(65) Maximiliana ou l'Exercise Illégal de l'Astronomie
Ernst, Max & Iliazd (Ilia Zdanevich). Tempel, Guillaume
Paris. Le Degré 41 (Iliazd). 1964
The superlative 'Maximiliana', the double tour de force: for Max Ernst's graphic oeuvre and for Iliazd's mastery of typography and mise en page.
From the edition limited to 65 numbered copies, signed by Ernst in pencil and Iliazd in red crayon.
' ... the amazing tour de force of 'Maximiliana' (1964) - in which Iliazd guided Ernst to produce several very distinct forms of graphic art (aquatints, glyphic-figures, and long etched passages of invented writing) ... '. (Johanna Drucker).
'Cryptograms and a great many etchings dedicated to the life and work of Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel, an unqualified astronomer disparaged by the professional practitioners of his native Germany, a rebel poet and - finally- an exile: in Venice, Marseilles and Florence. His poems were discovered by the Russian poet Iliazd, together with his notes and lithographed charts of the nebulae he had discovered. Iliazd turned this book into a tour de force of typography, with illustrations that were veritable masterpieces of colour printing by the engraver Georges Visat.' (Edward Quinn: Max Ernst).
'Maximiliana, which appeared in 1964, dedicated to the life and work of the astronomer and lithographer Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel (1821-89), is regarded by Max Ernst as his finest book publication. Produced in collaboration with the typographer Iliazd, it is a paraphrase of Max Ernst's own life. Despite his outstanding knowledge in the field of astronomy, Tempel was rejected everywhere by experts because he was self-taught. In 1851 he discovered Asteroid 65, to which he gave the name Maximiliana. In 1858 he married a daughter of the gatekeeper to the Doge's palace in Venice, in order to make his astronomical observations from the Scala del Bovolo. After a life in exile, recognition came very late. 'That was what particularly moved me about him', said Max Ernst in the Schamoni film, 'because in Wilhelminian Germany, where I spent my youth, things were not so very different.' The subtitle of Maximiliana, 'The Art of seeing of Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel', points to Max Ernst's interest in making visible the invisible, in seeing what is hidden.' (U. M. Schneede).
[Spies 95, I - XXXIV; Isselbacher 4; see Johanna Drucker's 'Iliazd and the Art of the Book' in 'Splendid Pages';
From the edition limited to 65 numbered copies, signed by Ernst in pencil and Iliazd in red crayon.
' ... the amazing tour de force of 'Maximiliana' (1964) - in which Iliazd guided Ernst to produce several very distinct forms of graphic art (aquatints, glyphic-figures, and long etched passages of invented writing) ... '. (Johanna Drucker).
'Cryptograms and a great many etchings dedicated to the life and work of Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel, an unqualified astronomer disparaged by the professional practitioners of his native Germany, a rebel poet and - finally- an exile: in Venice, Marseilles and Florence. His poems were discovered by the Russian poet Iliazd, together with his notes and lithographed charts of the nebulae he had discovered. Iliazd turned this book into a tour de force of typography, with illustrations that were veritable masterpieces of colour printing by the engraver Georges Visat.' (Edward Quinn: Max Ernst).
'Maximiliana, which appeared in 1964, dedicated to the life and work of the astronomer and lithographer Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel (1821-89), is regarded by Max Ernst as his finest book publication. Produced in collaboration with the typographer Iliazd, it is a paraphrase of Max Ernst's own life. Despite his outstanding knowledge in the field of astronomy, Tempel was rejected everywhere by experts because he was self-taught. In 1851 he discovered Asteroid 65, to which he gave the name Maximiliana. In 1858 he married a daughter of the gatekeeper to the Doge's palace in Venice, in order to make his astronomical observations from the Scala del Bovolo. After a life in exile, recognition came very late. 'That was what particularly moved me about him', said Max Ernst in the Schamoni film, 'because in Wilhelminian Germany, where I spent my youth, things were not so very different.' The subtitle of Maximiliana, 'The Art of seeing of Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel', points to Max Ernst's interest in making visible the invisible, in seeing what is hidden.' (U. M. Schneede).
[Spies 95, I - XXXIV; Isselbacher 4; see Johanna Drucker's 'Iliazd and the Art of the Book' in 'Splendid Pages';
[30 bifolia: 60 leaves]. Folio. (422 x 334 mm). Blank leaf, leaf with quotation from Tempel, frontispiece etching by Ernst, printed title and 27 bifolia printed as spreads with printed foliation with Tempel's text in a typography by Iliazd and illustrated with 34 etchings with aquatint by Max Ernst as well as typographic caprices, ornaments and vignettes, leaf with justification and achevé d'imprimer, final blank leaf; all text and illustration composed as spreads and printed to the centre of a bifolium of Japon (sheet size: 410 x 306 mm; unfolded: 410 x 610 mm). Loose as issued in original publisher's vellum wrapper with vignette in black by Max Ernst to front cover, endpapers of thick cream Auvergne, grey / green laid paper and yellow butcher's paper, grey cloth chemise with matching vignette by Ernst to spine and matching cloth slipcase.
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