.Miró - Prévert - Adonides

This book is the testimony of a friendship that links Joan Miró, Jacques Prévert and Aimé Maeght since the surrealist years. The project was born in 1955 and was not completed until 1975. It is the only bibliophile work done by Miró and Prévert together. They had, of course, participated together, and with others, in the magazines "Pierre à Feu" and "Derrière Le Miroir", published by Maeght, but had never made a book together. The collaboration was total, because during a first attempt for which Miró proposed a completely finished model-collage, Prévert disapproved. Miró was humbled by this rejection and went back to work. He had the idea of printing the woodcuts in relief, without inking, in 1947. Ten proofs were made of each of these woodcuts, and Miró found inspiration and developed his colorful art. The poet applauded and then decided, enthusiastically, to write directly on the boards.

Thus, this book, in which Prévert's writing is punctuated by Miró's engravings, is the result of two players, two acrobats, one playing with words, the other with forms. If there is a book that is perfect in every way, it is this one. The image is a poem, the poems are images. It is impossible to dissociate them.

For this book, Joan Miró uses and interweaves various techniques: etching, lithography, drypoint, paper stamping. A technical feat never equaled again. Jacques Prévert followed the production closely and wrote directly on the lithographic plates so that his words would dance in Miró's works. The poet died before the completion of the printing of 225 copies, a facsimile of his signature was reproduced next to the handwritten signatures of Joan Miró and Aimé Maeght at the end of the work. The work is therefore considered to be his last book.
The work includes a frontispiece and sixty-five pages of color etchings and drypoint engravings, most of them with stamping, as well as a double page spread signed and numbered by Joan Miró.

The edition is limited to 225 copies on Arches vellum, all signed by the artist and the publisher, with the author's signature reproduced in facsimile.
Completed printing December 3, 1975 by Arte, Maeght.It remains the favorite book of Yoyo Maeght, at his wedding, was read this poem: 

"Je suis heureuse

Il m’a dit hier

qu’il m’aimait

Je suis heureuse et fière

et libre comme le jour

Il n’a pas ajouté

que c’était pour toujours."

Adonides by Jacques Prévert illustrations by Joan Miro Maeght Éditeur, Paris, 1975..

 



Joan Miró and Jacques Prévert had, of course, participated together, and with others, in Aimé Maeght's magazines "Pierre à Feu" and "Derrière Le Miroir", but had never made a book in common.



Jacques Prévert. Collage made with the poster of the first exhibition of Jacques Prévert at the Galerie Maeght rue du Bac in 1956.
When children are good, we give them pictures. Prévert was THE poet, the poet of life quite simply. His favorite occupation? Spending his time to pierce the mysteries of everyday life.
Prévert was a child, a happy and cheerful child in all circumstances, a child that he remained until the end. He loved the circus and the theater where his father took him. These tastes will never leave him. All his life, he will remain this child with wide eyes. He lives on the roofs of the Moulin Rouge, what better place for a poet? He writes for the Groupe Octobre and for children. And scripts and dialogues with his brother Pierre. Not the least: "Quai des brumes", "Les enfants du Paradis", "Les visiteurs du soir", songs "Barbara", "Les feuilles mortes" ... All masterpieces.



Jacques Prévert, collage for the little Maeght, 1970, 1969, collage on paper, 37x28 cm.
When he assembles words, it looks like no other. All this is not enough for him, of course, he cuts out, and sticks chromos on photographs. And when he assembles images, it doesn't look like anything else. Yes, to Prévert. Words, images and, above all, a sense of friendship. Braque, Miró, Picasso, Calder, Doisneau, Topor...
His collages will be exhibited for the first time at the Maeght Gallery in 1956, for the inaugural exhibition of the gallery on the left bank.



Opening of the exhibition of Jacques Prévert's collages at the new Maeght Gallery created by Paule and Adrien Maeght, 1956.



Jacques Prévert dedicates the catalog of his collages..



Alberto Giacometti and Jacques Prévert in 1956 at the Maeght Gallery on rue du Bac.
In Saint-Paul, La Colombe d'Or, brings together a new family, an ideal family, where artists, writers, actors, singers, filmmakers... And even Hollywood stars. And all are exhausted in laughter and conversations until the end of the night. Prévert is there, sometimes he leads the dance and in the afternoon, he is already under the plane trees of the square playing petanque with a glass in his hand and a cigarette hanging from his lips.

An unfailing friendship is shared with the children of Paule and Adrien Maeght. In the evening, he comes to tell them, with tenderness and humor, scary stories populated with monsters and gorgons. That's why the little Florence and Yoyo nicknamed him "the ogre".

Joan Miró, Virginia Chagall, Aimé Maeght, André Verdet, Marc Chagall, Jacques Prévert, La Colombe d'Or, Saint-Paul, 1953.

Photo dedicated by Jacques Prévert to Robert Doisneau.