"Surrealism and livre d’artiste" in the department of personal collections of the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin

MOSCOW. At the exhibition "Surrealism and livre d’artiste", which opened on February 18 in the Pushkin Museum, visitors to the personal collections department will be able to get acquainted with the works of famous surrealist artists created in the twentieth century. For the first time, Russian art lovers will see such a large-scale exhibition.

The exposition of the exhibition consists of four hundred graphic works that make up 60 editions of the genre “Book of the Artist” - this is how the expression “livre d’artiste” is translated. This amazing art form was practically not known in Russia. France became the birthplace of the genre, where at the beginning of the 20th century two Parisian publishers became the founders of this art movement.

Ambroise Vollard, who was not only a publisher, but also a collector, together with his colleague Daniel-Henri Canweiler, created a special kind of book, where illustrations took the place more important than the text. To work on such publications, they attracted the most fashionable and talented artists. Such publishers have worked with such famous masters as Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso.

According to the director of the Pushkin Museum, Marina Loshak, the publication of these unusual books had a special purpose for Vollard - to arouse the interest of as many people as possible in works of contemporary art and artists working with his publishing house. So there was a genre that turned a book into an object of art.

Books were published on expensive paper, printed in the best printing houses of Paris. Their maximum circulation was 200 copies. Today they have become a real rarity. The exhibition presents the work of 15 surrealist artists from the collections of collectors Boris Friedman and George Gens, purchased from foreign antiquaries.

Unique works of the artist’s genre can be seen on May 18th.

Ludmila Trautmane © Gallerix.ru