Graffiti by Brassaï (Textes et photos, et deux conversations avec Picasso) - 1961

Stuttgart, Chr. Belser Verlag, 1960. . First edition; 4to (279 x 225 mm, 11 x 8¾ in); black-and-white photographs printed in offset, with a conversation between Brassai and Picasso, minor toning to margins; cream cloth-covered boards, spine and front stamped in black, light toning with minor dent to top edge of boards, photo-illustrated dust-jacket, wear to head and foot of spine, several short tears with creasing to front and rear panels with scratches to rear, a near-fine copy in a very good dust-jacket; [148]pp. The correct first edition, preceding the French. Brassai had been planning a book of his photographs of Parisian graffiti since the early 1930s, likening the images to documentation of urban cave drawings left behind by an extinct culture. In the introduction, he relates his astonishment at finding 'Mexican art in Ménilmontant, the art of the Steppes in at the Porte des Lilas, Prehellenic art in Belleville and theart of the Iroquuois in the Latin Quarter,' also noting the resemblance… Read More