278 - CHAR, René. BRAUNER, Victor.

CHAR, René. BRAUNER, Victor. [Birds We Stone…] and [Portrait]. (Paris, Maeght, 1974). Color lithographs mounted on mat board and set in a modern wooden frame (35.5 x 44 cm), double-sided; front print (25 x 33.5 cm) and back print (16.5 x 21 cm). Description: A beautiful color lithograph of a poem by René Char, illustrated by the Surrealist artist Victor Brauner. Printed from the manuscript on vellum illuminated with watercolors in 1950. Printed dedication by Victor Brauner to René Char, in the lower right corner, signed with a lemniscate he began using in 1945: “To my dearest René Char / poet-man in his entirety / his friend / Victor Brauner IV. 1950.” This “mystical” illumination dates from the same period as “Le Viatique ou non” (BnF), “Quatre fascinants,” and “Le Carreau” (Centre Pompidou)... “Birds that we stone at the very / moment of your vehemence, where do you fall? / Emerge as much as possible to your / own surface. Let risk be your clarity. / Like an old laugh. In complete modesty. / Weeping long and alone leads to something. / Do not fear that I will add you / To the gifts that preceded you. / René Char.” Printed on the reverse: -[Portrait of René Char by Victor Brauner]. Lithograph reproducing a painting by Victor Brauner, created in 1945 (oil covered with wax, scraped away to reveal incisions blackened with ink on cardboard), now in the collections of the MAM Centre Pompidou. René Char and Victor Brauner met around 1931–1932, when the Romanian artist joined the Surrealists in Paris (1930–1934). They collaborated notably on the Surrealist pamphlet in support of the parricide Violette Nozière (1933). Brauner took refuge at Char’s home in Provence during the Occupation, and the two friends held each other in high regard. Enclosed is the book from which the lithographs are taken: René CHAR. The World of Art Is Not the World of Forgiveness. Paris, Maeght, Gallimard, 1974. Small folio, loose-leaf in a folder with flaps, printed cover. In the publisher’s brick-red cloth slipcase (a few stains and signs of wear on the slipcase). Missing are the reproductions on pp. 57–60 (Brauner—our lot), pp. 73–76 (Miró), and pp. 97–100 (Picasso and Zao-Wou-ki); the original prints are present. CONTEMPORARY POETRY. MODERN ART.