“my bikini is worth your raft”

Two mythological portraits by Sheri Martinelli (1918-1996), muse to Ezra Pound during his confinment in St. Elizabeths in the 1950’s, and the love-portal to his paradiso terrestre depicted in Cantos 90-95. Here Martinelli portrays Pound as Odysseus and herself as Zagreus (Dionysus). During her years of intimacy with Pound, Martinelli sent EP a well known photograph of herself in the mirror wearing a bikini, her painting “Isis Kuanon” in the background. Martinelli’s photo was a response to a similar photo from Eva Hesse to Pound; the bikini, at that time, being a new invention. The above quote is the fragmentary start to a scene which reveals itself in full at the end of Canto 95, the close of the Section:

That the wave crashed, whirling the raft, then
Tearing the oar from his hand,
            broke mast and yard-arm
And he was drawn down under wave,
      The wind tossing,
Notus, Boreas,
      as it were thistle-down.
Then Leucothea had pity,
          “mortal once
Who now is a sea-god:
          νόστυ
γαίης Φαιήκωυ

The scene is of Odysseus drowning, saved by a sea-nymph Leucothea who to save Odysseus derobes and gifts him her shawl, or veil, or as Pound renders it, bikini. The same scene opens the next section of Cantos, Thrones:

Κρήδεμνον…    [veil]
κρήδεμνον…
and the wave concealed her,
        dark mass of great water.

And again, in Canto 98: “Leucothea gave her veil to Odysseus”.

The Sheri-Zagreus avatar does not, on the other hand, feature in the literature. Zagreus is rendered abnormally as female, and the title is underwritten L’Mart (Pound’s nickname of Sheri, La Martinelli, also the title to the catalogue of Sheri’s works Pound had published by Vanni Scheiwiller in 1956) surplus to the signatures “SM” that appear on both portraits. David Moody interprets Sheri’s identification with Zagreus as the “bringer of life to Pound in St Elizabeths”; Sheri thus looking back to the Pisan Canto 77 which closes, “bringest to focus / Zagreus / Zagreus”. While Zagreus is decorated with grapes, Martinelli renders Odysseus with Dionysean characteristics, adorning his head with vine-leaf in a manner reminiscent of Canto II. This offers a vital connection between the two paintings, that of the divine dressing the mortal and offering her protection. In my own reading Zagreus also positions herself behind the right shoulder of Odysseus: the strong line of shoulder, which passes upwards to the neck, obscures the cheek of Zagreus. In this configuration we see, instead of the two gazes crossing each other, Odysseus looking outward while Zagreus stands behind him, not the object of his gaze but something of a support, a narrative true to the St. Liz years, communicated fully through The Cantos, where Martinelli healed Pound. By this the diptych comes together. Not two portraits of mythological avatars, but a encoding of their relationship through ancient stories.

Executed in gouache on cotton rag paper, by brush; the back of the brush used to indent the lettering (“L’Mart” almost appearing to be biro) then followed in colour, as well as the grapes and eyes of Zagreus. With a blank back of the brush Martinelli has scored various symbols into the paint of Odysseus, including one hard to read Chinese ideogram, and a quite visible “EP” on Odysseus’s right cheek. Both signed with Martinelli’s monogram “SM” which appears at least as early as 1961 in Martinelli’s portrait “EZ” published in Miles Payne’s The Light Year (Autumn 1961).

Unopened; no defects. Purchased by David Moody from Peter Bennett, a New Zealand born poet who sold a number of works on Martinelli’s behalf, at the 13th EPIC, Essex, where Bennett held an exhibition of Martinelli’s work (photo available on request). Notes pasted to the back of each by David Moody, as well as stickers from The Maritime Gallery, Brightlingsea.

A beautiful catalogue to an exhibition held in the Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bolzano, 31 May - 28 July 1991, in collaboration with Libri Scheiwiller, opening with a 1445 portrait of Sigismondo Malatesta by Pisanello. Preceded by a number of texts in German and Italian by the museum’s president, Karl Nicolussi-Leck, Rossana Bossaglia (trans. Ferruccio Delle Cave), Mary de Rachewiltz (trans. Andreas Hapkemeyer), Piero Dorazio (trans. AH.), Piero Sanavio (trans. AH.), Maria Luisa Ardizzone (trans. FDC), and Vanni Scheiwiller (trans. AH.). With one further essay, “una definizione del bello è: utilità” by Eugen Gomringer printed on a light-grey leaf, inserted, with German trans. verso. A near fine copy, the spine with signs of reading.

Published to coincide with the exhibition “Pietro Gaietto Fifty Sculptures at Rapallo on The Cantos of Ezra Pound” held at the Sala Italo Primi, Rapallo, May 28 - June 9 1996. Seven texts printed in English and Italian, vis-à-vis, illustrated with photos throughout. With colour illustrations of all fifty of Gaietto’s sculptures, together with their quote from The Cantos. Light wear; a very good copy. Inscribed on the ffep to David Moody from Massimo Bacigalupo, 1997.

Catalogue for an exhibition held at La Diagonale library, Rome, for the 23rd Ezra Pound International Conference, 29 June - 4 July 2009. Large reproductions of the works with the detail opposite. Slightest life to the fore-edge / bottom corner, little rubbing to spine, otherwise fine.

Catalogue for an exhibition held at the d’Offay Gallery, 21 Nov 1984 - 11 Jan 1985. Printed vis-à-vis excerpts from Pound’s poetry, used by d’Offay, “through such poetic parallels, [to] give a clearer sense of the artist’s heroic achievement.” A very good copy, top left corner bumped. Stamp of Tate Gallery Liverpool, 20 May 1988 inside rear cover.

