Biographie d’André Breton, poète
This exceptional copy of Biographie d’André Breton, poète brings several strands of the twentieth-century avant-garde into a single tangible object. Fernando Arrabal writes on André Breton, the poet and theorist who gave Surrealism both its programme and its myth. Julius Baltazar contributes an original graphic work, while Daniel Knoderer radically transforms the book in 1993 into a sculptural binding. The volume therefore moves beyond bibliophile publication into the realm of the livre-objet: text, image, construction and performance at once. Bright colours, bolts, plastic plates, collage fragments and painted inscriptions turn the binding into an autonomous sculptural statement. The copy is also bibliographically intriguing because the normal justification leaf is absent and replaced by Knoderer’s handwritten confirmation. The designation Exemplaire OOO gives the volume an irregular but strongly conceptual status. For The Hidden Page, it is a compelling example of literature, printmaking, book art and avant-garde practice converging in one object.
Quantity
Arrabal, Fernando
Baltazar, Julius
Biographie d’André Breton, poète
1983 | Nice | Matarasso, Jacques
A rare and conceptually powerful copy in which Breton, Arrabal, Baltazar and Knoderer meet within a single object. Its bibliographical irregularity is not incidental, but part of its meaning. As a livre-objet, it holds an exceptional place in a collection devoted to Surrealism, book art and the post-war avant-garde.
This exceptional copy of <i>Biographie d’André Breton, poète</i> brings several strands of the twentieth-century avant-garde into a single tangible object. Fernando Arrabal writes on André Breton, the poet and theorist who gave Surrealism both its programme and its myth. Julius Baltazar contributes an original graphic work, while Daniel Knoderer radically transforms the book in 1993 into a sculptural binding. The volume therefore moves beyond bibliophile publication into the realm of the livre-objet: text, image, construction and performance at once. Bright colours, bolts, plastic plates, collage fragments and painted inscriptions turn the binding into an autonomous sculptural statement. The copy is also bibliographically intriguing because the normal justification leaf is absent and replaced by Knoderer’s handwritten confirmation. The designation Exemplaire OOO gives the volume an irregular but strongly conceptual status. For The Hidden Page, it is a compelling example of literature, printmaking, book art and avant-garde practice converging in one object.
€3,700
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
Copy on Arches with an original engraving by Julius Baltazar; the printed justification is absent and replaced by a handwritten statement by Daniel Knoderer.
Print Run
100
Copy Number
Exemplaire OOO / 000
Paper
Arches
Inscription
Envoi
Product DETAIL
Arrabal’s text is a brief literary biography of André Breton, poet, essayist and central figure of Surrealism. The work presents Breton as an intellectual presence: his poetic authority, his role within the avant-garde and the lasting force of his name. It is not an exhaustive scholarly biography, but a concentrated homage in which life-writing and literary imagination stand close together. Breton appears as a point where poetry, manifesto, revolt and artistic friendships converge. The edition is strengthened by Baltazar’s original engraving, which gives the text a graphic counter-voice. In this copy, Knoderer’s binding further changes the reading experience: Breton is approached not only through words, but through a vivid constructed object. Its thematic centre lies in the continuation of an avant-garde spirit: homage, rupture, play and material freedom.
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