8.7.58
Julius Bissier
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Original Title:8.7.58 Komposition -
Date:1958; Germany -
Style:Art Informel -
Genre:abstract -
Dimensions:13.3 x 17.5 cm
8.7.58
Julius Bissier
This is a genuine vintage lithograph/gravure-like print of Julius Bissier' 8.7.58 'Komposition'. The original was first created in 1958, - and then replicas would have been made for the forthcoming exhibitions and awards given from 1958 to 1960.
Being a vintage replica of the original, it's described as 'Lithograph/gravure-like', - as in some parts, such as the black bottle, the ink seems very heavy over what appears a pixelated first layer of a gravure-like-print.
1955-1956
Beginning of the coloured “miniatures" in egg-and-oil tempera on linen canvas, irregularly cut or torn pieces of cotton, as well as watercolours on paper. These lyrical works, without the constellations of signs in the earlier inks, bring him late but great fame. In 1956, the first stay in Ticino.
1957
Sojourn in Tourettes-sur-Loup (southern France). Starting in the autumn of this year, annual sojourn in Ticino (Ronco sopra Ascona). Friendship with Jean Arp, who lives in Locarno-Solduno.
1958
Friendship with Werner Schmalenbach. First large retrospective at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover, which travelled to a number of German museums (Duisburg, Hagen, Bremen, Ulm). Takes part in the XXIX Venice Biennale. Sudden international fame: his work is held to be mainly within the Informel trend. Bissier finds it difficult to cope with so much unexpected success.
1959
Awarded the Cornelius Prize of the City of Düsseldorf. Takes part in Documenta II in Kassel. Friendship with Ben Nicholson, who lives in Ticino at this time.
1959-1960
Retrospective exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague.
1960
Solo show at the XXX Biennale in Venice. Awarded the Kuntspreiz of the City of Berlin. First exhibitions in Paris and London.
Source: ...can be found in the 'reference' link provided.
Being 'abstract', one could speculate whatever it is they think they see in it, to us, there appears to a women-like figure on the centre-left, - (Audrey Hepburn) - as on the right-hand side, we see 'a film-set camera, with extended microphone, - and a bottle of wine in the background. Audrey Hepburn starred in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, directed by Blake Edwards, written by George Axelrod, adapted from Truman Capote's 1958 novella of the same name. If Bissier knew of and read Capote's book, where he describes Hepburn's character, - it could have inspired Bissier to have created this piece of art, - completed the same year as the book's release 1958.
Recently purchased directly from a German art dealer, that according to its provenance; this gravure had been in the same German Hannovian family since at least early 1960s. It was believed to have been purchased in connection to the exhibition at the “Kestner-Gesellschaft” in Hannover in 1958.
This was/is often the case following such exhibitions; a small series of limited edition - lithographs, gravures, and other printed material was/is published and so to financially help and support such artists and exhibitions.
