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Michals, Duane (Artist/Photographer) & Cavafy, Constantine (Poet).
THE ADVENTURES OF CONSTANTINE CAVAFY.
Santa Fe, NM:
Twin Palms Publishers,
2007.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
112 pages.
As New/As New.
Artist Book. The artist/photographer's sequel to "Homage To Cavafy", it is one of the most beautiful art photography books of the year 2007. Limited Edition of 2000 copies. An austerely elegant production by Duane Michals and Jack Woody: Oversize-volume format. The book is in the same slim-and-tall format as Michals' other books by Twin Palms. Rich black cloth boards with titles and text embossed on cover and spine, as issued. Photographs and photo-narratives by Duane Michals. Michals' handwritten texts are brilliantly reproduced and enlarged on the page. Poems by Constantine Cavafy, presented in felicitous English translations by Theoharis C. Theoharis. Stunning endpapers. Printed on thick coated stock paper to the very highest standards. In pictorial DJ with white titles on the spine, as issued. Presents in book form the complete photographic collection exhibited at Pace/MacGill Gallery New York in December 2005. Richer, fuller, and deeper than its classic predecessor, the ravishingly and movingly beautiful tribute-photographs are inspired by the poems of Constantine Cavafy, indisputably the greatest Greek poet of the 20th century, and one of the greatest homosexual artists of all time, right up there with Walt Whitman and Marcel Proust. The overriding theme is the tenderness and sweetness of homosexual love, which were Cavafy's themes, and which have been a lifelong inspiration for Duane Michals. Like "Homage to Cavafy", the photographs are not meant to be illustrative of the poems but "separate and sympathetic", a parallel narrative in the same vein as Cavafy's delicate poetry, particularly the melancholy as well as joyful aspects of such love. Michals does not once use the word "gay" because the love he celebrates is between an older man and a beautiful youth. It is a hopeless love (but love nonetheless), and is not what is typically meant by "gay love" or the attraction between two, "GWM-looking-for-same" narcissists. Duane Michals is often regarded as a male nude photographer, which is misleading because while he has photographed the masculine form in all its naked glory, his real themes are the furtive and often fleeting encounter between two men and the way our dreams and fantasies can make the most ordinary moments in life mysterious and magical. Cavafy is portrayed by the great Broadway and Hollywood character actor Joel Grey, in sexually explicit and tenderly romantic poses with several Abercrombie & Fitch models (Michals and Bruce Weber are lifelong friends). "Please meet me in the circle of this conceit. These little fables of my imaginary theatrics repeat the mantras of Cavafy's desires and regrets: So old today, now gone away. My great friend Joel will play Constantine as dreamer and lover of the glory of youth, who banishes God and frees himself" (Duane Michals). A "must-have" title for Duane Michals collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black fountain open on the title page by Duane Michals. This title will become highly collectible. This is the only signed copy of the Limited Edition available online and has no flaws, a pristine beauty. A very scarce signed copy thus. 120 tritone plates. One of the finest living American artist/photographers. A flawless copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER DUANE MICHALS TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1931885540. $100.00 |
