Cubisme

DU "CUBISME.

1912 · réf. ST20811 — Paris: Eugène Figuière et Cie 1912. FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY. 240 x 185 mm. 9 1/2 x 7 1/2". 44 pp. 2 leaves. STRIKING 3-D OPTICAL ILLUSION BINDING BY A. CONTRERAS stamp-signed on front turn-in WITH AN ALL-OVER DESIGN OF CUBES rendered in black white and silver morocco smooth spine. In older probably original brown woodgrain drop-back box backed with black buckram. With 26 black & white photographic reproductions of works by Cézanne Picasso Derain Braque Metzinger Laurencin Gleizes Léger Duchamp Picabia and original owner Juan Gris printed on glossy white paper. WITH A HALF TITLE INSCRIPTION in French OF GREAT IMPORTANCE FROM ONE OF THE CO-AUTHORS translated as: "To the painter Juan Gris with all my best wishes J Metzinger." Occasional underlinings in blue pencil. Text leaves with overall light browning and occasional foxing due to paper stock lower corner of half title restored and fore edge with minor chipping otherwise a fine copy the plates clean and bright and the binding unworn. Penned by two Cubist artists this is a highly resonant association copy of the first major treatise on the Cubism movement presented to noted Cubist painter Juan Gris and later put into an illusionistic binding composed of variably colored cubes that seem to jump off the surface. Albert Gleizes 1881-1953 and Jean Metzinger 1883-1956 had painted in both Post-Impressionist and Fauvist styles before their interest in exploring form and structure as well as light and color led them to the style that would become Cubism. Influenced by Cézanne's "brick-by-brick" technique and Poincaré's writings on space and time the new movement sought to examine objects from a mobile perspective and to depict multiple views of a subject in one painting. In "On Cubism" they explain: "An object has not one absolute form; it has many. It has as many as there are planes in the region of perception." The work features black & white illustrations of Cubist paintings by the authors and by fellow pioneers Picasso Braque Derain and Juan Gris to whom this copy was presented by Metzinger. Born in Madrid as José Victoriano González-Pérez 1887-1927 Gris studied engineering before moving to Paris to pursue art. First working as an illustrator for periodicals he was inspired by Metzinger to begin painting seriously. His training in engineering helped him appreciate the importance of mathematics in painting a realization triggered according to art historian John Richardson by Metzinger's painting "Le Goûter Tea Time" exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1911. Our volume was later in the collection of and probably bound for Chilean architect and collector Carlos Alberto Cruz 1939-2022. We have been unable to find more information on our binder "A. Contreras" but it seems possible that he was also Chilean as the Valparaiso-based Cruz owned a number of bindings signed with that name. Eugène Figuière et Cie unknown