. 355 ; Gershman
p. 8; Biro/Passeron 460; Sawin p.
119; Milano p. 655; Mason, Rainer Michael: Kurt Seligmann: oeuvre gravé
(Genève, 1982) 112; Hauser, Stephan E: Kurt Seligmann 1900-1962: Leben und Werk
(Basel, 1997)
143
SEUPHOR, MICHEL
4 quacsitchatrides pour cent personnes spirituelles. Accompagneés et mis en scène par P.A. Bénoit. (16)pp. Lrg. 8vo. Printed wraps. Glassine d.j. Edition of 100 copies (though not stated), printed on loose signatures of wove stock within a letterpress folder of thick wove handmade paper. The poems are integrated with playful abstractions of open lines, dots, circles and asterisks, designed by P.A.B.
[Alès] (P.A. Bénoit) [1950]. $600.00
Montpellier 124; Bibliothèque Nationale 1989, p. 20
144
SOFFICI, ARDEGNO
BIF§ZF+18. Simultaneità e chimismi lirici. 67, (3)pp. Halftone frontis. photo of the author. Title-page printed in massive red and blue wood type. Folio. Contemporary boards, 1/4 cloth, the front cover mounted with the original front wrapper. Edition limited to 300 numbered copies. First edition; a revised second edition, in a much-reduced commercial paperback format, was issued in 1923.
The rarest and most inspired of all major Futurist publications, its poems and prose texts expressed in magnificently powerful parole in libertà, some of which incorporate commercial trademarks and other graphic elements. The huge tabloid scale of the book is extremely impressive, and Soffici’s cubo-futurist collage cover design, printed in multiple colors, is one of the most beautiful achievements of modern book design. “‘BiF§ZF+18. Simultaneità e chimismi lirici’ is a polemical text from Soffici’s brief futurist period, when he abandoned ‘La voce,’ and, with Papini, founded ‘Lacerba.’ ‘The cover is an incunabulum of futurist typography, a veritable tour de force. Author, title, subtitle and publisher are all indicated in different styles. The aggressively unconventional layout gives the effect of a carefully calculated, dynamically balanced collage. The unusual format also served to give prominence to the page’” (Jentsch; Fanelli and Godoli). “Soffici se fait le théoricien de la libération de la lettre. En 1915, avec son ouvrage motlibriste ‘BIF§ZF+18,’ dont le tître résulte d’un ensemble de caractères typographiques trouvés au hasard dans une imprimerie, il confère au livre les dimensions, l’éclat et le statut éphémère des grands quotidiens de l’époque (Giovanni Lista, in “Poésure et peintrie”). Slight fading to the front wrapper, with minute losses at right edge; verso of half-title and title-page reinforced at the inner margin with matching paper tape; old mends to a few leaves; separated from binding where shaken; generally a very clean and attractive copy. Of greatest rarity.
Firenze (Edizione della “Voce”) [1915]. $35,000.00
Jentsch 485; Lista p. 100f., color plate 235; Hultén p. 576f. (color plate); Poésure
et peintrie p. 54 (color illus.); Andel 46; Spencer p. 20
145
STETTHEIMER, FLORINE
Crystal Flowers. Foreword by Ettie Stettheimer. (2), vi, 82, (4)pp. Sm. 4to. Cloth, the front cover mounted (as issued) with collotype photograph of the artist's boudoir. Edition limited to 250 copies in all, on Rives paper, printed by hand at the Banyan Press under the supervision of Ettie Stettheimer. The rare volume of Stettheimer's verse, privately printed after her death for her friends and admirers, with a prefatory reminiscence. The poems include much on art and the New York art world, addressing or discussing Carl Van Vechten, Charles Demuth, Parker Tyler, Charles Henri Ford, and Virgil Thomson, among others. Van Vechten advised Ettie Stettheimer on the selection, and came up with the title. A little light wear.
