-
DON BACHARDY: DRAWINGS - AN ASSOCIATION COPY FROM THE ARTIST WITH A SIGNED NOTE LAID IN
(BACHARDY, DON). Wescott, Glenway & Billy Al Bengston. New York: The New York Cultural Center, 1974. First Edition. 4to. Illustrated Wrappers. Artist Monograph. Fine.. np (28pp), 22 b&w illustrations + b&w rear cover. With an exhibition checklist, exhibition history and biography. This is the slender twenty-eight page catalogue published in conjunction with a 1974 exhibition of sixty pencil and ink wash portraits executed between 1964 and 1973 by noted Santa Monica artist Don Bachardy held at The New York Cultural Center. The sitters reproduced are Bachardy's longtime partner Christopher Isherwood, Edward Albert, John Ashbery, Pat Ast, W.H. Auden, Truman Capote, Bette Davis, Charles Eastman, John Houseman, John Houston, Anita Loos, Myrna Loy, Anais Nin, Merle Oberon, Igor and Vera Stravinsky, Virgil Thompson, L. Arnold Weissberger, Monroe Wheeler, and artists Chris Burden, Alexis Smith, and Carole Caroompas. A self portrait sketch of Bachardy adorns the rear cover. A bright white, most handsome example of this uncommon item that is the second monographic publication on Bachardy. Laid in is a hand-written note in black ink stating " Dear Charles --- / I'm sending you / this catalogue in case you didn't / get to N.Y. as you expected. / My drawing of you is one / of my favorites of the show. / With best regards, / Don". Charles is the artist's friend Charles Kemper Eastman, the noted late Hollywood screenwriter, script doctor,and director who has placed it along with the invitation to the exhibition's opening next to his portrait reproduced on page twenty-one. These are housed in Bachardy's original hand addressed mailing envelope. Inventory Number: 026563
-
BUSINESS CARDS BY BILLY AL BENGSTON AND EDWARD RUSCHA
(RUSCHA, EDWARD) (BENGSTON, BILLY AL). Bengston, Billy Al & Edward Ruscha. Los Angeles: Self-Published by the Authors, 1968. First Edition 1/1000. 8vo. Wrappers with a Mounted Photo. Artists' Book. Good +./No Jacket - As Issued.. np (32pp), profusely illustrated in monochrome. Designed by Edward Ruscha. In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. "Business Cards" is the innovatively designed and bound collaborative artists' book cum objet published in 1968 by Ed Ruscha and Billy Al Bengston. Limited to one thousand unique copies, it details in photographs by Ken Price and Larry Bell the process of the two artists designing their business cards, and the "presentation dinner" at Beverly Hills' The Bistro of the finished product(s). A most presentable example of the first and only edition of this uncommon item (entry B7 in Siri Engberg's "Edward Ruscha: Editions 1959-1999" which is also cited on pages 198-201 of The Hasselblad Center's "The Open Book") SIGNED "Bill" in black ink and "E. Ruscha" in blue ink on the front cover with its latigo leather thong complete and unbroken, the cover photograph present, and both cards stapled to the recto of the rear leaf, as issued, showing overall wear and creasing along the spine and edges of its faux wood veneer wrappers. In addition there is a thin margin of soiling along the top edge of the inside covers. It has been priced accordingly. PLEASE NOTE: Additional shipping costs are required for this item beyond our standard rates due to its value - we will inform you of the applicable amount at time of purchase. Inventory Number: 025607
-
BUSINESS CARDS BY BILLY AL BENGSTON AND EDWARD RUSCHA
(RUSCHA, EDWARD) (BENGSTON, BILLY AL). Bengston, Billy Al & Edward Ruscha. Los Angeles: Self-Published by the Authors, 1968. First Edition 1/1000. 8vo. Wrappers with a Mounted Photo. Artists' Book. Good +./No Jacket - As Issued.. np (32pp), profusely illustrated in monochrome. Designed by Edward Ruscha. In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. "Business Cards" is the innovatively designed and bound collaborative artists' book cum objet published in 1968 by Ed Ruscha and Billy Al Bengston. Limited to one thousand unique copies, it details in photographs by Ken Price and Larry Bell the process of the two artists designing their business cards, and the "presentation dinner" at Beverly Hills' The Bistro of the finished product(s). A most presentable example of this uncommon item (entry B7 in Siri Engberg's "Edward Ruscha: Editions 1959-1999" which is also cited on pages 198-201 of The Hasselblad Center's "The Open Book") limited to one thousand unnumbered copies BOLDLY SIGNED "B. A. B." in black ink and "Ed Ruscha" in black marker on the front cover with its latigo leather thong complete and unbroken, the cover photograph present, and both cards stapled to the the recto of the rear leaf, as issued, showing some wear, creasing, and abrading to its faux wood veneer wrappers along with some light foxing to the edges of the textblock, front and rear inside covers, and endpapers. It has been priced accordingly. PLEASE NOTE: Additional shipping costs are required for this item beyond our standard rates due to its value - we will inform you of the applicable amount at time of purchase. Inventory Number: 024819
-
THREE MODERN MASTERS: BILLY AL BENGSTON / EDWARD RUSCHA / FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
(RUSCHA, EDWARD) (BENGSTON, BILLY AL). Lindsley, Carol. San Francisco: Reese Palley Gallery, 1969. First Edition. 4to. Stapled Pictorial Wrappers. Exhibition Catalog. Near Fine.. np (6pp), 7 b&w illustrations. With an exhibition checklist. Designed by Edward Ruscha. In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. One of the very earliest publications for both of these seminal Los Angeles artists, "Three Modern Masters" is a slender six-page catalogue documents a 1969 exhibition of nineteen works each by Billy Al Bengston and Edward Ruscha held at San Francisco's Reese Palley Gallery. The gallery was located at the site originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948 for the V.C. Morris Gift Shop, and the cover photograph by Ruscha's good friend Patrick Blackwell shows the two artists contemplating the brass plaque crediting Wright with the design of The Guggenheim Museum. A most handsome example of this exceedingly uncommon item - only five copies are currently cited in OCLC WorldCat - showing a bit of minor spotting to the covers and foredge. PLEASE NOTE: Additional shipping costs are required for this item beyond our standard rates due to its value - we will inform you of the applicable amount at time of purchase. Inventory Number: 027505