Au soleil du plafond

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Au soleil du plafond

Artist Juan Gris (Spanish, 1887-1927)

Publisher Éditions Verve, Paris, 1955 (Tériade)

Printer Mourlot Frères, Paris

Author Pierre Reverdy (French, 1889-1960)

Date1955

DimensionsSlipcase: H: 17 5/8 in. (448 mm); W: 13 11/16 in. (348 mm); Depth: 2 5/8 in. (67 mm).
Chemise: H: 17 1/8 in. (435 mm); W: 13 1/2 in. (343 mm); Depth: 2 1/4 in. (57 mm).
Book: H: 16 7/8 in. (428 mm); W: 13 in. (330 mm); Depth: 2 in. (51 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 16 1/2 in. (419 mm); W: 12 3/4 in. (324 mm).

MediumOriginal prints: 11 lithographs in colors. Text: photolithography of handwritten original. Paper: Arches cream wove paper, watermarked.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1985.79

Not on View

Label TextThe idea for this collaboration between Gris and Reverly was conceived during the First World War. Gris died in 1927, having only completed half the illustrations for the twenty poems. The book was finally published in 1955 with the text appearing as a facsimile of Reverdy's handwritting. Even though it appeared decades afterwards, this handsome work is concsidered one of the great Cubist books. In 1915 poet Pierre Reverdy and artist Juan Gris began to collaborate on a book that was to include 20 prints after Gris’ gouache drawings with a prose-poem beneath each one. Gris only completed 11 of the drawings. Disagreements with the publisher, followed by the artist’s death, led to the indefinite postponement of the project, which was eventually revived in 1947. Reverdy reworked his original prose-poems, then wrote them out in flowing calligraphy and inserted the images freely throughout. The relationship of text and image is that of two parallel discourses delivered simultaneously concerning the same objects. In both, there is an intense concentration on commonplace things, each made to unfold with complexity and mystery. Here, a Peugeot coffee mill, coffee pot, cup, glass, and spoon—in part defined in ghostly white drawing—tilt and hover ambiguously in shallow space over a cloth-covered table. Publisher: Tériade Henri Laurens, Les idylles (Idylls), Text by Theocritus (1945) Juan Gris, Au soleil du plafond (In the Ceiling Sun). Text by Pierre Reverdy (1955) Le Corbusier, Poème de l’angle droit (Poem of the Right Angle). Text by Le Corbusier (1955) Fernand Léger, La ville (The City) (1959) Greek-born Efstratios Tériade started in publishing as artistic director of the journal Cahiers d’art. By 1937 he had started Verve, his own art magazine. Both under the Verve organization and on his own, Tériade published a series of fine books specializing in large, colorful prints. Les idylles was the first of three collaborations between Tériade and Henri Laurens. Each featured a classical text and wood engravings. This text is a translation of poems by the Greek poet Theocritus. The white lines and terracotta color of Laurens’s wood engravings suggest ancient Greek vase painting. Au soleil du plafond is an example of a project Tériade completed after another publisher had dropped it. The project began in 1916 as a collaboration between Juan Gris and poet Pierre Reverdy: Gris would supply 20 images; Reverdy 20 prose poems. The project was abandoned with only 11 images completed. Much later, after Gris’s death, the original gouaches were discovered and converted to lithographs. Tériade completed the book in 1955, under Reverdy’s supervision. In 1954 Fernand Léger began the lithographs for La ville, a project celebrating his beloved Paris. When the artist died the following year, the lithographs and text remained unfinished. Four years later Tériade issued a portfolio of 29 color lithographs based on the work that Léger had completed.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Bareiss Collection of Illustrated Books from Toulouse-Lautrec to Kiefer, 1985, no. 30

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

Toledo Museum of Art, European Expressionist and Cubist Works on Paper: 1900-1930, Dec. 2, 2011-Mar. 11, 2012 (University of Toledo Student Exhibition).