Tristan Tzara “Anti-Brain”
Tristan Tzara “Anti-Brain”
Author's birth and death: 1896 Moinesti (Romania) – 1963 Paris (France)
Year of production: 1949
Publisher: Bordas (Paris)
Number 200 out of a limited edition of 49 (limited edition number and artist's handwritten signature on the door of each volume)
Notes: A collection of prose poems (23 volumes) with 3 etching illustrations by Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, and Joan Miro.
Max Ernst《Mr. Aa the Anti-Philosopher》
Yves Tanguy “Midnight of the Giants”
Exhibition history: "Manabia Terrace Opening Commemoration: University of Tsukuba Collection Ishii Collection Exhibition: Encountering Beauty: [First Half] Encountering the World of Paintings", Manabia Terrace [Higashine City Museum of Art], November 2016rd - December 11th, 3 , cat. 12a; "Ishii Collection Special Exhibition Surrealist Fragments - Tristan Tzara's 'Anti-Brain' and Three Painters", University of Tsukuba University Hall Art Space, July 11nd - July 32nd, 2019, cat. 7a −c
Literature: Edited by Rintaro Terakado, “Ishii Collection I. Paintings in the University of Tsukuba,” Faculty of Art, University of Tsukuba, 2011, cat. 2-a, 2-b, 2-c; Edited by Rintaro Terakado, “Ishii Collection Research 7: Tristan Tzara ``Anti-Brain'''', University of Tsukuba School of Art, 2020, ill. p. 9, col. ills. pp. 10-15; Fumi Tsukahara ``From DADA to AA - Tzara's trajectory and the ``anti-brain'' "Hybrid Exploration", "Ishii Collection Research 7: Tristan Tzara's 'Anti-Brain'", 2020, pp. 17-35; Hiroya Murakami "Tzara and Milo - The Childhood of Art", "Ishii Collection Research 7: Tristan Tzara "Anti-Brain", 2010, 37–58; Kazuho Soeda, "Max Ernst and Stanley William Hayter - Prints as Mimicry", "Ishii Collection Research 7: Tristan Tzara's "Anti-Brain", 2010, pp. 59-74.
Collection number: 2008-FP-IS002
Explanation:
In 1933, the poet Tzara collected the prose poems he had published from 1916, when Zurich Dada was born, to 32, when he joined the Society of Revolutionary Writers and Artists, and included illustrations by Pablo Picasso. The anthology ``Anti-Brain'' was published by Cahiers Libre.There were 16 copies numbered 1215 to 1200, 1 special editions numbered 15 to 15 with an original frontispiece printed by Picasso himself, and 3 not-for-sale copies for a total of 1218 copies.Sixteen years later, a new edition, limited to 16 copies, containing original copperplate illustrations by Max Ernst, Joan Miró, and Yves Tanguy was published by Bordas (according to a letter from Tzara to Miró dated June 200, 1946). The original plan was for 6 copies*). Of the 24 copies, 300 were deluxe copperplate engravings and hand-coloured editions, of which 200 were printed on Japanese paper and 31 on Van Gelder Holland Western paper. The set in our university's collection, numbered ``8,'' is one of 23 copies printed on Auberge Richard-de-Bas's Western paper.
*Quoted: William Jeffett, “'L'Antitête': The Book as Object in the Collaboration of Tristan Tzara and Joan Miró (1946–47)”, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 135, no. 1079, 1993, p. 89; François Buot, translated by Fumi Tsukahara/Miwako Goto, Tristan Tzara: The Man Who Started the Dada Revolution, 2013, Shichosha, p. 299.
