Product Description
Laure Albin-Guillot, “Micrographie Decorative” 1931
LAURE ALBIN-GUILLOT (1879-1962) France
Micrographie Decorative 1931
Preface by M. Paul Leon, 20 photogravure plates in a variety of inks and papers, including silver and gold foil, all tipped-in and matted, text in French, limited to 300 numbered copies, folio, spiral-bound bds.
Published by Draeger Freres, Paris.
Micrographie Décorative was created as a tribute to Laure's husband after his death.
Dimensions:
Book: H: 16 ¾” x W: 15” x D: 1 3/8”
Custom leather box 2008: H: 19” x W: 16 5/8” x D: 2 5/8”
Custom silk slipcase: H: 20 1/8” x W: 17 ¼” x D: 4”
Albin-Guillot, Laure (née Meffredi; 1879-1962), French photographer who became interested in photography soon after her marriage in 1897 to the physician/scientist Dr Albin Guillot. At first, her husband's circle of friends, which included architects, writers, and politicians, provided her with portrait subjects. During the 1920s and 1930s she was engaged by the design precepts of the New Vision, and produced more sharply focused close-ups of objects for clients like Bon Marché and Renault. At the same time, she continued to create soft-focus pictorialist nudes that appeared in artistic photography journals and as illustrations in volumes of poetry. Many of her images were exhibited during the 1920s and reproduced in Arts et métiers graphiques. At a time when many photographers were indifferent to the quality of prints intended for reproduction, Albin-Guillot sought to invest hers with artistry and individuality. Engrossed by her husband's lifelong research in micrography, in 1931, in collaboration with Pierre Fresson, she published in his memory a volume of 24 photomicrographs of crystals, exquisitely printed on various coloured and metallic papers. Later, she and Fresson also collaborated on similar works, which were used as decoration on the liner Normandie.
Laure Albin-Guillot, “Micrographie Decorative” 1931
Carla Tolomeo (1941-) Italy
Panca ananassa settee (unique) 2004
Exotic variety of silk and cut silk velvets sewn and sculpted in the form of a spray of various pineapple shapes on a tufted cushion seat and upholstered legs.
Marks: Tolomeo (written on the velvet), Tolomeo script signature (brass plaque)
Exhibited: Fondazioni Cerratelli, Pisa, Italy, Summer 2006
Model illustrated and biographical information on Carla Tolomeo: Il Fogliaccio, July 7th, 2006
For further information see: Carla Tolomeo Mai Sedersi Sugli Allori, Never rest on your laurels 1995-2004, Carla Tolomeo (Milano 2004)
H: 75 ½” x W: 63” x D: 21 ½”
Price: $48,000
ANDRE LANSKOY (1902-1976) France
MAURICE BEAUFUME
PIERRE LECUIRE
“Cortege” 1959
64pp, 25 illustrations by Andre Lanskoy and Maurice Beaufume
Cortège is now often compared to “Jazz” as perhaps the finest example of
pochoir in the postwar period. Printed on Arches Vellum paper.
Dimensions:
Book: H: 18” x W: 13 3/8” x D: 1 7/8”
Custom leather box 2008: H: 20 ¼” x W: 15” x D: 4 ½”
Custom silk slipcase: H: 21 ½” x W: 15 5/8” x D: 5 3/8”
The artworks of André Lanskoy (1902-1976) are more than abstractions—they are juxtapositions of shapes, assemblages of colors and studies that explore the interfacing of language with visual imagery. A pioneer of Tachism, an artistic movement of the 1940s and 1950s also known as Art Informel or Lyrical Abstraction, Lanskoy emphasized the spontaneous in his paintings, combining surges of pure color with more subtle modulations. His efforts to translate language into abstract visual messages are most evident in two of his bold projects: a rare screen-printed textile and his vivid collages for Pierre Lecuire’s book, Cortège.
Born in Moscow, Lanskoy spent his youth in Russia; in 1921, he moved to Paris and studied at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière. His first non-figurative works were painted in 1937, with his first Parisian exhibition of abstractions in 1944. As a painter, Lanskoy gave primacy to color, and this holds true for his textile design, Egypte. In 1946, French industrialist Jean Bauret invited several Tachist artists—including Serge Poliakoff, André Beaudin and Henri Michaux—to experiment with designs for furnishing textiles. One of Lanskoy’s contributions to this series was an expressive interpretation of the complex pictorial characters of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The relationship between the Egyptian writing system and his own glyphs is mainly conceptual: the symbols Lanskoy invented have no inherent meaning, yet their careful placement suggests a text that is meant to be read. Contrasting with the neutral ground, the centered, vertical column is a grid of rectangular cells containing six repeating compilations of mysterious, hieroglyphic-inspired shapes. These cartouche-like compartments are bordered on each side by narrow strips of color blocks with voided linear abstractions. The intense purple and teal hues and vibrant reds and yellow are typical of Lanskoy’s exaltation of color.
Working within the theme of synthesizing language, color and form, Lanskoy tried his hand at an exciting tradition: the livre d’artiste. His first project was a collaboration with poet Pierre Lecuire; their masterpiece Cortège, arguably one of the finest artist-books ever produced, is a dazzling symbiosis of literary and visual material. Lecuire first met Lanskoy in 1948; ten years later, he would enlist his friend to illustrate the long prose poem. At Lecuire’s suggestion, Lanskoy created a series of twenty-four compositions for the book in the papiers collés method; his challenge was to interpret Lecuire’s writing into bold, graphic statements. The author’s opening lines set the tone for Lanskoy’s luminous color harmonies: “This book is a cortège. It has its colors, action and animation. It blazes, it proclaims one knows not which passion, which justice; it flows like the course of a navigation….” As he achieved with Egypte, the vibrant, saturated tints of the abstractions on these particular plates create a language of their own, while the lively arrangement of crisp and jagged forms shows an affinity with the rhythmic cadence of communication.
Remarkable for their dense bursts of color and unfamiliar shapes, the series of collages was masterfully executed in pochoir by colorist Maurice Beaufumé under Lanskoy’s personal direction. The bold, oversized text was printed by Marthe Fequet and Pierre Baudier, and Cortège was released in Paris, December 1959