Miro, Joan. ANTITETE - LE DESESPERANTO. Dupin 57, Cramer 20 (variant) Etching with aquatint and hand-coloring, 1947. A trial proof, inscribed "Epreuve d'Essai/Pour Todd/B (encircled)," dated "7/47" and signed by Miro, all in pencil in the margin below the image. A similar trial proof exists, with the same imgagery printed differently, and without the hand-coloring, marked "C" (encircled), and dedicated "Pour Hayter," and one may assume there is one marked "A." These trial proofs relate to two projects which Miro worked on while at Atelier 17 in the summer of 1947. The first was the book Miro illustrated for Tristan Tzara's poems, "Desesperado," which was the thrid volume of his series "Antitete."(Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst illustrated the other two volumes). This image, both with no border, and with a variant border, and with etched work rather than hand-coloring in the shaped copper plate, was used as Plate V of Antitete. The second project, never published, was to be a portfolio comprising a group of poems by the British poet Ruthven Todd (1914-1978) each poem to be illustrated by a different artist, one of them by Miro (See web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/pressure/todd.html). The presence of Todd at Atelier 17 and his work with Miro on the proposed portfolio is likely what accounts for the dedication to him of one of the Trial Proofs. Provenance: Martin Gordon, with an accompanying letter from him. Unique among a small number of variants. In excellent condition.
