Title
Tristan Tzara: De Memoire d'Homme
Artist
Year
1950
Technique
nine lithographs bound into book of poetry by Tristan Tzara
Image Size
images: various; book: 12-7/8" x 10" x 7/8"
Signature
unsigned
Edition Size
No. 127 (out of 300 numbered 31 - 330)
Annotations
typeset text throughout
Reference
Bloch 665; Mourlot 187
Paper
cream Arches wove
State
published
Publisher
Bordas, Paris
Inventory ID
REMC101
Price
$4,000.00
Description
"In 1949 the founder of the Dada movement, Tristan Tzara, asked Picasso to contribute illustrations to his recently completed book-length poem “De mémoire d’homme.” To create his images, Picasso experimented with a new technique, using his finger rather than a lithographic brush as the painting instrument. He also limited himself to three types of mark making: the fingerprint or spot, the line “painted” with the finger, and the line drawn in lithographic chalk. By doing so, he draws a direct analogy between the written and pictorial mark: just as words are created from a finite repertoire of letters, his illustrations are created from a finite repertoire of marks." (Susan Greenberg Fisher, Picasso and the Allure of Language, New Haven, CT; Yale University Art Gallery, 2009)