Museum Exhibition Catalogues, Monographs, Artist's Projects, Curatorial Writings and Essays
"Now her room is almost dark. Only a distant street lamp glows faintly through the window. Now she no longer cares whether she dies “on foreign soil” or in her own garden. She steps onto the windowsill, holds herself fast to the cord of the shutter, and examines her shadowlike reflection in the mirror one last time. She finds herself lovely. A trace of regret mingles with her determination. "It’s over," she says, quietly, and feels dead already, even before her feet leave the windowsill. She falls on her head and breaks her neck. Strangely contorted, her small body lies in the grass. The first one to find her is the dog. He sticks his head between her legs and begins licking her. When she does not move at all, he begins whimpering quietly and lies down beside her on the grass." Excerpt from Dark Spring by Unica Zürn, published by Exact Change.
Published by Brinkmann & Bose. Edited by Erich Brinkmann. Epilogue by Rike Felka.
The German artist and writer Unica Zürn (1916-1970) joined the ranks of Surrealism in the 1950s, after moving to Paris and taking up residence with the German-born Surrealist Hans Bellmer. Drawn to the movement's espousal of automatic drawing and writing, Zürn pursued Henri Michaux's declaration that "the hand dreams," making a vocation of these techniques with drawings and paintings that are labyrinthine in detail, as one form sprouts out of another. Zürn has left us an account of the sensation of automatic drawing: "After an initial moment when the pen 'swims' hesitantly on the paper, she discovers the place assigned to the first eye. It is only when she is being watched from the depths of the paper that she begins to get her bearings and, effortlessly, one motif is added to another." This lovely limited-edition survey reproduces drawings done between 1954 and 1967.
PUBLISHER Brinkmann & Bose
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 8.75 x 11.5 in. / 336 pgs / 300 color / Edition of 800 copies.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 6/30/2010 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2010 p. 116
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783940048066TRADE List Price: $195.00 CAD $240.00
