Miro

1938 · Best.-Nr. 48651 — Paris.: Editions Sagesse. 1938. Full tan polished calf by Pierre-Lucien Martin with his signature gilt to front turn-in and dated 1970 front and rear board with large abstract geometric onlays of crème caramel polished calf turquoise suede doublures and free endpapers smooth spine with title gilt t.e.g. original grey handmade paper wrappers with titles in black to front cover preserved matching wool-lined calf-backed paper board chemise with gilt title to spine and calf-edged slipcase. 8vo. 210 x 174 mm. Leaf with manuscript text by Paalen recto manuscript poem verso leaf with original etching as frontispiece by Miró printed in red on irregularly trimmed yellow paper and signed and numbered from the edition of 75 in pencil printed title three leaves with Paalen's verse leaf with justification recto. Sonja Sekula's copy of 'Sablier Couché' presented by Paalen with a manuscript poem Miró's superb signed frontispiece and bound by Pierre-Lucien Martin.From the edition limited to 75 numbered copies on Arches paper signed and numbered in ink by Alice Paalen on the justification and signed and numbered by Miró on the etched frontispiece.Paalen's presentation is in black ink to the initial blank: 'Celui qui a inspiré ce poèmea disparu comme / une vague disparait dans la mer après s'être élevée haut dans la lumière notre rencontre / a été celle de deux vagues venant en sens contraires / qui s'él`event et se à l'éxtrème de leur élan / à vous qui coulez sur la même pente que moi / Sonia que j'attendais Alice Paalen signed in blue / grey ink'; at the foot of the page Paalen quotes: ''Rendez-vous de rivière eau se recevant des nuages / et des sources eaux qui me lie à ton sort . '.The following page features Paalen's poem 'Mercure éteint' in blue ink. 'Mercure Eteint' was published in Paalen's 1941 collection 'Noir Animal'; here Paalen has dated the poem 'Mexico San Angel / Nuit du 29 mai 1940'. The lines quoted at the foot of the presentation i.e. 'Rendez-vous de rivière . ' is from 'Les Appelants' which also features in 'Noir Animal'. A shortened version of the same quotation appears in a copy of 'Noir Animal' given by Paalen to André and Jacquéline Breton and their daughter Aube.The Sonia of Paalen's enigmatic presentation is the painter Sonja or Sonia Sekula 1918 - 1963 the Swiss-born New York-based Abstract Expressionist painter like Paalen she was also a poet and friend to the Surrealists in exile. Sekula knew Paalen in the 1940s - she remained married to Wolfgang Paalen until 1947 - and the pair had a short-lived but passionate affair: 'During a visit to the Onslow Fords in Morelia Alice had met and fallen in love with the Swiss artist Sonja Sekula who had exhibited in the group show '31 Women' at Peggy Guggenheim in 1943 and was now associated with the 'Indian Space' group in New York around Peter Busa. The two lived an open love affair . ' see Andreas Neufert's biography of Wolfgang Paalen. The presentation detailed above is also listed with the additional detail that Alice and Sonja's relationship had ended by August 1945.Alice Paalen 1904 - 1987 née Phillipot and later Rahon her mother's maiden name Surrealist poet and painter married the Austrian Surrealist Wolfgang Paalen in 1930. She participated in Surrealist activities during the early 1930s and had a significant liaison with Picasso before the publication of her first collection of poetry in 1936 A Mème La Terre the same year that she went to India with fellow poet and Surrealist Valentine Penrose. Further collections followed including the present volume Sablier Couché with the two poems 'Sablier Couché' and 'Muttra' and Noir Animal 1941 before she turned her attention to painting and changed her surname to Rahon. Many of Paalen's presentations feature quotations from her own poems as here.Cramer 5; see Andreas Neufert's 'Paalen: Life and Work Vol. 2 Under the Volcano: The DYN Project and Exile in Mexico 1939 - 1959' Norderstedt 2023 pp. 198 - 199. Editions Sagesse. unknown