Description

FIRST EDITION.
Press copy after 196 large paper copies.
The book brings together two short texts, The late Mr Le Duc and Bug O'Shea.

SIGNED AUTOGRAPH CONSIGNMENT :

"to André and Dada
their friend
Paul Morand

The volume is illuminated with 5 original drawings including two full-page illustrations (Indian ink and gouache) par Philippe Hosiasson in 1942 (handwritten note dated below the colophon).

A French painter of Ukrainian origin and a relative of Boris Pasternak, Philippe Hosiasson (1898-1978) studied in Odessa and published a text in Russian on El Greco. In 1919, he left Odessa, which was under German and French occupation, for Rome, where he became friends with André Derain, and then Berlin in 1922, where he became a decorator for Boris Romanov's Russian ballets. He moved to Paris between the wars and obtained French nationality in 1928, becoming a member of the "École de Paris". He tried to reach the United States during the Second World War, but was forced to take refuge in a chalet south of Barcelonnette. In 1946, he exhibited at the Salon des Surindépendants alongside Viera da Silva, Matta, Riopelle, Mathieu and Soulages.
Jean Cassou asked him to write the introduction to his book on The looting by the Germans of works of art and libraries belonging to French Jews signed by Philippe Hosiasson under the pseudonym Jacques Sabile, The aesthetic doctrine of National Socialism and the organisation of the Fine Arts under the Third Reich.  He obtained a position at the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, a job that had a profound influence on his first abstract works.
Michel Tapie became one of his fervent supporters after his participation in the Salon de Mai 1954, and enabled him to exhibit at the Galerie du Haut du Pavé and then at the Galerie Sadler. Influenced by Clifford Still and close to Helen Frankethaler, Hosiasson exhibited regularly at the Galerie Kootz until 1960 and, with the help of Sam Francis, joined the Galerie Karl Flinker in 1961.

The dedicatees, André and Dada, are probably André and Nadia Rodocanachi, bibliophiles close to the author whose library included several works illuminated by Philippe Hosiasson, including a fine copy of The announcement to Mary bound by Pierre-Lucien Martin sold in 2009 when the library of Pierre-Louis Natural was dispersed.

A well-bound copy.