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Georges Braque
Profile, 1963 |
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Georges Braque
"Les Citrons", 1963 |
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| Georges
Braque: The Lettera Amorosa Suite |
| An
exhibition of twenty-nine (29) lithographs |
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"Braque
valued the quality of 'poetry' in his work very highly, and
many contemporaries found his late work 'poetic' in nature."
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John Golding |
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Braque:
The Late Works |
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Lettera
Amorosa was the last large body of printed works produced by
Braque, completed just months before his death. The suite consists
of 29 color lithographs printed by Fernand Mourlot in Paris. The images
illustrate the poetry of René Char, which is well documented
with testimonials. The publisher E. Engelberts, relates how some of
the prints were conceived: "We were with René Char, Mariette
Lachaud, Fernand Mourlot and Gaston Deschamps in Braque's studio,
rue du Douanier. The poet read the text, commenting on it from time
to time. Seated next to Braque with the maquette of the book on my
knees, I would emphasize a word or write on a blank page whatever
the text evoked for Braque. Having come to the passage 'Je ris merveilleusement
avec toi. Voilà la chance unique,' Braque had me jot down:
Sun-Springtime."
After
the layout was completed --always in consultation with the poet--
five attempts were made proofing the images. Several images were
changed, redesigned and reworked by the artist to assure that the
illustrations were complementing both the meaning and visual appearance
of the text inspired by the poet according to the rhythm of the
masses and voids on the page. From beginning to end, the project
took nearly four and a half years to complete. The majority of the
work was done on litho paper, transferred to zinc or stone and retouched
by the artist in his workshop. The first public showing of Lettera
Amorosa appeared in the exhibition Georges Braque-René Char
at the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet in May,
1963. Braque died just three months later in Paris on August 31,
1963.
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