JOAN MIRO
Pierre Matisse Gallery
[Pierre Matisse Gallery]: JOAN MIRO. New York City: Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1936. First edition. Stapled thick printed wrappers. 12 pp. 4 tipped-in plates. Multiple paper stocks. Elaborate period graphic design throughout. Minor shelf wear including fore edge wear and rubbing --especially to the white back cover. A very good copy.
8.5 x 11 staple-bound booklet with 12 pages, 4 tipped-in black-and-white plates and a list of 39 works included in the exhibition: "Retrospective exhibition held at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, 51 East 57th Street, New York, Telephone: Eldorado 5-6269, from November the thirtieth until December twenty-sixth 1936. The exhibition open daily from ten until six including Saturdays. Oil paintings, tempera paintings, gouaches and water colors by Joan Miro." Beautiful production including the use of red and blue laid paper.
From the Guggenheim's website: "Pierre Matisse, son of the Fauvist master Henri Matisse, was a prominent collector of European modern art in the mid-twentieth century. In October 1932, he opened the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City and served as a champion of the sale and display of European modern art in the United States. In that same year, the gallery exhibited its first show on the Surrealist artist Joan Miro, and Matisse would continue to exhibit Miro more often than any other artist he represented during his illustrious 55-year career."
"During his 60 years as a dealer, Pierre Matisse exhibited some of the greatest artists of this century in his gallery in the Fuller Building at 41 East 57th Street, including modern masters like Miro, Balthus, Chagall, Dubuffet, Tanguy, Mondrian, Giacometti, de Chirico and his own father, Henri Matisse.
"The dealer's passionate belief in his artists was a lonely undertaking. ''In the beginning my father spent a lot of time in the gallery alone,'' his son Paul said. ''Year after year during the 1930's he just sat there believing in the value of these artists when few other people did. There would be hours and hours before anyone would come in.
''I remember once, when he had a Miro show up, all of a sudden this crowd of people came into the gallery and he said he thought, 'Finally his work has been recognized.' You see, the reaction to Miro had often been, 'My kid could do this.' But it was all a big misunderstanding. The group of people were out for St. Patrick's Day and had thought they recognized something in Miro's name.''
"The relationship between Pierre Matisse and his father has always been a subject of speculation. At the 50th anniversary of the gallery, Pierre Matisse told John Russell of The New York Times: ''My father didn't want me to be a dealer. If I'd been a bad writer or a bad musician he wouldn't have minded. But all artists are wary of all dealers, and he just didn't want me to get mixed up with the trade.''
"But Paul Matisse said the letters actually show how close father and son were. ''They are very personal letters that indicated a very strong family attachment,'' he said. ' 'His father would berate him for not writing enough. He had a tremendous interest in Pierre and knowing what he was doing.'' -- Carol Vogel "A Pack Rat's Art Treasures; For Morgan Library, Pierre Matisse's Archives Are a Bonanza," New York Times, July 08, 1998.