Georges Hugnet1936Book cover for Georges Hugnet "La Septième Face du Dé" (Paris: Editions Jeanne Bucher, 1936)
Book cover
Swann Galleries - New YorkCourtesy of Swann Galleries (Auction, May 15, 2008, #2146, Lot 98)
Illustrated with reproductions of 20 photo-collages, several in color. Accompanied by Hugnet's poems. 4to, embossed photo-pictorial sewn wrappers illustrated with a Man Ray photograph of a Marcel Duchamp readymade; in a custom-made clamshell box. Roth 92. one of 294 copies; this initialed "g.h." on the colophon, and double-signed by hugnet on the title page.
Warmly inscribed to Jacques Grou-Radenez, the master printer of this volume, by Hugnet in 1936. A second inscription, also by Hugnet, describes Grou-Radenez''s death in World War II and the author''s rededication of this volume to fellow Surrealist photographer and collagist Léo Dohmen in 1963.
The object pictured on the cover of this volume is a Duchamp readymade titled "Why Not Sneeze, Rrose Sélavy?" (photograph by Man Ray), which was included in an exhibition titled "Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism," at the Museum of Modert Art. Hugnet wrote the preface to the catalogue. The title is spelled out in letters containing scores of cultural figures, including de Sade, Freud, Chaplin, Swift, and Saint-Just. Hugnet''s collages (with components cut from Paris Magazine), are accompanied by his highly metaphorical poetry.
Hugnet, remembered primarily for his critical contributions to Surrealism, became associated with the group in the early 1930s, though by 1939 tensions with André Breton forced his official exit.
LL/28627
