Andy Warhol, Photo Edition for Parkett, 1987 (item 22 below)
Holiday Cocktail Reception
Saturday, December 17, 4-7pm
Harper's Books
504 West 22 Street, New York, NY 10011
Harper's Chelsea 512
512 West 22 Street, New York, NY 10011
Please join Harper's on Saturday, December 17, 4-7pm, for holiday cocktails on 22nd Street. Drinks will be served at the gallery, and the bookshop will stay open late. Complimentary gift wrapping is available.
New Arrivals
This list of new arrivals, below, is but a small sample of the items on display at Harper’s Books. If you haven’t visited since the bookshop opened in October, stop by for the best last-minute gift shopping in New York.
1. André Breton, Frida Kahlo, Manuel Alvarez-Bravo
Paris: Renou & Colle, 1939. Limited Edition. Slim quarto. Deluxe version of remarkable catalogue for an exhibition of Mexican art organized by André Breton, following his pivotal 1938 voyage through Mexico. With 18 paintings from Frida Kahlo forming the heart of this exhibition, Breton also assembled a range of paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries, examples of Pre-Columbian art, and a series of photographs from Manuel Alvarez-Bravo. With a lyrical introduction from Breton, who also provides introductory text for each of the sections. This being number 2 of 20 deluxe copies printed on Vergé de Montval paper; the wrappers differing in color from the trade version. Contents: [20] pages, illustrated with 5 tipped-in b&w plates, including two after photographs by Ubac and the cover image after a photograph from Manuel Alvarez-Bravo. A fine copy, with folio gatherings loose in unbound wrappers.
$3800.00
2. Rudolph Burckhardt, Edwin Denby, William de Kooning (frontispiece)
Prairie City, IL: The Press of James A. Decker, 1948. First Edition. Octavo. Rubber stamped review copy. Poems by Edwin Denby, with a suite of 19 images at the rear by Rudy Burckhardt. Frontispiece by Willem de Kooning, who was friendly with both poet and photographer. This unassuming title constitutes one of the great rarities of 20th century photography, and epitomizes Burckhardt's complete mastery of the New York photograph. The lo-fi quality of James Decker's production serves to enhance the photographer's singular vision. The first copy Harper's has seen or handled in over 20 years of active search. Fine in a very good plus jacket, lightly toned at the spine and edges, with a few small nicks and tiny edge tears.
$8500.00
3. Bruce Chatwin
In Patagonia (Association Copy)
London: Jonathan Cape, 1977. First Edition. Octavo. A significant association copy, SIGNED by Chatwin and inscribed in the year of publication to Tom Maschler, the head of Jonathan Cape and Chatwin's publisher. "For Tom, without whose enthusiasm... Bruce / 10. Sept '77." The most important literary travelogue of its time. Fine in a fine jacket save for some of the usual discoloration to the spine.
$9500.00
4. William S. Burroughs and George Condo
New York: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1991. Limited Edition. Folio. One of 160 copies. Volume 8 in the Whitney Artists and Writers Series (1982-2001). SIGNED by the author and artist on the colophon page. A compelling pairing with text by William S. Burroughs and imagery by George Condo, with 3 soft ground etchings (1 with aquatint). Distributed exclusively to the artists and donors of the Whitney Library Fellows. Fine in silk cloth boards with leather spine label lettered in gilt in a matching cloth covered slipcase.
$3000.00
5. Chicago Women's Graphics Collective
Chicago, 1972. Vibrant silkscreened poster, printed black-on-yellow (10.5 x 13 inches). One of the simplest and most effective posters produced by the Chicago Women's Graphics Collective; upending a sign so ubiquitous. Some scuffing to margins of print, with minor creasing to corners; a bright, better than very good copy. Set in white wooden frame (13 x 15.5 inches).
