Procul este profani: 18 farbige Handdrucke
Frankfurt: Verlag Eremitenpresse, 1952. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 21 leaves. Original color-illustrated tan boards with gray lettering on cover. This volume was produced with a print method of the Eremitenpresse that maintains original value. Printing plates in the common sense are not necessary. The prints are made on paper provided by the artist; they are experiments with new material and techniques.
Eighteen two color prints (red and black, 4 x 2.5" on 7 x 4" paper) with abstract surrealist motifs. "The profane will look at this small volume with distrust. The content seems too opaque to him. Art only convinces him when it's explainable. The title of this volume: "stay away, you uninitiated!" doesn't strike those who lack explanations for its presentations. Since profane are only those, who don't value anything that can't be solve with the common time table. Therefore: procul este profani!" (V.O.St.). No records in OCLC.
Text in German. Binding with light age toning along edges. Three inches of spine missing at head, replace with japan tissue. Book block tight. Binding in overall good-, interior and plates in very good condition. g- to vg. Item #43530
Siegfried Reich (1912–2001) was born and raised in Stolpe, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Early in his life he sought the to be around Max Pechstein who spent half of the year nearby at the Garder Lake. Encouraged by Pechstein he began to paint and participated with two of his paintings in the 1933 Art Exhibition East Pomerania in Stolpe. In the 1930s he studied in Berlin and, based on his Expressionist and Surrealist motifs, his art was declared "degenerate" and confiscated. He was drafted into the German Army and a prisoner of war.
After the war he called himself "Reich an der Stolpe (Empire at the Stolpe)" and lived in Frankfurt at the Main until 1950. He started to experiment with abstract art and was invited by the artist group COBRA to participate in an exhibition in 1951 in Lüttich. Exhibitions in the USA, Paris, Barcelona, Bruxxels, and Stockholm followed. In 1961 he moved to Altea in Spain and lived there until his death. In 1996 he was awarded the "Token of Regard" of the Lovis-Corinth Price.
Price: $950.00