World Food Books

H.R. Giger
A Rh+

1992, English
Softcover, 94 pages, 30 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Taschen / Cologne

$45.00 - Out of stock

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"The more famous I get, the more I am tolerated, albeit with some head-shaking."H.R. Giger

1992 printing of A Rh+ in the English edition, collecting Giger's multi-faceted career in one place: From surrealistic dream landscapes, experimental film, grotesque cartoons, album cover designs, sculptures, through to his famous Alien creatures, encompassing a world like no other. Lavishly illustrated with over 100 images with detailed captions, this monograph forms a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the foremost modern fantasy artist and ALIEN master, H.R. Giger, covering his cultural and historical importance and a concise biography.

Good copy with some cover wear to extremities, some metallic paint spots to cover.

File under: H.R. Giger Taschen / Cologne Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Painting Film / Video Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Drawing Sculpture / Installation

Georgiana Houghton
A Gift from Spirit

2021, English
Softcover, 204 pages, 23 x 32 cm
Published by Victorian Spiritualist’s Union (VSU) / Melbourne

$100.00 - In stock -

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A Gift from Spirit is the long-awaited first-ever monograph committed to the incredible work of British artist and spiritualist medium Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884). Published by the Victorian Spiritualist’s Union (VSU), this handsomely designed, lavishly illustrated book catalogues all thirty-five Georgiana Houghton watercolour and gouache paintings held at the Victorian Spiritualist’s Union (VSU), the largest collection of Houghton's works in the world. Beautiful reproductions of each work are accompanied by the spirit-assisted work annotations, hand-written by Houghton in copperplate script and affixed to the verso of each painting, and here for the first time deciphered, transcribed and commented on. Accompanying texts on the history of the VSU and Houghton’s paintings in Australia by past VSU president Alan Bennett and current VSU president Lorraine Lee Tet, plus extensive texts by editor Jeff Stewart, reproductions of Georgiana Houghton's texts from her first exhibition in 1871, an illustrated essay on understanding and conserving the artistic work of Georgiana Houghton's now famous abstract spiritualist paintings, list of works and biography.

Highly recommended!

British artist, Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884), developed skills as a medium after attending her first séance in 1859 and achieved her first mediumistic drawings in 1861. For the next decade, under the guidance of a spirit called Lenny followed by master painters and 70 Archangels, she produced over 155 extraordinary watercolour spirit drawings. Most of these have been lost, hopefully awaiting rediscovery. Of the 46 that have survived the majority are in the collections of spiritualist societies. The College of Psychic Studies, formerly known as the London Spiritualist Alliance, have 7 and around 35 have been preserved by the Victorian Spiritualist Union in Melbourne.

Houghton's paintings were produced by an automatic process, occurring under the direction of spirits. This technique would be later revisited by such artists as Austin Osman Spare in 1913, the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint and, from about 1919, by the surrealists. Houghton's earliest known works depicted extremely stylized flowers and fruits. Following a period of formal experimentation, Houghton developed a completely abstract or non-objective style, at least 40 years before Kandinsky, Malevich, Kupka and Mondrian – all of whom were in some measure inspired by spiritual themes. She exhibited a collection of abstract watercolour drawings to the public at an exhibition at the New British Gallery in Bond Street, London in 1871.

File under: Georgiana Houghton Alan Bennett Lorraine Lee Tet Jeff Stewart Georgiana Houghton Victorian Spiritualist’s Union (VSU) / Melbourne Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art Painting Drawing

The Legacy of Hilma Af Klint
Nine Contemporary Responses

2013, English / German
Hardcover, 112 pages, 23.6 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Moderna Museet / Stockholm Walther König / Köln

$350.00 - In stock -

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The very collectible, immediately out-of-print Legacy of Hilma Af Klint, published by Moderna Museet and Walther König in a single beautifully designed hardcover edition.

The first painter to devote herself entirely to abstract art, Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) created a body of work that has only recently begun to be appreciated for its visionary intensity and innovation. The Legacy of Hilma af Klint reproduces in its entirety a previously unknown 1920 notebook by af Klint. Titled "Blumen, Moose, Flechten" [Flowers, Mosses, Lichen] on the front cover, this notebook lays out the artist's occult geometric extrapolations of nature, in diagrams and handwritten commentary (in German). The second part of this volume gathers responses to af Klint's work (visually and in essays) by nine contemporary artists: Cecilia Edefalk, Karl Holmqvist, Eva Löfdahl, Helen Mirra, Rebecca Quaytman, Amy Sillman, Fredrik Söderberg, Sophie Tottie and Christine Ödlund. The book is published on the occasion of af Klint's inclusion in the 2013 Venice Biennale.

Text by Daniel Birnbaum, Ann-Sofi Noring.
English and German text.

Bump to top corner or cover, not effecting pages, otherwise As New.

File under: Amy Sillman Cecilia Edefalk Christine Ödlund Eva Löfdahl Fredrik Söderberg Helen Mirra Karl Holmqvist R.H. Quaytman Sophie Tottie Hilma af Klint Ann-Sofi Noring Daniel Birnbaum Moderna Museet / Stockholm Walther König / Köln Art Painting Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare

Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group
Edited by Michael Duncan

2021, English
Hardcover, 240 pages, 29.2 x 21.6 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by DelMonico Books / US

$125.00 $65.00 - In stock -

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Abstract painting meets theosophical spirituality in 1930s New Mexico: the first book on a radical, astonishingly prescient episode in American modernism.

Edited with text by Michael Duncan.
Text by Scott Shields, MaLin Wilson Powell, Catherine Whitney, Ilene Susan Fort, Dane Rudhyar.

Founded in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, in 1938, at a time when social realism reigned in American art, the Transcendental Painting Group (TPG) sought to promote abstract art that pursued enlightenment and spiritual illumination. The nine original members of the Transcendental Painting Group were Emil Bisttram, Robert Gribbroek, Lawren Harris, Raymond Jonson, William Lumpkins, Florence Miller Pierce, Agnes Pelton, Horace Towner Pierce and Stuart Walker. They were later joined by Ed Garman. Despite the quality of their works, these Southwest artists have been neglected in most surveys of American art, their paintings rarely exhibited outside of New Mexico. Faced with the double disadvantage of being an openly spiritual movement from the wrong side of the Mississippi, the TPG has remained a secret mostly known only to cognoscenti.

Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group aims to address this slight, claiming the group’s artists as crucial contributors to an alternative through-line in 20th-century abstraction, one with renewed relevance today. This volume provides a broad perspective on the group’s work, positioning it within the history of modern painting and 20th-century American art. Essays examine the TPG in light of their international artistic peers; their involvement with esoteric thought and Theosophy; the group’s sources in the culture and landscape of the American Southwest; and the experience of its two female members.

Good—VG copy due bump to upper-back cover corner, otherwise a Fine—As New copy.

File under: Emil Bisttram Robert Gribbroek Lawren Harris Raymond Jonson William Lumpkins Florence Miller Pierce Agnes Pelton Horace Towner Pierce Stuart Walker Ed Garman Michael Duncan DelMonico Books / US Painting Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art SALE

Out of the Grid — Italian Zine 1978—2006

2024, English
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 456 pages, 24 x 33.5 cm
Published by Les Presses Du Reel / Paris Sprint / Milan

$90.00 - Out of stock

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Out of the Grid presents a critical selection of 100 Italian zines from 1978 to 2006 that display a broad spectrum of social, political, aesthetic, and technological changes in the use of language and communication strategies across the territory of self publishing.

Widely mapping Italian society, particularly youth culture—over an extended period that can be symbolically defined as the "post-movement" and "pre-internet3.0"—, this outpouring of creativity gave visibility to small, imaginative and technical shifts on paper that made mimeographs, photocopiers and offset machines tremble, and often erupted into the need to communicate through other mediums. The titles selected originated from different scenes—musical, social, artistic, literary...—within which the distances between authors and readers is eliminated. To help navigate this multitude of subcultures, each zine is introduced by a profile that provides further analysis and information. No specific structure has been imposed, leaving room for the specific characteristics of each project to emerge. 100 titles ∞ paths.

Edited by Dafne Boggeri with Sara Serighelli.

Contribution by Marta Zanoni; interviews with Dafne Boggeri, Gino Gianuizzi, Stefano Gilardino, Glezös, Fabiola Naldi, Lorenza Pignatti, Pietro Rivasi, Giulia Vallicelli [Compulsive Archive].

Graphic design: Dafne Boggeri.
Published with Sprint (sprintmilano.org) and O' (www.on-o.org), Milan.

File under: Dafne Boggeri Sara Serighelli Marta Zanoni Les Presses Du Reel / Paris Sprint / Milan Sound / Music Counterculture Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Periodicals Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Performance / Dance / Theater Art Anarchism Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Group Shows / Collections Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées

On Monsters and Marvels
by Ambroise Pare

1982, English
Softcover, 224 pages, 23 x 14 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by University of Chicago Press / Chicago

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Ambroise Paré, born in France around 1510, was chief surgeon to both Charles IX and Henri III. In one of the first attempts to explain birth defects, Paré produced On Monsters and Marvels, an illustrated encyclopedia of curiosities, of monstrous human and animal births, bizarre beasts, and natural phenomena. Janis L. Pallister’s acclaimed English translation offers a glimpse of the natural world as seen by an extraordinary Renaissance natural philosopher.

Scarce 1982 edition. Good—VG copy, light wear and spotting to block edges.

File under: Ambroise Pare Janis L. Pallister University of Chicago Press / Chicago Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art

Jean-Marie Poumeyrol
Dessins Érotiques

1972, French
Harcover (w. dust jacket), 88 pages, 28 x 21.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Eric Losfeld / Paris

$140.00 - In stock -

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First hardcover edition of Jean-Marie Poumeyrol's Dessins Érotiques, published by Eric Losfeld in 1972. Beautifully illustrated throughout with Poumeyrol's incredible erotic drawings, "the techniques and ideas behind each of the finely drawn, lewd and Surrealist paintings of cult erotic French artist Jean-Marie Poumeyrol (b.1946) are explained by French Surrealist author and filmmaker Raymond Borde." In these, his early works, Jean-Marie Poumeyrol was recognized as a master of erotica, and often associated with the fantastic realism movement, combining hallucinogenic and macabre imagery in an unparalleled manner. Upon graduation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bordeaux he already had a four year old son to support, and so began his illustrious career as a teacher of mechanical draftsmanship, before his educational career was cut short by the system. Art teachers had to pass tests given by the board to determine if they were skilled enough to teach drawing. At the same time that Poumeyrol’s erotic works were first seeing print and sought out avidly by collectors, he failed his art teacher’s exam—being given an ‘F’ for nude drawing. Encouraged by this failure, he dedicated himself to painting and drawing full time, eventually creating a large body of erotica which have marked him ever since (along with Sibylle Ruppert) as one of France’s greatest artists in this domain.

Raymond Borde (1920-2004) is a French film critic, film maker and essayist, co-founder and curator of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse. Associated with the surrealist movement and André Breton, he contributed to Positif and Premier Plan and published around twenty books.

Éric Losfeld (1922 - 1979) was a Belgian-born French publisher who had a reputation for publishing controversial material and was as often sued as Jean-Jacques Pauvert. A publisher who despised profit, he boasted that he had been, throughout his life, "in debt like a mule". When the creditors and the prosecutors gave him a little respite, he who defined himself as a "free editor" had only one principle: to be faithful to his tastes and unfaithful to his disgusts. "The only literature that touches me," he proclaimed, " is literature written with passion, or rather passionate literature." Thus, for thirty years, Losfeld created, at Arcane Editions, Le Terrain Vague, and under his own name, an invaluable and often clandestine catalog of Babouvist and hallucinated principality, and where he gathered all his preferences. For surrealism, eroticism, anarchism, romanticism, fantasy, black humor, jazz and comics. The world according to Losfeld, was that of Artaud, Mandiargues, Druillet, Sade, Vian, Peret, Allais, Jarry, Gbe, Sternberg, Forneret, Bealu, Topor, Arrabal, Peellaert or Klossowski. He was the publisher of Emmanuelle (1967), surrealist magazines ("Bief") and cinematographic magazines ("Midi Minuit Fantastique" and "Positif"), and the Barbarella science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest, amongst many other titles. Losfeld's tombstone inscription reads, "Tout ce qu'il éditait avait le souffle de la liberté." ("Everything he edited had the breath of freedom.").

Very Good copy in Good dust jacket.

File under: Jean-Marie Poumeyrol Raymond Borde Eric Losfeld / Paris Surrealism Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Painting Drawing Out-of-print / Rare Eros Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Fetishism / BDSM

Jean-Marie Poumeyrol
Peintures et Dessins

1981, French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 96 pages, 33 x 25.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Galerie Bijan Aalam / Paris Editions Natiris / Paris

$150.00 - Out of stock

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First hardcover edition of Jean-Marie Poumeyrol — Peintures et Dessins, published by Éditions Baal-Natiris in association with the great Galerie Bijan Aalam, Paris, in 1981. Beautifully illustrated throughout with the visionary drawings and paintings of Jean-Marie Poumeyrol (b. 1941), this over-sized limited edition volume includes text by author Jean-François Reverzy and a conversation between the artist and author. Reverzy's text is fittingly entitled "The Haunting", introducing a remarkable period of Poumeyrol's work from 1973—1980 that matures from his early, complex, fantasy erotic work into his unique, finely-rendered depictions of scarred and haunted liminal spaces, ensnaring the viewer in his forensic scenes of obsession. Poumeyrol's dark architectural Wunderkammers are heavy with disturbance. What has happened, what is to come, what is desired, what is feared. Located out of time, yet littered with curios and trompe-l'œil portholes to many different time-places, Poumeyrol masters the familiar and gentle sensibility of mid-century European still-life/landscape painting with one-hand, whilst luring the viewer into an alien and unsettling pyscho-sexual dread with the other. Often associated with the fantastic realism movement, Poumeyrol combines hallucinogenic and macabre imagery in an unparalleled manner. Upon graduation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bordeaux he already had a four year old son to support, and so began his illustrious career as a teacher of mechanical draftsmanship, before his educational career was cut short by the system. Art teachers had to pass tests given by the board to determine if they were skilled enough to teach drawing. At the same time that Poumeyrol’s erotic works were first seeing print and sought out avidly by collectors, he failed his art teacher’s exam—being given an ‘F’ for nude drawing. Encouraged by this failure, he dedicated himself to painting and drawing full time, eventually creating a large body of erotica which have marked him ever since (along with German born Sibylle Ruppert) as one of France’s greatest artists in this domain.

Fine copy in Fine dust jacket.

File under: Jean-Marie Poumeyrol Jean-François Reverzy Galerie Bijan Aalam / Paris Editions Natiris / Paris Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Painting Drawing Art Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy
Ring of Iron, Ring of Wool

2024, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 176 pages, 31 x 24.1 cm
Published by Skira / Milan

$95.00 - In stock -

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Published on occasion of the exhibition Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy: Ring of Iron, Ring of Wool curated by Dr Victoria-Noel-Johnson, Marzina Marzetti (Director of the Helly Nahmad Gallery) in collaboration with Derek Des Islets and Matthew Foster, Helly Nahmad Gallery, New York, this hardcover catalogue explores the work of Kay Sage (American, 1898—1963) and Yves Tanguy (French-American, 1900—1955), two eminent Surrealist artists who married in 1940. Particular attention will be given to Sage's fascinating life and extraordinary work, which has long been obscured by her relationship with the better-known Tanguy, a key figure of French Surrealism. As such, the publication will analyse the various stages of Sage's life and career in Italy and Paris before returning to New York in 1939, parallel to Tanguy's own exceptional work of the late 1920s—early 1950s, with the aim of highlighting how their personal and professional trajectories affected their respective work and careers thereafter. Sage's dedication to promoting and safeguarding Tanguy's legacy following his premature death in 1955 will also be explored.

File under: Kay Sage Yves Tanguy Victoria Noel-Johnson Marzina Marzetti Skira / Milan Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Theory / Essay Art Painting Drawing

Apocalypse Culture
Edited by Adam Parfrey

1990, English
Softcover, 362 pages, 21.6 x 24 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by Feral House / Los Angeles

$40.00 - Out of stock

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"Apocalypse Culture is compulsory reading for all those concerned with the crisis of our times. An extraordinary collection unlike anything I have ever encountered. These are the terminal documents of the twentieth century."—J.G. Ballard

Two thousand years have passed since the death of Christ and the world is going mad. Nihilist prophets, born-again pornographers, transcendental schizophrenics and just plain folks are united in their belief in an imminent global catastrophe. What are the forces lurking behind this mass delirium?

APOCALYPSE CULTURE is a startling, absorbing and exhaustive tour through the nether regions of today’s psychotic brainscape.

First published in 1987, APOCALYPSE CULTURE immediately touched a nerve. Alternately excoriated and lauded as “epochal”, “the most important book of the decade,” APOCALYPSE CULTURE had begun to articulate what many inwardly sensed — the-fear inspired irrationalism and faith, the clash of irreconcilable forces, and the ever-looming specter of fin de race. In its present incarnation for Feral House, APOCALYPSE CULTURE has significantly increased in size, taking on new perspectives on our current crisis, with pertinent revisions of many articles from the original edition.—burb from this expanded and revised 1990 edition.

Good copy with general wear/"kinkiness".

File under: Peter Sotos Joe Bradley Peter Sotos Adam Parfrey John Zerzan Hakim Bey Paul Lemos Thomas McEvilley Feral House / Los Angeles Fiction / Poetry Art Eros Counterculture Sound / Music Out-of-print / Rare Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Crime / Violence Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Film / Video Theory / Essay Anarchism

Paul Wunderlich und Karin Székessy
Correspondenzen

1977, German
Softcover, 128 pages, 33 x 24 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by Belser Verlag / Stuttgart

$68.00 - Out of stock

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Softcover edition of this wonderful over-sized publication on the unique collaboration between German artist Paul Wunderlich and photographer Karin Székessy, one of Germany's most important female photographers, who were married to each other. Published in Switzerland in 1977, this volumes collects an abundance of these iconic 'transpositions,' evocative, experimental nude photographs by Szekessy juxtaposed with Wunderlich's versions, or replies, in the form of paintings and prints. Profusely illustrated throughout in colour and b/w, the result is a fascinating dialogue of unconventional nude form. German literary critic Fritz J. Raddatz's illustrated introduction gives contextual and art historical references and background, accompanied by a full listing of works and exhibition history.

Good—VG copy with only light cover/edge wear.

File under: Paul Wunderlich Karin Székessy Fritz J. Raddatz Belser Verlag / Stuttgart Photography Eros Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Surrealism Painting Drawing Art Out-of-print / Rare

H.R. Giger
Poëtenz, 1967 (poster)

1967, German
Offset poster (double-sided), 83.5 x 59 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good

$600.00 - Out of stock

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Where it all started.... H.R. Giger's first ever poster! Rare vintage original and never reprinted.

Published in a limited edition to accompany the The-Telllife-No-mads-presents: Poëtenz happening/exhibition, organized by young Giger's friend and collaborator, Swiss writer, artist and publisher Urban Gwerders. Gwerders was the publisher of Swiss underground counterculture magazine Hotcha (1968—1971), to which Giger was also a contributor. The poster folds-down into a catalogue/program for the event with original cover artwork by Giger and collage contents, poems, photographs (including pics of Giger, Li, et al) and Poëtenz information, all designed in the montage style of Hotcha, and the "poster" side entirely reproducing Giger's incredible early "Astreunuchen" masterpiece, pre-dating ALIEN by over ten years.

A stunning collector's item and piece of Giger history, ready to frame.

Dimensions : 83.5 x 59 cm
Very Good condition, never mounted/pinned, well preserved in folded state as issued.

File under: H.R. Giger Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Posters / Prints Objects / Ephemera / A/V Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Film / Video

Paul Thek
Artist's Artist

2009, English
Hardcover, 550 pages, 22 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$400.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of the scarce, highly sought after, and most comprehensive book ever published on American artist Paul Thek, published in 2009 by MIT Press. Edited by Harald Falckenberg and Peter Weibel, this enormous 550 page monograph contains more than 300 works by this groundbreaking artist, documenting his journey from legendary outsider to central figure in many contemporary art movements.

Paul Thek occupied a place between high art and low art, between the epic and the everyday. During his brief life (1933-1988), he went against the grain of art world trends, humanizing the institutional spaces of art with the force of his humor, spirituality, and character. Twenty years after Thek's death from AIDS, we can now recognize his influence on contemporary artists ranging from Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman to Matthew Barney, Mike Kelley, and Paul McCarthy, as well as Kai Althoff, Jonathan Meese, and Thomas Hirschhorn. This book brings together more than 300 of Thek's works—many of which are published here for the first time—to offer the most comprehensive display of his work yet seen. The book, which accompanies an exhibition at ZKM ? Museum of Contemporary Art presenting Thek's work in dialogue with contemporary art by young artists, includes painting, sculpture, drawing, and installation work, as well as photographs documenting the room-size environments into which Thek incorporated elements from art, literature, theater, and religion. These works chart Thek's journey from legendary outsider to foundational figure in contemporary art. In their antiheroic diversity, Thek's works embody the art revolution of the 1960s; indeed, Susan Sontag dedicated her classic Against Interpretation to him. Thek's treatment of the body in such works as “Technological Reliquaries,” with their castings and replicas of human body parts, tissue, and bones, both evoke the aura of Christian relics and anticipate the work of Damien Hirst. The book, with more than 500 images (300 in colour) and nineteen essays by art historians, curators, collectors, and artists, investigates Thek's work on its own terms, and as a starting point for understanding the work of the many younger artists Thek has influenced.

Essays by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Margrit Brehm, Bazon Brock, Suzanne Delehanty, Harald Falckenberg, Marietta Franke, Stefan Germer, Kim Gordon, Roland Groenenboom, Axel Heil, Gregor Jansen, Mike Kelley, John Miller, Susanne Neubauer, Kenny Schachter, Harald Szeemann, Annette Tietenberg, Peter Weibel, Ann Wilson.

Good copy with heavy tanning to spine and covers (esp. fluro spot colour), some bumping to cover corners, light page edge tanning. Internally Very Good, clean throughout.

File under: Paul Thek Harald Falckenberg Peter Weibel Jean-Christophe Ammann Margrit Brehm Bazon Brock Suzanne Delehanty Marietta Franke Stefan Germer Kim Gordon Roland Groenenboom Axel Heil Gregor Jansen Mike Kelley John Miller Susanne Neubauer Kenny Schachter Harald Szeemann Annette Tietenberg Ann Wilson The MIT Press / Massachusetts Arte Povera Sculpture / Installation Out-of-print / Rare Painting Drawing Performance / Dance / Theater Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Unica Zürn
Bilder 1953-1970

1998, German
Hardcover, 224 pages, 23 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Brinkmann & Bose / Berlin Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst / Berlin

$280.00 - Out of stock

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First limited edition hardcover edition of this wonderful Unica Zürn monograph. Published to accompany a major survey exhibition in Berlin in 1998, this beautifully produced catalogue, now long out-of-print, is still one of the most cherished and comprehensive collections of Zürn's artwork ever published.

The German artist and writer Unica Zürn (1916-1970) joined the ranks of Surrealism in the 1950s, after moving to Paris and taking up residence with fellow German-born Surrealist Hans Bellmer. Already an accomplished author, Zürn was drawn to the Surrealist movement's espousal of automatic drawing and writing, Zürn pursued Henri Michaux's declaration that "the hand dreams," making a vocation of these techniques with her dense, otherworldly drawings and paintings that are labyrinthine in detail, as one form sprouts out of another. Also with her experimental anagrams, natural extensions of her established interest in hidden meanings and coincidences. Zürn produced most of her oeuvre during this intensive period in the 1950s and 60s, though one marked by her deteriorating mental health. Many of her works were made during periods of hospitalisation. In 1970, Zürn leapt to her death from the balcony of the Paris apartment she had shared with Bellmer. Upon his death in 1975, Bellmer was buried, at his request, next to Zürn in Paris’s Père-Lachaise Cemetery. Their grave is marked with the words Bellmer wrote for Zürn’s funeral wreath nearly five years before: “My love will follow you into Eternity.”

Zürn has left us an account of the sensation of automatic drawing: "After an initial moment when the pen 'swims' hesitantly on the paper, she discovers the place assigned to the first eye. It is only when she is being watched from the depths of the paper that she begins to get her bearings and, effortlessly, one motif is added to another."

