[DADA]

Paris: "Au Sans Pareil" 12 Janvier 1921. Paris: "Au Sans Pareil" 12 Janvier 1921. Broadsheet, approx. 8-1/4 X 10-3/4 in. (22 X 27.5 cm), printed on both sides. A touch of expert archival restoration to corners; a couple of flattened wrinkles; bright and unbelmished. Item #206286

Bold, graphic international statement promoting Dada -- and pronouncing the death of Futurism. Features the repeated catch-phrase "Oui=Non" and the repeated rhetorical question "Que fait DADA?" Signatories include Edgard Varèse, Tristan Tzara, Philippe Soupault, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Benjamin Péret, Richard Huelsenbeck, Max Ernst, Paul Eluard, Suzanne and Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, and others. A lively and exciting document of Paris Dada. Price: $2,500.00

Ellington, Duke

Chicago: n.d. (1930s). Chicago: n.d. (1930s). 8 X 10 inch black and white gelatin silver print on textured matte-surface paper, with photographer's studio insignia in lower left corner. A bit of a wrinkle at the upper right corner, otherwise just about fine. Item #206233

An excellent publicity portrait of Ellington in his prime, inscribed and signed: "To the most charming Carine, loads o luck, Duke." The "Maurice" studio in Chicago was Ellington's preferred provider of publicity photos and they produced many over the years. This one shows a young and confident-looking Ellington looking directly at the camera. Price: $1,650.00

(Picasso, Pablo) Thomson, Virgil & Hugnet, Georges

[Paris: L'usage de la Parole, 1940]. [Paris: L'usage de la Parole, 1940]. First Edition. 4to, 6 unpag. leaves loosely inserted in stiff wrappers. Spine split; corners bumped; some general soil, one very small tear at the top, but otherwise without significant wear. Item #206211

Thomson first set Hugnet's poems to music in 1927. They were his first French songs. Here the songs are printed, for the first time, in lithographic facsimile of Thomson's handwriting on S.A.V. Vélin, scored for voice and piano. The lithographic front wrapper is by Pablo Picasso. As near as we can ascertain, a small number of copies were produced to send as gifts to friends and to subscribers to Hugnet's short-lived periodical, L'usage de la parole. It seems likely that the songs were intended to be included in a fourth number of the magazine (number 3 in April 1940 announced Thomson as a contributor to the next number) but the magazine ceased publication before a fourth number could be completed, when German armed forces marched into France in May. It is unclear how many copies might have been produced and actually sent to subscribers. The small number of institutional holdings suggests that the wartime conditions must have curtailed the effort. There was also a limited edition, said to be only 40 copies, signed by Hugnet and Thomson (but not Picasso) and specially bound. In April of 1940, Thomson wrote to Maurice Grosser: "My Picasso cover for La Valse Grégorienne is quite handsome. It is just the words of the title as I gave them to him and a couple of curlycues added, no picture or anything, which is exactly what I wanted, also the signature large and impressive..." Later, in his autobiography, Thomson confessed that had feared that Picasso's artistic power might overwhelm his own and so he asked him specifically to limit his cover to the text provided. Thomson's musical 'portrait' of Picasso, "Bugles & Birds," was composed in April, 1940 as a gesture of thanks for this work. Very scarce and fragile. Not recorded in Bloch's Catalogue Raisonée. Price: $2,500.00

Bradbury, Ray

(Los Angeles): 1949. (Los Angeles): 1949. Tempera on cardstock paper, approx. 10 X 14 in. Wear to edges; some flaking of the surface. Item #205718

Nighttime cityscape depicting images of Los Angeles, with the central image of a streetcar filled with passengers and all around lighted signs (Bond Pants, Follies, Tivoli Theatre, Beer, Parking, Wine, Ice) a lamppost, a telephone booth, and a leafy tree. Signed "R. Bradbury - July, 1949" at the bottom. In a 2009 interview with the LA Times, Bradbury recalled his early exposure to art and stated that "painting has been part of my life since I was a child . . . My artwork doesn't inspire my writing, it's my writing that inspires my artwork." The streetcar figures in some of Bradbury's stories, including "The Trolley" in the collection Dandelion Wine. Given the date, however, it is conceivable that this image may have been inspired by a 1947 story Bradbury published in the New Yorker, in which a Mexican immigrant is forced to leave his adopted home of Los Angeles: "On many nights he had walked the silent streets and seen the bright clothes in the windows and bought some of them, and he had seen the jewels and bought some of them for his few lady friends. And he had gone to picture shows five nights a week for a while. Then, also, he had ridden the streetcars—all night some nights—smelling the electricity, his dark eyes moving over the advertisements, feeling the wheels rumble under him, watching the little sleeping houses and big hotels slip by." (Provenance: the estate of LA musician, composer, and longtime UCLA faculty member Theodore Norman, who was given the painting by Bradbury). Price: $15,000.00

Apollinaire, Guillaume

Paris: Gallimard, 1944. Paris: Gallimard, 1944. Small 8vo, 169pp; decorated boards. Spine sunned very slightly; fine original glassine, which a couple of small tears. Item #206090

An unusually fine wartime edition, one of 1000 stamp-numbered copies out of a total edition of 1040. The three-color binding is after a design by Paul Bonet. A handsome edition of Apollinaire's first major collection that first appeared in 1913. Price: $200.00