L'amour la poésie illustré par Kiki Smith

Text by Paul Éluard, illustrations by Kiki Smith

Limited edition of 99 numbered copies, in a slipcase designed by Kiki Smith. Unbound book accompanied by a numbered and signed lithograph by the artist, printed on 83g Hosho Japanese paper.

26.7 x 34.7 x 3 cm 

American artist Kiki Smith has taken up the challenge of the "Grande Blanche illustrée" collection, a space where artists are given free rein to engage with the greatest authors of literature. Born in 1954, Kiki Smith is an atypical figure in contemporary American art. Known since the 1980s for her multidisciplinary work and the wide variety of media she employs, she boldly and sensitively explores the themes of the fragile and intimate body, female sexuality, and our relationship to death and beauty. Since the 2000s, the artist has turned her attention to the world of living things, particularly plants. "Let us be attentive to nature": this is what Kiki Smith expresses in her most recent works.
For her entry into the collection, Kiki Smith chose L'amour, la poésie de Paul Éluard.
Published in 1929, after a final winter spent in the sanatorium with his wife Gala who was to leave him shortly afterwards for Salvador Dali, this "endless book" retraces the adventure of a desperate man torn between love and poetry, between reality and imagination, a man to whom poetry gives back, along with love, the taste and passion for life.
Kiki Smith's interventions punctuate these poems in a universe where body, nature and cosmos meet the spirit of surrealism.
Kiki Smith, a world-renowned artist, has exhibited in the world's leading museums. In 2019, the Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) dedicated an exhibition to her work, which was a resounding success with both the public and critics. She was a featured artist in the Pléiade 2024 program.

Title published on the occasion of the centenary of the publication of the first Surrealist Manifesto by André Breton.