NYC: John Gibson, 1975
15 x 10.5cm, 10pp - single accordion folded sheet. Promotional and announcement card for an exhibition of additions to the "largest collection of Beuys' multiple objects, prints, posters, books and catalogues". Additional to the exhibition the card promotes the Iphigenie-Set - a portfolio of 8 offset prints in a small edition of only 7 examples. All eight prints are reproduced in b/w on the card. VG+.
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Berlin: Edition Rene Block, 1974
10.5 x 15cm, 4pp. Announcement card for the box of editions in honour of Addi Koepcke. Beuys' title text work is reproduced on the front, internally two reproductions of index cards by Koepcke included in the box. Back cover has an image of the box and details. VG+.
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Belfast: Ulster Museum, n.d. (1974) 13.8 x 10.5cm, 2pp announcement card for one of the exhibitions displaying Beuys' drawings in various Irish and British museums - here a Northern Ireland date. Text on one side, verso a reproduced b/w drawing by Beuys which has been signed in red ink by the artist. There is also a mention of a public meeting with Beuys and his (then) lover Tisdall. VG+. Scarce....
Munster: Westfalischer Kunstverein, 1974
22.2 x 16cm, 100pp plus card covers. Artist's book which coincided with a second museum exhibition by Boltanski in Munich within 18 months - this time the show being titled "Affiches, Accessoires, Decors, Documents photographiques".
The 49 photographs are all of Boltanski's comic performances in a suit pretending to be various parental and grand parental figures and sometimes the younger Boltanski. Sometimes the backgrounds are painted - further making the fact that the performance are theatrical and each group of photographs is preceded by a text with details of the "play". Texts including an essay by Klaus Honnef in German, French and English. VG+.
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Copenhague:Berg, 17 septembre 1974
29 x 21cm, 1pp. Original carbon copy of a typed and signed letter from M Berg thanking Boltanski for agreeing to publish an artist's book with the latter and John Hunov and that a maquette is being prepared for the project. He also thanks Boltanski for the invite card from Munster and says he will order the publication being released at that exhibitiion. VG+.
JOINT:
Copenhague:Berg, 17 septembre 1974
29 x 21cm, 1pp. Original carbon copy of a typed and signed letter from M Berg to Westfalischer Kunstverein requesting a copy of the exhibition catalogue/artist's book.
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Paris: Boltanski, 4 septembre 1974
29.7 x 21cm, 2pp Original handwritten letter in blue ink from Boltanski thanking Berg for his "bravery" in buying a painting from a young artist from a strange gallery.
Boltanski mentions Annette Messager's book and says he is very happy to create a book with Berg and announcing that he will soon send a maquette for the publication.
Boltanski says he has a new idea for works - a series of "burlesque" images of sketches (which are to be photographed - one being displayed in the work at the Munster Kunstverein.
He then sends his best wishes to Berg's wife, has good memories of his trip to Copenhagen and hopes to return one day.
A further handwritten addition from Annette Messager thanking Berg for his support and saying that she is working hard.
Both notes are signed by the writer.
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Paris: Centre national d'art contemporaine, 1974
21 x 14cm, 48pp plus original wrappers. Artist's book which displays 310 b/w images of the claimed belongings of a young woman in Bois-Colombes (a suburb of Paris). The third of a number such artist's books surveying everything owned by an anonymous woman.
on this occasion it is known that some of the objects were those of both Boltanski's parents and Annette Messager's mothers - a fact that is not admitted in the book. This indicates that one might not quite trust the other similar books in their veracity about attribution.
In a foreword Boltanski notes that the project's past history with him writing to museums offering the project. VG+.
Reference Flay Boltanski Catalogue Page 106.
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Paris: Chorus, n.d. (1974)
24 X 18cm, 128pp plus pictorial covers. A single number of the art journal which alongside Boltanski are original contributions and articles on Annette Messager, Jacques Donguy, Jacques Monory and others.
Notable here are six pages by Boltanski which repeats his project displaying the supposed belongings of an anonymous person - here supposedly some living in Oxford, UK where the first exhibition of such an accumulation took place in 1973. VG+. Scarce publication.
Following Boltanski's contribution is a poem by Pierre Tilman entitled "Boltanski est" and after that Annette Messager has an original contrbution called "Quelque attitudes de femme extraites de quelques albums - collections par Annette Messager collectionneuse." which displays various found image of crying and fearful women, kissing couples, some cosmetic processes and cooking. There is a second prose poem by Tulman in his facsimile hand entitled "Annette, Christian, Jacques" as frontispiece which has a painting which shows Messager and a young somewhat handsome Boltanski. hugging.
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Paris: Editions Georges Fall, 1974
22 x 16cm, 16pp (self cover). Artist's book which show objects from Annette Messager's first communion along with three photographs of a young girl (not Messager) preparing for the ceremony. The images are "representational" of the various objects and not the actual items used in Boltanski's partner's life. Each has an objective description below as if in a historical journal. Staples are a bit rusty else VG+. Scarce.
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Krefeld: Museum Haus Lange, 1974
12 x 22.5cm, 2pp announcement card for a show of drawings from Beuys' earliest period. One drawing - "Tierfrau un Tier" from 1956 - is reproduced in b/w on the back of the card. VG+ although two punched holes for storage.
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Dudweiler: Edition A.Q., 1974.
20.9 x 14.8cm, 32pp plus card covers with printed tipped on title label. First edition of this artist's book which again has photographic images of Boltanski dressed in suit and hat miming various methods of suicide - hanging, cutting one's throat or arms, drownings which all are shown in a second photograph to be fake - the knife is plastic, the drowning with a brick around the neck is only in a bowl of water, the hanging is from a rope that is not attached at either end.
However the last image of suicide is of the artist shooting himself in the head with a gun. That photograph has no associated proof of "fake" image so one may well assume the joke is on Boltanski himself as it was not fake, and he has in fact died.
This edition was printed in only 150 copies with 20 "du tete" copies and is very hard to find indeed. This copy is in VG+ condition although the label is slightly marked by the glue coming though the cheap paper. Reference: Flay Boltanski Catalogue Page 112.
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Copenhagen: Louisiana Revy, 1973
35 x 25cm, 48pp plus wrappers. A single number of this artist's journal associated with the museum. This issue (n 2) has an original two-page contribution by Botlanski - a text translated in to Danish, "OM SIG SELV" which translates to "ABOUT YOURSELF" and is a text taken from a long interview with Uffe Harder. and a page of photographs from an uncredited "Inventory" work showing 40 belongings to an unnamed individual. Not referenced in any catalogue raisonne. VG+.
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