28 Feb

Posted at 20:23h in Prints + Posters

Napoli: Linea Sud, 1967
22 x 16cm, unpaginated (40pp) plus one fold out page and original printed wrappers. A single number of this avant garde art journal here dedicated to experimental and visual poetry (poesia visiva). Included are L. Caruso, G. Desiato, E. Villa, I. Isou, M. Lemaitre, (unusually this journal includes Lettrisme as experimental visual poetry when it is often overlooked) J.P. Garnier and others. However importantly there are also two folded poem silkscreen posters by Ian Hamilton Finlay (each opens to 60 x 36cm) which are different in format to other prints of the same works - one is Planet which is printed in brown and somewhat loosely - and the other - is SEEM SEA which appears to be very similar to the Wild Hawthorn Press print SEAM with a similar use of the space between the letters of the word. Printed in blue this is a another nautical inspired work by the poet - with elements of alliteration and homophony playing with the relative placing of the works on the page. This print was only ever published as this insert into the magazine and is very rare - the journal is often found without the prints or with one or the other missing. This is a complete publication in VG+ condition with like prints.
We feel these works should be categorised as prints in their own right and not as contributions to a magazine.

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30 Jan

Posted at 09:05h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Wide White Space, Antwerpen 1970
21 x 15cm, 4pp (single folded sheet printed recto only) - the exhibition announcement and handout for a group show at the conceptual art gallery - here with listed works by Beuys ("Objekt Joyce" from 1961 and a sculpture "Doppelspaten" from 1965) and others by Fontana, Vasarely, Appel, Tapies, Broodthaers ("Plat a moules" from 1965), Gaul, Van Severen, Manzoni, Panamarenko, Henneman, Heyrman and Palermo. Textual content only. VG+.

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03 Dec

Posted at 08:38h in Artist's Books

N.p. (Ceres?): s.p. (FInlay? or Tarasque Press?), 1966
23.2 x 11cm, 2pp plus blue printed wrappers. An unusual artist's book which appears to be hand made and has on the front a concrete poem by Finlay:

Arcady ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

then stapled inside is a much smaller sheet of orange paper (Finlay likes the combination of blue and orange - a colour scheme he uses often in prints and books) on which is a handwritten note in blue ink from Finlay: "Happy Christmas and love to Martin from Ian - Christmas '66"
This small book is in VG condition but two stains (brown marks) to the front of the wrappers and some creasing to the top of the sheet
JOINT TO THE BOOK:
20 x 12.5cm, 1pp hand-typed insert on pink typing paper: "Some questions on the poem, for Christmas Day." listing questions that may be asked of the poem and the writer's intent. VG+.t
JOINT TO THE BOOK:
20 x 12.5cm, 1pp hand-typed insert on green typing paper: "A question on the questions, for Boxing Day." Some browning to the centre of the page near the fold else VG.

This is an early and somewhat limited run artist's book, one of the inner typed sheets are mentioned in the Murray catalogue raisonne as the second "miscellaneous" item (7.2) but clearly Murray did not know of the rest of the publication.
Issued at Xmas, the poem by listing all of the letters of the alphabet and comparing them to Arcady (the mythical utopian country - a place to strive to live) Finlay is suggesting the world of letters, words and symbols is an utopian land for poets.
The additional typed letters may just be fun things to do on Christmas Day and Boxing Day but are really clues to how to 'read' the poem. And in the second letter how to 'read' the questions.
The hand typed and hand-written aspects of this publication may indicate that very few were produced - it is not unique given that Murray had an example of one of the letters but we have never seen another copy. Murray has this as being published by the Tarasque Press and that is possible but the hand- made aspects would suggest it was Finlay himself. Reading the published letters between Bann and Finlay for the months around Xmas 1966 does not find any reference to the book at all so we are for now flummoxed.

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09 Nov

Posted at 15:30h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris: Gallery du Tournesol, November 1966
25 x 36cm, 28pp on uncut cartridge paper - an artist's book with 10 original lithographs by Juan Romero and a poetic text. Loose signatures which were released uncut (probably awaiting private binding). Published by Boltanski as part of his activities as a gallerist during his first steps in the artworld. VG+. Extremely rare.

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09 Aug

Posted at 15:36h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris: Editions Jean Pierre Oswald, 1966 17.4 x 10.4cm, 160pp plus card covers. First edition of this novel with added poems for which Boltanski was commissioned to create two drawings on the front and back wrappers. The drawings are of an abstracted figure (an egg shape with legs) in a city of tower blocks on the front of the book and on the back, and the same figure in the countryside near a river seen from above. This was Boltanski's first ever published work and is the first entry in Jennifer Flay's catalogue raisonnee. VG+ although the covers are slightly browned. Rare. Ref Flay Catalogue Page 5.

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30 Mar

Posted at 09:44h in LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

Paris: Galerie Tournesol, 1966
18 x 21cm, 1pp hand typed letter from Boltanski on Galerie du Tournesol letterhead paper to M. Berg apologising that the gallery will be closed on 7th of April 1966 and that Boltanski will only return to Paris on the 13 April but he would be happy to meet Berg on any other date. He also mentions Berg's interest in the work of Romero. The letter is signed in black ink. VG+.

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10 Feb

Posted at 10:13h in EARLY GALLERY ACTIVITY - 1968

Paris: Gallery du Tournesol, 1966
8 x 18cm, 12pp (but opens out to 16 x 54cm, printed recto only). Announcement leaflet for a very early Jean Le Gac show at Boltanski's gallery where he showed mostly paintings. VG+. Very scarce.
JOINT WITH:
15 x 21cm, 2pp hand written note and diagrams which appears to have notes about the installation of the show by Boltanski.

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26 Nov

Posted at 12:59h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Dusseldorf: Galerie Schmela, 1965
15 x 21cm, 4pp announcement card with a b/w image of Beuys pretending to be asleep on a lump of fat. This was the artist's first exhibition/performance in a private gallery and where he explained art to a "dead hare" by showing all of the 38 works (all listed here) to the corpse while miming the dead animal's movements. This is a VG+ example of a scarce early invite card.

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24 Nov

Posted at 18:49h in LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

Paris: Galerie Tournesol, 1965
21 x 13.5cm, 2pp hand typed letter from Boltanski on Galerie du Tournesol letterhead paper to M. Berg replying to the latter's letter of 19 Nov 1965, discussing a painting that Berg was interested in buying. Boltanski claims in "the Possible Life of Christian Boltanski" that his father told his mother they had better open a gallery together to allow their son to learn how to be an artist. The Gallery sold only Jiddish art but clearly Boltanski's interest in the avant garde made the chosen artists a little more radical. The motivation for starting the gallery is probably not true (like many of Boltanski's tales it is more than likely deliberately false) but he ran the venture from 1965 until 1968.
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12 Nov

Posted at 18:43h in EARLY GALLERY ACTIVITY - 1968

Paris: Ramon Gallery du Tournesol, 1965 21 x 13.4cm, outer folder with stapled in 4pp title page and a 6pp fold out "Ordre de Mobilisation" designed by the artist. Exhibition catalogue at the gallery where Boltanski was the co-ordinator/curator. The back of the booklet reproduces a silkscreen portrait in white of the artist's grandfather when he was in the military and the front a letter from his to his wife dated 26 December 1914.
VG+. Very scarce.

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