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Fizzles (Foirades)
Etchings (Gravures)

Item date(s): 1976

Jasper Johns  - (etchings by)
Samuel Beckett  - (author)


Pages: unpaged
Size: 330mm
Technique: Lift ground aquatints; dry-point etchings; soft-ground etchings
Inscription: Signed by the artist and the author.
Edition: #233/250


Publisher: Petersburg Press S. A.
Cat. 027 - MPM3
Exhibition 2017

Additional notes:
Bilingual: English and French.

This book contains five texts by Samuel Beckett and thirty three etchings by Jasper Johns. The French texts first appeared in 1972; the English texts were written by Samuel Beckett in 1974 for this collaboration. The etchings were made by Jasper Johns and proofed and printed by hand at the Atelier Crommelynck in Paris in 1975 and 1976. The publication was edited by Vera Lindsay. The paper, watermarked with the initials of Samuel Beckett and the signature of Jasper Johns, was handmade by Richard de Bas in the Auvergne. The type was set in Caslon Old Face 16pt. And hand printed by Fequet and Baudier in Paris. The binding was conceived and executed by Rudolf Rieser in Cologne. The book, 13 inches by 10 inches, is bound in handmade paper and boxed in linen, with an internal lining of colour lithographs by Jasper Johns. Each book is signed by the author and the artist: two hundred and fifty numbered 1 to 250, thirty artist's proofs numbered I to XXX, and twenty Hors Commerce individually dedicated.

Housed in a drop-back box with a purple tassle.

See also: Drawings on Words: JasperJohn's Illustrtions of Samuel Beckett's Foirades/Fizzles. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfulment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy. Copy of the thesis. Including Figures 1 to 110.

See also: Technique and Collaboration in the Prints of Jasper Johns, 1996 published by Leo Castelli Gallery which includes and interview with Aldo Crommelynck on the printing of Fizzles.

Illustrated on page 126 of The Best of Both Worlds by Jerry Kelly, Riva Castleman & Anne H. Hoy, Finely Printed Livres d'Artistes 1910-2010, 2010.

Illustrated as item 40 in Ursus Books catalogue 261"Classics in Contemporary and Modern Art. n.d.

Illustrated as item 107 in Artists & Books 1900-Present. Ursus Books, New York, 2014.

Illustrated on page 25 of Artist Books Multiples Prints. Sims Reed Ltd (2014?) Item 85.

Exhibition notes:
Item 027 - MPM3 on Booknesses: Artists' books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection. UJ Art Gallery, University of Johannesburg. 25 March to 5 May 2017

Ref: GB/12351













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