168 - KANDINSKY, MASSON, and BATAILLE. 4 lithographs. “Les Corps Célestes.” Revue Verve. 1938.

KANDINSKY, MASSON, and BATAILLE. 4 lithographs. “Les Corps Célestes.” Revue Verve. 1938. Kandinsky’s abstraction and André Masson’s cosmic universe resonate with Bataille’s poetic thought. [Paris, Verve magazine, Tériade, 1938]. Folio (352 x 264 mm) in loose sheets, in a plain slipcase. 4 lithographs with borders and their 4 titles; 4 pages of text illustrated with three black-and-white compositions (numbered 97–100). Paper very slightly yellowed at the very edges of the sheets. 4 original color lithographs, two created by Wassily Kandinsky and two by André Masson, executed from the original gouaches and printed on the presses of Mourlot Frères: - *The Stars and the Comets*, signed on the plate with Kandinsky’s monogram and dated “38” - *The Sun and the Moon*, signed by Masson on the plate. In this poetic essay, illustrated with three black-and-white compositions by Masson, Georges Bataille contrasts humanity with the vertigo of the universe’s immensity. He describes the celestial bodies as forces of “consumption” and waste of energy, thereby laying the groundwork for his ideas in *La Part maudite*. The colors of Mourlot’s solid blocks (solar yellows, deep blues) have remained particularly vivid.