La métaphysique de l'art

Venlo (The Netherlands): Uitgeverij Van Spijk, 1995 ¶ ONLY EDITION of the only monograph on the paintings of Jean-Michel Lengrand (1955– ), a contemporary French artist working mainly in oils on panel and employing materials and techniques descended from those of the Netherlandish masters of the fifteenth century; SIGNED by the artist. His work is almost unknown in the book world — and in America —; and yet a remarkably large number of his pictures will be OF EXCEPTIONAL INTEREST TO BOOKMEN: These include richly anthropomorphic portraits of writers (La Fontaine), scientists (Newton, Linnaeus, Darwin), and at least one printer (Gutenberg); subjects from Classical and early modern literature (Circe, Quixote) and fables (‘The wolf and the lamb’); and ‘archetypes’ in which books themselves appear as the elements of composition (Babel as a tower of books, the Ark built entirely of books). Lengrand is no illustrator; but rather he creates a parallel universe of epochal books and their authors. The artist himself designs the frames for most of his pictures; and at least two of these frames (for Gutenberg and Cantor) are modelled in the form of bookbindings. Preface by Jacques van Rijn; text (by Lengrand) in French, English, and Dutch. ISBN 906216174X; KB 5076930; LCCN 96156629; OCLC 35026079. ¶ Out of print, and already VERY SCARCE. The only other copy recorded in North America is in the Library of Congress (where it is miscatalogued under Rijn). Not in Frick, Getty, Harvard, or MMA.   < NB: 2004.10.01 StevesFineBooks = Steve Sanders [stevesfinebooks@msn.com], PO Box 101, Portland, Oregon 97207) offers anr cy, lax dj, /Amazon zShops 10/1/04, $447! >. First edition.. Publisher's green cloth gilt, . A fine copy.. In 8s (255 × 254 mm). Pp. 215..