F.A. Bernett Books Archives - Rare Book Insider

F.A. Bernett Books

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Motion in Vision/Vision in Motion

Motion in Vision/Vision in Motion

Unpaginated (26 pp.) catalogue published on the occasion of the landmark exhibition at the Hessenhuis in Antwerp, held from March 21 to May 3, 1959. Square octavo (8 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches). Original side-stapled wrappers. Light rubbing to aluminum leaf, slight rust-staining around staples, scattered foxing, back cover loose, overall very good. Antwerp: Hessenhuis, 1959. The ZERO group was founded in Düsseldorf by Otto Piene and Heinz Mack. Their aim, Piene once wrote, was to create "a zone of silence and of pure possibilites for a new beginning." In contrast to the popular Abstract Expressionist movement, ZERO artists championed kinetic and light elements such as chrome, aluminum, latex, and motors. Contemporaneous groups existed in other parts of Europe and Asia, as well as the Americas, including the Nul group in the Netherlands, the Nouveaux Réalistes in France, Azimuth in Italy, and the Gutai group in Japan. According to an article on the group, "No longer certain that painting best represented the modern age, Piene, Mack, and Uecker developed a new visual language based on science and a poetic existentialism. Many of the works that emerged used light, colour and movement rather than solid materials to convey the visionary potential of science, while also reflecting Cold War anxieties. As the artists' friend and champion Yves Klein wrote, 'We are living in the atomic age, where everything material and physical could disappear from one day to another, to be replace by nothing but the ultimate abstraction imaginable.'" (Heroes of Zero: the art collective that inspired a generation, Christies.com, 2022) In 1959, the ZERO group held their first exhibition which introduced them to the international public. This catalogue was published in conjunction with that exhibition. The exhibition was artist-curated, and included the participation of Robert Breer, Pol Bury, Yves Klein, Heinz Mack, Enzo Mari, Bruno Munari, Günther Uecker (spelled "Necker" on the cover), Otto Piene, Diter Rot, Jesús Rafael Soto, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, and Paul Van Hoeydonck. Contributors to the catalogue, which was edited by Marc Callewaert, included Emmet Williams, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Pol Bury, Dieter Rot, Jean Tinguely, and Paul Van Hoeydonck. These include paper cuttings, a silver aluminum leaf, tipped-in illustrations, and a letterpress page. Very scarce; as of February 2024, OCLC only locates two holdings of this important catalogue in North America.
  • $2,500
  • $2,500
Set of Four Volumes of Kawakita's Architectural Designs

Set of Four Volumes of Kawakita’s Architectural Designs

Kawakita, Renshichiro Vols. I and III. Modan ko jutaku sekkei gurafu Nos. 1 and 2 [On the design of small modern houses]. II. Modan ko shoten sekkei gurafu [Design of small modern shops]. IV. Torokkenbau no ie - Kanshikikozo no ie [Trockenbau - Dry construction], each volume with 4 pages of text and 20 illustrated plates. Octavos (10 1/8 x 7 1/4 inches). Original illustrated cardstock wrappers with metal spiral bindings. Scattered foxing and toning to covers, small losses to binding of volume IV, light browning and foxing to interiors, overall very good. Tokyo (Koyosha) 1932-1933. Renshichiro Kawakita (1902-1975) was an important Japanese Modernist architect who studied the works of the Viennese Secession architects and the Bauhaus. Early in his career he worked on urban planning proposals and designed theaters, outdoor cinemas, and other public spaces. He was a founding member of the Shinko Kenchiku Renmei (League for New Architects) in 1930, and that same year was one of the group of international architects invited to submit a proposal for the design of the new Ukrainian National Theatre. He was the only Japanese architect to reach the final round of applicants. In 1931, he cofounded the Seikatsu Kosei Kenkyusho (Research Institute of Construction), together with Ken Ichiura, Takehiko Mizutani, Masuji Hamada, Sadanosuke Nakada, Takao Itagaki, and Isaku Ishimura. The institute was founded primarily to hold exhibitions and give lectures, and in November of that year began publication of the journal "Kenchiku Kogei. I See All". The same group together opened a school the following year, the Shikenchiku Kogei Gakuin (School of New Architeture and Design), with the goal of providing "theoretical and technical education for designers with excellent abilities in architecture and crafts for the new age." In the mid-1930s, Kawakita was running the Kawakita Renshichiro Tenbonoritsu Kenkyusho (Renshichiro Kawakita Institute for Efficient Management of Shop and Merchandise) and undertaking a much larger number of shop design projects. His style of shop design quickly became popular all over Japan; by October 1939, 864 shops in Japan and abroad were using the "Kawakita style". These four volumes contain examples of designs for houses, shops, and other types of construction primarily by Kawakita, but also feature designs or contributions by other artists and architects. The first set has examples of designs by Van Doesburg - Rietveld and Sharoun. Volume II has examples of typography by Josef Albers and Herbert Bayer, and Volume IV presents creations by Kawakita along with Mendelsohn, Gropius, Gellhorn, Hilberseimer, Häring, Ichiura, and others. As of January 2024, we could not find any record of these titles through OCLC.
  • $4,500
  • $4,500
La Città Nuova. Quindicinale di Arte-Vita Diretto da Fillia (Later subtitles: Quindicinale di Architettura and Quindicinale di Architettura e Arte)

