Author Archives: Julie Mellby

International Kerouac Poetry Festival

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), The History of Bop. Introduction by Mark McMurray (Montclair, NJ; Canton, NY : Caliban Press, 1993). One of 200 copies. Graphic Arts Collection 2004-3446N

In conjunction with the 4th annual International Kerouac Festival in New York City, we pulled Kerouac’s biography of Bop. Originally published in Escapade magazine in April 1959 as “The Beginning of Bop,” Kerouac’s text was also included on the Verve record album Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation (1960). Over 30 years went by before Mark McMurray printed a limited edition at his Caliban Press. http://www.northcountryartists.com/mark-mcmurray/

 

“Bop began with Jazz,” writes Kerouac, “but one afternoon somewhere on a sidewalk maybe 1939, 1940, Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker or [Thelonious] Monk was walking down past a men’s clothing store on 42nd Street, or South Main in L.A. and from the loudspeaker they suddenly heard a wild impossible mistake in jazz that could only have been heard inside their own imaginary head. and that is a new art. Bop.

https://www.festivalkerouac.com/

The Kerouac Festival began in Vigo, Spain, seven years ago and only recently opened a satellite event in New York City during the first week in April. Performances, readings, and discussions in English and in Spanish are being held in various locations throughout the city.

Poets at the Festival will include Wöyza, Marina Oroza, Ana Vidal, Alberto Avendaño, Bob Holman, Rocío Cerón, Abraham Chavelas, Jani Rose, Keila Vall, Chris Campanioni, Francisco Álvarez Koki, E.A. Pulgar, Kathryn Strobel, Vanesa Álvarez, Courtney Surmanek, Mariana Sofía Lima, Rachel Kara Pérez, Salomé Egas, Anthony Mcperson, Lisa Markuson, José Lameiras, Celia Parra, and Marcos De La Fuente.

Marie Antoinette, girl next door

Carlo Antonio Porporati (1741-1816), Marie Antoinette dans sa derniere prison (Marie Antoinette in her prison), October 16, 1793. Etching with roulette. Graphic Arts Collection

At 11am the next morning, on 16 October 1793, the executioner Sanson appeared. Madame Bault confirmed that he cut the queen’s hair and that the queen, looking back, saw the executioner place the locks of hair in his pocket. “This I saw,” said Madame Bault, “and I wish I had never seen that sight.” At 12.30pm, Marie Antoinette was taken to the guillotine at the Place de la Revolution. After the queen’s head fell it was shown to the crowd, who cried: “Vive la République!”

—https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/the-final-days-of-marie-antoinette/

When a recent class asked to see material around Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), this unusual Italian print was pulled. Unusual because the Queen of France is more often depicted in lavish costumes with her hair elaborately styled (see below).

In October 1789, the royal family was placed under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace but it was four years before the Queen’s trial began on October 14, 1793. After only two days, Marie Antoinette was convicted and executed by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution.

The print is the work of the Italian engraver Carlo Antonio Porporati (1741-1816) who spent his early years in Paris and was inducted into the Royal Academy of Artists in 1773. Equally active in French and Italian portraiture, at the time of this print Porporati was living in Naples where he established a school for engravers. —https://doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00144687

He dates the print October 16, 1793, the morning of the execution. Like many others, he followed the imprisonment and trial with interest, preparing this image in advance without worrying about the actual likeness.

Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne d’Autriche, etched by Pierre Duflos, after Jacques Louis Touzé in Recueil d’estampes représentant les grades, les rangs et les dignités, 1778-1795. (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55003867c)

 

Saint Stephen the Prōtomartyr

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a new print, “Copper icon cast of Saint Stephen the Prōtomartyr,” with text in modern Greek, printed in Vienna in 1765. Thanks to our Modern Greek Archivist for Special Collections, Kalliopi Balatsouka, for her expert cataloguing:

The devotional woodcut shows an icon of Saint Stephen the Prōtomartyr cast in copper, for veneration at the Eastern Orthodox monastery of Kōnstamonitou on Mount Athos in Greece. Commissioned by Abbot Gabriel of Vatopedi, and financed by Athanasios Alexiou of Grabovo, the icon was displayed at Kōnstamonitou. Saint Stephen, the central image within woodcut border, is depicted frontal in the deacon’s attire, holding the censer with his right hand and with his left hand extended the Holy Book. A halo around his head bears the inscription: “Ho Hagios Prōtomartys Stephanos.”

