FROM BAUDELAIRE TO SURREALISM
Marcel Raymond
Inscribed to Gene Federico by Paul Rand
Marcel Raymond: FROM BAUDELAIRE TO SURREALISM. New York: Wittenborn, Schultz, 1949 [The Documents of Modern Art Number 10]. First edition. Small 12 mo. Red cloth stamped in gold. Printed dust jacket. 428 pp. 9 illustrations. Jacket uniformly and lightly worn, with two small black marks and a tiny hole on the front pane. Spine slightly darkened. "Complimentary Copy" inkstamp on colophon. Cover, jacket design and typography by Paul Rand. Pencil INSCRIPTION on front free endpaper. A very good copy of the rare cloth edition from the series edited by Robert Motherwell.
INSCRIBED BY PAUL RAND: For Gene [Federico] / Merry Xmas / Paul / 1949. Gene and Helen Federico were lifelong friends and colleagues of Paul Rand. Helen worked as Rand's assistant at the William Weintraub Agency at the time this edition was published.
The outstanding characteristic of the Federicos is that these two graphic artists operate successfully and maintain their artistic integrity in a world which is by and large unsympathetic to artists in general and to the problems involved in their work ...
. . . It is perhaps not amiss in these troubled and troublesome times to note the sociological as well as the cultural contributions of sincere, gifted young artists like the Federicos. They not only seek and affirm a higher standard in the all-important communicative arts but they are in their roles of artists with integrity, are to be numbered among that small but potent minority who strive in an age of increasing "conformism" and mass-produced mediocrity to live and create as individuals, who seek inspiration rather than security in tradition, and who in their work testify to their belief in the creative vitality of the human being."
-- Paul Rand: "Gene And Helen Federico" in Graphis 43, 1952
4.5 x 7.25 hardcover book with 428 pages and 9 black and white illustrations. Preface by Robert Motherwell. Introduction by Harold Rosenberg. Bibliography by Bernard Karpel. In an early issue of Graphis, Max Bill reviewed Motherwell's Documents of Modern Art series by stating it was the most important series of modern art documents since Gropius and Moholy-Nagy published the Bauhuasbuchers.