"The glass tower for Jane Perry" (from "The Ruthven Todd Album")

 

Joan Miro

  1893 - 1983 (biography)

1947  

etching 

5 7/16 x 6 7/8" platemark 

unsigned, as is usual 

RARE!! between 6 and 10 impressions 

 

Cramer 14 

antique-white wove, watermarked paper 

proof 

Atelier 17, New York 

FRBE302 

SOLD

A rare proof, one of around 8 impressions done at Atelier 17 in New York while Miro, Hayter and English poet Ruthven Todd were attempting to duplicate Blake's printing methods that included cursive verbage. For this experiment a number of the printmakers at Atelier 17 did etchings, each illustrating a poem written by Ruthven Todd. This illustrates the poem "The Glass Tower for Jane Perry." There were 15 poems that were illustrated and were printed both as etchings and polytypes, reverse from the intaglio printing, so the bitten lines showed either black or white with the background in white or black. There were also experiments with color in a few of the poems. Though the edition was projected for 30, only between 8 and 10 proofs were pulled. The plates appear to have been lost when the plates were given to Hayter's dealer, Aimé Maeght to print the commercial edition. The artists included: Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, S.W. Hayter, Andre Masson, Joan Miro, Helen Phillips, Abe Rattner and Yve Tanguey. This impression has never been framed and is from the personal collection of Atelier 17 printmaker Fred Becker.