Lot n° 99
Estimation :
3000 - 5000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 3 640EUR
MALRAUX (André). Set of 3 mock-ups (2 with autograph correct - Lot 99
MALRAUX (André). Set of 3 mock-ups (2 with autograph corrections and indications, one with 6 autographs signed for printing), for the first two parts of the first edition of his great collection of essays on art, Psychologie de l'art. Approximately 490 pp. in 3 volumes, large in-4, stapled. EACH MASTERBOX IS PRESENTED AS AN ENTIRE VOLUME: the double pages have been mounted from printed proofs of the text, cut out and laminated in such a way as to provide the necessary space for the reproductions, which are themselves laminated. The corrections concern the substance of the text, or are intended to amend the style, qualify the ideas, modify the examples... THE ARTISTIC EPIC OF MANKIND TRACED BY ANDRÉ MALRAUX. In these masterly essays, André Malraux offers a general reflection on art, supported by a lyrical and passionate vision of the world history of art. The set was published in two editions under two different general titles. The original edition, which appeared under the title Psychologie de l'art (Geneva, Albert Skira), consists of three parts: Le Musée imaginaire (1947), in which Malraux studies the corpus of reproductions available in the modern period, La Création artistique (1948), which constitutes a reflection on the artist, and La Monnaie de l'absolu (1950), which addresses the question of modern art. In 1951, Malraux published a second edition under the title Les Voix du silence (Gallimard, Nrf, Galerie de la Pléiade): reworked and corrected, it was augmented by a fourth part (interspersed in the second), entitled Les Métamorphoses d'Apollon and devoted to artistic forms. "(ANTOINE TERRASSE, "La Méditation de toute une vie," in Revue André Malraux Review, vol. 21, no. 2, Edmonton, 1989). "Art historians study the events, the circumstances that accompanied the birth of works. Malraux, on the other hand, seeks to penetrate the mystery of genius. His mind never tires of observing all the signs of the spirit. "Our deepest relationship with art is metaphysical...". Hence this admirable meditation, and, beyond the questions, the renewed exaltation before the masterpieces. We must speak here of belief, and of fervour. If all Malraux's books are, as he himself wrote, "the different chapters of the same life", all his books on art are chapters of the same book: a hymn to creation. This shows the emotion with which we find these models, these proofs - living testimony of his attention, of his rigour, as well as of the meticulous care he brought to the presentation of the images" (Antoine Terrasse, ibid.). Le Musée imaginaire - FIRST MAQUETTE, 102 pp. with a few handwritten collages, mounted black reproductions. Intended to roughly evaluate the layout, it is the only one to present such an atypical aspect: its pages have been mounted from printed proof sheets of the text, but, in order to provide spaces for future reproductions, these proof sheets have been cut to the detriment of the text, and the images placed in these spaces have no relation to the text (images from films by Méliès, Feuillade, Léonce Perret, Marcel Carné, and from his own film Sierra de Teruel). André Malraux explains this in two autograph notes on one of the endpapers: "1e MAQUETTE AYANT SERVI. Handwritten corrections BOOKS & AUTOGRAPHS THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 122and deleted fragments. There is no similar edition of the suite (I then made the mock-up directly). The 1st version stopped there. "THE FIRST VERSION STOPPED THERE. This is the first draft, with the photos replaced by clippings from the contemporary issue of Labyrinthe, published by Skira. The captions are the real ones (planned then, some have been moved). Very surreal. "Henri Godard analyzes the result as follows: "Malraux also knows how to amuse himself [...]. Through the comical for some, through the pathetic for others, these two series of images are in stark contrast to the masterpieces whose reproduction will replace them in the published volume. In some cases, this contrast between the pasted image and the work to come is carried to the extreme by their respective nature [...]. This discrepancy is the very definition of the eccentric, to which Malraux is no less sensitive than to the metaphysical power of artistic creation. This other pole of his personality, less well known or ignored, is reflected in a range of reactions that goes from a sense of joke to a sensitivity to any fact capable of disturbing or breaking an established order, whether social or intellectual. Through it, he touches on surrealism, from which he is also so far removed" ("La Maquette farfelue du Musée imaginaire", in Présence d'André Malraux, n° 4, Paris, autumn 2005). - SECOND MODEL, 150
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue