77 - [Max ERNST]. The Copley Galleries. Max Ernst, 30 Years of His Work. A Survey.

[Max ERNST]. The Copley Galleries. Max Ernst, 30 Years of His Work. A Survey. Beverly Hills, William N. Copley, 1949. Large 8vo, publisher’s blue Bradel-style half-cloth, illustrated covers, modern blue half-shagreen slipcase. First edition. Limited edition of 513 copies: this is one of the XIII non-commercial copies, including an original signed etching (no. HC III). Famous catalog featuring the original edition of *Paramyths*, a collection of eight poems illustrated with eight collages. “This illustrated work, for which the painter composed both the poems and the collages, undoubtedly serves as the single best example of Ernst’s combined talent as a verbal and graphic artist” (Renée Riese Hubert). Autograph dedication signed on the title page: To my dear friend Joë Bousquet Max Ernst Beverly Hills. Jan. 10, 1949 The friendship that bound Max Ernst to Joë Bousquet from the moment they first met—thanks to Gala Éluard’s introduction in the late 1920s—was unwavering. Max Ernst quickly became a regular visitor to 53 rue de Verdun in Carcassonne, where Bousquet—a war veteran with a disability—lived secluded in a dim room lined with paintings and drawings. Ernst’s works held a place of honor there, especially after Joë Bousquet had come to the aid of the artist, who was being hunted by the French and then German authorities. Joë Bousquet paid a beautiful tribute to Max Ernst’s work in 1950 in the preface to the catalog for the exhibition at the Drouin Gallery: “A gentle earthquake shakes this world of artifice where, of all conventions, the most arbitrary posits that the pair of eyes has no other function than to see. Max Ernst speaks to people in their native language: he teaches them its fundamentals anew” (see next issue). The copy is complete with the remarkable original signed etching. The cardboard binding is very slightly faded.