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Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(MATISSE, HENRI / WHEELER, MONROE.) Wheeler's working copy of Henri Matisse: Les Grandes Gouaches Découpées. Exhibition catalogue for the traveling exhibition begun at Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Palais du Louvre, Paris, March-May 1961. Beautiful color reproductions by Mourlot and numerous photographic illustrations. 8vo, original wrappers, moderately rubbed and soiled; marked throughout in pen and pencil by Wheeler, with several notes laid in; Wheeler's Museum of Modern Art ownership label mounted to supplied plain paper dust jacket, also containing several of his ink notes. Ex-collection Anatole Pohorilenko, ex-dono Monroe Wheeler. Paris, 1961
wheeler's heavily annotated working copy of the French edition of the great exhibition of Matisse's paper collages that he reworked, in his capacity as Director of Exhibitions and Publications at The Museum of Modern Art for their exhibition catalogue of the traveling show titled The Last Works of Henri Matisse: Large Cut Gouaches, New York, 1961. The crowning achievement of Matisse's final years, this blockbuster show traveled nearly ten years, from Bern in 1959 to Amsterdam, then Paris, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and, finally, London in 1968. The book includes his notes, marks, questions, and comments throughout, of how to rework the text and reproductions into his catalogue. Laid in notes pertaining to the the changes include, most importantly, a carbon copy of a Typed Letter by Wheeler to French publisher, Fernand Mourlot, about the changes based on Matisse's works that would be in the NY show, and about design and printing issues such as paper weight and distribution. A fascinating look into the creative process of one of the 20th Century's important museum directors and catalogue publishers.
From the Estate of Anatole Pohorilenko, a close friend and companion of Wheeler and Glenway Wescott who also authored the biography of their friendship with George Platt Lynes (When We Were Three, Arena Editions, 1998). Pohorilenko was born in Lubeck, Germany to Ukrainian and German parents and lived in the Displaced Persons Camp in Burgdorf until 1947 when he relocated to Brazil before emigrating to the U.S. Settling and receiving his education in Philadelphia, he became a distinguished anthropologist and archaeologist in his own right.
