Item #30089 Forty Drawings For Friends: London 1940-42. Franciszka Themerson.
Forty Drawings For Friends: London 1940-42
Forty Drawings For Friends: London 1940-42
Forty Drawings For Friends: London 1940-42
Forty Drawings For Friends: London 1940-42

Forty Drawings For Friends: London 1940-42

London: Privately Printed, c. 1943. First edition, one of 25 numbered copies [the entire edition] for friends of the artist, this being copy no. 14 for Jankel Adler. 16mo, unpaginated, bound in full black cloth illustrated with a drawing embossed in blue to the front panel. Unprinted paper dust jacket.

Franciszka Themerson's first artist's book, printing images selected from the flood of work she referred to as “Unposted Letters,” produced in wartime London during her exile from her native Poland and two year separation from Stefan. It includes drawings of street scenes of wartime London and self-portraits. A visionary work with a close and poignant association. Like both Stefan and Franciszka, Adler’s life and career were torn apart during the war, and Jankel Adler had also volunteered for the Polish Army in exile. Many of his works were seized by the Nazis, and four of his paintings were included in the Degenerate Art Exhibition. The first book published by the Gabberbocchus press was devoted to Adler’s work.

Rare. This is the only copy we've ever handled. The Themerson Archive states that the edition “has all but disappeared.” [Vol. 2, p. 72]. OCLC locates only a single holding, at the National Library of Poland.

Fine, in a dust jacket that is toned, stained, and has a couple of droplet marks, but complete and sound. Item #30089

Price: $3,000.00

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