(Larry Rivers) The donkey and the darling. A portfolio of 52 lithographs. Text by Terry Southern. U.L.A.E./Universal Limited Art Editions. 1976. 17.5” x 21”. On ivory handmade paper. Each sheet water­marked with signatures of both artist and author in the corners, plus the embossed U.L.A.E. blindstamp. Lithographic images and text are on the same sheets of French handmade paper. Each lithograph pagi­nated in pencil on verso with initials ‘T.G.’ [Tatyana Grosman], with separate pages for the Table of Contents and the Colophon. Each of the plates includes text in Southern’s handwriting. Dedication page states ‘For Nile and for Gwynne & Emma’ (River’s wife and two children). The portfolio is enclosed in a three-sided wrapper.

Label on wrapper cover reads ‘Proof Set – Larry Rivers/Terry Southern.’ Housed in a new custom-made, moss-green cloth dropback box by Angela Scott. 19.5 ” x 23” x 3.5”. Blindstamped title on front. An edition of 35, plus 6 Artist’s Proofs and 3 Printer’s Proofs.

The complete Proof Set of this important work,which evolved over nine years of the artist’s prolific and innovative career [1968 -1977]. Prepared during the prime period of U.L.A.E., while it was producing the finest quality lithographic prints of that era.

Rivers (1923 – 2002) had limited interest in book illustrations, but “was intrigued with the idea of doing a fairy tale as parody … The resulting project … was the most difficult and expensive project ever undertaken by U.L.A.E … and required … 105 stones, with a total of 126 printings … for the images … 82 plates [310 printings] had been used for the text.” -Universal Limited Art Editions, A History and Catalogue: The first twenty-five years. 1989. Copies of this work are at the Museum of Modern Art, University of Texas at Austin, New York Public Library, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, as well as other important public and private collections.

Notes for the Proof Set:

• Sheet #49 lacks the drawn-in lithographed mouse in upper right corner, as in image #109, page 500, of Sparks, E. Universal Limited Art Editions. A History and Catalogue: the First 25 Years. N.Y., Abrams, 1989.
• Sheet #51 is missing a lithographed image of a bird in the middle bottom of sheet, as in image #111, page 501, Sparks.
• Sheet #54 lacks an image of ‘Miss Darling’ in the middle bottom of sheet, plus coloured embellishments, as in image #114, page 502, Sparks.

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The important edition of Tetrascroll prepared at U.L.A.E. for Fuller’s 80th birthday

(R. Buckminster Fuller) Tetrascroll. Goldilocks and the three bears, a Cosmic Fairy Tale. Text and Preface by author/artist. Printed under the direction of Tatyana Grosman at Universal Limited Art Editions. West Islip, New York. 1977. 33” x 38” approx. Conceived by Fuller as a tetrahedron with 26 pages, consisting of 36” equilateral triangles bound together on two sides with gray Dacron sailcloth. The pages open out to approximately 43 feet, comprising the complete work. Dark blue text and drawings printed on Rives BFK matching gray paper laminated to the sailcloth. Triangular pages connected by cloth strips. Title page ‘The only known Picture of Goldy,’ plus 21 lithographic drawings. Handset Helvetica type. Pages embossed with the publisher’s seal. Bound by Richard Minsky with the 26 pages laminated together as rigid triangles, all connected and hinged together for display. No. 2 of an edition of 34 copies, plus 6 artist’s proofs and 2 printer’s proofs. The Preface is signed and numbered and each drawing initialed by R.B. Fuller. Preface also signed by Mrs. Ann Fuller, and by Alexandra, the Fuller’s grand-daughter, ‘For Goldy.’ ‘Epilever’ (Epilogue) by Edwin Schlossberg and signed by him. Fine.

Many years in its formulation and production, this work explains the structure of the universe and man’s place in it, as conceived by Buckminster Fuller, world renowned architect and environmentalist. This ecological fairy tale was adapted from his personal philosophies for his granddaughter, Allegra. Several mythological stories are strung together in a didactic series – a cosmic seminar.

A forty-three foot long ‘book’, Tetrascroll was prepared at U.L.A.E. in time for Fuller’s 80th birthday.

This Special Deluxe U.L.A.E. edition is scarce. Institutions generally own either the facsimile or trade editions, as is in The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Statliche Museum, Berlin, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Copies of the original U.L.A.E. edition are at Harvard University, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, January, 1977; R. Feldman Gallery, New York, January 1977 and F. S. Wright Art Gallery, U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, March-May 1978.

The Whitney Museum of Art will be paying homage to Buckminster Fuller with the exhibit “Starting With the Universe,” June 26-September 21, 2008. From the Whitney’s website: “R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was one of the great American visionaries of the 20th century. Best-known as the inventor of the geodesic dome, Fuller devoted much of his life to resolving the gap between the sciences and the humanities, which he believed was preventing society from taking a comprehensive view of the world. His theories and innovations traversed the worlds of architecture, visual art, literature, mathematics, molecular biology, and environmental science and have had a deep impact on all of those fields.” www.whitney.org

Related posts:

1. Dean Allen Dass
2. John Eric Broaddus
3. Horizons of Babel, from book artist Keith Dietrich