30 x 21cm, 58pp (printed recto only) pls card covers. Glue bound. A press pack released on the occasion of a large solo museum show by Daniel Buren with a large number of reproduced press cuttings and images of works by Buren. Texts in French and English. VG+. carce.

30 x 21cm, unpaginated (c. 600pp?), no wrappers only an original wrap around folder displaying a reproduction of a newspaper cover from Bild Munchen in 1969 which has been over-printed. There are four sections of offset and mimeographed pages which begin with

SOMMERSTEMESTER 1970 DAS KULTUSMINISTERIUM VERSCHARFT SEINE REPRESSIONEN. DOKUMENTATION.

1. NITSCH-AKTION
KULTUSBUROKRATIE GEGEN SENATSBESCHLUSS

2. NUMERUS CLAUSUS
DURCH PRBEZEITPRUFUNH

and only one other section has a title

DER VIZEPRAS BREMNNINGER LIEFERT DEM KUMI UNTERTANIGST DIE SCHEINBAREN GRUNDE ZUR SCHLIESSUNG!

The entire publication is a 1970 documentation with some original leaflets inserted of the student rebellion in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the reaction of the management and government by shutting the institution:

"On February 4, the AStA held a parody matriculation ceremony; a day later, the “Day of the Two-Wheeler” was held. In addition to some heavy machines, it primarily involved mopeds and bicycles that raced through the halls to “intimidate the establishment and profane the academy”. The students painted the walls with slogans and crude agitation art. The headline of the February 21 Bild-Zeitung read: “Munich's Academy Transformed into a Pigsty”. On February 22, Minister of Culture Ludwig Huber closed the academy; an administrative court ruling canceled the closure. Nestler resigned due to “interventionism by the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs”. In August, a presidential body under the chairmanship of Franz Nagel was appointed for the first time. The academy senate decided that in the future, all courses should be formulated in writing and posted, and that workshops for photography and plastic would be established.

"

Amongst the wall painting, the free access for motorbikes and other small vehicles was an Aktion by Nitsch which is documented by reproduced correspondence between players in the first section of the publication.

Small sections of the documents show badly reproduced images in b/w of the student protests, the wall paintings, bikes being ridden trhough the corridors and one that seems to be of a young Nitsch or Muehl painting the body of a nude woman and a further image of the Aktion and its crowd.

The outer wrappers are heavily damaged and torn and need repaired but this is a very scarce document of student protest and the Viennese Aktionists part in it. Priced to reflect this damage but still as we say very hard to find.

31 x 22.2cm, outer folder content of 14 30 x 21cm, 1pp offset sheets. The press pack given out at the opening of the exhibition Soft Machine at the 59th Venice Biennale. VG+.

37.5 x 21.5cm, 1pp. Black on white poster listing the full gamut of artists included in this annual event organised by Moorman. Lists many well known names such as Ay-o,  Al Hansen, Joe Jones, Takehisa Kosugi, Nam June Paik, La Monte Young, Carolee Schneemann, Lil Picard, Giuseppe Chiari, Geoffrey Hendricks, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Yoko Ono, Ben Patterson, Michael Snow, Tashi Ichiyanagi, Jud Yalkut, Bazon Brock, Tomas Schmit, Emmett Williams and many many more. Very good+. One of the scarcer posters from the event to find for some unknown reason.

14.5 x 22.8cm, black and green offset letterhead created for the vastly important "First World Congress of Free Artists" which brought together Enrico Baj, Jacques Calonne, Constant, Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, Asger Jorn, Piero Simondo, Ettore Sottsass Jr, Elena Verrone (from the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus), Gil J. Wolman (from the Lettrist International/Potlatch), Sandro Cherchi, Franco Garelli  , Jan Kotik, Pravoslav Rada (Czechoslovakia), Charles Estienne, and Klaus Fischer to discuss joint projects.

The importance of this meeting cannot be underwritten - it brought together many of the main currents of the European International Avant Garde and laid the foundations for the eventual formation of the International Situationists.

JOINT:

Alba: Laboratorio Sperimentale Del Movimento Internazionale Per Una " Bauhaus Immaginista", 1956

12.3 x 15.5cm, green and black on white printed envelope for the same event.

Price is for both items together - the stationery for a major landmark in European political and art history.

Both VG+ if mildly browned.

