Conférence de Paul Eluard: Avenir de la Poésie. Samedi, 2 Octobre, 16 h.15. (Affiche + Catalogue + Invitation pour Deux Personnes)
Picasso, Pablo. Eluard, Paul
Paris. G. L. M. (Guy Lévis Mano). 1937
The very rare poster by Picasso together with the catalogue and the invitation - also with the same image by Picasso - for Paul Eluard's 1937 conference 'Avenir de la Poésie'.
Paul Eluard's conference 'Avenir de la Poésie' (Future of Poetry) was held on October 2nd, 1937 at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, 15 Avenue Montaigne (the 'Salon Dada' in 1921 had been held at number 13) at 16.15 p.m. as part of the Exposition Internationale, 1937. It seems surprising, at least with hindsight, to imagine that a Surrealist conference might occur under such an umbrella but the Surrealists were nothing if not serious and Eluard's devotion to poetry cannot be questioned or underestimated.
'Avenir de la Poésie' saw Eluard as well as a number of actors close to the Surrealists, Michèle Alfa, Marcel Herrand (who had participated at the dada evening 'Le Coeur à Barbe' in 1921), Jean Marchat, Jean-Louis Barrault and Sylvain Itkine (whose group 'Le Diable Ecarlate' featured extensively in the Exposition), reading poems. The list of poets is comprehensive and included Petrus Borel, Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval, Germain Nouveau, the Comte de Lautréamont, Isidore Ducasse, Rimbaud, Charles Cros, Jarry, Apollinaire, Reverdy, Breton, Henri Michaux, Tzara, Péret, René Char, Eluard himself and Picasso.
The poster, invitation and catalogue all feature to the front cover, a reproduction of the engraved collaboration between Picasso and Eluard 'Grand Air'. The very rare print 'Grand Air' was issued - a few proofs aside - only with the ten copies of the édition de tête of Eluard's verse collection 'Les Yeux Fertiles'. Eluard and Picasso had each contributed to 'Grand Air', Eluard a poem of eighteen lines, and Picasso the pictorial frame: at right, a nude female minotaur, a mask opposite, at left, out of which the minotaur seems to have snatched the left eye above a rocky landscape with a reclining, smoking figure with cat beneath; that the cat appears to be suckling three small black fish underlines the essential Surrealism of the whole.
'Le pain est plus utile que la poésie. Mais l'amour, au sens complet, humain du mot, l'amour-passion n'est pas plus utile que la poésie.' (Paul Eluard).
For the material presented here, Eluard's central verse has been replaced with the title of the conference, 'Avenir de la Poésie', with his retained signature beneath, while the entirety of Picasso's framing is present and the image is attributed to him (for the catalogue and invitation) at lower left. Details of the conference are printed above and beneath for the catalogue and poster and facing the illustration on the invitation.
The poster is not described by Christophe Czwiklitzer in his 1968 'Catalogue Raisonné des Affiches de Pablo Picasso'. The first 'original' poster listed (an original lithograph) is from 1948 while the first 'exécutées par différents procédés de reproduction' is from 1939.
While the catalogue 'Avenir de la Poésie' is rare, and the invitation rarer still, we trace no other examples of the poster in any collection, public or private.
Paul Eluard's conference 'Avenir de la Poésie' (Future of Poetry) was held on October 2nd, 1937 at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, 15 Avenue Montaigne (the 'Salon Dada' in 1921 had been held at number 13) at 16.15 p.m. as part of the Exposition Internationale, 1937. It seems surprising, at least with hindsight, to imagine that a Surrealist conference might occur under such an umbrella but the Surrealists were nothing if not serious and Eluard's devotion to poetry cannot be questioned or underestimated.
'Avenir de la Poésie' saw Eluard as well as a number of actors close to the Surrealists, Michèle Alfa, Marcel Herrand (who had participated at the dada evening 'Le Coeur à Barbe' in 1921), Jean Marchat, Jean-Louis Barrault and Sylvain Itkine (whose group 'Le Diable Ecarlate' featured extensively in the Exposition), reading poems. The list of poets is comprehensive and included Petrus Borel, Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval, Germain Nouveau, the Comte de Lautréamont, Isidore Ducasse, Rimbaud, Charles Cros, Jarry, Apollinaire, Reverdy, Breton, Henri Michaux, Tzara, Péret, René Char, Eluard himself and Picasso.
The poster, invitation and catalogue all feature to the front cover, a reproduction of the engraved collaboration between Picasso and Eluard 'Grand Air'. The very rare print 'Grand Air' was issued - a few proofs aside - only with the ten copies of the édition de tête of Eluard's verse collection 'Les Yeux Fertiles'. Eluard and Picasso had each contributed to 'Grand Air', Eluard a poem of eighteen lines, and Picasso the pictorial frame: at right, a nude female minotaur, a mask opposite, at left, out of which the minotaur seems to have snatched the left eye above a rocky landscape with a reclining, smoking figure with cat beneath; that the cat appears to be suckling three small black fish underlines the essential Surrealism of the whole.
'Le pain est plus utile que la poésie. Mais l'amour, au sens complet, humain du mot, l'amour-passion n'est pas plus utile que la poésie.' (Paul Eluard).
For the material presented here, Eluard's central verse has been replaced with the title of the conference, 'Avenir de la Poésie', with his retained signature beneath, while the entirety of Picasso's framing is present and the image is attributed to him (for the catalogue and invitation) at lower left. Details of the conference are printed above and beneath for the catalogue and poster and facing the illustration on the invitation.
The poster is not described by Christophe Czwiklitzer in his 1968 'Catalogue Raisonné des Affiches de Pablo Picasso'. The first 'original' poster listed (an original lithograph) is from 1948 while the first 'exécutées par différents procédés de reproduction' is from 1939.
While the catalogue 'Avenir de la Poésie' is rare, and the invitation rarer still, we trace no other examples of the poster in any collection, public or private.
[5 bifolia: 10 unnumbered leaves (catalogue) + bifolium (invitation) + single leaf (poster)]. Folio. (502 x 325 mm). + 12mo. (184 x 138 mm). + 16mo. (138 x 104 mm). Poster of cream paper glazed red / orange recto and with Picasso's illustration from 'Grand Air' and printed text in black, the title above and conference details beneath, the invitation a bifolium of thick cream wove paper, Picasso's illustration at left with printed details of the conference at right in black, the catalogue on cream wove paper, leaf with definition of 'Surréalisme' from the 1924 manifesto and list of conferences recto, verso with advertisement for works by Eluard, leaves with quotations by Eluard regarding poetry, quotations from various Surrealist-approved poets ('Signe ce que tu approuves'), inserted leaves of grey paper with advertisements for publications by GLM, central spread with 'Programme' and final leaf with advertisments. Loose as issued (poster and invitation), original publisher's orange glazed paper wrappers, stitched as issued, with illustration by Picasso, printed titles and advertisments in black to covers.
#48609