Very Good copy, light wear.

File under: Unica Zürn Hans Bellmer Unica Zürn Brinkmann & Bose / Berlin Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst / Berlin Surrealism Art Drawing Out-of-print / Rare Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Documenta 5
by Harald Szeemann

1972, German / English / French
Vinyl ring-binder (screen printed w. design by E. Ruscha), 650 pages +, 32 x 27 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by documenta / Kassel

$500.00 - Out of stock

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Scarce copy of the only edition of the most elaborately designed, and lowest circulated Documenta catalogue, conceived by curator Harald Szeemann to accompany the fifth edition of Documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition held in Kassel, Germany.

Subtitled "100 Days of Inquiry into Reality -- Today's Imagery," curated by the team of Harald Szeemann, Jean-Christophe Ammann and Arnold Bode, Documenta 5 followed a lineage of comprehensive shows documenting conceptually and minimally charged artworks curated by Szeemann including Live in Your Head (Kunsthalle Bern, 1969), and Happenings and Fluxus (Kunstverein, Köln), 1970. The largest, most expensive and most diverse of any exhibition anywhere, Documenta 5 was criticized in 1972 as being “bizarre…vulgar…sadistic” by art critic and essayist Hilton Kramer and “monstrous… overtly deranged” by art historian and art critic Barbara Rose, yet it still resonates today as one of the most important exhibitions in history. Featuring the works of over 170 artists and an equally expansive variety of materials and subjects drawn from popular cultural materials, architecture, science fiction, kitsch objects, film, advertising, children's art, etc. in addition to the more anticipated international survey of new painting and sculpture - Documenta 5 valiantly attempted to bridge the gap between art, culture, science and the broader society. This massive tome is housed in the iconic orange vinyl-covered, two-ring binder screen printed with the famous ant design by Edward Ruscha. The binder holds a tabbed index of illustrated artist's pages and associated texts and material, largely in German, but also many in English. All registers are present apart from the usual missing 19-25 which were not directly integrated into the catalogue and had to be ordered by the visitor separately to become their own contribution. This very complete copy also includes the additional 80 page, hole-punched Documenta 5 guide book, with floor plans, complete listing of exhibited artworks, list of exhibitions, bibliography, and many gallery, museum and other related advertisements. More than a catalogue, this publication is a piece of art history in itself.

Includes artists: Vito Acconci, Vincenzo Agnetti, Peter Alexander, John de Andrea, Giovanni Anselmo, Arbeitszeit, Archigram, Chuck Arnoldi, Art & Language, Richard Artschwager, Michael Ashkin, John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Georg Baselitz, Lothar Baumgarten, Robert Bechtle, Gottfried Bechtold, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Karl Oskar Blase, Mel Bochner, Alighiero Boetti, Christian Boltanski, Claudio Bravo, George Brecht, K.P. Brehmer, Marcel Broodthaers, Stanley Brouwn, Günter Brus, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Michael Buthe, James Lee Byars, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Castelli, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, Tony Conrad, Ron Cooper, Bill Copley, Joseph Cornell, Robert Cottingham, Paul Cotton, Hanne Darboven, Walter De Maria, David Deutsch, Jan Dibbets, Herbert Distel, Gino de Dominicis, Marcel Duchamp, John Dugger, Don Eddy, Franz Eggenschwiler, Ger van Elk, Richard Estes, Luciano Fabro, John C. Fernie, Robert Filliou, Jud Fine, Joel Fisher, Terry Fox, Howard Fried, Hamish Fulton, Franz Gertsch, Gilbert & George, Ralph Goings, Hubert Gojowczyk, Dan Graham, Walter Grasskamp, Nancy Graves, Hans Haacke, Duane Hanson, Guy Harloff, Michael Harvey, Haus-Rucker-Co, Auguste Herbin, Eva Hesse, Rebecca Horn, Jean Olivier Hucleux, Douglas Huebler, Jörg Immendorff, Will Insley, Rolf Iseli, Ken Jacobs, Neil Jenney, Alfred Jensen, Jasper Johns, Joan Jonas, Max G. Kaminski, Howard Kanovitz, Edward Kienholz, Imi Knoebel, Christof Kohlhofer, Jannis Kounellis, Tom Kovachevich, Piotr Kowalski, David Lamelas, Barry Le Va, Jean LeGac, Alfred Leslie, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Ingeborg Luscher, Inge Mahn, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Etienne Martin, Richard McLean, David Medalla, Fernando Melani, Jim Melchert, Mario Merz, Gustav Metzger, Bernd Minnich, Malcolm Morley, Ed Moses, Bruce Nauman, Hermann Nitsch, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Blinky Palermo, Panamarenko, Giulio Paolini, A.R. Penck, Giuseppe Penone, Vettor Pisani, Sigmar Polke, Stephen Posen, Markus Raetz, Arnulf Rainer, Gerhard Richter, Klaus Rinke, Dorothea Rockburne, Peter Roehr, Allen Ruppersberg, Edward Ruscha, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Ulrich Ruckriem, Robert Ryman, John Salt, Salvo, Lucas Samaras, Paul Sarkisian, Jean-Frederic Schnyder, Ben Schonzeit, Werner Schroeter, HA Schult, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Fritz Schwegler, Richard Serra, Paul Sharits, Allan Shields, Katharina Sieverding, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Keith Sonnier, Klaus Staeck, Paul Staiger, Jorge Stever, Robert Strubin, Paul Thek, Wayne Thiebaud, Andre Thomkins, David Tremlett, Richard Tuttle, Ben Vautier, W + B Hein, Franz Erhard Walther, Robert Watts, William Wegman, Lawrence Weiner, John Wesley, H.C. Westermann, William Wiley, Rolf Winnewisser, Tom Wudl, Klaus Wyborny, La Monte Young, Peter Young, Gilberto Zorio.

