At the dawn of the twentieth century, avant-garde artists and writers throughout Europe discovered a new medium, the artist’s book.
-Although examples of books created as works of art can be found throughout history, from illuminated manuscripts to the books of William Blake, the art form as a widely practiced medium was born in the twentieth century, with approaches to artist’s-book publishing established early in the century. Luxury editions, called livres d’artistes, (literally “artists’ books,” but specifically denoting deluxe editions with original prints) were produced by established art dealers to promote the work of artists they represented, with the books often encased in deluxe bindings.
Meanwhile, avant-garde artists and writers, particularly in Russia, produced artistically adventurous works under their own auspices, less concerned with production values and focused more on the book as a hybrid art form. Paris was a major center for the production of livres d’artistes, while in Russia, daring experimentation with the form of the book itself set a standard for innovation. Today, more artists than ever are making books, following paths established more than 100 years ago.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, avant-garde artists and writers throughout Europe discovered a new medium, the artist’s book.
Two visionary Parisian art dealers provided an early impetus for what would soon become a widely practiced art form.
Born in 1866, Ambroise Vollard established his first gallery in 1893 and began publishing livres d’artistes in 1900 with the debut of Parallèlement (Bonnard/Verlaine). One of the most successful gallerists of his time, he took a particular interest in livres d’artistes, producing editions with many of the great artists of the era, including Auguste Rodin, Raoul Dufy, Odilon Redon, Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, and others. He published twenty-four titles in all, leaving twenty-seven more projects in progress at his death, in 1939.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, born in 1884, was known for his prescient early support of the Cubist work of Picasso and Georges Braque, as well as his insightful appreciation of little-known writers of the avant-garde. The first livre d'artiste under his imprint, L’enchanteur pourissant (1909), was Guillaume Apollinaire’s first book, and featured André Derain’s first book illustrations. Subsequent artist/author pairings under Kahnweiler’s imprint included Max Jacob with Picasso and Apollinaire with Dufy, both in 1911.
+Two visionary Parisian art dealers provided an early impetus for what would soon become a widely practiced art form.
Born in 1866, Ambroise Vollard established his first gallery in 1893 and began publishing livres d’artistes in 1900 with the debut of Parallèlement (Bonnard/Verlaine). One of the most successful gallerists of his time, he took a particular interest in livres d’artistes, producing editions with many of the great artists of the era, including Auguste Rodin, Raoul Dufy, Odilon Redon, Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, and others. He published twenty-four titles in all, leaving twenty-seven more projects in progress at his death, in 1939.
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, born in 1884, was known for his prescient early support of the Cubist work of Picasso and Georges Braque, as well as his insightful appreciation of little-known writers of the avant-garde. The first livre d'artiste under his imprint, L’enchanteur pourissant (1909), was Guillaume Apollinaire’s first book, and featured André Derain’s first book illustrations. Subsequent artist/author pairings under Kahnweiler’s imprint included Max Jacob with Picasso and Apollinaire with Dufy, both in 1911.
-Twelve years after the death of Apollinaire, who had coined the term “surrealism” and whose verse frequently made reference to the sun and stars, his friend Giorgio de Chirico paid him homage with an illustrated edition of one of Apollinaire’s most adventurous books. The artist’s vision connects the sources of heavenly light with the modern phenomenal world. It was a highly original interpretation of the work of a poet who had an immeasurable impact on the artists of his time, yet who did not live to see his vision of Surrealism take root as perhaps the most far-ranging, pervasive art movement of the century.
+Twelve years after the death of Apollinaire, who had coined the term “surrealism” and whose verse frequently made reference to the sun and stars, his friend Giorgio de Chirico paid him homage with an illustrated edition of one of Apollinaire’s most adventurous books. The artist’s vision connects the sources of heavenly light with the modern phenomenal world. It was a highly original interpretation of the work of a poet who had an immeasurable impact on the artists of his time, yet who did not live to see his vision of Surrealism take root as perhaps the most far-ranging, pervasive art movement of the century.
-Picasso’s illustrations for Max Jacob’s poetic texts Saint Matorel and Le siège de Jérusalem are considered to be among his most important Cubist prints, created early in the history of the movement. One of Picasso’s first friends in Paris, the resolutely avant-garde Jacob, who was also a serious visual artist, was considered a “Cubist writer,” seeing his subject from multiple angles and in multiple states, much as the Cubists did visually.
-Picasso’s illustrations for Max Jacob’s poetic texts Saint Matorel and Le siège de Jérusalem are considered to be among his most important Cubist prints, created early in the history of the movement. One of Picasso’s first friends in Paris, the resolutely avant-garde Jacob, who was also a serious visual artist, was considered a “Cubist writer,” seeing his subject from multiple angles and in multiple states, much as the Cubists did visually.
+With Klänge, Wassily Kandinsky was engaged in a quest to merge image and text in synergistic expression, here evoking sound (klänge) to effect a deeper resonance. The horse and rider image appearing throughout the book is Kandinsky’s symbol for the pathfinder, in this case finding a way beyond representation in art. The boldly experimental nature of this work, in both text and image, inspired the Dadaists and Futurists. Kandinsky was an “artist’s artist,” and Klänge, though commercially unsuccessful, was perhaps the most influential artist’s book of its time.