La Città Nuova. Quindicinale di Arte-Vita Diretto da Fillia (Later subtitles: Quindicinale di Architettura and Quindicinale di Architettura e Arte)

Torino, 1932-1934. Tabloid/folio (approx. 56 x 41.5 cm). Original self-wrappers; each issue 8 pp. Some browning to paper, toning, light scattered foxing, some issues with tears along fold lines, overall good condition. Twelve issues in eleven fascicules (Year I, Nos. 1 and 3-6; Year III, Nos. 3-9) of the important Italian Futurist architecture journal, under the direction of Fillia, a leader in the Futurist movement, with editorial assistance and contributions from other noted Futurist artists and figures including Alberto Sartoris, Enrico Prampolini, Nicolay Diulgheroff, Gino Levi-Montalcini, Mino Rosso, Gerardo Dottori, Filippo Marinetti, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Bruno Sanzin, Emilio Odorizio, Pippo Oriani, Italo Lorio and many others, covering topics in domestic and international architecture including functional architecture, modern furniture design, aeropainting, Futurist landscape painting, public architecture, contemporary church architecture, African architecture, urbanism and ruralism, kitchen design, iron construction, Fascist architecture, new building construction in Spain, and many others. Illustrated throughout primarily from photographs. Fillia (Luigi Colombo) helped to establish the Futurist movement in 1923, and quickly became the group's leader and its principal theorist. He published a number of journals including Futurismo, Ventrina Futurista, La Città Futurista, Stile Futurista, and La Città Nuova, co-authored the Manifesto of Futurist Cooking with Marinetti, and designed the Futurist Pavilion at the 1928 International Exhibition in Turin. An excellent and scarce example from the height of the Futurist movement; as of October 2023, OCLC locates only four holdings in the United States.
  • $6,000
  • $6,000
Dégradé. Suivi de Théâtre des marionnettes

Dégradé. Suivi de Théâtre des marionnettes, avec une composition de Jean Marembert

Jausion, Jean Paris: Éditions Réverberes, 1928. Octavo (21 ×13.5 cm). Original printed wrappers; unpaginated (33 pp.) including a frontispiece after a drawing by Jean Marembert. Overall very good condition. Limited edition of 300 copies. Rare volume of poems published by the neo-Dadaist group Les Réverbères, which was founded in December 1937 by Michel Tapié, Jean Marembert, Jacques Office, Pierre Minne, and Henri Bernard, and which promoted Dadaist exhibitions, jazz concerts, stage performances, and published literary works. Among the exhibitors were: Louis Cattiaux, Marembert, Pierre Minne, Tapié, as well as members of the "La Main à plume" surrealist group: Noël Arnaud, Marc Patin, Jean-François Chabrun, and others. Among other events, the group also organized "Tribute to Dada" soirées, which featured readings of texts by Tristan Tzara, Ribemont-Dessaignes, and others. In "Art of the Defeat: France 1940-1944," Laurence Bertrand Dorléac asserts that the group still met for several gatherings retaining the spirit of the 1930s even after the German occupation of France in June 1940. The Neo-Dadaist activities around Michel Tapié have not been explored to any significant degree and are rarely mentioned in passing in the literature on Dada and Surrealism. One exception is Michel Fauré's book "Histoire du surréalisme sous l'Occupation", published in 1982. The reason for the sparse state of research is probably that the experimental, elaborate avant-garde prints, most of which were produced in very small editions, are hardly accessible due to their rarity. Very scarce; as of December 2023, OCLC lists only 2 copies in North America.
  • $750