$750.00
6. Leonor Fini
Geneva: Galerie Lambert Monet, circa 1972. First Edition. Oblong quarto. Orange cloth boards with signature printed in facsimile. Contents: 49 fully-illustrated leaves featuring Leonor Fini's eccentric illustrations of cats, in color, with a 50th illustration trimmed and mounted to front panel. An uncommon work from the Surrealist who was known to keep a large clowder of Persian cats.
$950.00
7. Robert Gober and Joyce Carol Oates
New York: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1989. Limited Edition. Folio. One of 140 copies, SIGNED by the author and artist to colophon. Volume 7 from the Whitney Artists and Writers Series (1982–2001), with proceeds benefitting the Museum Library. Two volumes, illustrated by Robert Gober with lithographs on the endpapers. Bound in white leather with diary-style gilt clasps, and enclosed side by side in the publisher's lavender silk box. Gober's decision to place the two identical books side by side references Oates' text, a short story about identical twins. Gober has reproduced the story in manuscript facsimile; printed on Saunders paper at the Allethaire Press in Massachusetts. Minor chipping to the gold clasps, else fine in a fine silk box.
$3000.00
8. Jenny Holzer
New York: Self-published, circa 1980. First Edition. Slim square octavo. 28 pages. Early, self-published artist's book by Jenny Holzer. Comprised of her Survival Series, printed on pale green paper, with a black heart image at the centerfold; black covers. Published anonymously, with no title, author, or bibliographical information; Holzer's name supplied in pencil to first page. Scarce, with 4 OCLC records located.
$3500.00
9. Peter Hujar
West-Germany: Allerheiligenpresse, 1981. First Edition. Square quarto. Text by Dieter Hall and Jean-Christophe Ammann in German. Features 52 b/w reproductions of Hujar's intimate and haunting portraits. Uncommon. Slight bump to the bottom left corner, else near fine in photo-illustrated wrappers.
$650.00
10. Leonard Koren
WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing (Complete Set)
Venice, CA: WET Enterprises, Inc., 1976-1981. First Edition. Artist magazine; all published, from May/June 1976 through Nov/Dec 1981 (Vol. 6, No. 4). Various formats. A scarce complete set of this deliciously baroque artist magazine from Leonard Koren; blending aesthetics, hygiene, philosophy, photography, and pop culture. "Gourmet bathing is a means of enjoying the world. Not a system or a therapy or a philosophy; at most a point of view having something to do with sensuality, humor, humility, and taking such pleasure in small things that they stop being small... A vacation that consists of standing still... The utterly simple alchemy that turns us back into our selves" (Koren, 2012). This set accompanied by three invitations for WET bathing events, as well as a scarce copy of the little-known Home section from The Los Angeles Times (March 24, 1974), entitled "The mystic qualities of the bathing experience," which was dedicated to showcasing Koren's pre-WET photography and research, emerging from his graduate thesis in architecture and urban planning at UCLA; 72 pp. on newsprint, featuring dozens of Koren's photographs in color. Some minor wear to a handful of issues, but a remarkably well-preserved set; seldom found complete.
$10,000.00
11. Daido Moriyama, Takuma Nakahira, Koji Taki
Tokyo: Provoke, 1969. First Edition. Slim quarto. The second of three issues of the most important photographic periodical ever published in Japan. Volume 2 features the photography of Daido Moriyama and firmly set into motion the ideals and aspirations of the Provoke photographers: namely that traditional photography was dead. Light rubbing along the spine at the cover edge, otherwise a near fine copy, lacking the rare obi. Inscription to title page, presumably by original owner; dated April 20, 1969.
