De la terre à la lune.

Pierre de Tartas, Paris, [1969]

Rare pre-publication copy of the elaborately produced edition of ‘De la terre à la lune’ published by de Tartas in 1970. These “handmade” editions were given in a few copies to selected collectors and dealers to promote the printed edition.

Description: Cardboard portfolio, wrapped in an original colour lithograph. Folio: 38 × 28 cm; 8 folded sheets (2 blank), loose as issued. With 6 original colour lithographs: 2 full-page and 1 double-page and 3 within text; 2 b/w photos tipped in. The lithographs protected with tissue guards. All full-page lithographs marked with a perforation stamp Specimen, the double-page lithograph additionally marked Epreuve d’état non corrigée par l’artiste.

Condition: Minor signs of wear to covers. Contents and prints in excellent condition.

Notes: Jean Carzou (born Karnik Zouloumian, 1907–2000) was an Armenian-French painter and illustrator. He was educated in Cairo before moving to Paris in 1924, where he studied art and architecture. He started working as a theater decorator but quickly realized he preferred drawing and painting. Carzou labors alone, a witness to his times, uninfluenced by passing fashions. But like his contemporaries, Carzou belonged to a generation that witnessed the horror of the World War. Carzou’s style went through a period where the artist tryed to remind the world of the horrors of the past. Enigmatic figures, encased in iron armour, often appear out of nowhere and move in a landscape between dream and harsh reality – half-fantastic, half-real worlds offer a kind of familiar strangeness similar to that of dreams. Carzou was elected a member of the Institut de France, Académie des beaux-arts in 1977. He was also awarded the National Order of Merit of France.