---There was no art form that [Kandinsky] had tried without taking completely new paths, undeterred by derision and scorn. In him, word, color, and sound worked in rare harmony.-Hugo Ball, Die Flucht aus der Zeit (Flight Out of Time), 1927
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Founded in 1916 in Zürich, Switzerland, by poets and artists who gathered at Cabaret Voltaire, the Dada movement quickly spread throughout Europe and to New York, only to be ultimately eclipsed by the advent of Surrealism. This lithographed poster advertising a series of Dada soirées in the Netherlands, visually captures the anarchic spirit of Dada.
+Founded in 1916 in Zürich, Switzerland, by poets and artists who gathered at Cabaret Voltaire, the Dada movement quickly spread throughout Europe and to New York, only to be ultimately eclipsed by the advent of Surrealism. This lithographed poster advertising a series of Dada soirées in the Netherlands, visually captures the anarchic spirit of Dada.
+With Klänge, Wassily Kandinsky was engaged in a quest to merge image and text in synergistic expression, here evoking sound (klänge) to effect a deeper resonance. The horse and rider image appearing throughout the book is Kandinsky’s symbol for the pathfinder, in this case finding a way beyond representation in art. The boldly experimental nature of this work, in both text and image, inspired the Dadaists and Futurists. Kandinsky was an “artist’s artist,” and Klänge, though commercially unsuccessful, was perhaps the most influential artist’s book of its time.
+There was no art form that [Kandinsky] had tried without taking completely new paths, undeterred by derision and scorn. In him, word, color, and sound worked in rare harmony.+Hugo Ball, Die Flucht aus der Zeit (Flight Out of Time), 1927
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A Collage Narrative
A Collage Narrative
A Collage Narrative
A Collage Narrative
A Collage Narrative
-- -Leave everything. Leave Dada. Leave your wife. Leave your mistress. Leave your hopes and fears. Leave your children in the woods. Leave the substance for the shadow. Leave your easy life, leave what you were given for the future. Set off on the roads.-André Breton, Les pas perdus, 1924 (Translation by Mark Polizzotti)
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Published the same year as his Surrealist Manifesto, in Les pas perdus Breton captured the insurgent, high-energy spirit of Surrealism in its earliest stages. “Those seeking a kind of cult pilgrimage to nowhere but the opposite of where one is,” writes critic and historian Mary Ann Caws, “would have found the ‘leave everything’ model alluring, even before—perhaps especially before—what one was leaving everything for had been clearly defined.”
-A Collage Narrative
A Collage Narrative
++ +Leave everything. Leave Dada. Leave your wife. Leave your mistress. Leave your hopes and fears. Leave your children in the woods. Leave the substance for the shadow. Leave your easy life, leave what you were given for the future. Set off on the roads.+André Breton, Les pas perdus, 1924 (Translation by Mark Polizzotti)
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Published the same year as his Surrealist Manifesto, in Les pas perdus Breton captured the insurgent, high-energy spirit of Surrealism in its earliest stages. “Those seeking a kind of cult pilgrimage to nowhere but the opposite of where one is,” writes critic and historian Mary Ann Caws, “would have found the ‘leave everything’ model alluring, even before—perhaps especially before—what one was leaving everything for had been clearly defined.”
+Paging through a great artist’s book is an art-viewing experience like no other. Each opening is a revelation of form, sequence, and meaning.
-The experience of an artist’s book is intimate, tactile, and sequential. A gallery display can offer only a hint of that experience, but digital media can provide a partial solution by offering multiple page spreads, contextualizing material, and even representations of the entire contents of books online. Here is a sampling of pages from a few books in the Logan Collection.
+Paging through a great artist’s book is an art-viewing experience like no other. Each opening is a revelation of form, sequence, and meaning.
Natalia Goncharova and her lifelong partner Mikhail Larionov were prominent in early avant-garde movements in Russia. Goncharova was a painter, writer, and illustrator. With Larionov, she emigrated to Paris in 1921, where she designed costumes and sets for the Ballet Russe and continued her fine art career.
Natalia Goncharova with artist Mikhail Larionov (left) and artist/publisher Ilia Zdanevitch, 1913 - + Toggle CaptionThe great majority of the Russian editions were printed on cheap paper and bound with staples, much like the zines of today—not intended to survive beyond the heat of the moment. Russians took the idea of the book to its limit: an art medium in itself, not merely a container for art.
Gorod: Stikhi, by Aleksandr Rubakin, illustrated by Natalia Goncharova, 1920 - + Toggle CaptionGorod: Stikhi’s cover featured a bold graphic design. Inside, the poems were written out by the poet rather than set in type. Many Russian Futurists felt that the most authentic way to present a poem was in the poet’s own handwriting.
Gorod: Stikhi, cover - + Toggle CaptionGertrude Stein once said that Picasso “had a certain way of writing his thoughts” in his art making, a remark particularly apt for his work in Le chant des morts. The bold forms cradle the handwritten poems of the poet Pierre Reverdy almost as in an illuminated manuscript.
---Poetry goes to the heart by way of the eyes.-Pierre Reverdy, Radio interview, 1950
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Gertrude Stein once said that Picasso “had a certain way of writing his thoughts” in his art making, a remark particularly apt for his work in Le chant des morts. The bold forms cradle the handwritten poems of the poet Pierre Reverdy almost as in an illuminated manuscript.
++Poetry goes to the heart by way of the eyes.+Pierre Reverdy, Radio interview, 1950
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