From Constable to Koons Books Inscribed by Artists
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From Constable to Koons Books Inscribed by Artists Benjamin Spademan Rare Books The descriptions in the catalogue are brief. Fuller descriptions are available on request. FROM CONSTABLE TO KOONS All the books are in fine condition, unless otherwise stated. The reproductions are not the actual size. BOOKS INSCRIBED BY ARTISTS Benjamin Spademan Rare Books 14 Mason’s Yard, London SW1Y 6BU + 44 (0)7768 076772 [email protected] www.benjaminspademan.com Cover Henri Matisse. Verve, Revue artistique et littéraire, n° 66. Title page D. G. Rossetti. A Treasure of English Sonnets, n° 82. BENJAMIN SPADEMAN RARE BOOKS I started putting together this group of books, almost by chance some ten years ago, when I acquired in Paris a monograph on Henry Moore, with an original drawing and presentation by the artist on the title page. Next came a Francis Bacon, and thereafter gradually a collection began to form. To qualify for inclusion, books had to have been personally transformed by the artist, usually as a gift to another person. The criteria for selection were drawn broadly, to include visual artists of all kinds - painters, sculptors, illustrators, cartoonists, stage & fashion designers - and allowing all kinds of art, from highly finished drawings, collages and watercolours to fairly minimal interventions. The books too covered a wide range of types, from livres d’artistes, to standard monographs, to periodicals, exhibition catalogues and ephemera such as invitations. In the process of selection, the focus was always on the quality of the image and the interest of the inscription.The earliest examples, John Constable and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, are both intensely personal family affairs. In the case of Constable a present for his god-daughter, the child of his close friend and future biographer; and of Rossetti a celebration - together with his sister, the poet Christina Rossetti - of their mother’s 80th birthday. In the course of the 20th Century, the practice of artists inscribing books with original drawings became more established, and the circle of recipients widened enormously. A high proportion though remained to people connected to the artists milieu - patrons, collaborators, fellow artists, art critics and museum directors- including such names as Colette, Picasso, Marie Cuttoli, Peggy Guggenheim, Florence Gould and Kenneth Clark.The networks of relationships within the art world revealed by these inscriptions have been second only to the images themselves in contributing to the pleasure I have had in forming this collection. Benjamin Spademan John Constable. Songs Divine and Moral, Attempted in Easy Language (n° 28). 5 1. ALECHINSKY, Pierre Schaerbeek, Belgium 1927 Painter, writer, calligrapher, illustrator L’Autre Main NP (Saint-Clément): Fata Morgana, 1988. First edition. Octavo (140 x 220 mm), pp. 152. Publisher’s printed soft covers, pages uncut. A self-analysis by Alechinsky of the roots of the creative process and of the influence of left- handedness. Half title full page drawing of a man at a desk, incorporating the printed image of a pair of spectacles that recurs through the text. Inscribed: ‘ à Arnold et Nancy avec l’amitié fidèle de Pierre Alechinsky’. and dated below: ‘le 31 02 1989’. 6 7 2. ALEXEIEFF, Alexandre Kazan, Russia 1901 – Paris, France 1982 Illustrator, film maker, animator Adrienne Mesurat by Julien Green, with original etchings by Alexandre Alexeieff. Paris: Les Exemplaires, 1929. Quarto (300 x 210 mm). Number 12 of an edition of 99 on “Vélin à la forme des Papeteries de Rives”, with 55 etchings. Bound in a superb deco binding signed on turn in by E. Schifferson, with the motif of a locked door in brown and gold morocco. With two original steel engraved plates laid in front and back, of illustrations in this book. Publisher’s plain wrappers preserved. Front free endpaper with a full page fully worked chiaroscuro composition in pencil and ink, depicting a young woman standing, her arms raised with an expression of terror or astonishment, signed below Alexeieff. Inscribed: ‘Paris 1930 à Gustavo Gili ami éclairé du livre, dans l’espoir d’une collaboration, en té= moignage de sympathie admi= rative Alexandre Alexeieff’ Additionally inscribed by Julien Green on half-title: ‘Exemplaire de Monsieur Gustavo Gili Hommage de Julien Green Paris, 12 mai 1931.’ Gustavo Gili was a Catalan publisher and the collaboration referred to is almost certainly an edition of Don Quixote for which Alexeieff completed the etchings, but which never appeared. 8 9 3. ANDO, Tadao Osaka, Japan 1941 Architect GA Architect 12 : Tadao Ando , 1988-1993 Edited by Yukio Futagawa, criticism by Tom Heneghan, photography by Yoshio Takase. Tokyo: GA International ADA Edita, 1993. First edition. Quarto (300 x 310 mm). Vol. 2 of a photographic survey of Ando’s work. Text in Japanese and English. Publisher’s photographic soft covers, slight wear to edges. Front free endpaper with a full page drawing in blue and green crayon, of a cuboid building standing on a hillside. Inscribed above in Japanese script : ‘to Hachimoto Tamotsu’, and signed below by Ando, dated 18/11/20. 