Christian Boltanski - Unoriginal Sins

30 Aug “COMPOSITION FEERIQUES” IN REAKTION V. 1980.

Posted at 10:12h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Aisbach: Verlaggaleria Leaman, 1980
31 x 27cm, printed plastic and card folder with metal ring binder. Content of individual contributions and multiples by a wide range of artists (many from the fields of conceptual art, visual poetry and some of the Fluxus- affiliated artists) including Filliou Monnier, SAito, Armleder and others as well as Boltanski.
Boltanski includes two sheets of "composition" images not shown elsewhere - stalk white on black outlines of objects which might be roughly painted or processed photographically (it is not clear which). Palms trees, a woman carrying a basket, fleeing couple, a man cutting wheat. The title Composition Feeriques suggests these are images of a "fairy world" and perhaps one can read a rough narrative into the eight images. Fine in like folder. Scarce. Not mentioned in any catalogue raisonne.

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11 Jul COMPOSITIONS. 1980.

Posted at 19:20h in POSTERS

Calais: Musee de Calais, 1980
60 x 42cm, three colour silkscreen exhibition poster with a duotone image of one of Boltanski's photographs of toy models. Some pin holes and slight damage to corners else VG. Scarce.

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21 Jun KUNST IN EUROPA NA’ 68…. 1980.

Posted at 18:46h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Gent: Stad Gent, 1980 27.5 x 21cm, 204pp plus card covers. The cover has the title tipped on as a triangular printed label. The exhibition catalogue for a major look back at the artistic endeavours of the year 1968 which includes sections on Art & Languages, Beuys, Broodthaers, Brouwn, Buren, Victor Burgin, Cragg, the Red Crayola, Darboven, Dibbets, Dimitrijevic, Fabro, Feldmann, Flanagan, Gilbert & George, Hans Haacke, Imi Knoebel, Yannis Kounellis, Long, Merz, Panamarenko, Paolini, Poirier, Schum van Elk, Vilmouth and Zorio as well as Boltanski. Boltanski's section includes 4 images of installations in b/w. Texts in German by Jan Hoet, Gemano Celant, Johannes Cladders, KJ Geirlandt, Sandy Nairne, Piet Vandaalen, Koenraad De Wolf, Tony Godfrey, Alexandra Beaton, F. Menna, and Albert Kuiper. Slight marks to the card covers else VG+. ...

19 May COVER FOR AQ 17 MAGAZINE. 1980.

Posted at 11:02h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Berlin: AQ Verlag, 1980
20 x 20.7cm, 80pp plus pictorial wrappers. A single number of this photographic and art journal - here with 143 original contributions from artists mixed up into the booklet and shown in b/w. There are a wide range of artists from Warhol, Le Gac, Feldmann, Polke, Gilbert & George to name just a few.
Boltanski was given the cover and has three other small images in the book (nrs 101 - 103). The cover is a photograph of a jumping hare but taken from a model not an actual animal. VG+. Scare publication. Not in any catalogue raisonne.

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08 Dec LES MODELES. CINQ RELATIONS ENTRE TEXTE & IMAGE. 1979. WITH VERY DETAILED CATALOGUE RAISONNE AS APPENDIX.

Posted at 11:39h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Paris: Cheval d'attaque, 1979
22 x 16cm, 108pp plus pictorial card covers. An artist's book of sorts (although published on the occasion of the exhibition in la Maison de la Culture de Chalon-sur-Saone so may also be seen as an exhibition catalogue) in that five previously published works are reprinted in chronological order after a short interview between Irmeline Lebeer and Boltanski.
The reproduced works are Recherche et presentation de tout ce qui reste de mon enfance, Tout ce que je sais d'une femme...

08 Dec LES MODELES. 1979.

Posted at 11:16h in POSTERS

Chalon Sur Saône: Maison De La Culture De Chalon Sur Saône, 1979 32,5 x 44,5cm, b/w offset lithographic exhibition poster for the Boltanski exhibition. The image is one of the artist's shadow play works showing a jumping rabbit. VG+.