Catalogue also includes Bob Projansky and Seth Siegelaub's "The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement." This "Agreement form has been drafted by Bob Projansky, a New York lawyer, after my [Siegelaub] extensive discussions and correspondence with over 500 artists, dealers, lawyers, collectors, museum people, critics and other concerned people involved in the day-to-day workings of the international art world. The Agreement has been designed to remedy some generally acknowledged inequities in the art world, particularly artists' lack of control over the use of their work and participation in its economics after they no longer own it. The Agreement for has been written with special awareness of the current ordinary practices and economic realitites of the art world, particularly its private, cash and informal nature, with careful regard for the interests and motives of all concerned. It is expected to be the standard form for the transfer and sale of all contemporary art, and has been made as fair, simple and useful as possible. It can be used either as presented here or slightly altered to fit your specific situation. If the following information does not answer all your questions consult your attorney." -- from Agreement's cover. Copies of the contract are individually included in English, Germany, and French editions.

Very Good, complete (as issued) copy. Very minor wear.

File under: Vito Acconci Vincenzo Agnetti Peter Alexander John de Andrea Giovanni Anselmo Arbeitszeit Archigram Chuck Arnoldi Art & Language Richard Artschwager Michael Ashkin John Baldessari Robert Barry Georg Baselitz Lothar Baumgarten Robert Bechtle Gottfried Bechtold Joseph Beuys Karl Oskar Blase Mel Bochner Alighiero Boetti Christian Boltanski Claudio Bravo George Brecht Marcel Broodthaers Stanley Brouwn Günter Brus Daniel Buren Victor Burgin Michael Buthe James Lee Byars Pier Paolo Calzolari Luciano Castelli Chuck Close Tony Conrad Ron Cooper Bill Copley Joseph Cornell Robert Cottingham Paul Cotton Hanne Darboven Walter De Maria David Deutsch Jan Dibbets Herbert Distel Gino de Dominicis Marcel Duchamp John Dugger Don Eddy Franz Eggenschwiler Ger van Elk Richard Estes Luciano Fabro John C. Fernie Robert Filliou Jud Fine Joel Fisher Terry Fox Howard Fried Hamish Fulton Franz Gertsch Gilbert & George Ralph Goings Hubert Gojowczyk Dan Graham Walter Grasskamp Nancy Graves Hans Haacke Duane Hanson Guy Harloff Michael Harvey Haus-Rucker-Co Auguste Herbin Eva Hesse Rebecca Horn Jean Olivier Hucleux Douglas Huebler Jörg Immendorff Will Insley Rolf Iseli Ken Jacobs Neil Jenney Alfred Jensen Jasper Johns Joan Jonas Max G. Kaminski Howard Kanovitz Edward Kienholz Imi Knoebel Christof Kohlhofer Jannis Kounellis H.C. Westermann William Wiley Rolf Winnewisser Tom Wudl Klaus Wyborny La Monte Young Peter Young Gilberto Zorio Franz Erhard Walther Robert Watts William Wegman Lawrence Weiner John Wesley Tom Kovachevich Piotr Kowalski David Lamelas Barry Le Va Jean LeGac Alfred Leslie Richard Long Ingeborg Lüscher Inge Mahn Brice Marden Yoko Ono Dennis Oppenheim Blinky Palermo Panamarenko Giulio Paolini A.R. Penck Giuseppe Penone Vettor Pisani Sigmar Polke Stephen Posen Markus Raetz Arnulf Rainer Gerhard Richter Klaus Rinke Dorothea Rockburne Peter Roehr Allen Ruppersberg Edward Ruscha Reiner Ruthenbeck Ulrich Ruckriem Robert Ryman John Salt Salvo Lucas Samaras Paul Sarkisian Jean-Frederic Schnyder Ben Schonzeit Werner Schroeter HA Schult Rudolf Schwarzkogler Fritz Schwegler Richard Serra Paul Sharits Allan Shields Katharina Sieverding Robert Smithson Michael Snow Keith Sonnier Klaus Staeck Paul Staiger Jorge Stever Robert Strubin Paul Thek Malcolm Morley Ed Moses Bruce Nauman Hermann Nitsch Claes Oldenburg Agnes Martin Etienne-Martin Richard McLean David Medalla Fernando Melani Bernd and Hilla Becher K. P. Brehmer Christo & Jeanne-Claude Seth Siegelaub Harald Szeemann Jean-Christophe Ammann Bob Projansky Arnold Bode documenta / Kassel Art Group Shows / Collections Out-of-print / Rare Objects / Ephemera / A/V Arte Povera Conceptual Art Feminism Theory / Essay Architecture / Interior Performance / Dance / Theater Fluxus Dada Curatorial Film / Video Minimal Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Painting Photography Pop Art Sculpture / Installation Counterculture Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

COMME DES GARÇONS / RAW VISION #1, #2, #4, #10, #13, #14 (lot of 6)
2014 SPRING—SUMMER; AUTUMN—WINTER 2014—2015

2014, English / Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), various pagination, 28.5 x 20.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Comme des Garçons / Tokyo

$70.00 - Out of stock

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Lot of six copies of the amazing printed collaboration between Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons and Raw Vision, the world's foremost magazine on Outsider Art, Art Brut, and Contemporary Folk Art, founded by John Maizels in 1989. Issued as mail-outs privately by Comme to announce the arrival of their 2014 Spring—Summer and 2014—2015 Autumn—Winter collection, and not commercially available, these gorgeous, elaborate leaflets designed by CDG showcase the diverse array of artists featured in Raw Vision magazine alongside Comme photographs by Kosuke Okahara commissioned by Rei Kawakubo to document the 2013 Paris Fashion Week, Fall / Winter collection, photographs by Hiromi Nagakura, Daisuke ITO, and Andrew Houston in a series of graphic collages, with many fold-out spreads. Near Fine, preserved copies of six volumes (issued separately), now very scarce. Artists throughout include Pavel Leonov, Daniel Johnston, Maura Holden, Joe Gatta, Malcolm McKesson, William Hawkins, Joe Coleman, Renaldo Kuhler, Freddie Brice, Anne Grgich, Ken Grimes, and many more.

Near Fine all.

