Poèmes des deux années
Paris, GLM, (février) 1955.
1 vol. (120 x 190 mm) of 47 p., [1] and 1 leaf. Brown calfskin, elaborately decorated with wood mosaic on the covers, endleaves and pastedowns of wood paper, gilt title, gilt edges, original covers and spine preserved (binding signed by P.-L. Martin, 1964).
First collective edition, partly original.
One of the first 50 copies on Arches vellum (no. 33), signed by René Char, with an original etching justified and signed by Alberto Giacometti.
The first collaboration between the poet and the artist
Fine binding by Pierre-Lucien Martin.
We apologize for the imperfect translation generated by Deepl for the purposes of the show.
On March 3, 1980, the poet recalled for the readers of the Nouvel Observateur the circumstances which had presided over the birth of one of these poems: “One day, near a Romanesque church, a woman (…) told me, crying, about the jealousy of her husband. Passing again in front of this graceful and massive church, a verse had come to me, as if fallen from the bell tower: “Truth with secret tears, the most offering of dens.” And the word-carrier “‘den’ had been born of incident after incident.” Poems of the two years will be part with Lettera amorosa of the collection The Word in archipelago published in 1962.
This title is illustrated with an engraving by Alberto Giacometti and reminds us, if it were necessary, how much Char was a poet illustrated by painters, and how much he was an enlightened lover and faithful friend: “In René Char’s bastidon between L’Isle-sur-Sorgue and Saumane, the walls were filled with paintings: an engraving by Picasso, a wax by Victor Brauner, a gouache by Braque, a lithograph by Vieira da Silva and drawings by Giacometti. They became close from the moment they met in the Surrealist movement, which they joined in 1930, but they both went their separate ways. They remained very close, however, and the poet was the first to write about his painter friend in Recherche de la base et du sommet, the same year that Giacometti illustrated one of his books for the first time: Poèmes des deux années.
According to the catalog of the René Char exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale (2008), the poet chose from among five engravings these two figures standing together near a bush. From this book, and until his sudden death in 1966, Giacometti collaborated twice with René Char. One was the unique experience of the illuminated manuscript, as the poet had conceived it for several of his painter friends. With Giacometti, he calligraphed Visage nuptial, the original edition of which dated from 1938, and offered this unique work to his friend and patron, Yvonne Zervos. The other, and final, book brought together four etchings by the painter and the poems of Retour Amont. Giacometti, as we know, disappeared before he could sign the copies.
Between these Poèmes des deux années and Retour Amont, their friendship and exchanges were constant. Giacometti offered several works to René Char: drawings, including the portrait of his own wife and the one he made of Georges Braque, sitting in the death chamber on the day of his death. As an echo, many books were dedicated to him by Char, and a text from May 1964 remains famous in the body of the poet’s work: Célébrer Giacometti.
