Facile
Artist: Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Publisher: Éditions G.L.M. (Guy Lévis Mano), Paris, 1935
Printer: text: Éditions G.L.M., Paris
reproductions: Breger, [s.l.]
Author: Paul Éluard (French, 1895-1952)
Date: 1935
Dimensions:
book: 9 5/8 x 7 3/16 in. (244 x 182mm)
page: 9 1/2 x 7 1/16 in. (241 x 179mm)
Medium: Reproductions: 13 photolithographs of photographs, incl. cover
Text: letterpress
Paper: ivory wove paper
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Molly and Walter Bareiss Art Fund
Object number: 1987.9
Label Text:
These love poems, inspired by Paul Éluard's new wife Nusch (Maria Benz), were illustrated with Man Ray's photographs of her. In the photographs, her nude body is variously superimposed, backlit, made negative, and solarized. The forms drift across the pages, as if in a dream. Éluard and Man Ray, both Surrealists, explored sexual liberation as part of the liberation of the mind. As so often in Surrealist art, however, woman's role here is confined to those of passive muse and object of desire.
Publisher Guy Lévis Mano produced books from 1923 to 1974 under the name G.L.M. He turned to publication of the Surrealist poets in the 1930s. G.L.M. offered a limited number of each book with an original print or photograph. These sold well and subsidized trade editions without original artwork.
One of the finest editions to come from G.L.M. was Facile, a collaboration between the American photographer Man Ray and French poet Paul Éluard. The book features images of Man Ray’s model, Nusch, whom Éluard married in 1934. Éluard’s poems are love poems, and Man Ray captures both a charm and sensuality in Nusch’s poses and in the integration of text and image. In the photographs, her nude body is variously superimposed, backlit, and solarized. The forms drift across the pages, as if in a dream. Éluard and Man Ray, both Surrealists, explored sexual liberation as part of the liberation of the mind. As so often in Surrealist art, however, women's role here is confined to those of passive muse and object of desire.
Publisher: Guy Lévis Mano
Man Ray, Facile (Easy). Text by Paul Éluard (1935)
Max Ernst, Le Cœur à gaz (The Gas Heart). Text by Tristan Tzara (1946)
Alberto Giacometti, L’Épervier (Sparrowhawk). Text by Jacques Dupin (1960)
Publisher Guy Lévis Mano produced books from 1923 to 1974 under the name G.L.M. He turned to publication of the surrealist poets in the 1930s. G.L.M. offered a limited number of each book with an original print or photograph. These sold well and subsidized trade editions without original artwork.
One of the finest editions to come from G.L.M. was Facile, a collaboration between the American photographer Man Ray and French poet Paul Éluard. The book features images of Man Ray’s model, Nusch, whom Éluard married in 1934. Éluard’s poems are love poems and Man Ray captures both a charm and sensuality in Nusch’s poses, and in the integration of text and image.
Tristan Tzara’s play Le Cœur à gaz was first performed in 1921. When G.L.M. decided to publish this important text in the 1940s, German-born artist Max Ernst was asked to create an etching to be included in the first 25 copies.
Author and art historian Jacques Dupin had long and close friendships with many artists. As a young writer, Dupin found a patron in Lévis Mano and G.L.M. For L’Épervier, published in 1960, Dupin’s good friend Alberto Giacometti offered an etching to accompany a few limited edition copies of the book.
These love poems, inspired by Paul Éluard's new wife Nusch (Maria Benz), were illustrated with Man Ray's photographs of her. In the photographs, her nude body is variously superimposed, backlit, made negative, and solarized. The forms drift across the pages, as if in a dream. Éluard and Man Ray, both Surrealists, explored sexual liberation as part of the liberation of the mind. As so often in Surrealist art, however, woman's role here is confined to those of passive muse and object of desire.
Publisher Guy Lévis Mano produced books from 1923 to 1974 under the name G.L.M. He turned to publication of the Surrealist poets in the 1930s. G.L.M. offered a limited number of each book with an original print or photograph. These sold well and subsidized trade editions without original artwork.
One of the finest editions to come from G.L.M. was Facile, a collaboration between the American photographer Man Ray and French poet Paul Éluard. The book features images of Man Ray’s model, Nusch, whom Éluard married in 1934. Éluard’s poems are love poems, and Man Ray captures both a charm and sensuality in Nusch’s poses and in the integration of text and image. In the photographs, her nude body is variously superimposed, backlit, and solarized. The forms drift across the pages, as if in a dream. Éluard and Man Ray, both Surrealists, explored sexual liberation as part of the liberation of the mind. As so often in Surrealist art, however, women's role here is confined to those of passive muse and object of desire.
Publisher: Guy Lévis Mano
Man Ray, Facile (Easy). Text by Paul Éluard (1935)
Max Ernst, Le Cœur à gaz (The Gas Heart). Text by Tristan Tzara (1946)
Alberto Giacometti, L’Épervier (Sparrowhawk). Text by Jacques Dupin (1960)
Publisher Guy Lévis Mano produced books from 1923 to 1974 under the name G.L.M. He turned to publication of the surrealist poets in the 1930s. G.L.M. offered a limited number of each book with an original print or photograph. These sold well and subsidized trade editions without original artwork.
One of the finest editions to come from G.L.M. was Facile, a collaboration between the American photographer Man Ray and French poet Paul Éluard. The book features images of Man Ray’s model, Nusch, whom Éluard married in 1934. Éluard’s poems are love poems and Man Ray captures both a charm and sensuality in Nusch’s poses, and in the integration of text and image.
Tristan Tzara’s play Le Cœur à gaz was first performed in 1921. When G.L.M. decided to publish this important text in the 1940s, German-born artist Max Ernst was asked to create an etching to be included in the first 25 copies.
Author and art historian Jacques Dupin had long and close friendships with many artists. As a young writer, Dupin found a patron in Lévis Mano and G.L.M. For L’Épervier, published in 1960, Dupin’s good friend Alberto Giacometti offered an etching to accompany a few limited edition copies of the book.
Not on view
In Collection(s)