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an image of a red and white drawing with a knife in ita black and white picture of a poem written in frencha black and white photo of a page of text
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159 - Henri MICHAUX. A Study of Eight Lithographs by Zao Wou-Ki.
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Estimate €12,000 - €15,000
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Description
Henri MICHAUX. A Study of Eight Lithographs by Zao Wou-Ki. Paris, Éditions Euros and Robert J. Godet, 1950. Folio, loose-leaf, illustrated hardback, publisher’s slipcase. First edition: illustrated with 8 original colour lithographs by Zao Wou-Ki. Books are tedious to read. There is no freedom of movement. One is invited to follow. The path is laid out, singular. The painting is quite different: immediate, total. To the left, too, to the right, into the depths, at will. No single path, a thousand paths, and the pauses are not marked. As soon as one wishes, the painting again, in its entirety. In an instant, everything is there. Everything, yet nothing is known as yet. It is here that one must truly begin to READ. An important book, marking the first collaboration between Henri Michaux and Zao Wou-Ki. It also features the first poet to be illustrated by the Chinese painter, who had been living in France for a few months. In early 1949, Zao Wou-Ki had experimented with lithography at the Desjobert: impressed by the results, the publisher Robert Godet invited Henri Michaux, who, won over by the work, wrote eight poems to accompany the eight lithographs. Godet joined forces with Chou Ling, director of Éditions Euros in Paris, to finance the publication. “This collaborative work – the only example where the illustrations precede the text – marked the beginning of his friendship with Henri Michaux, which continued uninterrupted until Michaux’s death in 1984. […] This first book is also the first example of the fusion that Zao Wou-Ki undertook between his culture of origin and his adopted culture” (Yann Hendgen). Subsequently, Zao Wou-Ki illustrated two further texts by Henri Michaux, *En Occident le jardin d’une femme indienne* (1986) and *Annonciation* (1996). (Hendgen, *Zao Wou-Ki et les poètes*, 2015, pp. 69–69.— Marie Minssieux-Chamonard, *Zao Wou-Ki, Prints and Illustrated Books*, BnF, 2008, p. 18: “It was a great stroke of luck for Zao Wou-Ki, who, at the time, did not speak French and was unaware even of Michaux’s name.”) The more valuable of the two first-edition copies on Chinese paper reserved for the authors, bearing a signed autograph dedication from the poet to the painter: With gratitude and friendship to Zao Wou-Ki who helped me rediscover the spirit of China with subtleties that are uniquely his own Henri Michaux Recalling the book years later in his *Autoportrait* (p. 79), Zao Wou-Ki confessed: “This encounter was decisive, for Michaux’s attention to my work gave me confidence. Whenever I found myself in doubt, Michaux’s opinion prevailed over my inner confusion and enabled me to carry on, to start afresh.” The copy is described at length in the catalogue *Henri Michaux & Zao Wou-Ki in the Empire of Signs* for the exhibition at the Martin Bodmer Foundation in Cologny in 2015–2016 (p. 192). There is another copy of the book in the Zao Wou-Ki archives, inscribed by the poet “to my muse”, one of the unpublished copies on B.F.K. paper. The other copy, printed on Chinese paper, was presented and signed by the poet to Micheline Phamkin in the early 1960s.
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About the sale Henri Michaux, the Sven Pitsey collection
Auction location
Auction time 10/29/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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