XXe siècle (lots 111-170)
Krull, Germaine
Métal. Librairie des Arts Décoratifs, 1928. Rare édition originale. 64 photogravures.
Lot Closed
June 17, 01:48 PM GMT
Estimate
7,000 - 10,000 EUR
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Description
Krull, Germaine
Métal.
Paris, Librairie des Arts Décoratifs, A. Calavas Editeur, 1928.
Grand in-4 (292 x 225 mm). En feuilles, sous portfolio illustré.
L’un des photobooks les plus révolutionnaires : l’art de la machine.
Édition originale, avec le dos brun toilé brun (il existe une réédition avec le dos noir).
Préface de Florent Fels.
Court texte de présentation de Germaine Krull.
64 photogravures, numérotées, imprimées sur 64 feuillets.
La couverture est mise en page par M. Tchimoukow (pseudonyme de Louis Bonin), qui a reproduit la planche n° 37 du portfolio tête-bêche.
Ce livre très novateur de la photographe allemande Germaine Krull, reproduit structures métalliques, rouages, machines, échafaudages, usines, etc. qu’elle a pu observer aux Pays-Bas et à Paris. "Je n’avais pas d’intention particulière en prenant ces photographies du fer. Je voulais montrer ce que je vois, exactement comme l’œil le voit. MÉTAL a inauguré une nouvelle ère visuelle et ouvert la voie à un nouveau concept de la photographie" (G. Krull).
Dans la préface, Fels décrit l’industrie moderne comme un spectacle nouveau, à la fois fascinant et inquiétant ; il oppose les anciennes villes à ces "cathédrales d’acier".
Parr-Badger, I, reproduit en couverture et p. 95.
"Those who believe that photographic modernism is a boys' club can be cheered by the achievements of two female photographers at a surprisingly early stage in the modernist era. Imogen Cunningham and Germaine Krull have been somewhat overlooked in photographic histories compared to their male counterparts, yet not only were they prominent in early modernist circles, their contributions were fully recognized at the time. Cunningham's abstract close-ups and nudes were considered by some contemporary critics to be superior to Edward Weston's.
Krull worked in Berlin, Russia, Holland and Paris during the 1920s, all primary centres of European modernism. Her greatest success came with the publication of the sumptuous Métal (Metal), by the Librairie des Arts Décoratifs. Compared to the classical, somewhat static studies of Charles Sheeler or Albert Renger-Patzsch, Krull's views of industrial structures in Holland and Paris ─ including as a leitmotif that icon of modern engineering, the Eiffel Tower ─ seem more fluid and poetic, much more 'modern' reproducing the jagged angles of New Vision photography and the fractured spaces of the Futurists.
Krull's vision is also determinedly cinematic, for although the sheets are loosely laid in the portfolio, they are numbered, and the sequence is important. Krull worked closely with her husband, the Dutch avant-garde film-maker Joris Ivens, and Métal is closely related to his film De Brug (The Bridge), which, like the portfolio, was first shown in 1928 (although some copies of Krull's work may have been released prior to the date given inside the book). She helped in the film's making and took some of the Métal images while on location. However, in her dramatic, vertiginous close-ups, angled vision and radical use of the frame edge, Krull goes further than Ivens in symbolizing the forward-looking, progressive thrust of modern engineering. Métal is several steps ahead of her nude portfolio, and sealed her international reputation as a leading modernist. Along with Moi Ver's Paris, it is surely the finest example of a modernist photobook in the dynamic, cinematographic mode." (Parr-Badger, I, p. 95).