146
(DER STURM)
"Sturm-Ball. Kroll
1930." A handmade poster, or a maquette for a printed one, for the 1930
Sturm-Ball, held in the Festsaal of the Kroll-Oper, a banqueting hall in
147
LE SURRÉALISME, MÊME
Directeur: André Breton. Rédacteur en chef: Jean Schuster. Nos. 1-5, Oct. 1956 - Printemps 1959 (all published). 64-168pp. per issue. Prof. illus. (partly in color, and with loose inserts). Cover designs by Marcel Duchamp, Pierre Molinier, Gabriel Max, Hans Bellmer, and Hans Arp. Sm. sq. 4to. Dec. wraps. A complete set. Texts by Breton, Bédouin, Mansour, Benayoun, Cirlot, Legrand, Gracq, Péret, Carrington, Brunius, Lebel, Massot, Paz, Mesens, Bellmer, Revel, et al. “There are various reviews affiliated to Surrealism to which Breton contributed, but the high points of Surrealism after the war are undoubtedly ‘La brèche’ and ‘Le surréalisme même,’ both produced with that care and precision characteristic of Breton, and with an energy lacking in much of the painting” (Ades). The first issue, with its cover designed by Marcel Duchamp, is especially prized.
Paris (Jean-Jacques Pauvert), 1956-1959. $850.00
Gershman p. 53; Ades p. 433; Biro/Passeron p. 390f.; Rubin 479; Nadeau p. 329f.
148
TEIGE, KAREL
Stavba a básen. Umení dnes a zítra 1919-1927. [Construction and Poetry. Art today and tomorrow, 1919-1927.] (Edice Olymp. Svazek 7-8.) 183, (7)pp., 32 plates with 48 illus. Sm. 4to. Wraps., printed in red and blue with a design by Teige. A gathering of articles on art and architecture originally published in “Devetsil,” “Stavba,” “Tvorba,” “Pásmo,” and elsewhere, handsomely designed by Teige, and with illustrations of work by Le Corbusier, Picasso, Archipenko, Tatlin, Doesburg, Mondrian, Behrens, Gropius and Meyer, Ozenfant, Jeanneret, Gabo, Vantongerloo, Malevich, Brancusi, Mondrian, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, Sima, Styrsky, Toyen, Hirschfeld-Mack, Rössler, et al. Unopened. Wraps. slightly soiled; a bit worn at spine, with neatly mended tear.
Praha (Edice Olymp), 1927. $550.00
Primus 71; IVAM: The Art of the Avant-Garde in Czechoslovakia 1918-1938 (Valencia,
1993), p. 45 (illus.)
149
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
150
391. NO. 13
Paris. Juillet 1920. "Ce numéro est entouré d'une dentelle rose." (4)pp. Tabloid large folio. Self-wraps. Glassine cover. Cover drawing by Picabia ("Far-niente beau parti," a poem-cum-mechanical drawing in the style of "Poèmes et dessins de la fille née sans mere"). Texts by Ribemont-Dessaignes ("Manifeste selon Saint-Jean-Clysopompe"), Tzara ("Monsieur Aa l'Antiphilosophe nous envoie ce manifeste") and Picabia ("Extrait de Jesus-Christ Rastaquouère"). Illustrations after Duchamp (his "A regarder d'un oeil, de près, pendant presque une heure," a painted glass construction study for the lower right quadrant of the "Large Glass") and Man Ray ("Lampshade"). A fine copy.
Paris, 1920. $4,000.00
Dada Global 167; Ades pp. 146, 153; Gershman p. 54; Chevrefils Desbiolles p. 316; Almanacco Dada 160; Motherwell/Karpel 86; Sanouillet 257; Verkauf p. 183; Düsseldorf 248; Zürich 396; Milano p. 648
151
391. NO. 19
Paris. Octobre 1924. "Journal de l'lnstantanéisme." (4)pp. Tabloid folio. Self-wraps. Cover printed in green with a full-page "Portrait of Marcel Duchamp" by Picabia (actually an appropriated portrait of the boxing champion Georges Charpentier, who bore a striking likeness to Duchamp), overprinted in black with statements about Picabia's newly proclaimed movement 'Instantaneism.' Within, Picabia's combative "Opinions et portraits" ("André Breton me fait penser à Lucien Guitry jouant une pièce de Bernstein: il est certainement aussi bon acteur, mais plus démodé que Guitry"), Breton (letter to Desnos), Mesens (aphorisms), Magritte (aphorisms), and a huge advertisement for Picabia's "Relâche, Ballet Instantanéiste," with music by Satie, to be performed at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées by the Ballets Suédois. Faint foldlines, with slight associated wear on the front cover.
