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Showing posts with label catalogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label catalogue. Show all posts
Monday, January 13, 2025
Seen and Noted: George Price's Signature
Autograph dealers have a way of framing signatures alongside photos or other images in an attempt to create something worth hanging on a wall. In an item from an auction scheduled for February 2, The New Yorker's George Price has his autograph mounted above one of his inimitable magazine cartoons.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Saul Steinberg: The 1966 Sidney Janus Gallery Catalogue
Tireless contributor David from Manhattan reports on a 1966 catalogue from the Sidney Janis Gallery of New York that includes the Saul Steinberg work Art Lovers sold just last week at Swann Galleries. He writes:
1966 was a very good year for Saul Steinberg, beginning with a hugely successful show at Galerie Maeght in Paris. But then, all through the summer and early fall, he prepared for an exhibition with Sidney Janis. According to his biographer, Deirdre Bair, Steinberg compared his labor to "an exam in a French Lycée." But it paid off. The 11 x 8 1/2" catalogue lists 76 works, with only 20 illustrated, all in black-and-white, and not particularly well-reproduced, though Art Lovers in the number 10 spot was given a two-page spread at the midpoint as compensation. But buyers were not deterred by the listless reproductions. A number of his pictures involved viewing or creating works of art, and this turned out to be rather prescient. Even allowing for exaggeration and rounding off of numbers, Steinberg happily wrote to Aimé Maeght: "I sold 80 pictures at respectable prices—even more and at higher prices than Paris. Naturally this gives me great pleasure."Naturally. Steinberg hadn't had a show in Manhattan in thirteen years, and perhaps art buyers were getting impatient. 1966 was also the year the artist received sage advice on the art of copyright from his Hungarian lawyer, Alexander Lindey, who not so coincidentally was an author of a textbook on copyright law. Inside the front cover is a great deal of white space, with only "© 1966 By Saul Steinberg" in tiny print at top. Steinberg had listened, even if he didn't borrow Lindey's book. The list of works in this show, with some titles familiar, and others intriguing, makes one hungry for another Steinberg exhibition.
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| Front cover |
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| 11. Dealers |
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| Back cover Ariadne (large detail) |
Ariadne (1966) today resides in the North Carolina Museum of Art. Here's the full image:
Note: Today's words and images are provided by David from Manhattan, to whom once again I offer my sincere thanks. This is his sixty-fourth contribution to the blog.
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Friday, December 22, 2023
Peter Schjeldahl's Copy of Keith Haring [Tony Shafrazi Gallery Catalogue]
In 1982, the Tony Shafrazi Gallery issued a catalogue surveying the work of Keith Haring (1958-1990). The artist inscribed a copy to art critic Peter Schjeldahl (1942-2022) with a full page drawing. Schjeldahl would later become the art critic for the Village Voice in 1990 and for The New Yorker in 1998. The catalogue survived an apartment fire in 2019. A year after Schjeldahl's death from lung cancer, the spiral bound book has been brought to the market.
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| Keith Haring Diamond Hollow Books listing on AbeBooks accessed December 21, 2023 |
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| Keith Haring Diamond Hollow Books listing on AbeBooks item description |
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Saturday, March 4, 2023
Toni and Louis Schwartz's Copy of Ronald Searle's Bibliothèque Nationale Catalogue
The catalogue for Ronald Searle's 1973 exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is fully illustrated in black and white, not too bad considering there was almost no catalogue at all. The limited edition catalogue numbered 40 of 100 was personalized by the artist for his friends Toni (Searle also spells it Tony) and Louis Schwartz, signed twice with an original drawing of a cat, making this indeed a very special book. It was priced last year at 114 Euros on AbeBooks.
The catalogue's cover illustration is The Greedy Carpet, a rejected New Yorker cover submission. This original artwork was stolen during the exhibition along with two other pieces.
A lithograph was included in the sale, a 1970 artist's proof from the suite Meilleurs Voeux, the fifth of five small images from the series. Like the catalogue, it is personalized for Dr. and Madame Schwartz.
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| Meilleurs Voeux, 1970 Epreuve Artiste X/X aside from the edition of 200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5) Ronald Searle |
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| Sampson Demolishing the Temple (1969) Hommage à Toulouse-Lautrec Ronald Searle |
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| Ronald Searle AbeBooks listing accessed April 10, 2022 |
Note: For more on the 1973 Searle BnF catalogue, see Matt Jones's Perpetua post "BNF 1973" here.
