Intriguing cover art

Blaise Cendrars, Panorama de la Pégre (Grenoble: B. Arthaud, [1935]). Cover design by Cassandre. First edition. A compilation of reviews and reports for various French newspapers by Cendrars, illustrated with photogravure plates. Graphic Arts Collection 2019- in process

Cassandre (pseudonym of Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron, 1901-1968) was a French commercial poster artist and typeface designer. In addition to his commercial work, he taught graphic design at the École des Arts Décoratifs and then, at the École d’Art Graphique. Understanding the importance of typography, Cassandre developed Bifur in 1929, the sans serif Acier Noir in 1935, and in 1937 an all-purpose font called Peignot.

 

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a group of paperbacks with superb cover art. Here are a few samples.

Ferri-Pisani, Les Pervertis. Roman d’un potache. Cover designed by Gaston Secretan (Paris: Librairie universelle, [1905]). First edition. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

A notable homoerotic novel set in a boy’s boarding school. “Les Pervertis, by a precocious young French author, Ferri-Pisani, is so special and doubtless true, a picture of homosexualism in a great Paris lycée that it may well become a classic in its type.” (Edward Prime-Stevenson, The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life, 1908). Ferri-Pisani was a great-nephew of George Sand.

Georges Le Rouge. La Rue hantée (Paris: Éditions Nilsson, [1914]). First edition. Graphic Arts Collection 2019- in process

Le Rouge was a prolific author of crime, mystery and other pulp fiction, best known for Le Mysterieux Docteur Cornelius, who came to be revered by the Surrealists. Cendrars wrote of him in 1968:

How to define his multicolored versatility, his lively and spontaneous erudition never at a loss for arguments? He was no drudge, no hack; even in the obscure anonymous brochures that were sold only at news-stands and in neighborhood or provincial notion shops, he was never unworthy of his craft as a writer which he took very seriously and of which he was very proud. On the contrary, it was in these unsigned popular publications—fat volumes such as a key to dreams, a cookbook (which I have recommended to all the gourmets I know)—and in the unbound pamphlets, often a simple printed sheet folded in four, eight, or sixteen pages that was sold for two, four, ten sous at Metro entrances on Saturday nights (Paris Review).

Liane de Pougy (pseudonym of Anne Marie Chassaigne), Ecce Homo. D’ici, de la. Cover design by Gaston Noury (Paris: Société Parisienne d’Édition, [1903]). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

A novel by De Pougy, who escaped to Paris after an abusive early marriage, where she dabbled in acting and prostitution, and became a regular user of cocaine and opium, a writer, and a star of the Folies bergères. She had numerous relationships with women, notably Natalie Clifford Barney, recorded in her novel Idylle Saphique, published in 1901.

See also:
Gramont, Elisabeth de, 1875-1954. Correspondance. Elisabeth de Gramont, Liane de Pougy; introduction & notes de Francesco Rapazzini (Venise: L’Amazone retrouvée, 2006). Rare Books 2012-0524N

Jacob, Max, 1876-1944. Lettres à Liane de Pougy. Max Jacob, Salomon Reinach; préf. de Jean Chalon pour les lettres de Max Jacob; introd. de Paul Bernard pour les lettres de Salomon Reinach ([Paris]: Plon, c1980). Firestone Library » PQ2619.A17 Z567

Pougy, Liane de, 1869-1950. Idylle saphique: roman ([Paris]: Alteredit, 2003). Firestone Library PQ2631.O68 I39 2003

Pougy, Liane de, 1869-1950. Idylle saphique: roman. Liane de Pougy; préface de Jean Chalon (Paris: J.-C. Lattès, 1979). ReCAP » PQ2631.O685 I3 1979g

Pougy, Liane de, 1869-1950. My blue notebooks. Liane de Pougy [i.e. M. C. Ghika]; pref. by R. P. Rzewuski; translated from the French by Diana Athill (New York: Harper & Row, 1979). ReCAP CT1018.G48A3513 1979

