Ilia Zdanevitch (Iliazd dit) (1894-1975)
Afat. Soixante-seize sonnets
Paris, Le Degré Quarante and un, 1940
Oblong in-octo, stitched, editor's cardboard covered in printed parchment, sleeve, case
First edition
The text is printed in Russian ; it is preceded by a double sheet with title and justification in French. Limited print of 62 on marbled Montval paper ; one of the 50 signed by the printer and the painter
6 original prints by Pablo Picasso including two forming the kufic words Afat and Madjusiya
Extraordinary piece bearing the dedication :
LES DESSINS griffant ces
pages sont dediés
à mon bon ami
Max Pellequer Picasso
A PARIS Le 1er Mai 1940
and adorned with nine beautiful full sheet drawings in India ink and ink wash representing nine women, asleep or reclining, the last two becoming more and more abstract in the representation of the feminine nude.
The first of nine books printed by Iliazd in collaboration with Picasso, this compendium of 76 Russian sonnets (poems about love, nature, the difficult work of being a poet, and three regarding his relationship to Picasso) was written mostly between January and June 1938.
This volume is the first of nine artist's book projects undertaken by Picasso and the inventive Russian poet and publisher Ilia Zdanevitch. The twenty-six Russian sonnets were written by him between January and June 1938 and deal with love, beauty, personal struggle, and the hidden meanings of language. They are preceded by two aquatint titles by Picasso - "Afat" (sadness; beautiful woman), the first ; and "Madjusiya" (sorceress), the second. Curiously, Picasso chose to depict both the women in his life at the time, Marie-Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar, in his four engravings" (Robert Flynn Johnson).
(Centre Georges Pompidou, Iliazd, 1978, p. 63.- Johnson, Artists' Books in the Modern Era, 1870-2000, n°65.- Goeppert & Cramer, Pablo Picasso, catalogue raisonné des livres illustrés, n°33)
