World Food Books

Oeillades Ciselées en Branche
Hans Bellmer and Georges Hugnet

1939 / 1973, French
Softcover (w. lace-printed dust jacket), 26 pages, 13.4 x 9.5 cm
1st Facsimile Edition,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by GQ / Tokyo

$250.00 - Out of stock

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Super rare and mysterious 1973 reprint of the exceptionally rare 'Oeillades Ciselées en Branche' (1939), Hans Bellmer's (1902 – 1975) collaboration with fellow Surrealist Georges Hugnet (1906 – 1974), published in Paris by publisher Jeanne Bucher in an edition limited to 230 hand-numbered copies wrapped in lace paper. Although Bellmer had illustrated books before 'Oeillades Ciselées en Branche', those, such as the notoriously scarce 'Die Puppe' (1934) and the later French version 'La Poupée' (1936) were illustrated with original photographs, this was his very first illustrated book. Bellmer had worked as a draftsman for his own advertising agency and his technical virtuosity combined with his inspirational predilections produced a highly original body of illustration - here in heliogravure - for Hugnet's erotic text. In the words of Pierre Seghers, the poet and publisher, the text and illustration, as well as the design of the book, with its patterned lace over pink paper, combined to produce 'an absolutely perfect little book'. Hugnet was a French graphic artist, poet, writer, art historian, bookbinding designer, critic and film director and a figure in the Dada movement and Surrealism. This was his second book after the famous collage novel Le septième face du dé (1936). The text is a prose poem on the theme of young adolescent girls, articulated with the erotic images of Bellmer, whose extraordinary skill, inherited from the technical drawing of his engineering studies, perfectly serves this particular eroticism. 'Bellmer's color engravings, placed outside the text or using free spaces in the text, offer variations on the theme of the metamorphosis of the female body associated with that of the double. Disarticulated puppets or slender silhouettes with sometimes disproportionate limbs, young girls evolve slightly over the pages, drawn with spider-like finesse by Bellmer, one of the most successful of all. '

Lovingly reproduced here in limited offset-print on warm, fragile, soft paper stocks with delicate dust jacket lace over-prints, reproducing in simplified facsimile edition number "221" of the original 230. Published in Tokyo by the great 1970s GQ (Graphic Quarterly) periodical, their facsimile editions were widely regarded for their quality, and very collectible in their own right, usually only available to those on their mailing list. They were also official reproductions, permitted by their original publishers and authors. That said, there is little to no information anywhere about this particular 1973 edition, published shortly before the deaths of both artists.

Very Good copy.

File under: Hans Bellmer Georges Hugnet Georges Hugnet GQ / Tokyo Eros Surrealism Dada Fiction / Poetry Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Drawing Art Out-of-print / Rare

Dawn Ades : Writings on Art and Anti-Art

2015, English
Softcover (french-folds), 608 pages, 24 x 17 cm
Published by Ridinghouse / London

$65.00 - In stock -

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Art historian and curator Dawn Ades is a leading voice on Dada, Surrealism, abstraction and art from Latin America. Ades addresses themes fundamental to the history of modern art and the avant-garde, across time periods and art movements, from Europe to the Americas. She offers alternative readings and investigates the particular dynamics that affect the ways images and objects are produced, presented and received.

With topics ranging from close-up photography to the female subject in Mexico, and from automatism to photomontage, as well as monographic essays on artists such as Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp and Hannah Hoch, this collection explores major figures of the twentieth century as well as art beyond the canon. The selected writings are divided into sections that correspond to the overarching concerns of gender, identity, the impact of new mediums and the enduring significance of the materials of art.

File under: Jean Arp (Hans Arp) Brassaï Josef Albers Francis Bacon Karl Blossfeldt Claude Cahun Salvador Dali Richard Deacon Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Naum Gabo Georg Grosz John Heartfield Hannah Hoch Frida Kahlo Wilfredo Lam El Lissitzky Fernand Léger René Magritte Kasimir Malevich Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Joan Miro Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Henry Moore Eduardo Paolozzi Man Ray Diego Rivera Melanie Smith John Stezaker Salvador Dalí Dawn Ades Georges Bataille Andre Breton Doro Globus Ridinghouse / London Dada Surrealism Art Painting Sculpture / Installation Bauhaus Photography

Marcel Duchamp
By Robert Lebel

2022, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket in hard cloth-covered slipcase w. softcover supplement), 252 pages, 34 x 25 cm
Published by Hauser & Wirth / Zurich

$190.00 - In stock -

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Duchamp’s historic 1959 catalogue raisonné-cum-artist's book now back in print in a facsimile English edition. ‘Marcel Duchamp’ became the go-to book on the artist for many decades following its publication in late 1959, when exclusive grand-deluxe and deluxe editions in French, along with trade editions in French and English, were simultaneously released. While Trianon Press’s French trade edition was reprinted numerous times, the Grove Press English edition languished out of print for the better part of two generations—until now, with Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ fully authorized facsimile re-edition.

By Robert Lebel. Edited by Jean-Jacques Lebel and Association Marcel Duchamp. Foreword by Harald Falckenberg. Introduction by Michaela Unterdörfer. Text by Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Henri-Pierre Roché, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Man Ray, Michael Taylor.

Marcel Duchamp, the artist’s first legendary monograph and draft catalogue raisonné, was written by art historian and novelist Robert Lebel and published in French in 1959; later that same year, it was translated into English by George Heard Hamilton for Grove Press. The book was a cooperation between Lebel and Duchamp, and beyond Lebel’s extensive writing and bibliography, additional chapters were authored by Duchamp, H.P. Roché and André Breton. The coupling of these texts with diverse archival photographs and an illustrated compendium of Duchamp’s artworks delivered a complex and personal rendering of the artist’s life and inner circle. For the first time since its release more than 60 years ago, this landmark publication is back in circulation with Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ meticulous facsimile of the English edition, reflecting everything from its hand-tipped images to its recto-verso dust jacket appearing as close to the original as possible.

