Lot n° 74
Estimation :
3000 - 4000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 6 500EUR
Hans BELLMER.
Four letters addressed to Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.
1964-1970.
4 pp. in-4 on pink linen paper and 1 p. in-8.
Joint:
Herbert LEWANDOWSKI. The "Underworld", a panorama of eroticism: German language domain. (International Library of Erotology, nº 9). Paris, Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1963.
In-8 square: softcover.
Writer and film critic, Joseph-Marie Lo Duca was the director of the Bibliothèque internationale d' érotologie published by Jean-Jacques Pauvert.
The first three letters relate to the edition being prepared for publication in Munich.
On March 16, 1964, Bellmer informs him that he has numerous photographs of his work which he makes available. The next two letters, written a week later after their meeting, offer many details.
Bellmer apologizes for having forgotten to show him a set of photographs, informs him that many originals are at Daniel Cordier's and, after having read the volume devoted to the eroticism of China, insists on one point: "I would oppose any mutilated reproduction, either by retouching or by cutting out the photograph." In the third letter, Bellmer suggests leads on Arnold Böcklin, Max Klinger, Franz von Stuck, Adolf Müntzer,
Egon Schiele, George Grosz, Georg Scholtz-Grötzingen, etc.
The last letter, sent six years later, is a negative response to a book proposal: "It's a pity, but you are too late."
Attached is the volume devoted to the "German Domain" of the International Library of Erotology entirely annotated by Bellmer in red pen.
At the top is a list of ten German-speaking artists who, Bellmer writes, "have been too neglected or completely ignored! Ferdinand Hodler (Switzerland) also seems unknown to the author!" Page 15, mention of Céline's thesis on Semmelweis.
Bellmer sometimes corrects the spelling of a name or title, is astonished at the mention of "lithograph" for a composition by Klinger ("I would be surprised if it were a litho!"), takes exception to a full-page reproduction of Klimt's The Sea ("The reproduction of this bad drawing can only do Klimt harm!"), notes on page 90: "Indispensable to show here several drawings by Egon Schiele and Kokoschka." "There is, without reason, far too much Masereel in this book!" he remarks on page 171.
Several reproductions are crossed out with a raging line, accompanied by a question mark or a layout remark: "larger!", "very mediocre!", "excellent! larger!", "four bad imitators of Beardsley", "banalities!", etc.
The illustrated dust jacket has not been preserved, and on the muted softcover there is a note: "Copy entirely corrected by Hans Bellmer."
Also enclosed are three photographs by Bellmer, later prints: the gamahuchy cross and the bicycle, both taken in 1946, and a photograph of an exhibition of the doll.
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