$4500.00
12. Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz
New York: The Anderson Galleries, 1923. Exhibition catalogue. Octavo; two folded leaves. SIGNED by O'Keeffe, with presentation inscription to front cover ("I am sorry you can't come— Hope all is well with you"). Scarce catalogue for O'Keeffe's first large solo exhibition, organized by Alfred Stieglitz at Anderson Galleries in the year prior to their marriage. Robinson speculates that the show attracted some 500 visitors per day; "The whispering that had gone on about her 'uninhibited' work in 1917, and the remarkable photographs of the artist exhibited [by Stieglitz] in 1921, made the event border on the sensational." Featuring a strikingly bare artist statement from O'Keeffe and an excerpt from Marsden Hartley's appreciation of her work. No checklist of the show has been preserved, heightening the terse statement to the rear panel: "There is no catalogue. The pictures have no titles, but are numbered and dated. Ninety of the pictures have never before been publicly shown." Two horizontal creases, presumably from mailing, with some toning to wrappers. A remarkable presentation copy of a significant catalogue, with only 7 OCLC records located.
$10,000.00
13. Raymond Pettibon
Asbestos: Fine Art Drawings by Raymond Pettibon (Signed)
Lawndale, CA: SST Productions, 1982. First Edition. Octavo. Staple-bound zine. SIGNED by Pettibon in red marker on the cover, along with embellishments to cover illustration and the letters "OGD" to lower margin; red ink bleeding through first few pages. Minor signs of handling to illustrated wrappers; Near Fine.
$1200.00
14. Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter
Hannover: Galerie h, 1966. First Edition. Thin octavo. Edition of 500 copies. Contents: 20 pages, with 13 illustrations. Artists' book published on the occasion of a two-person show featuring Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke, in March 1966 at Galerie h in Hannover. Designed by the artists. Offsetting from the red card enclosure which has bled to the edges of the adjacent pages; still a near fine copy in plain stapled wrappers laid into enclosure with the artists' names reversed on opposite covers. Reprinted by König in 2014, this original edition is rare, with only 3 OCLC records located in North America.
$5000.00
15. Jose Guadalupe Posada
Mexico City: Artistas Mexicanos Unidos, Frente Nacional de Artes Plasticas / Ediciones Amusa Populares, 1956. Octavo. Catalogue housed in cardstock folder, with large Posada print to front panel. Contents: 12 loose sheets (9 x 6.5 in.) printed to various colored stock, featuring engravings of varying sizes; the final two leaves featuring 12 smaller engravings. A handsome suite of skeleton prints produced from Posada's original blocks, published by Artistas Mexicanos Unidos to solidify Posada's reputation as a pioneering Mexican artist. Accompanied by an art-historical text leaf in Spanish. Bump to upper corner of portfolio, with minor puncture to margin; contents fine.
$450.00
16. Miriam Schapiro and Feminist Art Program (Cal Arts)
Valencia, CA: California Institute of Arts, 1975. First Edition. Oblong quarto. Illustrated wrappers, featuring photograph of Merit Oppenheim's fur Teacup to front panel. Produced by the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of Arts, comprised of submissions from 76 female artists, who were invited to send a "letter stating the intentions of your art and a photograph of your work." With the loose errata slip laid in. Some minor edge-wear; near fine.
$400.00
17. Robert C. Scull and the Women in the Arts Foundation
A selection of Fifty Works from the Collection of Robert C. Scull (with WIA protest flyer)
New York City: Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., 1973. First Edition. Quarto. Finely-produced auction catalogue for the legendary 1973 Scull sale; clothbound, and with mostly full-color reproductions of the works, including 3 fold-outs. This copy noteworthy for being accompanied by a false estimates sheet, laid-in loose, with a series of critical questions following the estimates (i.e. "How many women artists are included in this auction?"); a subtle protest work from the Women in the Arts Foundation, founded in 1971 to highlight the lack of female representation in the art world. While this WIA protest has been noted in art-historical reviews of the Scull auction, we have been unable to locate specific reference to this material tactic. An auction attendee recorded hammer prices on the flyer in blue ink. Touch of wear along the bottom of the yellow cloth boards, else fine in a near fine dust jacket, light soiling to the extremities, touch of faint surface rubbing. A pleasing copy, uncommon to the trade, with significant documentary value.