Fully authorized by artist Jean-Jacques Lebel—Robert Lebel’s son—and the Association Marcel Duchamp, the facsimile is accompanied by a supplement volume of essays and archival material that tells the story of Duchamp and Lebel’s close collaboration, and, as contributor Michael Taylor writes, how the original publication signified a "sea change in the artist’s receptivity to critical interpretation." The supplement includes texts by both Robert and Jean-Jacques Lebel and a newly discovered note by Man Ray, among a bevy of photographs from the Lebel and Duchamp archives, extending the story presented in the 1959 edition.

Robert Lebel’s analysis of Duchamp’s oeuvre remains fresh to this day, as does the book’s design, which was personally supervised by the artist. Hauser & Wirth Publishers reanimated Marcel Duchamp with the curatorial-design firm fluid, who recast the original typefaces as digital fonts, positioning each letter and image exactly as it was in the original. To achieve a near-exact facsimile, fluid consulted with paper conservators and printers to recreate the book with modern materials that match those available in 1959. This precise production quality assures that today’s readers will experience this historic book as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Lebel intended.

File under: Marcel Duchamp Man Ray Robert Lebel Jean-Jacques Lebel Harald Falckenberg Michaela Unterdörfer Marcel Duchamp André Breton Henri-Pierre Roché Man Ray Michael Taylor Hauser & Wirth / Zurich Surrealism Dada Sculpture / Installation Painting Conceptual Art Art Photography

Tristan Tzara : Approximate Man and Other Writings

2005, English
Softcover, 290 pages, 24 x 16 cm
Published by Black Widow Press / Boston

$40.00 - Out of stock

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'Approximate Man' & Other Writings, is the only English language source for Tzara's majestic and powerful epic poem "The Approximate Man" as well as an anthology of writings by legendary poet Tristan Tzara (1896-1963). It includes a critical introduction, an account of variants, and an essay by translator Mary Ann Caws setting the context for "Approximate Man." Originally published in 1973, this title has continued to be one of the true Tzara English language rarities, commanding a very high price, when a copy could be located at all.

Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement.

File under: Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara Mary Ann Caws Black Widow Press / Boston Dada Surrealism Fiction / Poetry Theory / Essay

Essential Poems and Writings of Robert Desnos : A Bilingual Anthology
by Robert Desnos

2007, English / French
Softcover, 400 pages, 23 x 16 cm
Published by Black Widow Press / Boston

$59.00 - Out of stock

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The most comprehensive anthology of the works of Robert Desnos ever assembled into the English language. Edited with a critical introduction and extensive analysis of works by Mary Ann Caws.
Translators include: Mary Ann Caws, Terry Hale, Bill Zavatsky, Martin Sorrell, Jonathan Eburne, Katherine Connelly, Patricia Terry, and Paul Auster.

Robert Desnos (1900-1945) was one of the primary poets and writers of the Surrealist movement of 1924-1930. He wrote, and collaboratively wrote, many influential and celebrated books. He died as a result of his internment. This title presents a comprehensive anthology of the writings of Desnos.

File under: Robert Desnos Mary Ann Caws Paul Auster Black Widow Press / Boston Surrealism Dada Fiction / Poetry

The Writings of Marcel Duchamp
by Marcel Duchamp; Edited by Elmer Peterson and Michel Sanouillet

1989, English
Softcover, 208 pages, 23 x 15.5 cm
Published by Da Capo Press / New York

$40.00 - Out of stock

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In the twenties, Surrealists proclaimed that words had stopped playing around and had begun to make love. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the writings of Marcel Duchamp, who fashioned some of the more joyous and ingenious couplings and uncouplings in modern art. This collection beings together two essential interviews and two statements about his art that underscore the serious side of Duchamp. But most of the book is made up of his experimental writings, which he called "Texticles," the long and extraordinary notes he wrote for The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Eben (also known as The Large Glass ), and the outrageous puns and alter-ego he constructed for his female self, Rrose Selavy ("Eros, c'est la vie" or arouser la vie", drink it up" celebrate life"). Wacky, perverse, deliberately frustrating, these entertaining notes are basic for understanding one of the twentieth century's most provocative artists, a figure whose influence on the contemporary scene has never been stronger.

File under: Marcel Duchamp Marcel Duchamp Da Capo Press / New York Art Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Dada Surrealism Sculpture / Installation Painting Drawing Conceptual Art

Broken Music

2019, English
Softcover (w. flexi-disc), 280 pages, 26 x 21 cm
Ed. of 2500,
Published by Primary Information / New York

$65.00 - Out of stock

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Broken Music is an essential compendium for records created by visual artists. The publication was edited by Ursula Block and Michael Glasmeier and originally published in 1989 by DAAD. Broken Music focuses on recordings, record-objects, artwork for records, and record installations made by thousands of artists between WWII and 1989.

It also includes essays by both editors as well as Theodor W. Adorno, René Block, Jean Dubuffet, Milan Knizak, László Moholy-Nagy, Christiane Seiffert, and Hans Rudolf Zeller, as well as a flexi disc of the Arditti Quartet performing Knizak’s “Broken Music.” The centerpiece of the publication is a nearly 200-page bibliography of artists’ records.

Works chosen for the publication revolved around four criteria: (1) record covers created as original work by visual artists; (2) record or sound-producing objects (multiples/editions/sculptures); (3) books and publications that contain a record or recorded-media object; and (4) records or recorded media that have sound by visual artists.

