Chagall Marc

1969 · rif. 4415 — Tudor Publising 1969. Hardback. Good. Drawings and Water Colors for The Ballet by Jacques Lassaigne & Marc Chagall Tudor Publishing ISBN: none Condition: Good Sold by Crappy Old Books This isn’t just a book—it’s a ticket to a stage where colors pirouette donkeys leap en pointe and fiddlers in improbable shades of green hover above the orchestra pit. In Drawings and Water Colors for The Ballet 1969 art critic Jacques Lassaigne plays master of ceremonies while Marc Chagall unleashes his arsenal of soaring dancers dream-flecked costumes and watercolor backdrops that seem to glow even when the book is closed. It’s a strange duet: Lassaigne provides the words steady and scholarly while Chagall responds in visual crescendos—inky sketches washes of crimson and cobalt ethereal ballerinas who look suspiciously like saints or circus performers who’ve taken a wrong turn into Swan Lake. You won’t learn how to do a plié but you might find yourself halfway convinced that roosters can waltz and angels definitely prefer a pas de deux. Why this copy is worth pirouetting over: Published in 1969 by Tudor Publishing when stagecraft psychedelia and surrealism were all cross-pollinating. Features the unlikely pairing of critic Lassaigne and painter Chagall which is a bit like having someone explain the trapeze while you’re already flying through the air. Condition: Good. Like an old playbill it’s been to the show maybe had a rose pressed inside but still flutters with magic. No ISBN because Chagall’s imagination couldn’t be catalogued by a mere number. At Crappy Old Books we like to think of this as the only coffee-table volume that might spontaneously leap into a grand jeté if you don’t keep a paperweight on it. It’s beautiful it’s odd it’s lyrical—and it may inspire you to redecorate your living room in cerulean goats and floating fiddlers. Tudor Publising hardcover