The Eye of God in an equilateral triangle with a single eye inside it and rays emanating from it towards the saint’s head is positioned off center to the right corner; a replica of the monastery with the inscription “Monastēri Kōnstamonētou” is shown next to the saint’s figure.” At the bottom of the scene, a five-line legend in Greek runs as follows: “Hē Parousa sevasmia eikōn echalkocharachthē Dia syndromēs tou panosiōtatou / ky[riou] Gavriēl tou Vatopedinou di exodōn de tou timiōtatou, ky[riou] athanasiou alexiou / ek grabovo, kai aphierōthē par autou en tē Hiera Monē tou Kōnstamonētou, hina / dōrean charizētai tois orthodoxou christianois. epistasia de tou timiōtatou / ky[riou] Kōnstantinou oikonomou ek poleōs Melenikou. 1765. en viennē.”

 

https://ima.princeton.edu/2018/09/21/spring-symposium-eclecticism-at-the-edges/

The print comes in time for the symposium “Eclecticism at the Edges: Medieval Art and Architecture at the Crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic Cultural Spheres,” hosted by the Index of Medieval Art, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University, The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, the International Center of Medieval Art, and the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture.

This two-day symposium, April 5-6, 2019, focuses on the art, history, and culture of Eastern Europe between the 14th and the 16th centuries. Rare Books and Special Collections welcomes a small group of visitors over to view our collections during the event, including this new acquisition.

El Círculo de piedra — Cuba 1967


Carlos Franqui (1921-2010), El Círculo de Piedra (Milan: Grafica Uno, printed by Giorgio Upiglio, 1971). Purchased in part with funds provided by the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS) and by the Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a portfolio with poetry by Carlos Franqui and fifteen color lithographs on wove paper signed in pencil by the author in an edition of 125. The title, The Stone Circle, is a reference both to the lithographic process and to the circle of artists while in exile. Contributing artists include Valerio Adami, Alexander Calder, Jorge Camacho, Augustin Cárdenas, César Baldaccini, Corneille, Gudmundur Erró, Asger Jorn, Piotr Kowalski, Wifredo Lam, Joan Miró, Edouard Pignon, Paul Rebeyrolle, Antoni Tápies, and Emilio Vedova. The portfolio also contains a recording on vinyl of Y Etonces Comprendio by Luigi Nono.

“The memories of Giorgio Upiglio on the ‘Círculo de piedra’,” loosely translated:

‘The Círculo de piedra’ adventure was born thanks to the friendship with Carlos Franqui, who was introduced to me by Wilfredo Lam. I was in Cuba, in 1967, in the middle of the cold war, I remember that there were cannons under my hotel. All of Carlos’s friends, including almost all the artists who would later create the ‘Circulo de piedra’ three years later, were in Havana in ’67 for the Salon de Mayo congress. I remember Jorn, Lam, Cesar, Tapies, my wife Rita Gallè, Calder, Adami, the critic Guido Ballo. On that occasion I met Fidel Castro, to whom I gave a copy of my edition made with Lam Apostroph Apocalypse. Castro subsequently organized a graphic exhibition at the Casa de las Américas.

On that occasion, they gave me all the prints that went on the boxes of the Romeo y Julieta cigars and those of the Montecristo. The prints that were still made in lithography on stone, a lithograph that remained a tradition of graphic art untouched by the big industry low cost runs. What interests me remains of the ‘Círculo de Piedra’ is the common spirit of familiarity with Carlos Franqui, mine, and of all the artists, in the years of exile from Cuba. The folder is born without a precise commercial purpose and neither is there a a union between artists and a movement…

It was also born to support Carlos economically and that is why I left him a part of the edition. The portfolio is a project that–as you can imagine–has also cost a lot for the artists involved, but the enthusiasm for our work has led us to bear the costs of the edition and each of the 15 artists was left with a copy of the work, as a reminder of the common project. Mirò was printed by Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Jorn by Bramsen in Paris, Calder I printed it, because he was in Milan for the exhibition at Studio Marconi; Vedova, Tapies, Adami, Lam and all the others were printed in Milan in Via Fara 9.

http://www.fafafineart.com/portfolio/el-circulo-de-piedra/. The work was presented on October 17th 1970 at the Marconi Studio and at the Piccola Scala in Milan with the concert by Luigi Nono Y entonces comprendò, of which each folder contains the disc published by Ricordi.


