EPHEMERA - Unoriginal Sins

18 Apr DESCRIPTION DES 34 REGLES ET TECHNIQUES UTILISEES EN JUIN 1972 PAR UN ENFANT DE 9 ANS. 1974.

Posted at 09:03h in EPHEMERA

Paris: Galerie Sonnabend, 1974
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp typographic announcement card for Boltanski's twenty-first first solo show and the third at Sonnabend. The work displayed were photographs of the artist pretending to be a nine year old boy and reliving (supposed) memories from his past. This is a mailed copy to M. Berg sent to the latter from Boltanski with handwritten address.
The artist's book of the same title had recently been published by Berg Verlag in Copenhagen - which was M. Berg's own imprint and a book he had commissioned from Boltanski. VG+.

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27 Oct CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI. 1973. ARTIST’S FIRST SOLO SHOW IN AMERICA.

Posted at 19:30h in EPHEMERA

Paris: Galerie Sonnabend, n.d. (1973)
11.5 x 16.5cm, 1pp typographic announcement card for Boltanski's first solo show in America, only months before he has his first show outside of France in Oxford in the UK. A mailed copy with handwritten address (not by Boltanski). VG+ although slight marks from the franking process. Scarce.
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19 May FAC-SIMILES DOCUMENTS ORIGINAUX ECRITS. 1972. WITH JOINT IMPORTANT ARTIST’S STATEMENT.

Posted at 19:06h in EPHEMERA

Fontainebleau: Musee Municipal Du Costume Militaire, 1972
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp typographic announcement card for a joint show with Jean Le Gac.
On the reverse is an important joint text by the artists which stresses the reasons why they were exhibiting in such a historic museum:

Our work is an attempt to find in the present the means to transmit and preserve the experience that we have of artistic activity: an intellectual journey, marked out by relics (photos, objects, fragments of texts ...

16 Dec CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI. 1971. ARTIST’S FIRST SOLO SHOW AT THE GALLERY.

Posted at 21:05h in EPHEMERA

Paris: Galerie Sonnabend, 1971
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp typographic announcement card for Boltanski's first solo show at Sonnabend. A mailed copy to M. Berg with handwritten address. VG+ although slight marks from the franking process.

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05 May CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI A 5 ANS ANS 3 MOIS DE DISTANCE. 1971.

Posted at 16:53h in EPHEMERA

Venice: Galerie De La Salle, n.d. (1971)
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp b/w postcard issued as an edition during the group show "Les Paravents" held in Venice. On the front is the well known work where the artist shows two photographs of himself side by side with a gap of 5 years and three months between them. He looks older of course, time is disappearing as is his life. VG+. Scarce.

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12 Jan BOLTANSKI. LE GAC. 1971. ARTIST’S FOURTH OR FIFTH SHOW.

Posted at 10:54h in EPHEMERA

Paris: Grand Salon de L'Hotel Moderne Palace, 1971
10.5 x 14.8cm, 1pp typographic announcement card for a joint show with Jean Le Gac. The two artists had met early on in Boltanski's career and the latter gives Le Gac credit for influencing his work and showing him "the ropes" of the Parisian artwork. They did many early joint shows and projects together where they contributed to collective artist's books often along with Annette Messager (who soon became Boltanski's life long lover and sometimes collaborator). This seems to have been the artist's fourth or fifth show although a definitive list of exhibitions is not available anywhere.
This is a rare document in VG+ condition.

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14 Nov BOLTANSKI. 1970. ARTIST’S THIRD ONLY SOLO EXHIBITION – HERE AT BEN VAUTIER’S GALLERY.

Posted at 16:31h in EPHEMERA

Nice: Ben Doute de Tout, 1970
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp typographic announcement card which is also a conceptual work in itself. A series of adjectives are posed as questions about Boltanski and the exhibition. Words such as "Maniac?", "Pretentious?", "Sadistic?", "New?" in advance of the exhibition references doubt about whether the artist is pretending to be something/someone else and if his work is genuine? Ben's gallery was called in translation "Ben doubts everything" - and this rather matches that distrust of art and the world. Very scarce early card. VG+.

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30 Aug HANDWRITTEN COMMERCIAL POSTCARD SENT TO M. BERG. 1970. SIGNED BY BOTH BOLTANSKI & ANNETTE MESSAGER.

Posted at 19:49h in EPHEMERA

Berlin: n.p., 1970.
10.3 x 15cm, 2pp commercial postcard with an image of the Berlin Kongresshalle and on the reverse greetings and best wishes from both Boltanski and his partner Annette Messager. VG+.

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