File under: Pavel Leonov Daniel Johnston Maura Holden Joe Gatta Malcolm McKesson William Hawkins Joe Coleman Freddie Brice Anne Grgich Ken Grimes Kosuke Okahara Renaldo Kuhler Hiromi Nagakura Daisuke ITO Comme des Garçons / Tokyo Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Drugs / Psychedelia Out-of-print / Rare Fashion Objects / Ephemera / A/V Photography Painting Drawing Surrealism

Environments and Happenings
Edited by Adrian Henri

1974, English
Softcover, 216 pages, 21 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Thames and Hudson / London

$30.00 - Out of stock

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Environments and Happenings by painter and poet Adrian Henri, published by Thames & Hudson in 1974, forms one of the first mainstream book surveys to trace the phenomenon of environmental/performative/total living artworks that became prevalent in the 1960s/70s. This historical study is profusely illustrated in colour and b/w with many international works from Fluxus to Zero to Dolle Mina to Nouveau Réalisme to Provo to Gutai to The Situationists and much more. Includes the works of Joseph Beuys, Clarence Schmidt, Ray Johnson, Öyvind Fahlström, Paul Thek, Yves Klein, Allan Kaprow, Hans Haacke, Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, Guerllia Art Action Group, Daniel Spoerri, Wolf Vostell, Gustav Metzger, Peter Kuttner, Jackson Pollock, Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Robert Morris, Situationist International, Ferdinand Kriwet, Klaus Rinke, Duane Hanson, A-Yo, Meret Oppenheim, Space Structure Workshop, Ferdinand Cheval, Dolle Mina (Mad Mina), Robert Smithson, Jeff Nuttall, Stefan Wewerka, Christo, Dennis Oppenheim, Vladimir Tatlin, Provo, Barry Flanagan, Andy Warhol, Meredith Monk, Atsuko Tanaka, Kazuo Shiraga, Ed Keinholz, Yayoi Kusama, Piero Gilardi, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Claes Oldenburg, Les Levine, James Rosenquist, Red Grooms, Tom Wesselmann, George Segal, Eduardo Paolozzi, and many many more. Includes reproductions of performance scripts, partial chronology, etc.

Very Good copy, previous owner name to front endpaper.

File under: Guerilla Art Action Group Joseph Beuys Clarence Schmidt Ray Johnson Öyvind Fahlström Paul Thek Yves Klein Hans Haacke Kurt Schwitters Marcel Duchamp Guerllia Art Action Group Daniel Spoerri Wolf Vostell Gustav Metzger Peter Kuttner Jackson Pollock Alison Knowles Dick Higgins Robert Morris Situationist International Ferdinand Kriwet Klaus Rinke Duane Hanson A-Yo Meret Oppenheim Space Structure Workshop Ferdinand Cheval Dolle Mina (Mad Mina) Robert Smithson Jeff Nuttall Stefan Wewerka Christo Dennis Oppenheim Vladimir Tatlin Provo Barry Flanagan Andy Warhol Meredith Monk Atsuko Tanaka Kazuo Shiraga Ed Keinholz Yayoi Kusama Piero Gilardi Niki de Saint-Phalle Jean Tinguely Claes Oldenburg Les Levine James Rosenquist Red Grooms Tom Wesselmann George Segal Eduardo Paolozzi Allan Kaprow Adrian Henri Thames and Hudson / London Sculpture / Installation Out-of-print / Rare Performance / Dance / Theater Fluxus Arte Povera Conceptual Art Art Dada Counterculture Curatorial Group Shows / Collections Painting Pop Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Sound / Music

Alfred Kubin
Confessions of a Tortured Soul

2022, English
Hardcover, 288 pages, 23.5 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by Walther König / Köln

$105.00 - Out of stock

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The first overview in a decade on Kubin’s gothic pageant of dreamworld menace. The quickly out-of-print English edition.

The art of the great Austrian draftsman, illustrator and author Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) appears more current today than ever before: for it was violence, wartime destruction, pandemics, natural disasters, the manipulation of the masses and other abysses of human existence that pervaded his highly narrational works. The oeuvre of this fantastical creator confronts us with pessimistic visions which – to quote Schopenhauer – delineate “the worst of all possible worlds”. Kubin’s nightmarish oeuvre extends Symbolism and the fantastical art of the 19th century and may be considered a precursor to French Surrealism, with its syntheses of actual and imaginary reality, its bleak realms that Kubin often seasoned with humor, irony and exaggeration.

Published for an exhibition at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Alfred Kubin: Confessions of a Tortured Soul offers an exploration of Kubin’s oneiric worlds in terms of their relation to the unconscious. Through this lens, psychoanalyst and psychiatrist August Ruhs addresses pieces by Kubin selected by curator Hans-Peter Wipplinger. In addition, Kubin’s works are placed into a dialogue with works by artists of the 19th century and of the classical modernism from which Kubin derived inspiration. Artists such as Francisco de Goya, Félicien Rops, James Ensor, Max Klinger, Odilon Redon, Gustav Klimt and Edvard Munch shaped Kubin’s vocabulary of motifs and formal aesthetics, as did authors such as ETA Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe, Gérard de Nerval, August Strindberg and Gustav Meyrink his literary sources of inspiration.

File under: Hans-Peter Wipplinger August Ruhs Burghart Schmidt Annegret Hoberg Lena Scholz Walther König / Köln Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art Drawing Painting Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Out-of-print / Rare

Dürer and His Times

1971, English
Softcover, 90 pages, 27 x 20 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) / Victoria

$40.00 - Out of stock

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Scarce and handsome catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Dürer and His Times, held at the National Gallery of Victoria, May 21 — July 11, 1971. Boldly illustrated throughout with works by Dürer and his contemporaries, including Martin Schongauer, Michael Wolgemut, Andrea Mantegna, Lucas Cranach the Elder. Texts by Sonia Dean, head of Prints and Drawings.

‘It can be said without exaggeration that the history of painting would remain unchanged had Dürer never touched a brush and a palette, but that the first five years of his independent work as an engraver and woodcut designer sufficed to revolutionise the graphic arts.’—Erwin Panofsky, 1943

Very Good copy with light tanning, ink mark to cover.

File under: Albrecht Dürer Martin Schongauer Michael Wolgemut Andrea Mantegna Lucas Cranach the Elder Sonia Dean NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) / Victoria Out-of-print / Rare Drawing Art Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Group Shows / Collections

Thaddeus Mosley and Frank Walter
SANCTUARY

2023, English
Hardcover (clothbound), 120 pages, 27.9 x 27.9 cm
Published by Karma / New York

$100.00 - In stock -

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This volume showcases the works of Thaddeus Mosley and Frank Walter (1926–2009). Mosley, self-taught and son of a Pennsylvania miner, uses salvaged wood to create large-scale abstract forms. Walter, from Antigua, expresses the beauty of his homeland’s landscapes through paintings and woodwork.

