Variétés. Revue mensuelle illustrée de l’esprit contemporain
Brussels: Paul-Gustave Van Hecke, 1928-1930. First year, nos. 1 to 12, May 15, 1928 to April 15, 1929. Second year, Nos. 1 to 12, May 15, 1929 to April 15, 1930, plus special non-subscription issue “Surréalisme en 1929.” Original printed wrappers, each volume with glassine wrapper, housed in two morocco-backed slipcases. Some issues with a bit of cover wear, an excellent set. Twenty-five volumes in total, a full run of this essential avant-garde literary and artistic review.
Texts and illustrations by Berenice Abbott, Maxime Alexandre, Louis Aragon, Hans Arp, Jean Aurenche, Isaac Babel, Herbert Bayer, Jean de Bosschère, Joë Bousquet, André Breton, Jacques-Bernard Brunius, Georgette Camille, Jozef Cantré, Marc Chagall, René Crevel, Fernand Crommelynck, Jean Crotti, René Daumal, André Delons, Robert Desnos, Suzanne Duchamp, Marc Eemans, Ilya Ehrenburg, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Sergei Eisenstein, Sigmund Freud, Jean Giono, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Georges Grosz, Robert Guiette, Éric de Hauleville, Franz Hellens, Ewald Hoinkins, Adolf Hoffmeister, Floris Jespers, Franz Kafka, Wassily Kandinsky, André Kertesz, Paul Klee, Germaine Krull, Comte de Lautreamont, Paul Léautaud, Fernand Léger, Eli Lotar, Pierre Mac Orlan, René Magritte, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Georges Malkine, André Malraux, Denis Marion, Frans Masereel, Frédéric Mégret, E. L. T. Mesens, Joan Miró, László Moholy-Nagy, Monny de Boully, Max Morise, Paul Nougé, Boris Pasternak, Benjamin Péret, Odilon-Jean Périer, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Boris Pilniak, Hans Prinzhorn, Raymond Queneau, Man Ray, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Émile Savitry, Kurt Schwitters, Michel Seuphor, Léon Spilliaert, Jules Supervielle, Maurice Tabard, Yves Tanguy, André Thirion, Edgard Tytgat, Tristan Tzara, Pierre Unik, Albert Valentin, Roger Vitrac, Ossip Zadkine, etc.
“Artistically and culturally progressive, this journal existed only for two years but managed to develop a new and modernist visual language in 24 issues and a single hor-série issue. The journal was the creation of Paul-Gustave van Hecke (1887-1967), a socialist activist and journalist for the newspaper Vooruit among others. Critic, novelist, publisher, couturier, collector, curator and first and foremost a bon-vivant, Van Hecke was a key figure in Belgian modernism throughout the 1920s. Together with writer Denis Marion, screenwriter and film critic Albert Valentin and all-round artist E.L.T. Mesens, he created this progressive journal that promoted unique photographic images, abstract art, Dada, and Surrealism in Belgium. With the help of his international connections, Mesens (1903-1971) in particular played a key role in the proliferation of the innovative use of photographic images. Variétés, for instance, included photographs, photograms and photomontages by leading photographers such as Eugène Atget, Berenice Abbott, André Kertész, Germaine Krull, László Moholy-Nagy, Eli Lotar, and Man Ray.” (Vandenhove/Center for Architecture & Art, Ghent University)
Reference: Admussen, Richard. Les petites revues littéraires. 1914-1939. no. 229. Item #2590
Price: $6,500.00