81 PICABIA.

Pensées sans Langage. Poème par Francis Picabia. Précédé d'une Préface par UDNIE.

Paris. Eugène Figuière, Éditeur. 1919. 8vo. pp. 119. Original printed wrappers with a design by Picabia.

FIRST EDITION.
Although published without an explicit limitation, copies are found ordinarily with 4eme Edition printed on the front wrapper (usually assumed to be a Picabian joke), however, this copy - very unusually - has the alternative 1e Edition.
Dedicated by Picabia to: 'Chers amis GABRIELLE BUFFET, RIBEMONT DESSAIGNE, MARCEL DUCHAMP, TRISTAN TZARA', the 'Pensées sans Langage' is a classic of Picabia's oeuvre. More surreal than dadaist, though he was to remain committed to DADA for a further two years, the contradiction in the title of the work is inherent in every page. The preface to the work, written by 'UDNIE', presumably a pseudonym of Picabia's referring to his large and important painting of 1913, describes the book as 'la radiographie des rayons montrant le mieux la netteté voilée des substances qu'exige l'aiguiille fermée'.

£1,500
(approx. $2,300 or € 1,800)

ref: 33340