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18 Oct SOUVENIRES DE JEUNESSE. 1979.

Posted at 14:34h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Saint Pierre des Corps: J. & J., Centre Saint Pierre des Corps, 1979
19 x 13cm, 24pp plus original wrappers. Artist's book unusually created from a nine minute b/w film of the same name by Jacques Parart based on the artist's life as a young man. The book has original texts by Boltanski which are printed in poetic structures on the left of each double page and, on the opposite page, deliberately childlike drawings by Jennifer Gough-Cooper and Jacques Caumont. The stories are reminiscences of early childhood life with some rather important events (such as over-hearing that his grandfather had died while pretending to be asleep in bed).
VG+ condition. A scarce publication released at the same time as an exhibition "Boltanski, ouevres de 1974 - 1975". This was the last (for a period of years) of the artist's books based on recreations of his early life - after this exhibition a period of creating large photographic works from posed items dominated the artist's output.

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25 Jun FARCE. 1979. ONE OF 50 DELUXE COPIES WITH HANDMADE INSERTED CAGE AND SUGAR CUBE.

Posted at 13:44h in DELUXE ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris: Galilee, 1979
188 x 130 mm, unpaginated. Original wrappers with artist designed dust jacket. Artist’s book created from the novel by Touratier which Boltanski designed the dustjacket for - with images of shaped sugar cubes (which are to be found in the text). This is one of only 50 special editions in which Boltanski cut a hole in the middle of the book, glued a shaped sugar cube and then places a wire cage around the object. The colophon is signed and numbered in inky by the artist. A very rare artist book by Boltanski and surprisingly not found in any catalogue raisonne. VG+ condition.

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15 Jun ON N’A PAS EU D’ETE. 1979. NOT IN ANY CATALOGUE RAISONNE

Posted at 14:36h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris: Limage, 1979.
26 x 18.5cm, 144pp plus original card covers. Artist's book created y Pierre Tilman which has original contributions by Annette Messager, Pascal Doury, Peter Klassen, Urs Luthi, Jacques Monory, Arnulf Rainer and Bruno Richard as well as Boltanski.
Boltanski's contribution is 6pp and is Les Jardins Japonais which is a pair of photographs of a model garden in black and white with the lighting creating a strong polarisation of the images.
This is the first known printing of such an image from a model - similar works were later the main subjects of photographic works and artist's books such as Lanterne Magique in 1982. The style of the photographs showing a "trail" of light which bends over the pages is similar to later works also.
This book is not referenced in any catalogue raisonne. Very rare. VG+.

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07 Apr FRENCH ART. AN ENGLISH SELECTION. 1979.

Posted at 09:29h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

London: Serpentine Gallery, 1979
15 x 21cm, 32pp plus card covers. Group show in the UK with the participation of Annette Messager, Anne & Ptrick Poiret and others as well as Boltanski. The latter exhibited Japanese Gardens I - V (large colour images created using models and constructed backgrounds). Two images reproduced (one in colour, one in b/w) and a short text in English. Sadly this catalogue has some contemporary notes made by a critic on a number of the pages but the images of the works are not found elsewhere to our knowledge.

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10 Mar CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI. 1979.

Posted at 14:12h in EPHEMERA

NYC: Sonnabend 1979
10,5 x 15cm, 1pp typographic announcement card printed yellow and black. A mailed copy which was sent to Seriaal Verlag in Copenhagen by Boltanski (hand addressed) but it was mis-delivered and there is a a lot of post office markings, franks, writing and attached label on the back - but despite that it is still VG+.

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10 Mar SCHOOL PROJECT P.S.1. 1978. HAND ADDRESSED BY BOLTANSKI TO M. BERG.

Posted at 14:12h in EPHEMERA

NYC: P.S.1., 1978
10,5 x 15cm, 2pp announcement card with the front in the artist's facsimile handwriting and verso gallery details. A mailed example hand addressed to M. Berg from Boltanski. VG+.

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