[Chagall, Klee, Matisse, et al.]. Verve. An Artistic and Literary Quarterly. (Volume I, Numbers 1-4). Paris: Pub...

Description

Original Lithographs by Chagall, Masson, Klee, Matisse, Miro, Kandinsky, and Leger

[Chagall, Klee, Matisse, et al.]. Verve. An Artistic and Literary Quarterly. (Volume I, Numbers 1-4). Paris: Published at 4 Rue Féror, 1937-1939. Four issues, all part of Volume I: No. 1 (December, 1937), No. 2 (March-June, 1938), No. 3 (October-December, 1938), No. 4 (January-March, 1939). Stiff printed, illustrated wrappers. English text, black and white and color illustrations throughout. All four issues bound together (with wrappers) in a contemporary binding of multi-colored and -patterned checkerboard cloth over boards, spine lettered in gilt. Spine sunned and worn, some wear to corners. Still, a fine copy, with very bright illustrations and lithography.

Verve was founded by Greek expatriate Efstatios Eleftheriades in partnership with David Smart, then publisher of "Coronet" and "Esquire" in the United States. Smart's aim was to create "the most beautiful magazine on earth." To this end he would provide the capital, and Tériade as managing director had carte blanche to provide the content. Tériade's own aims are best explained by quoting the manifesto which appeared in issue No. 1: "Verve is devoted to artistic creation in all fields and all forms...Verve will utilize the technical methods best suited to each reproduction. It will call upon the best specialists in heliogravure in colours and in black and white, as well as typography, and will not disdain the forgotten process of lithography."

More Information: To satisfy his agreement with Smart, the first four issues of Verve appeared within a year. These issues established the unique Verve look of exuberant eclecticism where a 15th century tapestry would sit opposite a painting of Delacroix's or Ceylonese demons opposite the latest Matisse drawings or Mathew Brady's photographs along with Andre Derain's portraits.  These unlikely juxtapositions were hypnotically held together by Verve's sumptuous design, production and printing. Tériade drew liberally on all of art history as well as contemporary artists for Verve's contents and a random selection of contributors for these issues would include--James Joyce, Alberto Giacometti, Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Jarry, Georges Bataille, Rabindranath Tagore, Federico García Lorca, Paul Valéry, Andre Gide, Man Ray, Bill Brandt, John Dos Passos, Henri Michaux, Georges Rouault, Brassaï. Tériade also maintained his bias for lithography and these issues contain original prints specially produced for the magazine by Marc Chagall, André Masson, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Wassily Kadinsky and Ferdinand Leger.