$1800.00
18. Saul Steinberg and John Hollander
New York: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1983. Limited Edition. Quarto. One of 140 copies, SIGNED by the author and artist on the colophon page. Volume 1 in the Whitney Artists and Writers Series. The book opens with a beautiful bound-in intaglio print on thick deckled paper of a woman with a black cat, signed by Steinberg and numbered 86 of 140. Followed by spreads featuring drawings by Steinberg, with supporting text by Hollander on the opposite page inspired by the visual information in the artworks. Fine in blue cloth boards with white paper spine and silver manuscript title lettering, in fine publisher's original linen clamshell box. Scarce.
$3000.00
19. Cy Twombly
Fifty Days at Illiam: A Painting in Ten Parts (Signed Limited Edition)
Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1979. First Edition. Quarto. Limited edition of 60 copies (50 numbered copies and 10 lettered A-J). Boldly SIGNED and hand-numbered by Twombly 40/50. An impressive leporello reproduction of Twombly's ten part painting (across 13 panels), which "follows and reflects incident's of Homer's Iliad in the translation of Alexander Pope." With lush view of Bassaro in Teverina printed to endpapers. A near fine copy, with minor scuffing to first and final pages; orange leather boards, with silver lettering to spine. Housed in original slipcase, with minor scuffing to rear panel.
$4500.00
20. Lionello Venturi
Paris: Paul Rosenberg Éditeur, 1936. Limited Edition. Quarto. Two volume set, numbered as XV (presumed separate from edition statement of 1000). This set SIGNED by author, with presentation inscription to endpaper of first volume (to Mme. Pellerin). Cezanne's first catalogue raisonné, a labour of love from Italian art historian Lionello Venturi; published in Paris by art dealer Paul Rosenberg. The second volume fully-illustrated after 406 black-and-white glossy plates.
$1200.00
21. Andy Warhol and Various others
Rotterdam: Galerie Delta, 1967. First Edition. Square quarto. An impressive exhibition catalogue from Rotterdam's Galerie Delta, founded by Hans Sonnenberg in 1962. Thoroughly-illustrated after photographs of works from D'Arcangelo, Kusama, Oldenbug, Rivers, and Wesselmann, along with two variations of Warhol's Flowers in color; Warhol, somewhat mysteriously, not named in the catalogue's title list of artists. This copy also includes a print of Warhol's Self-portrait (8.5 in. square) printed black on silver, with laudatory text to verso from Sonnenberg; hand-numbered in pencil as 30 of 75. The same numbering (and "met prent" designation) in pencil to verso of rear wrapper. Text in Dutch. A fine copy of a scarce catalog. With 3 OCLC records located; none in North America.
$2500.00
22. Andy Warhol
Parkett No. 12: Collaboration Andy Warhol (Deluxe Edition with Signed Photo Edition)
Zurich: Parkett Verlag, 1987. First Edition. Quarto. The deluxe edition of 120 (plus artist’s copies) issued with the artist’s “Edition for Parkett” photo edition; this copy from an unspecified, but small number (reportedly about 10) of artist’s copies SIGNED by Warhol but not numbered. Issue No. 12 of the seminal art journal Parkett was produced in collaboration with Andy Warhol in the months before his death. The deluxe edition includes one of the artist’s last signed works, and his last editioned work: a photo edition comprised of 4 silver gelatin prints with images of human skeletons, machine-sewn together at Andy’s studio and signed. The work is housed in a parchment sleeve bound into the special edition of the journal with “VORZUGSAUSGABE / DELUXE EDITION“ printed on the spine. The photo editions were received by Parkett just a few days before Warhol's death, "the timing of [his] subject matter of the skeletons... seemed an eerie coincidence." Minor toning to wrappers, else a crisp, near fine copy. Warhol's edition preserved as fine. Rare.
$16,500.00
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