Edinburgh: Demarco, 1973
2-.5 x 25.5cm, offset reproduction of original photograph (now lost) with reproduced hand-annotations by Richard Demarco who took the photograph during a visit to Boltanski's studio in Paris. Mounted on board (for exhibition) this was later signed in blue ink by Christian Boltanski. VG+
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Dusseldorf: Stadtische Kunsthalle, 1973
31.5 x 22cm, b/w folder illustrated with images from the exhibition catalogue content of a further black on pink folder and 13 loose 30 x 21cm, 2pp sheets with contributions from each of the exhibiting artists - Enrico Baj, Michael Sandle, Edward Kieholz amongst others.
Boltanski has a 2pp original contribution - 9 appropriated b/w images of members of the Club Mickey (a Walt Disney fan club) taken from the larger installation of 62 photographs exhibited. A short explanatory text in German by the artist:
"I was eleven years old in 1955 and I was like these 62 children whose photo was featured in Club Mickey magazine that year. They had sent in the picture they thought best represented them: smiling and well coiffed, or with their favourite toy or animal. They had the same desires and interests as me.Today they must all be about my age, but I cannot find out what became of them. The image that has remained of them no longer corresponds to reality, and all these children's faces have disappeared, (...
DIjon: Musee Rude, 1973
30 x 21cm, 76pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue that should be regarded as a joint artist's book - with original contributions by Boltanski, Le Gac and Annette Messager.
Boltanski's part is "5 BROUILLONS DE CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI MARS - MAI 1973" - five hand-written texts in facsimile of the artist's handwriting which discuss various projects undertaken in the past year.
Le Gac has "L'ENQUETE" - a quasi thriller short story with one b/w image. Messager has "SUR LES TRAVAUX DE L'ATELIER" - again texts in reproduction of her originals although typed. `
VG+ condition. Scarce.
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Oxford: Museum of Modern Art. 1973
18 x 11cm, 8pp (self cover). An early artist's book which shows 52 small b/w images of what is claimed to be the belongings of a woman (it is not clear if she is dead or alive) from "hankerchiefs to cupboards". This is one of the artist's first "arxhive projects" where a life is displayed through the things owned by an individual.
In a note at the end Boltanski explains that he had written to a number of museums to initiate such a project - to show the things owned by an anonymous person with "concerning themselves with such things as classification and labelling" - most refused however Peter Ibsen at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford agreed to the show and this book both is the documentation, catalogue and artist's publication from that event. VG+.
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Frankfurt: AQ Photos supplement, 1973
22.5 x 14cm, 6pp (single folded sheet). A supplement to the AQ artist's journal entirely dedicated to five b/w images of Boltanski playing the role of his parents in posed photographs. The supplement was a publicity brochure for the journal but it is effectively a Boltanski artist's book. To our knowledge this is not referenced in any catalogue raisonne. VG+. Scarce.
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London: Studio International Ltd, 1973
30.5 x 24.5cm, 160pp plus card covers. Single number of the long running and very important art journal - to which Boltanski has added a page work (taken from the book of the same title) of a child making a paper airplane. Offered as part of a section on contemporary French art. Some wear to spine and glue beginning to weaken after nearly 50 years. Else VG.
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St Etienne: Musee d'art et d'industrie de St Etienne, 1973 32 x 24cm, outer manilla folder which appears to be hand made and with carefully written titles and lists of artists. Internally there are 26 different 30 x 21cm, 1pp sheets with biographies and texts on the participating artists and some images (poor quality reproductions) of some of the works with the look of the pages being like bad xerox copies but printed. The outside of the cover notes the exhibition as being of Minimal Art and Hyperrealism from the USA and Support-Surface art from France and the participants include Bertholin, Cane, Bechtle, Cottingham, Don Eddy, Salt, Staiger, Flavin, Judd, LeWitt, Stella, Le Gac, Messager, Meurice, and Viallatas well as Boltanski. Boltanski's contribution is a reproduced photograph of the artist pretending to be a young boy approaching swans on a pond from 1972. This publication is unknown in any literature and it is possible this is a maquette for a non-printed catalogue. The hand drawn cover (which the pencil and red felt tip pen ink is fading and where the guide lines for the text to be written can still be seen) and the poor quality interior pages suggests this is exactly that. Clearly a rarity and possibly unique, this would be one of Boltanski's earliest group shows....
Paris: Gallery du Tournesol, 1973
24.5 x 17cm, 8pp artist's book printed black on cream card with four original lithographs of drawings with text by Romero and a short text "Manuel du Voyager" (travel diary) written by Jean Jacques Leveque.
Additional to that on the third page there is an original contribution by Boltanski which is relatively unknown - two photographs of a mother and father with a child and below is the text written by Boltanski (our translation):
"The two photographs must have been taken on the same day and almost in the same place. The little boy in the two pictures must be three or four years old, the sun is shining, the man and the woman look serious and sad, there are ceramic tiles on the steps and a large stone pot in which is planted a tree. The woman is young and beautiful, the man is dressed in white (he stands straight as if at attention). You think you can make out a house. in the picture on the right, the little boy seems to be singing.
Behind the photograph on the left is written in pencil "with my father Seville 1934", behind the one on the right "with my mother Sevilla 1934"
For Juan Romero and his parents whose names I don't know. Christian Boltanski, Mai 1972."
It is not clear if these photographs are really of Romerpo and his parents or a fiction. Romero was a friend of Boltanski's who had organised exhibitions by the former at the same gallery when Boltanski was the director (it was founded by his mother). This contribution is not mentioned in any catalogue raisonne that we know of and is relatively forgotten.
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Paris: Multiplicata, n.d. (1972)
30 x 21cm, 1pp. Original vintage xerox with a text announcing two books - one by Boltanski "10 PORTRAITS PHOTOGRAPHIQUES DE CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI 1946 - 1964" and the other by Jean Le Gac "LE DECOR".
The letter announces they can supply signed examples of the book for 80Fr. Folded as issued for mailing else VG+.
JOINT:
Original mailing envelope franked 3-10-72 hand addressed by Boltanski to M. Berg.
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Paris: Boltanski, 22 aout 1972
21 x 14.8cm, 1pp Original handwritten letter from Boltanski thanking Berg for sending the newspaper clipping from the journal Information and again inviting Berg to meet him in Paris and giving him Boltanski's telephone number 548-44-67. VG+.
JOINT WITH:
Original mailing envelope with hand written address by Boltanski.
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Copenhague:Berg, 22 Aout 1972
21 x 14.8cm, 1pp . Original carbon copy of a typed and signed letter from M Berg enclosing a Danish newspaper clipping of an early exhibition reviews that not only mentioned Boltanski but had an image of the "Familie D"photographic installation. The paper on the newspapers is browned else VG.
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Paris: Edition Multiplicata, 1972
21 x 13.5cm, 20pp plus card wrappers. First edition of this artist's book that supposedly shows ten different portraits of the younger Boltanski from the age of 3 to age 20. All but the last of the children photographed are not Boltanski but friends and relatives (Christophe Boltanski the artist's nephew is one of the models) and were all taken by Annette Messager on a single day inJuly 1972. The last image is of Boltanski supposedly at 20 years of age but when the photograph was taken he was 28. Yet another example of the fictionalism of the artist's work - history is erroneous and cannot be trusted. Nor can artists although on the back page the date of the photography is revealed so at least the deception was only temporary for the careful reader. VG+ condition.
Referenced in Flay Christian Boltanski Catalogue 1992, Page 74.
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