For more about Giorgio Upiglio, see: http://www.italianways.com/giorgio-upiglio-engraver-printer-and-publisher/

Tag der Druckkunst

Congratulations to our colleagues in Germany for the enormous success of their first “Tag der Druckkunst“ (National Day of Printing Arts) on March 15, 2019. Scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of the inclusion of artistic printing techniques in the nationwide directory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage by the German UNESCO Commission, the day included more than 250 events held nationwide.


Their website notes, “Artists, print shops, museums, galleries, art societies and many others contributed to the preservation and development of artistic printing techniques with a multitude of activities and to draw attention to the importance of printing for culture in Germany.” https://www.bbk-bundesverband.de/veranstaltungen/tag-der-druckkunst-15-maerz-2019/veranstaltungen-zum-tag-der-druckkunst/

This follows on the success of a smaller event in 2018: https://www.unesco.de/en/artistic-printing-techniques-relief-gravure-planographic-pressure-printing-and-their-mixed-forms

Germany’s national celebration is not unlike the Fête de l’estampe held each year in France on May 26 in honor of the recognition engravers received from Louis XIV: https://www.fetedelestampe.fr/

Perhaps some year the United States will follow their lead.
https://www.halle365.de/veranstaltung/tag-der-druckkunst

“O António Maria” followed by “Ponto nos II”


O António Maria, edited and directed by Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (Lisbon). Complete: Vol. 1, No. 1 (June 12, 1879) to Vol. 7, No. 3 (January 21, 1885)
Ponto nos II, edited and directed by Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (Lisbon). Complete: Vol. 1, No. 1 (May 7, 1885) to Vol. 7, No. 293 (February 5, 1891). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

Few artists rise to such stature that an entire museum is created in their honor. Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (1846-1905) is such a talent. The Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Museum and Library in Lisbon describe him as

“a striking figure of the Portuguese culture of the second half of the 19th century. He was born in Lisbon on Rua da Fé on March 21, 1846 [and] followed the family tradition of a life dedicated to the Arts. An enterprising and multifaceted artist, he has traveled a very personal way, dedicating himself to the graphic arts, plastic arts, ceramics, drawing of objects and decoration, producing a vast work that almost always critically reflects the daily cultural, political and social of the time in that lived.…

Pinheiro was also innovative, developing humorous design and cartoon as an artistic expression. Integrating the circle of intellectuals and artists who defined the Generation of 70 [ also called the Generation of Coimbra]… to show a true portrait of the society of that time. Conscious of the power and strength of the press, he founded several periodicals, using caricature as a vehicle for the defense of his ideals.”

The Graphic Arts Collection has acquired complete runs of two of Pinheiro’s satirical magazines, openly political and focused on changing public opinion against the corruption in the Portuguese government of that period. While extremely popular O António Maria faced opposition from various agencies and in 1884, the government passed new laws, resulting in serious limitations to freedom of the press. Publication of the magazine ended in January 1885.

After several months and a change of title, Pinheiro began once again with Ponto nos II, this time joined by his son, Miguel Gustavo Bordalo Pinheiro. One reviewer notes: “Ponto nos II goes beyond the erosive action of political caricature. In its pages also there is space for the news, the chronicle, literary activity, the success of exploration trips in Africa, the Portuguese representation at the Paris International Fair.”

An additional note comes from the dealer:

From the middle of 1889, colonial policy, within the framework of the conflict of interests between Portugal and England, is the theme that dominates weekly the pages of Ponto nos ii. In the face of the government’s vacillations before the “English arrogance,” the weekly assumes itself as the mouthpiece of national interests and calls everyone to fight. The allusions to republicans and to the Republic also grow. Political tension and popular outrage roar on every page.

On 31 January, the Republican revolt erupts in Porto, a fact the newspaper Pontos nos ii does not hesitate to analyze in the following numbers: “Cowards!” In February of the following year, the same author will present a more sober reading of the events. It is a true republican manifesto that Ponto nos ii welcomes in its pages. The price of such high courage is not unexpected: the newspaper is suspended.

Thanks to Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez, Librarian for Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Studies at Princeton University Library for his help with this acquisition.

