Michel Ciry — Peintures, Aquarelles, Dessins — Galerie de Paris, 1971

Exhibition invitation with accompanying handwritten archival reference note
Offset print on folded card stock with handwritten graphite research slip
Galerie de Paris, 14 Place François-1er, Paris
Exhibition dates: 26 October – 27 November 1971; vernissage 26 October, 17:00–20:00
Approx. 21 × 15 cm (invitation, unfolded, estimated)
Condition: good to very good; central fold as issued, light age toning, minor handling wear and softening to edges; accompanying note with fold and handling marks consistent with archival use

An original 1971 exhibition invitation issued for Michel Ciry at Galerie de Paris, accompanied by a handwritten German research card retained alongside it. The invitation announces an exhibition of paintings, watercolours, and drawings and follows a restrained typographic format characteristic of Paris gallery material from the period: sparse hierarchy, wide spacing, and little emphasis beyond the artist’s name itself.

Michel Ciry (1919–2018) occupied a curious position within postwar French culture. Painter, engraver, writer, and composer, his work frequently moved around spiritual themes, religious imagery, portraiture, and contemplative realism at a moment when abstraction and conceptual practices increasingly dominated institutional discourse.

The accompanying handwritten note introduces an unexpected secondary layer. Written in German, it records bibliographic information for Die Wiener Secession: Eine Dokumentation by Robert Waissenberger, published by Verlag Jugend und Volk in Vienna and Munich in 1971 (300 pages; 120 Deutsche Marks). Whether originally inserted by a collector, bookseller, researcher, or archivist, the note shifts the object slightly away from a single exhibition announcement and toward a small working archive.

The invitation and note function as paired supports rather than independent objects. One announces an exhibition; the other indexes another history entirely. Artist, book, movement, price, place. Two administrative fragments temporarily held together.

Original period item. Shipping and handling included in listed price.