File under: Thaddeus Mosley Frank Walter Karma / New York Painting Sculpture / Installation Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art

Leonora Carrington
Revelation

2023, English
Hardcover, 312 pages,‎ 23 x 26.5 cm
Published by RM / Barcelona

$135.00 - In stock -

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The first overview in a decade of the dazzling Surrealist universe of Leonora Carrington—artist, author, occultist, feminist.

In recent years, the art and fiction of Surrealist painter and author Leonora Carrington have received much mainstream recognition, but—until now—there has been no authoritative overview of her work. Divided into 10 sections, Revelation introduces Carrington’s singular artistic universe, displaying an extensive array of her wide-ranging creations (including paintings, drawings and tapestries) and fusing a chronological narrative of her life with a study of the most prominent themes in her work—from her training and early influences in England and Florence to her contact with the Surrealists in Paris, through her time in Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, her traumatic experiences in Spain, her immigration to New York and her new homeland in Mexico. Punctuating the reproductions are archival materials, book excerpts and documentary photographs.

Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) was a British-born artist, Surrealist painter and novelist, famed for her narrative scenes inhabited by mystical figures participating in curious rituals. After fleeing Europe during World War II, she lived most of her adult life in Mexico City, where she was a founding member of the women's liberation movement.

File under: Leonora Carrington Carlos Martín Stefan van Raay Tere Arcq Naja Rasmussen RM / Barcelona Surrealism Feminism Painting Drawing Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Occult / Esoterica

Remedios Varo
Science Fictions

2023, English
Hardcover, 184 pages, 30.5 x 21.6 cm
Published by Art Institute of Chicago / Chicago Museo de Arte Moderno / Mexico City

$85.00 - Out of stock

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This major new hardcover publication offers a definitive look at the artistic practice of Remedios Varo (1908–1963) following her emigration from Spain to Mexico City in 1941. Her work from 1955 to 1963 made a lasting contribution to modern art and the legacy of Surrealism. In Remedios Varo: Science Fictions, fresh historical and material findings establish the integral relationship between Varo’s layered interests—in alchemy, architecture, magic, mysticism, philosophy, and science—and her beguiling technical approach to art making. Essays detail specific works’ complex stories and spectacular surfaces. An illustrated taxonomy of Varo’s artistic techniques, including automatic mark making as well as careful manipulation of materials and media, offers new insights into the artist’s craft. An illustrated inventory of a major portion of Varo’s library—published here for the first time—reveals the artist’s engagement with a wide range of subjects. Stunning new photography of many of her artworks are presented within a dynamic geometric design inspired by the artist’s work. Situating Varo as a woman working in midcentury Mexico City and living among a tight-knit community of local and emigre artists, poets, and thinkers, the catalogue illuminates the complex worldview that shaped her search for individual and collective transcendence.

File under: Remedios Varo Art Institute of Chicago / Chicago Museo de Arte Moderno / Mexico City Surrealism Occult / Esoterica Art Painting Drawing Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

BARADLA CAVE
by Eva Švankmajerová

2023, English
Softcover, 158 pages, 14 x 20 cm
Published by Twisted Spoon Press / Prague

$40.00 - In stock -

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The novel Baradla Cave by the Czech Surrealist Eva Švankmajerová, who is perhaps best known for her paintings and collaboration with her husband Jan Švankmajer on a number of films, has lost none of the force of its social critique and trenchant humor since it originally appeared in samizdat in the 1980s and officially published in 1995 by Edice Analogon. A living organism, Baradla is both place (Prague) and person (a woman), an exploration of maternity and femininity as well as a satirical look at the overweening mother-state and consumer society. The language collage comprising pseudo-scientific jargon, the diction of interwar magazines for women and girls, the demotic, and metaphoric stream is complemented by Jan Švankmajer's erotic collages, as scenes of episodic sexual violence alternate with humorous reflections on various ingrained habits and customs. With a seemingly boundless sense of the absurd, Švankmajerová fingers here practically everything having to do with modern existence: substance abuse, violent sex crimes, rampant consumerism, pervasive corruption, and dysfunctional family relationships.

"It is like looking at a surrealistic painting. You might say What is going on? but when you look closer there is a certain sense of something even if it is not entirely clear what that something is. Humour and the unreal are part but only part of it, while much of it is letting us see the world in a completely different way from the way we normally do and that i s what Švankmajerová brilliantly does in this novel. The only surprise is that it is not better known."—The Modern Novel

Translated from the Czech by Gwendolyn Albert
cover and frontispiece by the author
collages by Jan Švankmajer
afterword by Vratislav Effenberger

File under: Jan Svankmajer Eva Švankmajerová Eva Švankmajerová Vratislav Effenberger Gwendolyn Albert Twisted Spoon Press / Prague Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Výstava Jana a Evy Švankmajerových : Film a jeho okolí

2011, Japanese / Czech
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 180 pages, 23 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by Access / Japan

$90.00 - Out of stock

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Scarce exhibition catalogue surveying the work of Czech Surrealist artists Jan and Eva Švankmajer, published to accompany a major retrospective in Japan in 2011. Eva Švankmajerová (1940 – 2005, b. Eva Dvořáková in Kostelec nad Černými lesy), was a renowned painter, ceramicist, and writer active in the Czech and Slovak Surrealist Group who's poetry and prose regularly appeared in the journal Analogon. Švankmajerová was married to the Surrealist filmmaker Jan Švankmajer (b. Prague, 1934) and collaborated on many of his award-winning animated masterpieces, including Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) and Otesánek (2000). Lavishly illustrated throughout, this catalogue includes chapters on Jan and Eva Švankmajer's independent and collaborative works, spanning painting, objects, collage, ceramics, poetry, graphics, and their highly acclaimed animated film works. Also includes Jan Švankmajer's collaboration with Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe. Includes detailed history, list of works and accompanying texts, alongside production insights and studio photography.

As New copy.

File under: Jan Svankmajer Eva Švankmajerová Jan Švankmajer Eikoh Hosoe Access / Japan Art Painting Drawing Film / Video Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Surrealism