Some Memories of Drawings
New York: Atlantis Editions, 1974. First edition. Unbound as issued. Sewn text booklet containing half-title, title, introduction, “Epigraph” and introduction by the artist, colophon on separate sheet, twenty-one drawings reproduced in 300-line offset lithographs (negatives by Richard Benson) on Arches Silkscreen by Meriden Gravure, each in a folder, most with commentary by O’Keeffe on the first leaf, the whole designed by Leonard Baskin and printed at his Meadows Press in Northampton, Massachusetts. Clamshell case by Arno Werner, with printed spine label. Some minor soiling to the case, contents fine. Original prospectus laid in.
One of 100 numbered copies, of a total edition of 120 copies. Signed by O’Keeffe and Baskin, as issued. These offset lithographic reproductions are of some of the first abstract drawings created by Georgia O’Keeffe between 1915 and 1919. Of these early works, O’Keeffe noted “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way- things I had no wish for.” Later that year, O’Keeffe sent the drawings to a friend in New York who in turned showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, who immediately recognized their quality and exhibited them the following year in his gallery. The 1916 exhibition was the beginning of a career that established Georgia O’Keeffe as one of the foremost artists of the 20th century.
Editor Doris Bry wrote for the trade edition, “It seems of interest to set down some information which would otherwise be lost about Georgia O’Keeffe’s participation in the reproductions I have published of her drawings, especially since a number of these plates do not correspond to the original works of art as they now appear. What might seem to be liberties, had I as publisher undertaken them, were changes made by O’Keeffe because for her they enhanced the relationship between the original drawing and the printed reproduction. Only the artist herself could have sanctioned such bold changes in composition, in scale, and in tonality.” A rare and beautiful American livre d’artiste. Item #2272
Price: $8,500.00