Artists documented in the volume include Vito Acconci, albrecht/d., Laurie Anderson, Guillaume Apollinaire, Karel Appel, Arman, Hans Arp, Antonin Artaud, John Baldessari, Hugo Ball, Claus van Bebber, John Bender, Harry Bertoia, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Claus Böhmler, Christian Boltanski, KP Brehmer, William Burroughs, John Cage, Henri Chopin, Henning Christiansen, Jean Cocteau, William Copley, Philip Corner, Merce Cunningham, Hanne Darboven, Jim Dine, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Fischli and Weiss, R. Buckminster Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Jack Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Bernard Heidsieck, Holger Hiller, Richard Huelsenbeck, Isidore Isou, Marcel Janco, Servie Janssen, Jasper Johns, Joe Jones, Thomas Kapielski, Allan Kaprow, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Cheri Knight, Milan Knizak, Richard Kriesche, Christina Kubisch, Laibach, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Annea Lockwood, Paul McCarthy, Meredith Monk, Josef Felix Müller, Piotr Nathan, Hermann Nitsch, Albert Oehlen, Frank O’Hara, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, A.R. Penck, Tom Phillips, Robert Rauschenberg, The Red Crayola, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Gerhard Richter, Jim Rosenquist, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Robert Rutman, Sarkis, Thomas Schmit, Conrad Schnitzler, Kurt Schwitters, Selten Gehörte Musik, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Keith Sonnier, Strafe für Rebellion, Jean Tinguely, Moniek Toebosch, Tristan Tzara, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, Emmett Walsh, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Lawrence Weiner.

Ursula Block is a curator living in Berlin, Germany. From 1981 until 2014, she ran gelbe Musik, a gallery and record shop in Berlin that featured work by artists at the crossroads between music and art.

Michael Glasmeier is a professor, writer, and editor living in Berlin, Germany. Since the early 1980s, he has curated dozens of shows that explore the intersection between the visual arts, music, film, and language.

File under: Vito Acconci albrecht/d. Laurie Anderson Karel Appel Arman Antonin Artaud John Baldessari Hugo Ball Claus van Bebber John Bender Harry Bertoia Jean-Pierre Bertrand Joseph Beuys Mel Bochner Claus Böhmler Christian Boltanski John Cage Henri Chopin Henning Christiansen Jean Cocteau William Copley Philip Corner Merce Cunningham Hanne Darboven Jim Dine Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Lawrence Ferlinghetti Buckminster Fuller Fischli & Weiss Peter Fischli Peter Fischli & David Weiss David Weiss Allen Ginsberg Philip Glass Jack Goldstein Peter Gordon Hans Haacke Richard Hamilton Bernard Heidsieck Holger Hiller Richard Huelsenbeck Isidore Isou Marcel Janco Servie Janssen Jasper Johns Joe Jones Thomas Kapielski Allan Kaprow Martin Kippenberger Per Kirkeby Cheri Knight Milan Knizak Richard Kriesche Christina Kubisch Laibach John Lennon Sol Lewitt Roy Lichtenstein Annea Lockwood Paul McCarthy Meredith Monk Josef Felix Müller Piotr Nathan Hermann Nitsch Albert Oehlen Frank O’Hara Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Dennis Oppenheim Nam June Paik Charlemagne Palestine A.R. Penck Tom Phillips Robert Rauschenberg The Red Crayola Ursula Reuter Christiansen Gerhard Richter Jim Rosenquist Dieter Roth Gerhard Rühm Robert Rutman Sarkis Thomas Schmit Conrad Schnitzler Kurt Schwitters Selten Gehörte Musik Richard Serra Robert Smithson Michael Snow Keith Sonnier Strafe für Rebellion Jean Tinguely Moniek Toebosch Tristan Tzara Ben Vautier Yoshi Wada Emmett Walsh Andy Warhol William Wegman Lawrence Weiner Jean Arp (Hans Arp) K. P. Brehmer William S. Burroughs Ursula Block Michael Glasmeier Theodor W. Adorno René Block Jean Dubuffet Milan Knizak László Moholy-Nagy Christiane Seiffert Hans Rudolf Zeller Guillaume Apollinaire William S. Burroughs Primary Information / New York Art Sound / Music Fluxus Conceptual Art Dada Arte Povera Counterculture Bauhaus Performance / Dance / Theater Minimal Art Pop Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Curatorial Group Shows / Collections Objects / Ephemera / A/V

Night Vision No. 13 (Surrealism)

1984, Japanese
Softcover, 224 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Night Vision / Japan

$55.00 - Out of stock

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First 1984 edition of cult Japanese underground magazine Night Vision, a special edition dedicated to Surrealism. Packed with content, including many important Surrealist texts translated to Japanese, this heavily illustrated book includes features on Hans Bellmer and Unica Zürn, Yves Tanguy, Remedios Varo, Max Ernst, Belgian Surrealism, female Surrealist artists and poets (Remedios Varo, Mimi Parent, Valentine Penrose, Gisèle Prassinos, Dorothea Tanning, Bona de Mandiargues, Isabelle Walberg, Lise Deharme, Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, Aube Elléouët, Jane Graverol, Nelly Kaplan (Belen), Joyce Mansour, Nora Mitrani, Unica Zürn, Valentine Hugo, Marianne Van Hirtum, Leonora Fini, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Kay Sage, Toyen, Annie Le Brun, Meret Oppenheim), Latin American Surrealism and Frida Kahlo-Diego Rivera, Surrealist literature and activities (Artaud, Picabia, Apollinaire, Bataille, Duchamp, Satie, Breton, etc.) plus much more, text contributions by Georges Bataille, Paul Eluard, Midori Wakakuwa, Kuniharu Akiyama, Takashi Tanyuya, Shigeo Goto, Takahiko Okada, Octavio Paz, André Breton, Kunio Iwaya, Gonzalo Cerorio, Yuichi Konno, Satoshi Takamura, and much more. Illustrated in b/w throughout (with many more artists than mentioned above) in that great Night Vision semi-fanzine/cheap reader quality.

Very Good - Fine copy.

