Fine Arts  Books

All of the books listed here are for sale. Prices on request.

Rare Surrealist Books

André BRETON, Paul ELUARD, et al.

Breton, André, Eluard, Paul, et al. Dictionnaire Abrégé du Surréalisme, Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1938, 76 pp. This rare book, in original glassine wraps, is in very good condition, with a few minor defects to the cover and spine, and slight light-staining at the edges; the present copy is complete with the rare 8-page booklet of the accompanying exhibition that was held at the gallery in January-February 1938. The 1938 Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, with the famous series of lavishly decorated mannequins and Marcel Duchamp's 1200 sacks of coal suspended from the ceiling of the gallery, was arguably one of the most important art exhibitions of the last century, and this collective volume consecrated the show. Yves Tanguy's cover drawing for the dictionary is furthermore a remarkable example of surrealist illustration.

Max ERNST

Ernst, Max. Une Semaine de Bonté / ou / Les Sept Elements Capitaux / Roman Premier Cahier / Dimanche / Element : / La Boue / Exemple : / Le Lion de Belfort, éditions Jeanne Bucher, Paris, 1934 There is some discoloration and slight scuffing and staining on the cover, with 32 pages bound in the volume (all in excellent condition), plus an additional 13 loose sheets (11 printed with the images recto/verso and 2 printed recto only, some of which are doubles of the album itself; see Collation, below). Some of these additional sheets seem to be printer's working proofs, with smudges, traces of glue, and pinholes in the corners; one bears extensive formatting annotations. (See illustration, lower right)

This work, often considered Ernst's masterpiece, is a pastiche of 17th-century hermetic treatises on alchemy, using a collage technique that Ernst had already experimented in reassembling turn-of-the-century wood engravings from popular magazines to produce some of the most striking surrealist images of the movement. The present cahier is rare composite volume (numbered "Exemplaire N° 30"), with a renowned provenance, from the library of the French surrealist poet, Paul Eluard (annotated "Exemplaire de Paul Eluard. C.G." inside the cover by the expert Christian Galantaris).  Collation (N.B. As the pages are unnumbered, we have followed the pagination given by Werner Spies for the collages in Max Ernst, Oeuvre-Katalog: 1929-1938, Band IV): In addition to the endsheets and the title pages with the justification, Pages 1, 2, 3, 4 (bound), 5, 6 (loose), 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20 (bound), 21, 22 (loose), 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30 (bound), 31, 32 (loose), 33, 34, 35 (bound); with additional loose sheets of pages 16 (recto only, see illustration, right), 23, and 24, as well as loose sheets from the other volumes as follows: L'Eau, Pages 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 23, 24 ,25 , 26, and 27 (cf. Spies's referencing as Kap. 2: 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 51, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62); La Cour du Dragon, Pages 9, 10, 15, 16 (cf. Spies's referencing as Kap. 3: 71, 72, 77, 78).