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Facile

Item date(s): 1935

Paul Eluard  - (poems by)
Man Ray  - (photographs by)


Pages: unpaged
Size: 250mm
Edition: #677/1200


Place publication: Paris
Publisher: Editions G. L. M.
Cat. 022 - MM2
Exhibition 2017

Additional notes:
Man Ray was born as Emmanuel Radnitzky in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. in 1890. He was the eldest child of Russian Jewish immigrants. He had a brother and two sisters, the youngest born in 1897 shortly after they settled in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. In late 1935, the Radnitzky family changed their surname to Ray. Man Ray's brother chose the surname in reaction to the ethnic discrimination and anti-Semitism prevalent at the time. Emmanuel, who was called "Manny" as a nickname, changed his first name to Man and gradually began to use Man Ray as his combined single name. [Wikipedia].

Portfolio in a chemise, housed in an elaborate black sliding slipcase: The book slides into a cover which, in turn, slides into a further cover.

[numbers in square brackets are as printed on the page]

1st folded sheet:

1-4. blank

2nd folded sheet:

5. FACILE; 6. blank; 7. EDITIONS G. L. M. 79 AVENUE DE SEGUR, PARIS, 1935. 8. DES MEMES AUTEURS.

3rd and 4th folded sheets (the 4th within the 3rd]:

9. FACILE. POEMES DE PAUL ELUARD. PHOTOGRAPHIES DE MAN RAY. 10. blank. 11[4]-14+15. L'ENTENTE.

16. Photograph.

5th folded sheet:

17 [5]-20. A LA FIND DE L'ANNEE. . .

6th folded sheet:

21[6]-23. FACILE EST BIEN. 24. blank.

7th folded sheet:

25. edition details 26-28. blank.

With poetry by Paul Eluard. Illustrated with photographs by Man Ray. 8vo., 245 x 182 mm, bound in original printed wrappers in a new grey slipcase, with black morocco backed chemise. Paris: Edition G.L.M., 1935.

One of Man Ray and Eluard's most successful collaborations. Facile is illustrated with Man Ray's sensuous nude photographs of Eluard's wife, Nusch. The "solarized" photographs have been creatively interwoven into the text, both printed on thick velin paper.

"A prolific creator of dadist and surrealist imagery, Man Ray was equally comfortable as a painter-sculptor or as a photographer. Facile is one of the most beautiful surrealist publications containing photography" (Johnson p. 184).

Ex-libris stamp on front fly-leaf 'RLB'. Some light toning, a near fine copy.

Roth, The Book of 101 Books, Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, 86-87. A Century of Artists Books 183. Johnson, Artist's Books in the Modern Era, 1870-2000, No. 108.

Exhibition notes:
Item 022 - MM2 on Booknesses: Artists' books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection.

UJ Art Gallery, University of Johannesburg

25 March to 5 May 2017



Ref: GB/14796


   


   



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