File under: Remedios Varo Dorothea Tanning Leonora Carrington René Magritte Unica Zürn Hans Bellmer Erik Satie Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Francis Picabia Yves Tanguy Man Ray Victor Brauner Joan Miro Andre Masson Claude Cahun Salvador Dali Toyen Meret Oppenheim Bona (Bona de Mandiargues) Mimi Parent Valentine Penrose Gisèle Prassinos Isabelle Walberg Dora Maar Jane Graverol Valentine Hugo Kay Sage Aline Gagnaire Aube Elléouët Paul Eluard Octavio Paz Midori Wakakuwa Kuniharu Akiyama Takashi Tanyuya Shigeo Goto Takahiko Okada André Breton Kunio Iwaya Gonzalo Cerorio Yuichi Konno Satoshi Takamura Erik Satie Antonin Artaud Francis Picabia Guillaume Apollinaire Octabio Paz Valentine Penrose Gisèle Prassinos Lise Deharme Joyce Mansour Nora Mitrani Marianne Van Hirtum Annie Le Brun Georges Bataille Night Vision / Japan Photography Surrealism Dada Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Painting Fiction / Poetry Art Drawing

Explosion! : Painting as Action

2012, English / Swedish
Softcover, 224 pages, 28 x 21.7cm
Published by Walther König / Köln

$68.00 - Out of stock

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In the years following the Second World War, artists across the world began to attack the most basic premises of painting, in ways that were both aggressive and playful. The creative act itself was deemed as important as the painting that resulted from it, creating an energetic interzone between painting and performance in which chance procedures, the movement of bodies and the participation of spectators were all recruited as tools.

Explosion! Painting as Action explores the connections and cross fertilizations between painting, performance and conceptual art from the late 1940s to the present. Examining painting, photography, video, performance, dance and sound art, this volume includes works by Lynda Benglis, Niki de Saint Phalle, Cai Guo-Qiang, the Gutai Group, Allan Kaprow, Yves Klein, Alison Knowles, Ana Mendieta, Rivane Neuenschwander, Yoko Ono, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Carolee Schneemann, Shozo Shimamoto, Lawrence Weiner and many others.

File under: Adel Abdessemed Allan Kaprow Andy Warhol Bruce Nauman Cai Guo-Qiang Ceal Floyer Francis Alÿs George Brecht Jackson Pollock Jean Tinguely John Baldessari John Cage Jutta Koether Lawrence Weiner Niki de Saint-Phalle Paul McCarthy Robert Rauschenberg Tony Conrad Yoko Ono Yves Klein Rivane Neuenschwander Carolee Schneemann Shozo Shimamoto Gutai Atsuko Tanaka Simone Forti Ann-Sofi Noring Daniel Birnbaum Julia Robinson Ming Tiampo Walther König / Köln Art Arte Povera Dada Fluxus Minimal Art Painting Pop Art Performance / Dance / Theater Group Shows / Collections

Max Ernst
Paris 1975

1975, French
Softcover, 170 pages, 27 x 21cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Galeries Nationales du Grand-Palais / Paris

$55.00 - Out of stock

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First printing of this comprehensive and profusely illustrated catalogue produced to accompany the survey major exhibition of the work of German artist Max Ernst, at Galeries Nationales du Grand-Palais, in Paris in 1975.

Designed in landscape form, this curious and very generous catalogue is illustrated throughout with colour and black and white reproductions of Ernst's paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages, frottage, graphics, etchings, etc., running chronologically and featuring columns of autobiographical testimonies and theoretical writings of Max Ernst, memories of friends, poetry, reflections, and correspondences with other artists, their dedicated artworks/portraits, writings by critics, writers or other artists (Tristan Tzara, Hans Bellmer, Robert Motherwell, Hans Arp, Paul Eluard, Patrick Waldberg, Benjamin Péret, André Breton, Louis Aragon, Robert Lebel, Dorothea Tanning, Hans Richter, Georges Bataille, Herny Miler, and many others), etc. set in parallel, relating to reproductions of his work, social photographs, and other imagery. Also features a bibliography, list of works, and texts by Werner Spies and others. Still one of the best catalogues on the artist. All texts are in their original French.

Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism.

Rubbed covers otherwise Very Good throughout.

File under: Dorothea Tanning Hans Richter Max Ernst Jean Arp (Hans Arp) Robert Motherwell Hans Bellmer Andre Breton Louis Aragon Paul Eluard Tristan Tzara Werner Spies Georges Bataille Patrick Waldberg Benjamin Péret Henry Miller Galeries Nationales du Grand-Palais / Paris Art Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Surrealism Painting Dada Drawing

Man Ray
Objets de mon affection

1983, French / English
Hardcover (clothbound, w. dust jacket), 192 pages, 30.4 x 21.3 cm
Published by Philippe Sers Éditeur / Paris

$420.00 - Out of stock

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Man Ray "Objets de Mon Affection" is the original and only Catalogue Raisonné of Man Ray's sculptures and objects.

"The Object of my affection
Is to change complexion
From Pink, to rosey red...

popular American song."

"In whatever form it is finally presented: by a drawing, by a painting, by a photograph, or by the object itself in its original dimensions, it is designed to amuse, bewilder, annoy or to inspire reflection, but not to arouse admiration for any technical exellcence usually sought in other works of art." (Hollywood, September, 1944) - Man Ray

Wonderful first printing of this truly magnificent and very collectable Man Ray book. "Objets de Mon Affection" was first published in 1983 by Philippe Sers Éditeur, Paris. The book is page after page of Man Ray's objects, sculptures, assemblages, readymades. Amongst the well-known objects in here are countless reproductions of never before published sculptural works. This book includes a Catalogue Raisonné of Man Rays magnificent, poetic, humorous and provocative objects, alongside hand-written captions, reflections/anecdotes by Man Ray in English and French, and accompanying texts (in French) by Jean-Hubert Martin, Rosalind Krauss, and Brigitte Hermann. Also includes photography of exhibitions held by Man Ray, as well as domestic displays and studios documentation of his many objects. A really fantastic book, all wrapped up in bright pink cloth covers and dust-jacket - recommended to any fan of Man Ray's work.

Condition: Good/Very Good (in original dust jacket protected under plastic, book clean and tight throughout, dust jacket some crackling of original plastic paper coating, otherwise also very good) – All care is taken to provide accurate condition details of used books, photos available on request.

File under: Man Ray Brigitte Hermann Jean-Hubert Martin Man Ray Rosalind E. Krauss Philippe Sers Éditeur / Paris Art Dada Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Surrealism Photography

Visionary Film : The American Avant-Garde
by P. Adams Sitney

1974, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 452 pages, 23.5 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Oxford University Press / New York

$90.00 - Out of stock

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First hardcover edition of the legendary Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde by P. Adams Sitney, published by Oxford University Press in 1974.

Critics hailed Visionary Film as the most complete work written on the exciting, often puzzling, and always controversial genre of American avant-garde film. This book has remained the standard text on American avant-garde film since the publication of its first edition in 1974. "Without question it is the first such book on the avant-garde film - the first one that probes this field in such depth, with such perspective and vision, with such insight and intelligence." - Jonas Mekas, The Village Voice

From the book jacket:
The first book to provide a coherent view of the avant-garde film tradition in America, this is also the first book to assess in depth the work of the major film-makers in this tradition. Twenty-four film-makers are fully discussed and many films of each are analyzed, including Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon, Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising, Jonas Mekas's Diaries, Notes, and Sketches, Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man, Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures, and Michael Snow's Wavelength. Liberal use of original and previously unpublished documents and statements by the film-makers themselves shows the theoretical contributions of these film-makers to the general theory of film and adds richness and weight to the study. Sixty-six still photographs from films further enhance the value of the text.
P. Adams Sitney's approach is historical as well as analytical. He relates the avant~garde film tradition to a larger native American tradition encompassing all the arts: that of visionary romanticism. He also connects it to the European avant-garde film of the 1920s, seeing the origin and development of a subjective cinema (and the forms it generates) in the kind of responses that the independent film-makers of the late 1940s made to their Dadaist and Surrealist sources. Sitney shows that far from being a chaos of different styles, the American avant-garde film tradition consists of an ordered progression of types: the 'trance' film, the 'mythopoeic' film, the 'graphic' film, the 'lyrical' film, the 'diary' film, and the 'structural' film. With hundreds of independent films being made each year, with the increased acceptance of avant-garde films by the nation's film archives and the academic community, the need for this kind of study has long been felt. It is sure to be widely read and discussed.

About the author:
P. Adams Sitney is Co-Director of the Anthology Film Archives in New York City and teaches cinema at New York University. He has also lectured extensively on film at museums of modern art, universities, and cinematheques in Europe and in South America. An editor of Film Culture magazine, he is the editor of the Film Culture Reader.

Chapters: 1. Meshes of the Afternoon 2. Ritual and Nature 3. The Potted Psalm 4. The Magus 5. From Trance to Myth 6. The Lyrical Film 7. Major Mythopoeia 8. Absolute Animation 9. The Graphic Cinema: European Perspectives 10. Apocalypses and Picaresques 11. Recovered Innocence 12. Structural Film 13. Notes 14. Index

File under: Maya Deren Kenneth Anger Jonas Mekas Jack Smith Stan Brakhage Michael Snow P. Adams Sitney Oxford University Press / New York Film / Video Out-of-print / Rare Eros Surrealism Dada Art Theory / Essay

Bildwerke und Objekte : Neuzugänge seit 1965

1973, German
Softcover, 138 pages, 24 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Wallraf-Richartz-Museum / Cologne

$40.00 - Out of stock

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Lovely catalogue published by Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Köln, in 1973 to document the museums extensive collection of international contemporary sculpture. Profusely illustrated in black and white with the works of Jean Arp, Paul Thek, Nancy Graves, John Chamberlain, Larry Bell, Carl Andre, Christo, Eva Hesse, Joachim Bandau, Jacques Lipchitz, Louise Nevelson, Joseph Cornell, Jean Dubuffet, Germaine Richier, Schöffer, Bernard Schultze, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Ursula (Schultze-Bluhm), John Tweed, Franz Erhard Walther, Hanns Gasser, Merdardo Rosso, Joseph Beuys, Günter Haese, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Jesús Rafael Soto, Richard Tuttle, Helmut Moos, Bruce Nauman, Ansgar Nierhoff, Jim Dine, Gary Indiana, Karl Zeno Rudolf Schadow, Julio Le Parc, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, G. F. Ris, George Segal, Nicolas Schöffer, Anthony Caro, Eduardo Paolozzi, Jean Tinguely, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Arman, Claes Oldenburg, Marisol Escobar, Niki Saint-Phalle, Daniel Spoerri, Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, Wolf Vostell, Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, Pol Bury, Erwin Heerich, Horst-Egon Kalinowski, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff, Johann Gottfried Schadow, Honoré Daumier, Gasser, Adolf von Hildebrand, Max Klinger, Rosso, Aristide Maillol, Tweed, Julio González, Pablo Picasso, Henri Laurens, and many more... Texts in German.

Very Good copy.

File under: Jean Arp (Hans Arp) Paul Thek Nancy Graves John Chamberlain Larry Bell Carl Andre Christo Eva Hesse Joachim Bandau Jacques Lipchitz Louise Nevelson Joseph Cornell Jean Dubuffet Germaine Richier Schöffer Bernard Schultze Carlos Cruz-Diez Ursula (Schultze-Bluhm) John Tweed Franz Erhard Walther Hanns Gasser Merdardo Rosso Joseph Beuys Günter Haese Roy Lichtenstein Richard Serra Keith Sonnier Jesus Raphael Soto Richard Tuttle Helmut Moos Bruce Nauman Marisol Robert Rauschenberg Ansgar Nierhoff Karl Zeno Rudolf Schadow Julio Le Parc Jim Dine Gary Indiana Eduardo Paolozzi Arman Anthony Caro George Segal Man Ray Nicolas Schoffer Claes Oldenburg Jean Tinguely G. F. Ris Arnaldo Pomodoro Daniel Spoerri Heinz Mack Wolf Vostell Miguel Ortiz Berrocal Pol Bury Erwin Heerich Horst-Egon Kalinowski Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff Johann Gottfried Schadow Honoré Daumier Gasser Adolf von Hildebrand Max Klinger Rosso Aristide Maillol Pablo Picasso Henri Laurens Günter Uecker Niki de Saint-Phalle Julio Gonzalez Wallraf-Richartz-Museum / Cologne Art Sculpture / Installation Conceptual Art Group Shows / Collections Minimal Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Out-of-print / Rare Fluxus Dada

Conceptual Art In A Curatorial Perspective: Between Dematerialization And Documentation
by Nathalie Zonnenberg

2019, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 17 x 24 cm
Published by Valiz / Amsterdam

$58.00 - Out of stock

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Conceptual Art in a Curatorial Perspective: Between Dematerialization and Documentation focuses on the curatorial practice of exhibiting conceptual art. The fact that conceptual works are not object-based, creates challenges in exhibiting or re-exhibiting them. This book offers various perspectives on how to handle conceptual art in the context of the museum, based on three detailed case studies and an extensive introduction in which the paradox of conceptual art is analyzed. It also elaborates on the history of exhibiting conceptual artworks, and on the influence of curators in their canonization.
The aim of the book is not to offer clear-cut practical solutions, but to raise awareness of the issue and the different ways of dealing with it within the traditional curatorial field. It is relevant for students of art and culture (particularly in museum and curatorial studies), art and museum professionals, and everyone interested in the art of the 1960s and 1970s.