25.5 x 21cm, 1pp. Price list issued by Furnival and dsh's concrete and visual poetry press which lists the first six Openings publications and the first two plakats and the first "wallpoem" as wel  as the "9-minute tape, Devil Trap by Ernest Jandl and John Furnival". Some wear along right hand side and minor browning else VG. Scarce ephemera.

Breton apparently wrote this 'lettre pneumatique' in June 1920 (towards the end of the Dadaist period in Paris) and sent it to his lover with the following message:

"Ma cherie, pas encore ce soir,/ pardon. Je sais, je sais, et tu/ m'obliges te donner des motifs/ de mes absences, pourquoi? Je dois/ revoir Eluard qui part ˆ la/ campagne demain, je sors avec/ lui et rentrerai trs tard. La/ semaine prochaine, je compte/ que nous nous entendions mieux/ sur nos heures, ne dis pas/ que je ne fais pas ce que je peux./ Je pense toi, veux-tu m'ecrire/ un petit mot. Je suis aussi/ dans un etat moral singulier;/ ˆ quoi, mon amour, tu ne/ peux rien? Est-ce encore une/ fois pardonne?/ Andre

In translation:

My darling, again not tonight, sorry. I know, I know, and you force me to give you reasons for my absences, why? I must see Eluard again who goes to the countryside tomorrow, I will go out with him and come home very late. Next week, I hope that we will understand better each other about our "timing?", don't say that I don't do what I can. I think of you, can you write me a small note? I also am in a unusual ("singular") moral state, of which, my love, you can't do anything about? Am I once again forgiven? Andre

A lettre pneumatique was a common way of sending urgent notes throughout Paris (using a series of pneumatic tubes between post offices) and the tense tone of the letter suggests a clandestine arrangement having to be changed at short notice. The phasing of the letter also suggests a certain cooling of the relationship - certainly concern about the effect of Breton cancelling (presumably not for a first time) the meeting and the expected chiding from his lover.

The letter reads as if it has been written towards the end of a relationship rather than in the full passion of an early liaison. Men are like that: even famous surrealists. Perhaps, even more, famous surrealists. There is no reference in the literature, that we know of, to any lover of Breton's having the forename "Germaine" and it is tempting to speculate that the Germaine here is Germaine Picabia (nee Everling) who Breton certainly knew very well - Breton being a constant visitor to Picabia's house (the place, for example, where the Dadaists first met Tristan Tzara) and there are several photographs of Breton and the two Picabias at social functions and at Dadaist events.

However this is, just that, speculation and would require much further research to confirm but nonetheless the letter is a mystery awaiting a solution - was Breton cuckolding his friend?

The provenance of the letter is indirectly from Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes who has added various handwritten texts of his own including the "title" Perle Fausse (which translates as 'False Pearl'), the Surname "BRETON" under the "Andre" signed by Breton, as well as "A GERMAINE" and "DADA" at the bottom of the letter in purple and green inks.

It seems likely that these texts were added later as an attempt of explication by GR-D. Alternatively Ribemont-Dessaignes may have been commenting on the content of the letter, its tone of slight deceit or perhaps even a comment about the affair or the participants in the affair.

Verso the letter is in a minorly damaged state with the lettering of the outside of the epistle having been affected by some previous adhesion to another paper (perhaps a scrap book or book of mementos) and the name and address is unreadable, the stamps and franking can be seen but the date is hard to read although the franking does reveal "Paris" and "Juin 6" and the number "20" can also be seen in the franked impressions (which would match Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes' dating verso). The word "urgent" is also handwritten on the folded front of the letter. Perhaps scientific analysis could reveal more - certainly our own manipulations (enlargement and alteration of photographic contrast of an electronic reproduction) suggests that more detail could be revealed on the franking and possibly even the addressee with a little sophisticated work).

All in all a fascinating small letter which may raise more questions than it answers and a scarce early document from Breton's hand at a point where Dada was about to be rejected and surrealism born. One small tear on fold (0.7cm) and some adhesion from another paper verso otherwise very good condition bearing in mind the original mailed aspect of this item.

24 x 17.5cm, 1pp Black on green - the public manifestation of Nash, de Jong and Amger Elde's displeasure at Guy Debord's expulsion of the SPUR Group from the SI and their founding of the "Situationist International" as a retort. Thereafter Hardy Strid, Jens Jurgen Thorsen and Gruppe SPUR supported them in the creation of a Nordic/Germanic alternative with Asger Jorn giving tacit and financial support. A rare item in fine condition.