 

The First Capitol of the United States

The New York Magazine; or, Literary Repository for March 1790 (New York: T. and J. Swords, 1790). One engraving included by Cornelius Tiebout (ca.1773-1832) “Perspective View of the Federal Edifice in the City of New York, engraved for the New-York Magazine,” 1790. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

The New-York Magazine began publication in January 1790 and ran until December, 1797, making it one of the longest running eighteenth-century American magazines. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired a rare issue for March 1790 (Vol.1, No.3).

Each issue included a full page engraving and this particular issue contains a “Perspective View of the Federal Edifice in the City of New York”, also known at that time as the capitol of the United States. During the first two years of George Washington’s presidency, the United States Congress, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, met from March 4, 1789, to March 4, 1791, at Federal Hall in New York City and then, later at Congress Hall in Philadelphia.


New-York Magazine‘s varied content includes the weather report, local marriages and deaths, as well as four pages of “Congressional Affairs,” with reports from Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. Among the topics under discussion were establishing a 24 diplomatic corps, organizing a national militia and considering the request of Yale College that the duties on a lately­ imported “philosophical apparatus” be refunded to the college so as to encourage science.

The magazine listed 469 subscribers at the close of its first volume, George Washington among them and his library at Mount Vernon included at least the first five volumes. Princeton’s issue is signed by John Barron, Broad Street­­, assumed to be the subscriber.

Federal Hall in New York City today.

Tiebout was around eighteen-years-old when he began engraving for the editors Thomas and James Swords, cutting simple copper plates from drawings by Alexander Anderson and others. In 1793 he went to London, where he studied with the printmaker James Heath, returning an expert in stipple engraving. His plate in March 1790 of the New York City Federal Building details the embellishment by Pierre Charles L’Enfant in 1788 and the issue opens with an article describing the building at length. It is assumed that the print was originally not bound in but simply laid into the issue and so, exceedingly rare to find it still included.

De heerlyke beloning en glorieryke zegepraal der deugd

 

 

 

De Heerlyke Beloning en Glorieryke Zegepraal der Deugd : Vertoond in de Verwonderlyke Lot- en Levensgevallen, van een Door het Huwelyk Ongelukkig Geworden Huisvrouw; Die, Na Dat ze Door Haar eige Man Tot Slavinnen Was Verkogt … Eindelyk Door Hem Weder Wierd Opgezogt ... = [The Wonderful Reward and Glorious Triumph of Virtue: Shown in the Astonishing Fate and Life of a Housewife Who Became Unhappy With Her Marriage; [and] After She Had Been Turned Into a Slave By Her Own Husband … Was Finally Returned Again To Him …] (Amsterdam: Steven van Esveldt, boekverkoper in de Kalverstraat, 1758). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

 

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this rare first edition an anonymously published novel on the virtues of women, illustrated with eight engraved plates by an equally anonymous artist.

The book tells the story of the beautiful young Antonetta, Marquise Alb***, a married noble-woman living in Genoa who gets into trouble when she finds out her husband is sleeping with another woman. Her husband sells her as a slave to the Turks in Algiers and she ends up living in a harem.

When Antonetta finally manages to escape and travel back to Italy, her ship is destroyed during a storm near Tuscany. Thankfully, she is found by a hermit, who takes care of her until she is able to finish her journey back to Genoa. Spoiler:  Antonetta forgives her husband and they live happily ever after.

According to the preface the story is based on true events. The author also promises that it will be both entertaining and educational, a real example for women.

#me too 1758

 

Internationale situationniste

Guy Debord and Asger Jorn, Mémoires (Paris: Internationale situationniste; [Copenhaguen, Permild & Rosengreen Press], 1959). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

 


Printed in 1959, Mémoires (Memories) is the result of the second collaboration between the Danish artist Asger Jorn (1914-1973) and the French artist and theorist Guy Debord (1931-1994). Published by Éditions Situationist International (founded by Debord and Jorn), the book has been reprinted several times given its importance to the movement, first by Jean-Jacques Pauvert aux Belles Lettres in 1993 and then by Éditions Allia in 2004.