Nathalie Zonnenberg is an art historian and curator. She holds a PhD in Art History from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (NL). Zonnenberg regularly writes on contemporary art, and she lectures at the post-graduate Curatorial Studies programme at KASK/the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (BE).

File under: Robert Morris Douglas Huebler Sol LeWitt Stanley Brouwn Markus Raetz Robert Ryman Adrian Piper Charlotte Posenenske Richard Tuttle Niele Toroni Michael Snow Sarkis Reiner Ruthenbeck Keith Sonnier Sherrie Levine John Latham El Lissitzky Richard Long Gordon Matta-Clark Piero Manzoni Brice Marden Bruce McLean Mario Merz Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Pino Pascali Barry Flanagan Dan Flavin Lucio Fontana Piero Gilardi Eva Hesse Joseph Kosuth Jannis Kounellis Barbara Kruger Richard Prince On Kawara Jo Ann Kaplan Rem Koolhaas Robert Filliou Robert Barry Alighiero Boetti Daniel Buren Victor Burgin Joseph Beuys Hanne Darboven Maria Eichhorn Jan Dibbets Marcel Duchamp Lynda Benglis John Baldessari Bernd and Hilla Becher Gilbert & George László Moholy-Nagy Michelangelo Pistoletto Valiz / Amsterdam Theory / Essay Curatorial Conceptual Art Arte Povera Fluxus Dada Minimal Art Group Shows / Collections

Man Ray
Photographies de Man Ray

2002, Japanese
Softcover, 307 pages, 259 x 180 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tokyo Shimbun / Tokyo

$100.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of this scarce, visually generous Japanese catalogue that takes a deep look into the photographic work of Man Ray. Published on the occasion the exhbition 'Photographies de Man Ray' that opened at the Bunkamura Museum and then traveled to three other museums in Japan in 2002-03. Densely packed with 559 beautifully reproduced photographs, the well known and the seldom seen, catalogued into major subjects, often thematically sequenced. From his prolific, experimental portraiture, nudes, fashion, still-life, landscapes, and work within the Surrealist and Dada movements, this heavy volume provides an exhaustive study of this great photographer. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called "rayographs," and many other experimental processes he brought into the photographic studio, all featured herein. Includes an illustrated biography, bibliography, catalogue listing and texts in Japanese and French.

Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Man Ray was a renowned representative of avant-garde photography in the 20th century and is considered as the pioneer of Surrealist photography. A major contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media including drawings, objects and films, but considered himself a painter above all. one of the most significant contributors to the Dada and Surrealist movements, and to modern art in general.

Very Good-Fine copy.

File under: Man Ray Marcel Duchamp Tokyo Shimbun / Tokyo Art Dada Out-of-print / Rare Photography Surrealism Eros

Max Ernst

1971, French
Softcover, 48 pages, 22 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Orangerie des Tuileries / Paris

$35.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of this lovely, simple catalogue published in 1971 on the occasion of Max Ernst's 80th anniversary exhibition at Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris. 40 works illustrated in b/w with some colour. Full catalogue of exhibited works.

Good copy. Some age spotting to both covers, otherwise very good throughout.

File under: Max Ernst Orangerie des Tuileries / Paris Art Painting Drawing Dada Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare

Liquidation World : On the Art of Living Absently
By Alexi Kukuljevic

2017, English
Softcover, 152 pages, 15.2 x 22.9 cm
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$44.00 $10.00 - Out of stock

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In Liquidation World, Alexi Kukuljevic examines a distinctive form of subjectivity animating the avant-garde: that of the darkly humorous and utterly disoriented subject of modernity, a dissolute figure that makes an art of its own vacancy, an object of its absence. Shorn of the truly rotten illusion that the world is a fulfilling and meaningful place, these subjects identify themselves by a paradoxical disidentification—through the objects that take their places. They have mastered the art of living absently, of making something with nothing. Traversing their own morbid obsessions, they substitute the nonsensical for sense, the ridiculous for the meaningful.

Kukuljevic analyzes a series of artistic practices that illuminate this subjectivity, ranging from Marcel Duchamp’s Three Standard Stoppages to Charles Baudelaire’s melancholia. He considers the paradox of Duchamp’s apparatus in the Stoppages and the strange comedy of Marcel Broodthaers’s relation to the readymade; the comic subject in Jacques Vaché and the ridiculous subject in Alfred Jarry; the nihilist in Paul Valéry’s Monsieur Teste; Oswald Wiener’s interpretation of the dandy; and Charles Baudelaire as a happy melancholic. Along the way, he also touches on the work of Thomas Bernhard, Andy Kaufman, Buster Keaton, and others. Finally, he offers an extended analysis of Danny’s escape from his demented father in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Each of these subjects is, in Freud’s terms, sick—sick in the specific sense that they assume the absence of meaning and the liquidation of value in the world. They concern themselves with art, without assuming its value or meaning. Utterly debased, fundamentally disoriented, they take the void as their medium.

