The Paris Book, Pope, &c.

pP  

• WHAT: P

• WHEN: Pre-1900

• WHO: The Un-Gyve Limited Group

• WHERE: Boston

THE PARIS BOOK: by Marian Parry

In 1952 Ben Shahn said to Marian Parry, “Marian, make the most beautiful book you can and I’ll take it to Curt Valentin.” She made The Paris Book, which she had conceived of sometime prior to this prompting, and as promised, the book was presented to Curt Valentin who was moved to publish it. Mr. Valentin, who had published several significant, limited edition books in which the writings of poets and novelists were accompanied by illustrations made by contemporary artists, passed away the following year and The Paris Book was never published. Un-Gyve will reproduce this most beautiful book of watercolours in their exquisite detail exactly as was intended. The Paris Book represents Marian Parry’s affinity for the city in which she spent the first years of childhood; twenty extraordinary illustrations accompanied by her own hand-lettered prose — the story of “an odd bird” and his discovery of Paris.

PARRY: Marian Parry is an author, poet, illustrator and watercolour artist. Her books have been published by Knopf, Simon & Schuster, Greenwillow, Heritage Press and Limited Editions, Pharos Verlag (Switzerland) and Scholastic Books.

She has had numerous one-person shows. Her work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Houghton Library of Harvard University and the Smith College Rare Book Room. The main archive of her work is in the print collection of the Boston Public Library.

She was a fellow in the Bunting Fellowship Program, Radcliffe Institute and is the founder and senior instructor of the Watercolor Program for the Radcliffe Seminars at Harvard University.

PDN PHOTO ANNUAL: Twosomes is a 2012 PDN Photo Annual winner in the Book Category.

PHOTOGRAVURE: A process of photographic reproduction by the transfer of negatives etched onto copper plates and inked for printing. In 1878, Czech graphic artist and printer Karl Klic invented the most precise and, though slow, most commercially successful method of photogravure printing. Later associated with the English printer Samuel Fawcett, Klic, in 1895, established the first rotogravure firm, the Rembrandt Intaglio Printing Company, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. Photogravure, for its variety and depth of tone and richness of image, is valued as among the most prime of photographic processes.

PICASSO: Pablo Ruiz Picasso (born October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain died April 08, 1973 in Mougins, France), often referred to simply as Picasso, was a Spanish School of Paris painter, sculptor, etcher, lithographer, ceramist and designer, whose influence on 20th century art is unparalleled. The full name recorded on his birth certificate and baptismal record, incorporating names of saints and family members, is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso. One of the most recognized figures in 20th century art, he is best known as the co-founder, along with Georges Braque, of cubism. The illustration by Pablo Picasso, “Scène Erotique II 02-08-1962,” 1962, appearing on the cover of The Goldkorn Variations courtesy of the Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), and the Pace Gallery, is one which the author, Leslie Epstein feels “particularly captures the undying energy of a man who never seems to grow old-in that sense, perhaps, Leib Goldkorn is like Picasso himself.”

POPE: Alexander Pope, Villa at Twickenham. Views of the Haunts and Homes of the British Poets, Oct. 19 1850.