Paris, 1924. $3,750.00
Ades pp. 150 (illus.), 154; Gershman p. 54; Almanacco dada 160; Chevrefils
Desbiolles p. 316; Motherwell/Karpel 86; Sanouillet 257; Verkauf p. 183
152
TZARA, TRISTAN, et al.
Form letter signed in pen by Tristan Tzara (with manuscript additions), Francis Picabia, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes and Walter Serner, soliciting contributions for an unnamed new Dada anthology, the never-issued “Dadaglobe.” l f. Carbon typescript, on pale blue “MoUvEmEnT DADA” letterhead stationery (Paris office), imprinted at left with a listing of Paris Dada reviews and their editors. 4to. (271 x 209mm.; 10 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.). The letter asks for contributions--three or four poems, for example, or statements--for a new Dada book to be published by La Sirène in March. Expected to be about 300 pages in length [here the original figure has been altered in pen], it will be published in an edition of some 10,000 copies. All submissions will be welcomed for consideration; contributors are asked also to include photographs of themselves, to be reproduced. On the verso, Tzara has added in pen a signed postscript thanking this recipient for sending the “Neue Merkur” and urging him to add other contributions from Germany, from which Tzara has so far received almost no replies. Beneath this is a four-line inscription in a different hand, in German, listing titles, presumably of poems. There are also a few lines of German in pencil elsewhere on the verso.
There can be no doubt that the publication involved is the anthology “Dadaglobe,” which Tzara began to plan in 1920. Discussing a similar solicitation from Tzara for this project, Michel Sanouillet reports that “Chacun de ces auteurs devait communiquer des spécimens de sa production (poèmes, textes ou clichés), sa photographie et autres documents connexes. L’entreprise débuta sous d’heureux auspices. Mettant à contribution ses amis parisiens, Tzara obtint de plus de cinquante Dadaïstes (ou assimilés) repartis dans une douzaine de pays, l’assurance de leur collaboration et se mit en demeure de recueillir les manuscrits. La parution de ‘Dadaglobe’ aux Éditions de la Sirène fut annoncé dans les revues au début de 1921, et, en juin, Tzara avait en mains suffisamment de matériaux pour composer un fort et intéressant volume.” Sanouillet concludes that it was abandoned for lack of financing.
Though there is no internal evidence in the letter, it is reported that the addressee was the poet and scholar Alfred Vagts in Munich, a contributor to “Der Zeltweg,” “Der Zweemann,” and “Dada” 6 (where he is listed among the “Présidents & Présidentes” of the movement). Raimund Meyer, discussing München Dada in “Dada Global,” mentions that Vagts was in contact with the Parisian Dadas, and sent Tzara poems for “Dadaglobe.” Arturo Schwarz likewise lists Vagts (in the “Almanacco Dada”) among the numerous distinguished persons who replied to Tzara’s letter (and whose responses can be found in the Tzara papers). Fine condition, the four pen signatures fine and fresh.