Alexi Kukuljevic is an artist and Lecturer in Art Theory at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

“With exuberantly mordant humor, Alexi Kukuljevic leads us to that place—Liquidation World—where we already are. This world turns out to be an atopia in which dissolute impersonators, caught between the first and third person, never find themselves a second, and where the epitome of happiness is to make oneself an object of absence from melancholic despair. It’s not so much that everything must go—just that everything does go. And, when it does, so do we. But we don’t go well. Thankfully, Kukuljevic is here to show us the pistols and the ropes.”
—Justin Clemens, Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne; author of Psychoanalysis is an Antiphilosophy

“Liquidation World is a shockingly clever but very kind book, treating its readers as well as its clumsy, incomplete, damaged, but well-meaning subjects as partners in a series of arty, thoughtful adventures in humor and absence. Embracing innumerable paradoxes, Kukuljevic nevertheless steers a steely course through ridiculousnesses of all kinds. It is the rigor of the madhouse, and what absurd fun.”
—Nina Power, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Roehampton; author of One Dimensional Woman

File under: Marcel Duchamp Marcel Broodthaers Isa Genzken Alfred Jarry Alexi Kukuljevic The MIT Press / Massachusetts Theory / Essay Art Dada Film / Video SALE

Le Surréalisme

2011, Japanese / French
Softcover (w. printed plastic jacket over reflective cover), 296 pages
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by National Art Centre / Tokyo

$90.00 - Out of stock

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First printing of this great exhibition catalogue from the National Art Centre Tokyo via Centre Pompidou Paris, on occasion of the most comprehensive Surrealist exhibition ever staged in Japan, “Le Surrealism: Exposition organisee par Le Pompidou a partir de sa Collection” at The National Art Center, Tokyo in 2011.

Housed in mirrored cover and profusely illustrated in colour with the work of André Breton, Victor Brauner, Rene Magritte, Joan Miro, Andre Masson, Francis Picabia, Claude Cahun, Hans Bellmer, Dorothea Tanning, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Toyen, Guilaume Apollinaire, Meret Oppenheim, Luis Buñuel, Jindrich Heisler, Andre Masson, Yves Tanguy, Alberto Giacometti, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, Giorgio de Chirico, Wilhelm Freddie, and many others, alongside comprehensive documentation of major historical Surrealist exhibitions and documents/publications.

Very Good copy.

File under: André Masson Dorothea Tanning Francis Picabia Giorgio de Chirico Hans Bellmer Jean Arp (Hans Arp) Joan Miro Luis Buñuel Man Ray Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Meret Oppenheim René Magritte Salvador Dalí Yves Tanguy Toyen Victor Brauner Jindrich Heisler Andre Masson Alberto Giacometti Claude Cahun Wilhelm Freddie Andre Breton Guillaume Apollinaire Benjamin Péret National Art Centre / Tokyo Art Dada Fiction / Poetry Out-of-print / Rare Photography Poetry Surrealism Painting

Dada

1968, Japanese / German
Softcover, 80 pages, 21 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Goethe-Instituts / Japan Staalichen Museums für Moderne Kunst / Tokyo

$70.00 - Out of stock

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1st pinting of this publication on Dada, published in Japan in 1968. Features the work of Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, George Grosz, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Josef Albers, Hans Richter, Hans Arp, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Peter Agostini, Jean Tinguely, Karl Gerstner, and more reproduced alongside a collaged history of Dada across the globe (New York, Zürich, Cologne, Italy, Paris, Berlin, Hannover) w. reproductions of texts, illustrations, publications and ephemera.

Very Good copy.

File under: Francis Picabia George Grosz Hannah Höch Hans Richter Jean Tinguely John Heartfield Josef Albers Karl Gerstner Kurt Schwitters Man Ray Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Peter Agostini Raoul Hausmann Sophie Taeuber-Arp Jean Arp (Hans Arp) Goethe-Instituts / Japan Staalichen Museums für Moderne Kunst / Tokyo Art Dada Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Painting Fiction / Poetry Group Shows / Collections

Medium Fotografie
Fotoarbeiten bildender Künstler von 1910 bis 1973

1974, German
Softcover, 169 page, 20 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Städtisches Museum / Leverkusen

$65.00 $45.00 - In stock -

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"Medium Fotografie" was published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name held at Städtisches Museum, Leverkusen, 18 May - 5 August 1973.
Foreword by Rolf Wedewer; Artists featured include Herbert Bayer, Hans Bellmer, Anton Giulio, Marcel Duchamp, Theodor Fraenkel, Hannah Höch, Layos Kalsas, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, George Mucha, Man Ray, Luigi Veronesi, Stuart Wiese, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Hamish Fulton, Christoph Kohlhöfer, Ingrid Kohlhöfer, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Tristan Tzara, El Lissitzky, John Heartfield, Raoul Hausmann, Jörg Immendorff, A.R. Penck, Edward Ruscha, Pablo Picasso,Gilbert & George, Walter de Maria, and many more. Heavily illustrated throughout, texts in German.

File under: A.R. Penck Herbert Bayer Hans Bellmer Anton Giulio Marcel Duchamp Theodor Fraenkel Hannah Höch Layos Kalsas George Mucha Man Ray Luigi Veronesi Stuart Wiese Christian Boltanski Marcel Broodthaers Hamish Fulton Ingrid Kohlhöfer Sigmar Polke Gerhard Richter Johannes Theodor Baargeld Tristan Tzara El Lissitzky John Heartfield Raoul Hausmann Jörg Immendorff Edward Ruscha Pablo Picasso Walter de Maria Gilbert & George László Moholy-Nagy Christof Kohlhofer Rolf Wedewer Städtisches Museum / Leverkusen Photography Art Group Shows / Collections Dada Conceptual Art Out-of-print / Rare Surrealism

Anicet Or The Panorama : A Dadaist Novel
by Louis Aragon

2018, English
Hardcover, 210 pages, 17.6 x 19.8 cm
Published by Atlas Press / London

$55.00 - In stock -

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This novel, much of it written amidst the horror of the trenches when Louis Aragon was a medical orderly during the First World War, demonstrates the chasm that separates the works of the artists and writers of what would become Dadaism and those, say, of the English war poets.