Mémoires is perhaps most famous for its cover made of heavy-grade sandpaper. Usually credited to Debord, the sleeve was actually conceived in a conversation between Jorn and the printer, V.O. Permild:

[Jorn] asked me, if I couldn’t find an unconventional material for the book cover. Preferably some sticky asphalt or perhaps glass wool. Kiddingly, he wanted, that by looking at people, you should be able to tell whether or not they had had the book in their hands. He acquiesced by my final suggestion: sandpaper (flint) nr. 2: ‘Fine. Can you imagine the result when the book lies on a blank polished mahogany table, or when it’s inserted or taken out of the bookshelf. It planes shavings off the neighbour’s desert goat. – “Memories on Asger Jorn” by Troels Andersen, quoted online in Christian Nolle, Books of Warfare, The Collaboration between Guy Debord & Asger Jorn from 1957-1959, http://virose.pt/vector/b_13/nolle.html


Although few people own copies of these rare publications, both the first collaboration Fin de Copenhague and Mémoires are embedded in art historical literature of the period, such as a review in Architectural Review, October 1957, calling Fin de Copenhague a “remarkable piece of improvisation among the techniques of graphic reproduction.” The startling layouts in both volumes “anticipate, by 30 or more years, the typographic and textual fragmentation of Cranbrook, CalArts and Ray Gun magazine, which became a global design phenomenon.”

One of many descriptions of the making of these books, both publishing and performance, recounts:

Having just arrived in Copenhagen, Jorn and Debord rushed into a newsagents, stole a huge amount of magazines and newspapers, and spent a drunken afternoon collaging elements together. The next day they arrived at the printers with 32 collages, which were transferred to lithographic plates. Jorn then sat at the top of a ladder over the zinc plates, dropping cup after cup of Indian ink onto them. The plates were then etched and printed over the black texts and images.

 

Grand jeu de l’histoire de Paul et Virginie

Grand jeu de l’histoire de Paul et Virginie. Avec figures coloriées (France, after 1863). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a scarce set of playing cards inspired by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s popular novel Paul et Virginie, first published in 1788. The cards are housed in a mid-nineteenth-century romantic paneled cloth binding, ornately decorated with gilt and colored detailing. The central panel on the front cover has been cut away to enclose a further colored vignette and title caption from the playing cards.

Rare book dealer and historian Amanda Hall determined that the previous occupant of the binding was “Madame Wolliez’ Souvenirs d’une mère de famille, a collection of educational stories that was first published in 1833 but which continued in print through to the end of the century. This seems most likely to have been a publisher’s binding issued by the booksellers Mame in Tours for their ‘fifth’ edition of 1863. Madame Wolliez’ work has been removed from its binding and is has been replaced by these beautiful playing cards, each separately mounted.”

 

The date of this collection is hard to judge but might be sometime after 1863, given the binding. OCLC suggests a date of 1815 but the Morgan Library copy has a watermark of the Dambricourt paper mill suggesting that it was created around 1834. “Some of the unsigned etchings can be traced back to the first illustrated edition of 1789, containing plates after Moreau le Jeune and Joseph Vernet.”–Morgan, Corsair online catalog.

It has been suggested that the cards were the work of Jean-Charles Pellerin at Epinal: “Dès 1800, Pellerin inaugure sa longue série d’illustrations du roman [de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre] avec son Grand jeu de l’Histoire de Paul et Virignie” (see François Cheval and Thierry-Nicolas C. Tchakaloff, Souvenirs de Paul et Virginie, 1995, p. 153). Paul Toinet, however, ascribes them to the celebrated artists and engravers of rue Saint Jacques in Paris (see Toinet, Répertoire bibliographique et iconographique de Paul et Virginie, no. 742).

Both the Morgan Library and Yale University record copies of the twenty-five cards printed on a single sheet. There are also copies in the Musée Léon Dierx de Saint Denis de la Réunion and at the Rouen Musée national de l’éducation.

 

The novel tells the story of Paul and Virginia, who are raised as brother and sister by two widows. Both mothers agree to marry the two children when they are old enough. Virginia’s aunt proposes to send her niece to France. Virginia accepts, though she is heartbroken to leave Paul, whom she loves. Two years later, she sails back to Mauritius Island, but her ship is pushed against reefs by a tempest and Paul fails to save her. Shortly after, he dies from grief.

In The French Revolution: A History, Thomas Carlyle wrote: “[It is a novel in which] there rises melodiously, as it were, the wail of a moribund world: everywhere wholesome Nature in unequal conflict with diseased, perfidious art; cannot escape from it in the lowest hut, in the remotest island of the sea.”