Amalgam

https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2019/03/08/theaster-gates-slate-wall-drawing-video/

Theaster Gates, currently Distinguished Visiting Artist and Director of Artist Initiatives at the Lunder Institute for American Art, Waterville, Maine, has mounted his first solo exhibition in France at the Palais de Toyko entitled “Amalgam.” The term amalgam has been used in the past to denote racial, ethnic, and religious mingling. For Gates, it has acquired an even more charged significance, impelling his practice towards new formal and conceptual explorations in film, sculpture, architecture, and music.https://www.facebook.com/palaisdetokyo/videos/interview-theaster-gates/875998499398092/

On view through the end of 2019, the exhibition explores social histories of migration and interracial relations using a specific episode in American history “to address larger questions of black subjugation and the imperial sexual domination and racial mixing that resulted from it.”

The starting point is the story of Malaga Island in Maine. Gates notes: “In 1912, the state governor expelled from Malaga the poorest population, an interracial, mixed community of about 45 people, considered ‘indolent’ by many of the local white inhabitants. These unfortunate people were forced to relocate throughout the mainland; some were even involuntarily committed to psychiatric institutions.”  See more: https://www.pressherald.com/2012/05/20/a-century-of-shame_2012-05-20/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKvVvg0TeF8&w=560&h=315

#TheasterGates
“Nothing is pure in the end…
A sea of wood,
An island of debate.
Can an exhibition start shift the negative truths of the history of a place?.”

“Theaster Gates (born in 1973, lives in Chicago) works as an artist and land theorist. His practice includes sculpture, installation, performance and urban interventions that demonstrate the tremendous use value in economically destabilized communities. His projects attempt to instigate the creation of cultural capital by acting as catalysts for social engagement that leads to political and spatial change. Theaster Gates has described his method as “critique through collaboration” – often working with architects, researchers and performers to create works that expand ideas of what visual-based practices can be.”

See also Theaster Gates Art Library:

Graver pour le roi

Gilles Rousselet and Israel Silvestre, frontispiece for Charles Perrault, Courses de testes et de bague, faites par le Roy, et par les Princes et Seigneurs de sa cour en l’année 1662. Paris, 1670. Copper plate and engraving.

On view through May 20, 2019, at the Louvre is the exhibition Graver pour le roi: Collections historiques de la Chalcographie du Louvre. http://presse.louvre.fr/graver-pour-le-roi/. The press release notes:

Exceptionally bringing together more than a hundred works, the exhibition traces the origins of the Chalcography of the Louvre with nearly seventy engraved matrices of its collection, presented in relation to drawings of the Department of Graphic Arts of the Louvre Museum and prints from the Edmond de Rothschild collection and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Gérard Edelinck, after Charles Le Brun, La Famille de Darius aux pieds d’Alexandre
https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/item/924

Many of the copper plates on view are matrices for the prints Princeton students and visitors enjoyed a few years ago in the exhibition Versailles on Paper. https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/

Our prints were acquired by Princeton University in 1886 in an exchange with the Bibliothèque nationale (Paris), thanks to John S. Pierson, Class of 1840, who effected the exchange, recorded by the BN as “Double échangé” no. 907. Volker Schröder, Associate Professor of French in the Department of French & Italian, researched and clarified this information for his essay in the Princeton University Library Chronicle dedicated to our exhibition. http://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/content/chronicle-article-abstracts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/06/12/louis-xiv-visits-the-royal-academy-of-sciences/

In the galleries, the polished copper and steel-plated matrices are brightly lit and difficult to photograph without reflection. Happily the catalogue to the show, coming soon to Princeton, has excellent reproductions of both the printing plates and the paper prints.

Charles Nicolas Cochin fils, Pompe funebre d’Elisabeth Therese de Lorraine, Reine de Sardaigne ... [Interior of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, decorated for the funeral of Elizabeth Theresa, Queen of Sardinia], 1743. Copper plate and engravings.