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Sunday, November 6, 2022
George Booth: The NAPA Auto Parts Catalogue
Cartoonist George Booth (1926-2022), the creator of The New Yorker's most hilarious (and now iconic) cartoons on the subjects of auto mechanics and garages, must have seemed the natural choice to provide promotional art for the NAPA Parts for Imports catalogue. The original colorful artwork, which includes Booth's characteristic cutting and pasting, was listed on eBay in mid-September for about $1,000. There were no takers at this price, but in two weeks the framed piece was sold for $400.
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| The new NAPA Parts for Imports catalogue is so big you might need help carrying it in. George Booth 1987 |
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| The new NAPA Parts for Imports catalogue is so big you might need help carrying it in. George Booth 1987 |
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| Detail with crane operator and crane operator's best friend |
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| George Booth's signature |
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| Detail of lifting the catalogue |
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| A close-up example of the artist's cutting and pasting |
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| A label suggests a homebuilder in Atlanta might originally have been interested in the Booth art, perhaps for its depiction of construction equipment. But I'm speculating... |
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| George Booth eBay listing ended September 28, 2022 |
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| George Booth eBay item description |
Note: While this could have appeared somewhere in a NAPA catalogue circa 1987, I think it's more likely it was used in advertising elsewhere. Whatever the case, I'd love to hear from anyone who has seen this artwork in print.
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Thursday, December 3, 2020
Edward Gorey: Season's Greetings 1996 Bromer Booksellers
Edward Gorey's cover for the 1996 Bromer Booksellers holiday catalogue depicts nine teddy bears, eight of whom are paired around a Christmas wreath and one of whom rides a unicycle on a tightrope strung a bit too loosely across the wreath. The design was originally created for the cover of the 1994 Nieman Marcus Christmas Book and rejected by the high-end department store. The original artwork remains available from Bromer Booksellers.
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| Letter A signed copy |
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| Edward Gorey Bromer Bookseller listing accessed December 2, 2020 |
The Bromer Booksellers catalogue was printed in an edition of two-thousand copies, which, of course, is not in the same league as the three-million copies printed of the Nieman Marcus Christmas Book. Two-hundred numbered copies were signed by Mr. Gorey. There are also twenty-six signed lettered copies.
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| Signed copy from the edition of 200 |
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| Edward Gorey AbeBooks listing accessed May 2, 2020 |
The Nieman Marcus Christmas Book cover for 1994 was illustrated instead by Mercedes McDonald.
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| Nieman Marcus 1994 Christmas Book Mercedes McDonald |
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| Nieman Marcus 1994 Christmas Book Mercedes McDonald |
Note: I'm always happy to post original Edward Gorey art on Attempted Bloggery. Scans or photos are welcome. I'd also like to hear from any readers knowing of other rejected Nieman Marcus Christmas Book cover proposals of this caliber.
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Friday, March 20, 2020
John and Therese Wright's Copy of Desclozeaux
The Institut français du Royaume-Uni in South Kensington held an exhibition of work by French cartoonist Jean-Pierre Desclozeaux in January and February of 1982. It was the artist's first showing in England. The exhibit featured a sampling of the artist's vibrant watercolors. The catalogue has an appreciative introduction by Ronald Searle. John and Therese Wright's copy has some foxing on the cover, but it boasts an inscription by the artist in multicolored pencil.
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| The Institut français du Royaume-Uni, London Desclozeaux, 1982 |
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| Slightly foxed—but still desirable |
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| Spine view |
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| Inscription by Jean-Pierre Desclozeaux |
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| "Apropos Desclozeaux" by Ronald Searle |
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| Desclozeaux eBay Listing Ended November 18, 2019 |
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| Desclozeaux eBay Item Description |
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| eBay Bid History One stealthy bid at the auction close. |
Note: I'm almost certain that perfectly-centered Searle signature is a printed one that appears in every copy of the catalogue. Anyone with a copy who can confirm or refute this should get in touch.
This is the first appearance of Jean-Pierre Desclozeaux on Attempted Bloggery. Readers with examples of his original art are encouraged to share them here by submitting scans or photos.
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