The Recital

Ghent: Ergo Pers, 2009. First edition. Schimansky, Hanns. Folio (14 1/2 x 12-3/4 inches), unbound in slipcase as issued. A beautiful new artist book. The Recital /Le Récital, a prose poem by John Ashbery, published in a bilingual edition with French translation by Franck André Jamme, in close collaboration with the author and Marie-France Azar. Each copy includes five original etchings by Hanns Schimansky and is further accompanied by a suite of five loose prints of the same etchings, signed and numbered by the artist. All copies are signed on the colophon page by the author, the artist and the translator.
The Recital /Le Récital is printed in a limited edition of forty copies, numbered in Arabic numerals, with an additional series of twelve reserved copies for the author, the artist and the translator, numbered I-XII. A separate edition of six copies, reserved for participating collaborators and numbered A-F, consists of six original etchings, instead of five. The etchings were printed in Berlin by Fritze Margull. The text is set in Garamond and printed on 230-gramme Hahnemühle paper. Typography, design and printing are by Rein Ergo. Hanns Schimansky has shown widely in Europe, especially in Germany, including solo shows at the Gemeentemuseum in La Haye, at the Staatscliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe as well as at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Neuchâtel in Switzerland. His work is in the public collections of the National Contemporary Art Museum in Oslo, the Berlinische Galerie, the National Contemporary Art Museum in Berlin and the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Neuchâtel as well as in other major public collections.