 

Gerard Edelinck after Nicolas de Largilliere, Portrait of Charles Le Brun, 1684. https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/item/923

A loose translation of one label:

The Chalcography of the Louvre is rich in a collection of some 14,000 engraved plates, the oldest of which date back to the 17th century. When it was founded in 1797, the new institution was given the role of preserving and exploiting three important sets of engraved plates seized during the French Revolution: those of the King’s Cabinet, the Pleasures Menus, and of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. The Cabinet of the King , born from the will of Louis XIV and Colbert, gathers 956 prints showing the castles, statues and paintings belonging to the king. Designed to spread the image of the magnificence of power, these boards are the work of the best engravers of time, such as Claude Mellan, Gerard Audran, Gérard Edelinck.

Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin, L’Eucharistie – Das letzte Abendmahl, [1680-1694]

 

Detail

 

A reply to our Charles Ricketts question

http://charlesricketts.blogspot.com/

On 22 March, 2019, we posted a drawing from the Graphic Arts Collection that may or may not have been the work of Charles Ricketts: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2019/03/22/rickettss-drawings-published-and-unpublished/. A special note was sent to Paul van Capelleveen, curator of Rare Books at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands, who researches and writes the weekly blog “Charles Ricketts & Charles Shannon.”

 

Today, a reply was posted by Mr. Capelleveen, with information on Ricketts’s career around the date of this drawing and a possible answer to our question. Take a look at his intriguing solution to the puzzle and see what you think: http://charlesricketts.blogspot.com

Our sincere thanks for all his hard work, which not only helps Princeton University but adds significantly to everyone’s understanding of Ricketts’s art and the iconography of the Sphinx. Isn’t this new international world of shared scholarship wonderful?

Photo Book Show

Only one more day left to attend The Photography Show at Pier 94. The longest-running and foremost exhibition dedicated to the photographic medium, the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) has mounted the 39th edition of the show featuring nearly 100 of the world’s leading fine art photography galleries.

Each year the photobook portion of the show has grown larger and more international, including the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East, and South America. Book dealers, publishers, and photography-related organizations include:

10×10 Photobooks, New York
21st Editions, South Dennis, MA
AKIO NAGASAWA Gallery | Publishing, Tokyo
American Photography Archives Group, APAG, New York
Aperture Foundation, New York
Artbook | D.A.P., New York
Benrido, Kyoto
Brilliant Graphics, Exton, PA
Candor Arts, Chicago, IL
Citizen Editions, Brooklyn, NY
Conveyor Editions, Jersey City, NJ

DAMIANI, Bologna, Italy
Daylight Books, Durham, NC
Dust Collective, Stow, MA
GOST Books, London
Harper’s Books, East Hampton, NY
KOMIYAMA TOKYO, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
KGP – Kris Graves Projects, Long Island City, NY
L’Artiere, Bologna, Italy
Light Work, Syracuse, NY
MACK, London
Minor Matters Books, Seattle, WA
Nazraeli Press, Paso Robles, CA
photo-eye, Santa Fe, NM
Photograph Magazine, New York
Saint Lucy Books, Baltimore, MD
STANLEY/BARKER, Shropshire, UK
SUPER LABO, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
TBW Books, Oakland, CA
The Classic, Arnaville, France
TIS Books, Brooklyn, NY
Yoffy Press, Atlanta, GA
Zatara Press, Richmond, VA

The Wonderful Magazine and Marvellous Chronicle

The Wonderful Magazine Or Marvellous Chronicle; Or New Weekly Entertainer. A Work Recording Authentic Accounts of The Most Extraordinary Productions, Events, And Occurrences, In Providence, Nature, And Art… (London: Printed for the Proprietors, Published By C. Johnson, 1793).    Volumes 1-5. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- In process.

 

Portrait of an innkeeper known as Mother Louse of Louse Hall, a famous establishment outside the city of Oxford; fanciful coat of arms bottom center: three lice surmounted by a tankard, motto on banner underneath, ‘Three liese pas-sant’ (a re-issue).

