Führ 4 für vier
*Führ 4 für vier*, published in 1969, is an iconic collaborative work that completely blurs the boundaries between concrete poetry and concrete art. Edited by Jürgen Brenner and Kurt Weidemann, this large-format book-object brings together an international selection of the most important avant-garde voices of the 1960s. The work is not merely an anthology but a tactile and visual experiment where transparent sheets, serigraphs, and typographic compositions overlap. Featuring contributions from major figures such as Ian Hamilton Finlay, Eugen Gomringer, and François Morellet, it functions as a total work of art questioning the structural essence of language and form. The edition was strictly limited, and each copy was personally signed by all participating artists, confirming its status as a historical document. For the collector of concrete art and conceptual publications, this is an absolute cornerstone. Its physical execution as a blockbook with silver accents reflects the machine-like and minimalist aesthetics of the era.
Quantity
Garnier, Pierre
Finlay, Ian Hamilton
Gomringer, Eugen
Mon, Franz
Rühm, Gerhard
Kolář, Jiří
Spatola, Adriano
Williams, Emmett
Morellet, François
Kriwit, Ferdinand
Ulrichs, Timm
Führ 4 für vier
1969 | Stuttgart | Cantz
A unique total work of art of the concrete avant-garde, signed by the participating grandmasters.
*Führ 4 für vier*, published in 1969, is an iconic collaborative work that completely blurs the boundaries between concrete poetry and concrete art. Edited by Jürgen Brenner and Kurt Weidemann, this large-format book-object brings together an international selection of the most important avant-garde voices of the 1960s. The work is not merely an anthology but a tactile and visual experiment where transparent sheets, serigraphs, and typographic compositions overlap. Featuring contributions from major figures such as Ian Hamilton Finlay, Eugen Gomringer, and François Morellet, it functions as a total work of art questioning the structural essence of language and form. The edition was strictly limited, and each copy was personally signed by all participating artists, confirming its status as a historical document. For the collector of concrete art and conceptual publications, this is an absolute cornerstone. Its physical execution as a blockbook with silver accents reflects the machine-like and minimalist aesthetics of the era.
€1,750
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
Artist’s copy no. LXIX of LXX, within a total edition of 150 copies, signed by all artists.
Print Run
150
Copy Number
No. LXIX
Inscription
Signed by the Author,Signed by the Illustrator
1
Edition Particulars:
We welcome private inquiries, collaborations with institutions, and acquisition requests. Each message is treated with discretion and respect. We welcome private inquiries, collaborations with institutions, and acquisition requests.
1
Print Run:
Condition Report:
1
Copy Number:
Condition Report:
1
Paper:
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1
Signed:
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Product DETAIL
*Führ 4 für vier* presents a series of autonomous yet interconnected contributions exploring the relationship between text, image, and medium. The book opens with typographic experiments by the pioneers of concrete poetry, where the visual arrangement of words is more important than semantic meaning. The focus then shifts to concrete art, with works playing with geometric abstraction and optical effects. Through the use of transparent materials, the reader can overlay different layers, creating new compositions. Texts by authors like Franz Mon and Gerhard Rühm challenge the conventional reading experience by deconstructing language into its smallest units. Central to the work is the belief that art should be an objective, methodical construction. The work concludes with a manifesto-like synthesis of the participating artists. The atmosphere is analytical, modern, and uncompromisingly experimental.
Char, Rene · Stael, Nicolas de
Arrière-histoire du poème pulvérisé
*Arrière-histoire du poème pulvérisé* is a later illustrated edition of a key text in which René Char looks back on the genesis and inner background of *Le Poème pulvérisé*. Published in 1972 by Imprimerie Union, it opens with a colour frontispiece by Nicolas de Staël. The pairing of Char and de Staël is especially charged: two post-war voices, each seeking concentration, clarity, and rupture in his own medium. This copy is one of only six hors commerce copies on Arches and is signed. The autograph presentation inscription to Doctor Marcel Zara, with poetic quotation and October 1972 dating, makes it a deeply personal copy.
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Ruscha, Edward · Ruscha, Ed
Some Los Angeles Apartments
Some Los Angeles Apartments is one of Ed Ruscha’s iconic early artist’s books, devoted to the banal architecture of Los Angeles. Instead of monuments, drama or urban glamour, Ruscha shows ordinary apartment buildings, coolly photographed and without visible sentimentality. This second edition of 1970, printed in 3,000 unnumbered copies, confirms the wider circulation of his conceptual book form. The small format, sober wrappers and original glassine wrapper make it an essential Ruscha object.
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Char, Rene · Pierre Andre Benoit (PAB)
Les Dentelles de Montmirail
Les Dentelles de Montmirail is one of the characteristic small masterpieces born of the collaboration between René Char and PAB. It was published in 1960 between L’Isle-sur-Sorgue and Alès, two places that immediately evoke the geography of Char and that of Pierre André Benoit. The edition joins Char’s brief, aphoristic lyric voice to five natural impressions from Montmirail, so that text and matter quite literally meet. With PAB, poetry often takes on an intimate, almost handmade form, and that quality is especially palpable here. The limited issue on Arches heightens the book’s discreet yet unmistakable bibliophile character. This copy gains further importance from the autograph inscription to Dr Marcel Zara, far more than a routine dedication and almost readable as a small autonomous poem. For collectors, it is an exemplary PAB production in which landscape, trace, inscription, and poem become a single object.
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€2,250
René Char, Georges Braque · Lachaud, Mariette · Pierre Andre Benoit (PAB)
Ainsi va l'amitié
What makes this copy especially memorable is not only its tiny limitation but the way it fixes three friendships at once: that between Char and Braque, that between Char and PAB, and that of all of them with the image that outlives them. The eight original photographs are not an illustrative supplement but the true bearers of presence; they preserve gazes, workspaces, and silences. The fact that PAB and Mariette Lachaud signed this copy gives it an almost confidential status, as though the circle of makers were still present within the book. In such editions, bibliophily becomes more than rarity alone: it becomes a form of shared memory.
