CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI: THE FLAMMARION MONOGRAPH

Paris, France: Flammarion, 1994. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. Paris, France: Flammarion, 1994. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 192 pages. Retrospective Monograph on subject. The best book in English on the art and achievement of Christian Boltanski. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the Softcover Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Flammarion: Oversize-volume format. Maroon cloth boards with black titles embossed on spine, as issued. Art by Christian Boltanski. Text by Lynn Gumpert. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Tours, France to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is exemplary in every respect. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents Lynn Gumpert's "Christian Boltanski". The indispensable analysis and appreciation of the elusive art of the greatest French artist of our time. "His is a highly personal oeuvre that challenges basic assumptions of what constitutes a work of art. Using newspaper clippings, used clothes, photographs, and flickering shadows, Boltanski forged an original universe" (Lynn Gumpert) . Boltanski embodied what it means to be both a European and a universal artist of our time. Since his death on July 14, 2021, tributes focussed exclusively on his site-specific installations, completely ignoring his two other incomparable achievements: First, the series of short films that he filmed, in each of which an "accident" takes place, and he dies. Boltanski stored the films in vintage biscuit tin cans, which he salvaged, accumulating endless rows of them, a "throwaway", quotidian artifact that he single-handedly elevated to an art object - therefore as something sacred - and now feverishly coveted as such by collectors. Second, Boltanski's large body of work in the Artist Book genre will remain unsurpassed, perhaps matched only by Ed Ruscha's, sort of, and in a totally different vein. Now that he is dead, the grief one feels for the vanished Life is somehow mitigated by the timeless beauty of the Art. An absolute "must-have" title for Christian Boltanski collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in pencil on the front free endpaper by Christian Boltanski. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great art book. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (English Language) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws (because they were perused) or are the Softcover Edition. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. 200 black-and-white and color plates. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century and our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 2080135597.