10 11 4. APPEL, Karel Amsterdam, Netherlands 1921 – Zürich, Switzerland 2006 Painter, sculptor Het Gezicht van Appel/ The Face of Apple Text in Dutch and English by Ed Wingen, photographs by Nico Koster. Venlo - Holland: Uitgeverij van Spijk, 1977. First edition. Quarto (285 x 285 mm), unpaginated. Publisher’s photographic soft covers, some wear to edges. A comprehensive photographic survey of Appel’s work and life to 1977. Half title with bold full page composition in coloured crayons, representing a human face. Inscribed on inside cover in coloured crayons: ‘Pour Dominique + Christian de Karel 25 sept 1980.’ 12 13 5. ARAKI Nobuyoshi Tokyo, Japan 1940 Artist and photographe Shashin-Ron Theory of Photography. Tokyo: Tojusha, 1981. First edition. Octavo (150 x 215 mm), pp. 223 illustrated with two sections of eight page foldouts of Araki’s contact sheets of lesbian sex and women masturbating. Original publisher’s photo-illustrated laminated boards, dust jacket, black wrap around band. Title-page with full-page drawing of a penis, inscribed by Araki in Japanese to noted sexologist Shimokawa Koushi: ‘Photography is pointing to an idea.’ Signed by Araki. 14 15 6. ARMAN (Armand, Fernandez) Nice, France 1928 – New York, USA 2005 Painter, sculptor, printmaker ARMAN ESTAMPES, Catalogue raisonné Text in French and English by Jane Otmezguine and Marc Moreau, with the collaboration of Corice Arman. Paris: Editions Marval, 1990. First edition. Large Quarto (330 X 250 mm). Publisher’s boards with pictorial wrappers and printed acetate cover. Half title with full page drawing in black ink of landscape formed of violin contours, with the necks of three violins standing like pylons, the sun overhead in the form of a clef. Inscribed above: ‘pour Valy R [?] de la part de Nadia’ signed below ‘Arman’. 16 17 7. BACON, Francis Dublin, Ireland 1909 – Madrid, Spain 1992 Painter Francis Bacon, Paintings of the Eighties New York: Marlborough Gallery, 1987 First edition. Quarto (300 x 250 mm), pp. 50, 14 colour plates. Publisher’s pictorial soft covers, with printed acetate jacket. Exhibition catalogue, May 7th – July 31st 1987 at Marlborough Gallery, New York, with an interview conducted by David Sylvester. Half title with a drawing in fibre pen representing a human figure in a schematic interior space. Signed below: ‘Francis Bacon’. 18 19 8. BASELITZ, Georg Kamenz, Germany 1938 Painter, printmaker, sculptor Georg Baselitz: Retrospektive 1964 – 1991 Münich: Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstifung/ Hirmer Verlag, 1992. First edition. Quarto (275 x 230 mm), pp. 264. Numerous black & white and coloured illustrations, some fold out. Publisher’s photographic hard covers. Exhibition catalogue with critical essays for a retrospective survey of Baselitz’ work in 1992, exhibited first at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstifung in Münich, then in Edinburg and Vienna. Half title with full page drawing in pencil of two dogs lying with heads to the bottom of the page, with a circle (a ball?) between them with the letters FAERBER within. Inscribed at head of page: ‘30/ IV/ 1999 für Katherina und Thoma’ and signed below ‘G. Baselitz’. 20 21 9. BASKIN, Leonard New Jersey, USA 1922 – Massachusetts, USA 2000 Printmaker, illustrator The Iliad of Homer Translated by Richard Lattimore, drawings by Leonard Baskin Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. Quarto (285 x 200 mm), pp. 526; 49 drawings by Leonard Baskin. Publisher’s red cloth, pictorial dust wrapper with some wears to top edge. Front free endpaper with a finished drawing in black ink of a chick waving a wing. Above a calligraphic inscription reads: ‘Mr. and Mrs. R Lewin with the affectionate regards of Leonard Baskin 1963.’ 22 23 10. BATEMAN, Henry Mayo Sutton Forest, Australia 1887 – Gozo, Malta 1970 Artist, cartoonist H.M. Bateman by Himself London: Collins, 1937. First edition. Quarto (200 x 265 mm), pp. 132 text with numerous illustrations, 16 black and white plates. Publisher’s original brown cloth with gilt stamped image. Some foxing to endpapers. Front free endpaper with small drawing in ink of the author working at a desk. Inscribed: ‘With love to Bryda from Mayo or, if preferred “With the author’s compliments” H.M. Bateman. 1937’. 24 25 11. BEARD, Peter New York, USA 1938 Photographer Longing for Darkness: Kamante’s Tales from Out of Africa Gatura Kamante, compiled by Peter Beard, photographs by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), postface by Jacqueline Bouvier Onassis. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. First edition. Quarto (310 x 210 mm) with 168 drawings and 160 photographs. Publisher’s black cloth boards, with photographic image of Karen Blixen. Pictorial dust wrappers. The recollections of Karen Blixen’s former major-domo Kamante, related to Beard and written out by his son, with numerous illustrations, reproductions of Blixen’s photographs and Beard’s own photographic record of Kenya.