Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Tzara (Tristan) manuscripts from the collection of René
Gaffé
2021.M.8
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Tristan Tzara manuscripts from the collection of René Gaffé
Date (inclusive): 1921-1931,
undated
Number: 2021.M.8
Creator/Collector:
Tzara, Tristan,
1896-1963
Physical Description:
1 volume
(21 items)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The handwritten and typed manuscripts
by Tristan Tzara from the collection of René Gaffé are gathered in a volume whose binding
was designed by Paul Bonet. The manuscripts consist of drafts of writings from Le cinéma calendrier du cœur abstrait, maison,
La deuxième aventure céleste de monsieur Antipyrine,
De nos oiseaux,
Faites vos jeux and poems from L'antitête. Tipped into the volume are also a card from Tzara to Paul Éluard and
a notebook containing pen-and-ink drawings.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
described in this inventory through the
catalog
record
for this collection. Click here for the
access
policy
.
Language: Collection material is in French with some German
Biographical / Historical: Tristan Tzara
Romanian and French poet and artist, Tristan Tzara, was one of the founders of Dada. He was
born Samuel Rosenstock into a Jewish family from Moinesti in Romania in 1896, and spoke
Yiddish as his first language. He moved to Zürich in Switzerland during the First World War
to study philosophy, a country which remained neutral throughout the war. There he met the
German author and poet, Hugo Ball, and the two together with Emmy Hennings, Marcel Janco,
Richard Hülsenbeck, Hans Richter, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp, initiated the Cabaret
Voltaire, a literary and artistic café. It was during one of the soirees of the Cabaret
Voltaire, which often featured the reading of nonsensical poems to a background of
cacophanous noise, that Ball read the Dada Manifesto.
Tzara became editor of the movement's journal
Dada, which
was characterized by a spirit of anarchic revolt against traditional values, as well of
disillusionment from the horrors of the war, and in the journal's third issue he wrote the
essay "Dada manifeste 1918." He joined Francis Picabia in Paris in January 1920 and was
welcomed by the group
Littérature, which included Louis
Aragon, André Breton, and Philippe Soupault. He drew close to the French Communist Party,
becoming friends with Picasso to whom he dedicated numerous essays.
References consulted:
Articles "Dada" and "Cabaret Voltaire" in
Dictionary of 20th Century
Art
. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998.
Henri Béhar, "Tristan Tzara" in
Oxford Art Online.
Œuvres complètes / Tristan Tzara ; texte établi, présenté
et annoté par Henri Béhar. 6 volumes. Paris : Flammarion, 1975-1991.
Biographical / Historical: René Gaffé
The Belgian collector and industrialist René Gaffé was born in Brussels in 1887. He first
worked as a journalist in the Netherlands, where he founded the daily newspaper
L'écho belge, and then worked in the perfume industry, which was
the source of his wealth. During the First World War, he began collecting African art and
developed an interest in sculptures from the Belgian Congo. He later met Paul Éluard and
André Breton who helped him build his art collection, which focused on Cubist and Surrealist
art. He befriended Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, and René Magritte who painted his
portrait in 1942. Gaffé acquired works by them, along with paintings by Georges Braque,
Giorgio de Chirico, and Fernand Léger. In 1956, he moved from Belgium to France, where he
purchased a house in Cagnes-sur-Mer near Nice, large enough to exhibit his vast collection
that included monumental works. That year, he also sold his library at the Hôtel Drouot in
Paris, a sale that featured the Tristan Tzara manuscripts acquired from Paul Éluard. Gaffé
lived in Cagnes-sur-Mer with his second wife, Jeanne, until he passed away in 1968. Jeanne
Gaffé arranged the sale of the art collection, which took place in 2001 at Christie's in
Paris and in New York shortly after her death.
References consulted:
Wohl, Hellmut. "Tristan Tzara, René Gaffé and the Cabaret Voltaire,"
Burlington Magazine, vol. 149, no. 1249, p. 262-267
"René Gaffé" in Index of collectors and dealers of Cubism, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Viewed online, 12/6/2021.
Bibliothèque de M. René Gaffé. Paris : Hôtel Drouot,
1956.
The collection of René Gaffé, tribal art, property from the estate
of Madame René Gaffé, sold without reserve for the benefit of L'Institut Curie.
Paris : Christie's, 2001.
The collection of René Gaffé, property from the estate of Madame
René Gaffé, sold without reserve for the benefit of UNICEF, the United Nations Children's
Fund.
New York : Christie's, 2001.
Restricted. Contact the repository for information regarding access.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
Tristan Tzara manuscripts from the collection of René Gaffé, 1921-1931, undated, The Getty
Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2021.M.8.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2021m8
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired with partial support of the GRI Council. Acquired in 2021.
The finding aid was prepared by Karen Meyer-Roux in September 2021.
Tristan Tzara correspondence, manuscripts, photographs and printed matter are held at the
Bibliothèque Jacques Doucet, INHA, Paris.
Scope and Content of Collection
The handwritten and typed manuscripts by Tristan Tzara from the collection of René Gaffé
are gathered in a volume whose binding was designed by Paul Bonet (1889-1971). The
manuscripts consist of drafts of writings for
Le cinéma calendrier du
cœur abstrait, maison,
La deuxième aventure céleste de monsieur Antipyrine,
De nos oiseaux,
Faites vos jeux and poems from
L'antitête. Tipped into the volume are also a card from Tzara to Paul Éluard and
a notebook containing pen-and-ink drawings.
The name of the binder, Paul Bonet, appears in gold letters inside the front cover. Bonet's
mosaic binding is formed from geometric elements of black and red leather with gilt
lettering repeating the word "Dada" and a central band of marbled paper. The volume is
enclosed within a slipcase decorated with marbled paper.
The manuscript leaves are bound in the volume in a manner suggesting that they were
acquired by René Gaffé from Paul Éluard in 1931. The leaves are enclosed within an envelope
addressed by Éluard to Gaffé and postmarked 1931. The envelope has been cut into two halves
so that the manuscript pages can be turned: the front panel of the envelope has been tipped
into the front of the volume and the back panel of the envelope closes the group of
manuscript leaves.
The volume was in the collection of René Gaffé until it was sold at auction in 1956
("Bibliothèque de M. René Gaffé," Drouot, Paris, April 26-27, 1956, lot 237). Afterwards it
entered the collection of Maurice Car (1908-1968) and was sold at auction in 2019 ("Maurice
Car Collection of Arts and Sciences Featuring Rare Books and Manuscripts," Heritage
Auctions, New York, September 4, 2019, lot 45091). It was later offered for sale by the Sims
Reed Gallery, London.
Éluard, Paul,
1895-1952
Bonet,
Paul
Car, Maurice, 1908-1968
Gaffé,
René
Authors--History--20th century--Archives.
Dadaism
Decoration and ornament -- Art Deco
Tzara, Tristan,
1896-1963