In a world of moral destitution beyond any rational forbearance, what can remain? How can one write at all, let alone something as absurd as a novel? Anicet or the Panorama is both a roman à clef (Aragon’s friends, including André Breton, are recognisable) and a novel of the total liquidation of a culture that had allowed this to come to pass: even literary heroes must be confronted and superseded. As fast-paced, funny and surprising as a Hollywood silent movie, its narrative of fabulous crimes and scandals sweeps through a panorama of Parisian society as its protagonist Anicet becomes subordinated to the mysterious Mire, a woman who is the incarnation of “modern beauty”. Anicet is seduced into a life of crime, which he accepts with nonchalance and an ironic integrity that he maintains to the bitter end of his journey of self-immolation.

Aragon’s precisely crafted and sardonic prose reveals a world that is no more than a tragic puppet show, with every scene self-evidently staged. This furious tempest of a book launched Aragon’s career and is one of the cornerstones of the Paris Dada movement. Despite the fact that he went on to become one of the most prolific and influential French writers of the twentieth century, it is not at all unreasonable to consider this book to be his greatest work.

Translated and introduced by Antony Melville, and the runner-up to the 2017 Scott-Moncrieff Translation Prize.

File under: Louis Aragon Atlas Press / London Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Dada Fiction / Poetry

Some Poems of Mallarmé

1936, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 308 pages, 21 x 14 cm
1st UK Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Chatto & Windus / London

$200.00 - In stock -

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Very rare first English edition of Some Poems of Mallarmé, published in 1936 by Chatto & Windus, London. This hardcover (blue cloth with gilt lettering) presents for the first time the excellent translations by Roger Fry, with commentaries by French translator and critic Charles Mauron and features the very uncommon dust jacket illustrated by English painter, interior designer, sister of Virginia Woolf and member of the Bloomsbury Group, Vanessa Bell, printed in Great Britain by T. & A. Constable Ltd. at the University Press, Edinburgh. Bilingual with original French and translated English on facing pages.

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842 – 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism.

Good copy (still tightly bound w. light discolouring to edges from age), in Fair dust jacket (w. some browning and brittled with age/chips to jacket).

File under: Stéphane Mallarmé Charles Mauron Roger Fry Chatto & Windus / London Fiction / Poetry Out-of-print / Rare Dada Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Marcel Duchamp
Étant donnés (AFTERALL BOOKS: ONE WORK SERIES)

2010, English
Softcover, 112 pages, 15.2 x 21.6 cm
Published by Afterall / London The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$49.00 - Out of stock

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Duchamp's famous last artwork, seen not as a summation of his work but as an invitation to endless interpretation.

Following Marcel Duchamp's death in 1968, the Philadelphia Museum of Art stunned the art world by unveiling a project on which he had been working secretly for twenty years, long after he had supposedly given up art for chess. Installed by the museum curators with the assistance of Duchamp's widow Teeny and stepson Paul Matisse, Étant donnés (known in English as Given, or, literally, “being given”) consists of a small room with a locked wooden door; through a peephole can be seen a landscape of trees, with a naked female figure at the front, her arm outstretched, holding a lamp. In this illustrated study, Julian Haladyn argues that Duchamp's intention in this final piece was similar to Raymond Roussel's in How I Wrote Certain of My Books: not, as many have maintained, to provide a neat summation of his career, but the opposite—to open his artwork (which he had made sure was fully represented in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's collection) to endless interpretation and reinterpretation. Duchamp's engagement with his legacy (by orchestrating first the purchase of his work and then the donation of those purchases to the museum) is a significant historical development in the critical relationship between artists and the institution of art—a relationship that would later be further explored by such artists as Andrea Fraser and Michael Asher. Additionally, Haladyn sees that the staging of Étant donnés—especially the way that Duchamp forces viewers to become aware of the act of looking and their bodily presence in the gallery space—foreshadowed strategies used by Minimalism as well as installation, spectatorship, and institutional critique.

About the author:
Julian Jason Haladyn is a writer and artist based in Canada. He teaches at the University of Western Ontario.

File under: Marcel Duchamp Julian Jason Haladyn Afterall / London The MIT Press / Massachusetts Art Dada Surrealism Theory / Essay Sculpture / Installation Painting

The Artwork Caught by the Tail : Francis Picabia and Dada in Paris
by George Baker

2010, English
Softcover, 496 pages, 18 x 22 cm
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$84.00 - In stock -

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The artist Francis Picabia -- notorious dandy, bon vivant, painter, poet, filmmaker, and polemicist -- has emerged as the Dadaist with postmodern appeal, and one of the most enigmatic forces behind the enigma that was Dada.

In this first book in English to focus on Picabia's work in Paris during the Dada years, art historian and critic George Baker reimagines Dada through Picabia's eyes. Such reimagining involves a new account of the readymade -- Marcel Duchamp's anti-art invention, which opened fine art to mass culture and the commodity. But in Picabia's hands, Baker argues, the Dada readymade aimed to reinvent art rather than destroy it. Picabia's readymade opened art not just to the commodity, but to the larger world from which the commodity stems: the fluid sea of capital and money that transforms all objects and experiences in its wake. The book thus tells the story of a set of newly transformed artistic practices, claiming them for art history -- and naming them -- for the first time: Dada Drawing, Dada Painting, Dada Photography, Dada Abstraction, Dada Cinema, Dada Montage. Along the way, Baker describes a series of nearly forgotten objects and events, from the almost lunatic range of the Paris Dada "manifestations" to Picabia's polemical writings; from a lost work by Picabia in the form of a hole (called, suggestively, The Young Girl) to his "painting" Cacodylic Eye, covered in autographs by luminaries ranging from Ezra Pound to Fatty Arbuckle. Baker ends with readymades in prose: a vast interweaving of citations and quotations that converge to create a heated conversation among Picabia, Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara, James Joyce, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and others. Art history has never looked like this before. But then again, Dada has never looked like art history.

George Baker is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an editor at October magazine and October Books. He is the editor of James Coleman (MIT Press) and a frequent contributor to Artforum.

File under: Francis Picabia Man Ray Marcel Duchamp Tristan Tzara George Baker The MIT Press / Massachusetts Art Dada Fiction / Poetry Painting Poetry Surrealism Theory / Essay Drawing