October 18, 2006

Paroles peintes, synthesis between icon and poetry

Jean Paulhan and André Pieyre de Mandiargues who were associated with the Surrealists and kept since that time a beautiful friendship, had a great impact on the edition of an extraordinary collection, composed of 5 volumes published between1962 and 1975 : Paroles Peintes. The conception is basic : putting in resonance an engraving and a poem.

A short introduction (Volume I) specifies this collective approach :
"Le couple peintre-poète ou la gravure considérée comme une traduction. La poésie veut donc être universelle. Mais la parole plonge ses racines dans le sol natal. Le peintre, lui, est libre. Ne pourrait-on pas considérer la gravure comme une sorte de traduction Une trasnmutation du poème. Le poème offert au regard, directement intelligible, antérieur à Babel."

In each volumes, famous names lent their support at this specific work. So, we can find, in volumes I, II and III , viewed as the greatests, engravings of Chagall, Zadkine, Ernst, Braque, Giacometti, Alechinsky, Miro as poems of Aragon, Arp, Mandiargues, Paz, Queneau.

The Bookshop currently offers two first editions on pur fil Johannot (200 copies). One in loose leaves with paper covers (volumes I and II), another with a binding by Creuzevault (volumes I, II et III).

Paroles Peintes I. Paris, éditions O. Lazar-Vernet, 1962, in 4°:
Aragon/Chagall - Arp/Magnelli - Birot/Zadkine - Follain/Gilioli - Guillevic/Ubac - Joyeux/Bissières - Laude/Jacobsen - Lescure/Fiorini - Liberati/Ernst - Pieyre de Mandiargues/Bona - Paulhan/Braque - de Solier/Dufour - Tapié/Lepatre - Tardieu/Vieillard.

Paroles Peintes II. Paris, éditions O. Lazar-Vernet, 1965, in 4°:
de Bayser/Vieira da Silva - Boissonnas/Giacometti - Bosquet/Serpan - Cassou/Vessereau - Clancier/Bryen - Daguet/Wogensky - Dotremont/Alechinsky - Grosjean/Deyrolle - Jouffroy/Lam - Magnelli/Arp - Oster/Sugaï - Paz/Zanartu - Queneau/Baj - G. Trakl/Wessel - Ungaretti/Fautrier.

Paroles Peintes III. Paris, éditions O. Lazar-Vernet, 1967, in 4°:
Aldan/Mothewell - Cartier-Bresson/Calder - Deguy/Perez-Roman - Gilbert-lecomte/Sima - Pyere de Mandiargues/Miro - Roche/Hundertwasser - Takemoto/Yoshihara.