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| [VLAMINCK'S
POEMS SELF-ILLUSTRATED WITH ORIGINAL WOODCUTS]
VLAMINCK, Maurice de First edition. Large quarto (pages 32.5 x 23.0 cm). No. 15 of 90 copies on Hollande Van Gelder, of the total issue of 112 copies, printed at the Imprimerie Birault on March 1, 1921, signed in ink by Vlaminck on the colophon page. Nineteen original woodcut decorations by Maurice de Vlaminck. Original paper covers on japon épais (gravure decoration on front), in chemise and slipcase. Collates 14 ll.: 1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (title with Kahnweiler device, full-page gravure verso facing first poem), 11 ll. (poems and gravures recto), 1 l. (half-page gravure over colophon). Fine throughout. Vlaminck sets his poems evocatively and differently, and the "communications" of the title, the inner dialogues of the creator, refer to the interplays within the page between his poem, his decoration and his mise en page. Communications is Vlaminck's second illustrated book and the first of his own authorship. Klaus Perls observes (Vlaminck, New York, 1941, p. 61): "In painting he found an adequate spontaneous expression for his emotions. But he also felt there were certain things to be said for which color was not adequate, and these he expressed in books that were surprisingly to the point. ...[S]hould the reader make the effort to surrender to the spirit in which these books are given, he will be considerably enriched. They will also show him human nature as it will probably be as long as human beings are born and not produced in test tubes. They will convey to him a "picture" of human nature just as Vlaminck's paintings are such "pictures" for all those who have kept their emotional system open to new impressions." One of the six notable livres d’artiste issued by Kahnweiler and the Galerie Simon in 1921, the Combinations is the only of Kahnweiler's books with a single creator, the only one where an artist self-illustrates his own writing. Chapon, infra, p. 120, praises it: "... voire en encadrements dans les sompteuses pages de Communications -- un autre vrai "livre de peintre" -- où Vlaminck entoure son propre texte tantôt d'une opulent guirlande de noir et de blanc, tantôt l'étale dans la mélancolique perspective d'un paysage de banlieu." We are aware of only four other copies in the United States (Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, San Francisco, New York Public Library Spencer Collection), one in England (Victoria and Albert) and a handful in Europe. Selected references: Chapon, Francois, Le Peintre et le Livre: L'Âge d'Or du Livre Illustré en France, 1870-1970, Paris: Flammarion, 1987, pp. 120, 284. Garvey, Eleanor M., The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960, New York: Hacker Art Books, 1982 (2d ed. rev.), no. 315, p. 214, ill. p. 215 (full page). Skira, Albert, Anthologie du Livre Illustré par les Peintres et Scuplteurs de l'École de Paris, Genève, Éditions Albert Skira, 1946, pp. 104-5, no. 352. Walterskirchen, Katalin von, Maurice de Vlaminck: catalogue raisonné
de l'œuvre gravé, Paris: Flammarion, 1974, no. VI
(B), p. 55, and nos. 56-75, pp. 56-66 |