Le piège de Méduse: Comédie lyrique en un acte de M. Érik Satie, avec musique de danse du même monsieur [drama]

Image Not Available

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Images(6)

Image Not Available

Le piège de Méduse: Comédie lyrique en un acte de M. Érik Satie, avec musique de danse du même monsieur [drama]

Artist Georges Braque (French, 1882 - 1963)

Publisher Éditions de la Galerie Simon (André Simon et cie.) (Paris, 1921)

Author Érik Satie (French, 1866-1925)

Date1921

DimensionsBook: H: 12 7/8 in. (327 mm); W: 9 5/16 in. (236 mm); Depth: 1/4 in. (6 mm)
Page (untrimmed): H: 12 5/8 in. (321 mm); W: 8 7/8 in. (225mm)

MediumOriginal prints: 3 woodcuts in colors Text: letterpress in black with red Paper: Van Gelder cream laid paper

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.295

Not on View

Label TextThis publication of a "lyrical comedy in one act " with dance music by the composer Satie contained Braque's examples of late cubist art. Georges Braque, Le piège de Méduse: comédie lyrique en un acte de M. Érik Satie (The Sting of the Jellyfish: Lyrical Comedy in One Act by Érik Satie). Music by Érik Satie (1921) The French composer Érik Satie only wrote one play. His main character, the bizarre aristocrat Baron Méduse (Baron Jellyfish), was a self-parody of the composer. Satie also composed a series of dances for the play. The script calls for a gigantic stuffed monkey to periodically appear and frolic to the music. Instead of using common terms to guide a musician’s performance—such as “slowly” or “with spirit”—the Monkey Dances have such whimsical directions as “Be decent, please: a monkey is looking at you” and “Laugh without people noticing it.” In 1921, at the time of the play's premier, the art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler published it in a deluxe limited edition with three woodcuts by the Cubist artist Georges Braque. These were Braque’s first original book illustrations and it was a sympathetic collaboration. The publisher was a champion both of Cubism and of Braque’s painting, and Braque was a close friend of Satie.Published Referencescf. Castleman, Riva. A Century of Artists Books, New York, 1984, p. 172, col. repr.

cf. Engelberts, Edwin. Georges Braque: catalogue de l’oeuvre graphique originale, Geneva, 1958, no. I, repr. (1984.300).

cf. Garvey, Eleanor M., The Artist & the Book, 1860--1960, Boston, 1961, no. 33, repr.

cf. Vieillard, Roger. Georges Braque: Grands livres illustrés, Paris, 1958, p. 11, reprs.

cf. Franklin Furnace, New York. Cubist Prints/Cubist Books, 1983, no. 69, p. 81, repr.

cf. Wheeler, Monroe. Modern Painters and Sculptors as Illustrators, New York, 1946, p. 99.

cf. The Frank Crowninshield Collection of Modern French Illustrated Books, New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1943, no. 71.

cf. Johnson, Robert Flynn, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870--2000: the Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, San Francisco, 2001, no. 29.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books from Toulouse-Lautrec to Kiefer, 1985, no. 11.

Toledo Museum of Art, Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14--May 11, 2003.