BUTOR, LAUDE, BRYEN, DOMELA, HÉLION, HÉROLD, MASSON — Estampes et livres illustrés des Éditions Brunidor. Paris, 1973

55 quai de Valmy, Paris, 24–25 November 1973. Original private exhibition invitation issued by Roberto and Maggy Altmann. Offset printing in pale grey and orange on white card stock, 13.5 × 10.5 cm. Unprinted verso.

Condition: Very good. Light age toning, faint handling marks and minor corner and edge wear.

Éditions Brunidor was founded in New York in 1947 by Robert Altmann. Its first portfolio brought together Matta, Wifredo Lam, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Stanley William Hayter, Kurt Seligmann and Joan Miró. By 1977, the Bibliothèque nationale recorded seven portfolios and twenty-five illustrated books, produced through collaboration between writers, artists, printers and publisher.

The names printed here — Michel Butor, Jean Laude, Camille Bryen, César Domela, Jean Hélion, Jacques Hérold and André Masson — trace that movement between writing, printmaking and the book. Four years earlier, Brunidor’s publications had been presented by the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in Le Livre comme œuvre d’art, installed on a structure designed by Ricardo Porro.

This invitation returns the publishing programme to a private address. The artists and writers are reduced to surnames; the sender remains an empty line beneath invitation personnelle de la part de. The object was completed through circulation: a name added, a card passed on, an entry granted.

Ships flat, securely backed and tracked from the UK.