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Alberto Giacometti. L’air de l’eau (The Air of Water)

Alberto Giacometti

L’air de l’eau (The Air of Water)

Published 1934; rebound 1937

Book with four engravings with chine collé; letterpress text; one handwritten poem by Breton in ink. Bespoke rebinding by Hugnet and Christy for Hugnet, with leather, blind tooling, and foil stamping, front and back covers each holding liquid mercury and glass shapes between two sheets of glass (back cover accidentally cracked in 1940 causing mercury to be lost); green decalcomania (gouache transfer) flyleaves

Not on view

Author André Breton
Medium Book with four engravings with chine collé; letterpress text; one handwritten poem by Breton in ink. Bespoke rebinding by Hugnet and Christy for Hugnet, with leather, blind tooling, and foil stamping, front and back covers each holding liquid mercury and glass shapes between two sheets of glass (back cover accidentally cracked in 1940 causing mercury to be lost); green decalcomania (gouache transfer) flyleaves
Dimensions engravings: 6 3/8 × 5 3/8" (16.2 × 13.7 cm); pages: 9 5/8 × 8 7/8" (24.5 × 22.5 cm); book (closed): 10 1/16 × 9 1/8 × 15/16" (25.5 × 23.1 × 2.4 cm)
Publisher Éditions Cahiers d'Art, Paris [Christian Zervos] , Paris [Christian Zervos]
Edition 345. Five numbered 1–5 on Japon nacré paper, with a handwritten poem by Breton; forty numbered 6–45 on Montval paper; all with the engravings by Giacometti. 300 on wove paper without the engravings. Plus four copies printed with recipients’ names and a few hors commerce with the engravings, outside the edition. This copy no. 4
Credit Gift of Helen and Sam Zell
Object number 484.2022
Department Drawings and Prints

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Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti

Swiss, 1901–1966 85 works online

In the winter of 1947, Alberto Giacometti wrote a letter to Pierre Matisse, a gallerist in New York who was organizing an exhibition of his works.

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