Item #52291 [DADA, SURREALISM and CONSTRUCTIVISM – MOHOLY-NAGY] Manomètre: mélange les langues – enregistre des idées – indique la pression sur tous le méridiens – est polyglotte et supranational [Pressure gauge: mixes languages – records ideas – indicates pressure on all meridians – is polyglot and supranational]. No. 6 (of 9). Émile Malespine.

Malespine, Émile (editor).

[DADA, SURREALISM and CONSTRUCTIVISM – MOHOLY-NAGY] Manomètre: mélange les langues – enregistre des idées – indique la pression sur tous le méridiens – est polyglotte et supranational [Pressure gauge: mixes languages – records ideas – indicates pressure on all meridians – is polyglot and supranational]. No. 6 (of 9).

Lyon: Imprimeries Réunies, August 1924. Square octavo (22.5 × 17.5 cm). Original staple-stitched typographically designed wrappers; pp. 93–108. With one woodcut by László Moholy-Nagy and illustrations by Serge Charchoune and others. Wrappers and leaves somewhat toned; else very good. Item #52291

Single issue of the rare avant-garde journal, of which a total of nine numbers appeared at irregular intervals between 1922 and 1928. The painter, art critic, writer, and neurologist Émile Malespine maintained numerous international contacts with the most diverse groups and currents. The first issues were characterized by Dadaism and Surrealism, with contributions by Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Philippe Soupault, and Jorge Louis Borges. In issue 7, however, Malespine clearly distanced himself from Surrealism and from Breton's use of the terms conscious and unconscious with his "Manifeste du suridéalisme". He also maintained contact with Kurt Schwitters, in whose "Merz" advertisements for "Manomètre" also appeared and vice versa. Malespine was anxious to have Schwitters as a partner in his journal in 1925. For financial reasons, however, there was no closer collaboration after the publication of "Merz" 18/19. Also "Manomètre" saw a turn toward Constructivism, as evidenced by contributions from Lajos Kassák, Piet Mondrian, and László Moholy-Nagy. (See Annkathrin Sonder and Antje Wulff, Kurt Schwitters. Die Reihe Merz 1923-1932, p. 895.) The extent to which Malespine was integrated into the network of European Constructivists can be seen not only in the guest articles and advertising that appeared in "Manomètre" for periodicals such as "De Stijl", "MA", "Mecano", "Stavba", "Zenit", and "Zwrotnica", but also conversely in the fact that Malespine was also able to publish his own texts in "MA" (see Péter Zoltan, Laos Kassák, Wien und der Konstruktivismus 1920-1926, Frankfurt a. M. 2010, p. 150).

The booklet contains, in addition to the small woodcut by Moholy-Nagy, among others, by Piet Mondrian, the contribution "Les arts et la beauté de notre ambiance tangible" (The arts and the beauty of our tangible environment).

See Dada global no. 140 (issue 2); Tendenzen der Zwanziger Jahre no. 3/145 (issue 1); not in Motherwell and Verkauf.