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.
-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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Artists’ books present a unique vantage point from which to gain insight into a succession of revolutionary movements, from Abstraction to Cubism to Futurism to Dadaism to Surrealism and beyond, and the positions of artists within those movements. Virtually every art movement from the beginning of the twentieth century up to now has produced its testaments in book art, a phenomenon that has escaped the notice of many art historians. The deeply hybrid nature of an artist’s book affords a wider context for understanding and appreciating the spirit of a particular time.
-By revealing the artist’s relationship to a literary work or art movement, an artist’s book can provide a deeper understanding of the artist than we otherwise might have.
+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
+
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.
-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.
+Artists’ books present a unique vantage point from which to gain insight into a succession of revolutionary movements, from Abstraction to Cubism to Futurism to Dadaism to Surrealism and beyond, and the positions of artists within those movements. Virtually every art movement from the beginning of the twentieth century up to now has produced its testaments in book art, a phenomenon that has escaped the notice of many art historians. The deeply hybrid nature of an artist’s book affords a wider context for understanding and appreciating the spirit of a particular time.
+By revealing the artist’s relationship to a literary work or art movement, an artist’s book can provide a deeper understanding of the artist than we otherwise might have.
+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.
+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.
-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.”
-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 Caption