Original box from the Festival des Arts Plastiques de la Côte d'Azur, containing a mimeographed introductory leaflet and 48 original works in various formats, including lithography, screenprint, collage, photocopy, and stencil, by a number of assorted artists. Works various sizes, box 10 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches. Original cardboard box with "Dossier 68" screenprinted to lid and list of artists screenprinted to bottom, both in royal blue, contents loose as issued. Box with some light browning, some creasing and a couple of small tears along sides, artworks with some very light scattered toning, some creasing due to paper size, overall excellent. [Marseille]: J. Lepage, [1968]. Limited edition of 200 copies.

The introductory leaflet to this collection states that during the month of September 1968, approximately 100 invitations were sent by the organizers of the Festival des Arts Plastiques de la Côte d'Azur to artists working in various forms of media, including painting, architecture, and sculpture, but that artists who were already too well-known on the national or international stage were not contacted. The Festival was meant to be experimental, and they wanted to showcase lesser-known artists in accordance with those goals.

Some of the artists in this collection include Marcel Alocco, André Pierre Arnal, Henri Baviera, Julien Blaine, Albert Cubac, Denis Garnier and Guy Rottier, Gruppo P 66, Giancarlo Nanni, Bernard Pagès, Poli, Scarabelli, Severo, Ben, Magdalo Mussio, Raphaël Monticeli, and many others. The works are produced in a variety of formats, and approximately half of them are signed or dated in some fashion.

The Festival des Arts Plastiques de la Côte d'Azur was begun in 1963, with the goal being, as written by editor and organizer Jacques Lepage in the catalogue preface, "to create a viable art centre on the Côte d'Azur. The importance of its cultural events alerted the public and the authorities to the urgency of decentralization...For there can be no question of sterile opposition to Paris, but, on the contrary, an emulation. What is presented, is done, is created on the Côte d'Aure must be created in a universal language." Jacques Lepage (1909-2002) was an art critic and key figure in the Supports/Surfaces art movement in southern France.

A fantastic collection of original artwork from numerous international artists active in the 1960s, working in the New Realism, École de Nice, Fluxus, MADI, Supports/Surfaces, INterVENTION, Groupe 70, and other artistic groups and movements. Very scarce; as of January 2025, OCLC locates only one single holding of this collection worldwide and zero in North America.

Book ID: 53343

Price: $7,500.00