Inscribed by Breer to Hans Richter
BREER, Robert. Image par images. Paris: Galerie Denise Rene. 1955.
12 x 9 cm. Flip book in original black paper covers; approx 100 leaves creating an animated sequence of abstract shapes; very good. Provenance: first leaf inscribed by Breer to Hans Richter, the Dadaist painter, film-maker and art historian. As a film-maker Breer acknowledged a debt to Richter: "Of course, I was excited to meet Hans; his early abstract “Rhythmus” films from the 1920s, their play with figure and ground, clearly influenced my early “Form Phases” series." (Interview with Michelle Kuo, https://www.artforum.com/features/everything-goes-an-interview-with-robert-breer-195827/). With note from former owner clarifying provenance.
First edition, published for the pioneering "Le Mouvement" exhibition at Galerie Denise Rene, which was the first kinetic art show in Paris. The American artist Robert Breer (1926-2011) was renowned for his experiments in animation. Known as the "kinetic poet of the avant garde" he worked across many of the great movements of the twentieth century and within a huge array of genres. His films often feature abstract images careering across the screen, a style which is represented in this flip book.
Breer first signed with Denise Rene in 1955 and found himself at the epicentre of the Parisian avant garde. Partly inspired by his father's work as an engineer for Chrysler, he found that his art was most successful when it dealt with movement and moved away from painting to film-making and other more kinetic forms. He was a natural fit for "Le Mouvement", in which he and other important avant garde figures such as Victor Vasarelt and Pontus Hulten displayed their experiments in motion and caused an artistic sensation.
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