Paris [1920]. $3,500.00
Dada Global p. 86f. (Vagts), no. 224
(stationery); Almanacco Dada 36
(“Dadaglobe”); Sanouillet p. 310f.;
Poupard-Lieussou/Sanouillet 1
(stationery); Dada Artifacts 127 (stationery, with similar Tzara letter);
Düsseldorf 267
153
VARIÉTÉS
Revue mensuelle illustrée de l’esprit contemporain. Directeur: P.-G. van Hecke. Secrétaire: Paul Nayaert. Vol. I, no.1- Vol. II, no. 12, May 15, 1928-April 15, 1930; plus Numéro hors série, June 1929 (all published). 25 issues, bound in 4 vols. (apart from the final issue). Prof. illus., with numerous figs. and hors-texte plates. 4to. Vols. I-II bound in 4 vols. (boards, 1/4 cloth, mounted with original wraps.; other wraps. bound in); Numéro hors-série unbound, in the original wraps. Texts by Ostayen, Fierens, Ensor, de Ridder, Mac Orlan, Soupault, Vlaminck, Tzara, Mesens, Eluard, Giono, Lurçat, Michaux, Malraux, Grosz, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Léger, Prinzhorn, Babel, Ehrenburg, Maiakovsky, et al; illustrations by and after Arp, Cocteau, Magritte, Zadkine, Miró, Lhote, Ensor, Atget, Krull, Lotar, Léger, Seuphor, and with many film stills, documentation of African sculpture, etc. The important final number, published hors série, is devoted to “le Surréalisme en 1929” with texts by Freud, Crevel, Eluard, Nougé, Unik, Péret, Sadoul, Desnos, Mesens, Queneau, Aragon and Breton, and many documentary illustrations. A fine run.
Bruxelles (Éditions Variétés), 1928-1930. $3,500.00
Ades 9.75; Gershman p. 54; Admussen 229;
Biro/Passeron p. 422
154
VIEW
“Through the eyes of poets.” Charles Henri Ford, editor. Series I, No. 1 - Series VII, No. 3, October 1940 - Spring 1947 (all published), lacking two issues: Series I, Nos. 1 and 2. 30 physical issues. Prof. illus. Format varies: Series I in tabloid folio; Series II in sm. 4to.; Series III-VII in lrg. 4to. Series I in self-wraps.; Series II-VII in dec. wraps. Contributions by N. Calas, P. Tyler, W. Stevens, A. Breton, A. Masson, K. Seligmann, P. Mabille, J. Cornell, L. Carrington, R. Melville, H. Miller, H. and S. Janis, J. Levy, B. Péret, H. Rosenberg, C.H. Ford, W.C. Williams, Man Ray, K. Burke, L. Abel, D. de Rougement, and many others. Cover designs by Ernst, Tchelitchew, Tanguy, Seligmann, Ray, Masson, Calder, O’Keeffe, Léger, Francés, Duchamp, Lam, Hirschfeld, L. Kelly, Tunnard, Fini, Hélion, Noguchi and Magritte. Special issues are devoted to Surrealism, Ernst, Tchelitchew/Tanguy, “Vertigo,” “Americana Fantastica” (designed by Joseph Cornell), and Marcel Duchamp (designed by the artist).
“Among the many literary and art reviews which sprang up in the United States during the last war, it was certainly ‘View’ which--although never in any way an ‘official’ organ of the movement--provides the most striking evidence of the gradual penetration of American intellectual life by the ideas and themes of Surrealism” (Marcel Jean). “When Breton reached New York, he found ‘View,’ an avant-garde literary magazine edited by Charles-Henri Ford, most sympathetic to the surrealists. One of its regular contributors, Nicolas Calas, in particular, was to become a close friend of Breton, and edited the special surrealist number October/November 1941, which contained an interview with Breton by Charles-Henri Ford, and contributions by Masson, Georges Henein (from Cairo), Seligmann, Ernst (‘The Hundred Headless Woman’) and Benjamin Péret, and communications from surrealists in America and abroad. Breton was asked the memorable question, had he ever dreamed of Hitler, and then his impressions of New York, in which he reveals an interest in flora and especially in the butterflies of the surrounding countryside, rather than the skyscrapers of New York” (Ades).
Copies of the earliest issues in the first series are of great rarity; this set, lacking only Nos. 1-2, is remarkably near complete. It is also accompanied by three rare broadside numbers of “View Poets,” issued as supplements to the first series: No. 1 (Salvador Novo, Paul Eaton Reeve), No. 2 (Maurice Blanchard, Owen Dodson), and No. 4 (Huidobro, Merton,Chishom, Kuroda, et al).