Henry Jenkins, 169-years-old.

The following Forty Numbers of this Work (making only Sixty in the whole) will be enriched with a great Variety of engravings, equally extraordinary, Wonderful, Marvellous, Astonishing, and Interesting, too numerous to mention here. every future Number will therefore be Embellished with One or two most Elegant engravings, consisting of the most Extraordinary, Wonderful, and Rare Productions in Nature and Art, drawn and engraved by eminent Artists, among which will be included many Large Quarto Copper-plates, containing extraordinary Representations, which cannot be included in a less Size.

The frontispiece of the first volume is labeled, “The Art of Lying Burlesqued in an Account of A Wonderful Flight or Journey from France to Gibraltar, America, &c. Related by an Eminent Author,” which may refer to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) included in serial form throughout the first three volumes.

 

The story of John Bigg, the Dinton Hermit, who only wore leather.

Margaret Finch, Queen of the Norwood Gypsies, Died 1740, Aged 108 years.

 

“Old Boots of Rippon in Yorkshire” shown with his ability to hold a coin between the tips of his nose and chin.

Subtitled: “Consisting entirely of Such Curious Matters as come under the Denominations of Miraculous!, Queer!, Odd!, Strange!, Supernatural!, Whimsical!, Absurd!, Out Of The Way! and Unaccountable! including Genuine Accounts of the most surprising Escapes from Death – Deliverances from Dangers – Strange Discoveries of long concealed Murders – Strange and Unaccountable Accidents – The Surprising Phenomena of Nature – Absurd and Ridiculous Customs peculiar to different Ages and Nations – Dreadful Shipwrecks – Heroic Adventures – Uncommon Instances of Courage, Strength, Longevity, or Long Life, Accounts of Persons Famous for Eating, Drinking, Fasting, Walking, or Sleeping – Interesting and extraordinary Anecdotes – Memorable Exploits – Perilous Adventures – Strange Effects of Imagination in Pregnant Women – And whatever else is calculated to promote Mirth or Entertainment, or what is Wonderful, Marvellous, or Astonishing. – The Whole carefully Collected from the Writings of the most approved Historians, Travellers, Astrologers, Physicians, Physiognomists, Philosophers, &c. of all Ages and Countries. – Embellished with a great Variety of Elegant Copper Plates accurately Engraved.”

 

Mademoiselle de Beaumont, or the Chevalier d’Eon. Female Minister Plenipo. Capt. of Dragoons Etc. Etc.
See also: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/07/23/fencing-update/

 

 

Cut Dada


Werner Pfeiffer, Hocus Pocus (Red Hook, N.Y.: Pear Whistle Press, 2012). Altered book. One of 50 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

In 2005, curator Leah Dickerman and an extended group of authors published Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York, Paris; the catalogue for an exhibition held at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A survey of perhaps the most influential modern art movement as it developed in six crucial cities during the period 1916 to 1926, the book quickly became a canonical text in the study of modern art.

 

As an homage to the movement and the publication, Werner Pfeiffer created what he calls a book object titled Hocus Pocus that cuts and rebinds the catalogue into 12 individual books, each one telling a modified narrative.

 

Appropriation of existing art or text has a long tradition within modern art and within the contemporary artists’ book genre is a sub-division known as ‘altered books’. Another good example of an altered book artist is John Latham, whose copy of Art and Culture by Clement Greenberg is now accessioned into the Museum of Modern Art in liquid form: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81529. Pfeiffer’s Hocus Pocus has been accessioned into several art museum collections including the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

 

 

See also our copy of John Latham (1921-2006), The Mechanical Bride by Marshall McLuhan, ca. 1969. Altered book. Gift of William Howard Adams. Graphic Arts GAX Oversize 2006-0384Q: https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2009/03/the_man_who_ate_art_and_cultur.html

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.