2000
Author: Yves Peyré (1952-)
Artist: Jean Capdeville (1917-)
Published: Paris, Écarts, 2000
Choréographie du heurt, with texts by Yves Peryré, was printed for the artist in an edition of 70 copies. Only half of these books were ever sold in bookstores. The artist, Jean Capdeville, spread out the printed sheets in his studio and painted whatever image was in his mind at that very moment onto each of the 70 copies, one after another. He repeated this process for every illustration, and as each book contained approximately 10 original gouaches, he therefore produced a total number of 700 paintings for the entire edition. Capdeville used paint, aquarelle, pencil and chalk. Of the books that he created this way, 35 copies were kept in his studio. Now and then he would alter elements in these unsold copies, which slowly but surely resulted in an impressive museum and a wholly unique and mysterious Capdeville library.
A year after Jean Capdeville was born, his father died, and he would later remember that his mother had dressed in black ever since. The image of his mourning mother stayed with the painter as a sign of loss and longing, and he occasionally worked his mother's portrait into his paintings. The colour black is also a recurring element, as in the illustrations for Choréographie du heurt, in which chalk is scratched onto the school blackboard. His first book illustrations were reproduced, but Capdeville found that this gave them an unintended heavy-handedness. He therefore covered up these reproductions with a layer of paint, applying the mostly abstract illustrations by hand from then on, as a witness to manual work in a mechanized, automated age. His images for the artist's book with the poem by Yves Peyré weren't sombre or black; they also include pink, ocean blue, purple, green and orange.
Bibliographical description:
| Description: |
Chorégraphie du heurt / Yves Peyré ; [peintures originales de] Jean Capdeville. - [Paris] : Écarts, [2000]. - [23] p. : ill. ; 35 cm |
| Printer: |
Jean Hofer (Paris, Gentilly) |
| Edition: |
70 copies |
| This copy: |
Number 29 of 70 on Rives |
| Typeface: |
Times Italic |
| Note: |
Signed by author and artist |
| Bibliography: |
Bénézit 3-202 |
| Shelf-mark: |
Koopm K 342 |
References:
-
Jean Capdeville. Céret, Musée d'art moderne de Céret, 1988
- Paul van Capelleveen, Sophie Ham, Jordy Joubij, Voices and visions. The Koopman Collection and the Art of the French Book. The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands; Zwolle, Waanders, 2009