New York, 1941-1947. $5,000.00
Ades pp. 375, 383ff.; Gershman p. 54; Rubin 482; Jean p, 318;
Reynolds p. 126
155
VVV
Poetry, plastic arts, anthropology, sociology, psychology. Editor: David Hare. Editorial advisers: André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst. Nos. 1-4 in 3 issues, June 1942 - February 1944 (all published). 72, 143, (1), 86, (6)pp. Prof. illus. (including color plates, movable tabs, inserts). 4to. Dec. wraps., designed by Ernst, Duchamp and Matta, respectively. Texts by W.C. Williams, Masson, Rosenberg, Péret, Ernst, Breton, Kiesler, Lévi-Strauss, Césaire, C.H. Ford, Seligmann, Carrington, V. Penrose, Onslow-Ford, Motherwell, Brauner, Tanning, Mesens and others; illustrations by and after Ernst, Hare, de Chirico, Masson, Matta, Matter, Onslow-Ford, Penn, Picasso, Seligmann, Tanguy, Breton, Chagall, Dominguez, Duchamp, Kiesler, Lam, Laughlin, Miró, Gypsy Rose Lee, Sage, Tanning, Sommer, et al. No. 2/3 is a 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). Dominated by the distinguished exile community which in the early ‘40s had begun to arrive in America, “VVV” was the major rallying point for Surrealism in New York. More substantial, and less eclectic, than “View,” it remains one of the strongest and finest of all Surrealist reviews.
In this set, No. 2/3 is a presentation copy, signed and inscribed in pen by Marcel Duchamp "pour Joseph Solomon" on the title-page. Expert conservation to a few small tears (one on back cover); an exceptionally fine, attractive set.
New York, 1942-1944. $8,500.00
Gershman p. 55; Ades p. 386f.; Milano p. 577f.; Biro/Passeron p. 426; Rubin 483; Reynolds p. 127; Jean (1980) 135
156
WEIDENMÜLLER, JOHANNES
“gesang vom werbe werk.” werbwalt weidenmüller. 59, (1)pp., including 2 full-page typographic abstractions. Sm. 4to. Dec. wraps. An advertising director and prolific graphic designer in Germany from the beginning of the century to the early 1930s, Johannes Weidenmüller (1881-1936) was the editor of the journal “Zur Werbe” and an instructor at the Humbolt-Hochschule in Berlin. The two full-page typographic abstractions in this publication--musings on publicity and design, and his most important book--derive from Dada, Constructivist and Futurist models, evoking Schwitters and Cangiullo. Very rare.
Berlin-Pankow, 1924. $800.00
157
(WRIGHT) Wendingen. Vol. VII, Nos. 2-9,
1925
The Life-Work of the American Architect Frank Lloyd Wright. With contributions by Frank Lloyd Wright, an introduction by architect H. Th. Wijdeveld, and many articles by famous European architects and American writers. 7 vols. 164, (86)pp., folded and Japanese-bound. 197 illus. Dec. title-page to the series designed by Wright, printed in red, grey and black, in the first issue. Folio. 330 mm. (13 inches) square. Dec. wraps., stitched with raffia, as issued. This series of seven special issues of “Wendingen” devoted to Frank Lloyd Wright was the first major publication of Wright’s work after the 1910 Wasmuth portfolio and Wasmuth’s 191l “Ausgeführte Bauten.” When completed, the series was also published in book form. The work was edited by Wijdeveld, who also designed the typesetting and the red, black and white cover design repeated on each number. The text includes articles by Wijdeveld, Wright himself (“In the Cause of Architecture,” “The Third Dimension,” and “To My European Co-workers”), Lewis Mumford, H.P. Berlage. J.J.P. Oud, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Erich Mendelsohn, and Louis H. Sullivan. The sections of advertisements for architects, craftsmen and manufacturers at the end of each issue, set in consistent Wijdeveld typography, offer an interesting European adjunct to the text, not included in the bound edition. Unobtrusive small marginal waterstain on first few leaves of the first two issues; a very fine, attractive set, rare thus, especially in the original parts.
Santpoort (C.A. Mees), 1925. $4,500.00
Sweeney 168; cf. Freitag 13730