An essay by Richard Cork to accompany the exhibition of The Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, 22 Oct to 12 Nov 1982. A fine copy, illustrated, printed at the Curwen Press. Together with a rare invite to the private view; 17.9 x 11.8 cm, a single piece of card printed in black, folded once.

H. S. (Jim) Ede’s novelistic account of the life of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and his relationship with Sophie Brzeska, later made into a film by Ken Russell and Christopher Logue under the same title (1972). Illustrated. A great piece of appreciative literature from Ede, founder of Kettle’s Yard, who acquired the estates of Sophie Brzeska and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska in 1927 after Sophie Brzeska’s death in 1925. First edition, first impression. Internally a fine copy with a small bookseller’s label to fpd. Cloth a little grubbied, the spine sunned, but straight and sound. Laid in is a tourist’s information leaflet of Les Batailles d’Artois 1914-1918 showing a number of monuments at Neuville-Saint-Vaast, where HGB. was killed.

H. S. Ede’s narrative biography on Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, with a contemporary gift inscription from the author, signed Jim Ede, to D’Arcy Cresswell, New Zealand poet and writer. Two photographs, dated late 1930, show Ede and Cresswell together in the garden of Lady Ottoline Morrell’s home on Gower Street. Ede was learning the art of patronage and hosting from Morrell, while Cresswell had been invited on account of his latest memoir, A Poet’s Progress (1930). An artefact of their Bloomsbury connection. First edition, first impression. A very slight forward lean, spine lightly sunned, a couple of marks to the rear cover.

A catalogue of the drawings of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska compiled for an exhibition at Victor Waddington on Cork Street, London, 22 Nov - 17 Dec 1966. All items coming from the collection of Jim Ede, with proceeds going to The Kettle’s Yard Foundation, “which is destined for the University of Cambridge.” With a foreword drawing heavily from Ede’s Savage Messiah (1931) and from Pound’s Letters (ed. D. D. Paige) and Pound’s Gaudier-Brzeska, a memoir. A fine copy, the spine marginally sunned. With another copy of the tourist information leaflet, Les Batailles d’Artois 1914-1918 laid in.

Another copy, without Les Batailles. A near fine copy, just a dash of graphite to the front cover, spine also lightly sunned.

A catalogue made shortly after Jim Ede’s gift of Kettle’s Yard to the University of Cambridge in 1966, not only the gallery, being Ede’s home, but its contents: books, furniture, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and other objects integral to the setting. With over 100 items of Gaudier-Brzeska. Black and white photography of the gallery and objects throughout. A very good copy.

Catalogue of an exhibition of the works of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, organised by Kettle’s Yard Gallery, held there 15 Oct - 20 Nov 1983, and then toured by the Arts Council to the City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery 26 Nov - 7 Jan 1984 and York City Art Gallery 14 Jan - 19 Feb 1984. Foreword by the editor, then curator of Kettle’s Yard, with further essays by Serge Faucherau (trans. Anne Bain), Sarah Shalgosky, Rod Brookes, and Jane Beckett on Gaudier’s animalist influences and the making of Gaudier into an ‘artistic subject’. Illustrated with a number of Gaudier’s sculptures, drawings, and portraits, including that of Pound. Near fine.

Volume 19, No. 1. Issue 217, its title piece an extensive interview with Ken Russell, director of Savage Messiah (1972), a film about Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and his relationship with Sophie Brzeska. Many illustrations from the film, both stills and behind the scenes. A touch of edge-wear, but a fine copy.

Contains a facsimile reproduction of Picabia’s 391 revue, originally published in Barcelona in 1917, then variously in Barce, New York, Zurich, and Paris for 19 issues until 1924; all issues reproduced in black and white in this edition, with a preface, in French, a bibliography and a list of works and contributors to include, Cocteau, Desnos, Duchamp, Eluard, Man-Ray, EP, Ernst, Tzara, etc. First only of two volumes, the second being a study of Picabia and the review. A fine copy, some pencil to half-title, in a very good jacket, a little rubbed.

“When Ezra Pound encountered Henri Gaudier-Brzeska for the first time in 1913, he was immediately impressed and likened the young Frenchman to ‘a well-made young wolf or some soft-moving, bright eyed wild thing.’”

Published on the occasion of the Wild Thing exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 24 Oct 2009 - 24 Jan 2010. Cork’s study on the three sculptors, illustrated throughout. With the original Gallery Guide for the exhibition laid-in. A bit of trouble to the bottom right corner for the first two pages, otherwise fine.

Catalogue to an exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery, London, 27 March - 2 June 1974, featuring works by Lewis, Gaudier-Brzeska and Epstein, reproductions from Blast, and vortographs of Pound by Alvin Langdon Coburn. A very good copy, some foxing to the front cover.

The first issue of this famous Vorticist review. With contributions from Pound, Lewis, Gaudier-Brzeska, Ford Madox Hueffer, Rebecca West, and Wadsworth, woodcuts by Wyndham Lewis, and black-and-white illustrations by Wadsworth, Lewis, Etchells, W. Roberts, Epstein, GB, Cuthbert Hamilton and Spencer Gore. A mighty publication, this copy a little blasted: front cover faded and detached, paper on spine degraded, variously foxed throughout, back cover with a dash of white and black ink. Price blessed.

The Black Sparrow facsimile reissue of BLAST volumes 1 and 2 (originally published in 1914 and 1915 respectively), together with BLAST 3 (1984) edited by Seamus Cooney, a compendium in honour of Lewis and BLAST, featuring a number of illustrations by Brzeska and Lewis, and a large number of contributions by the likes of Guy Davenport, Charles Olson, with a number of unpublished letters from EP; the original 33.3 rpm vinyl inserted at ffep. The complete set, each in near fine condition; spine to first issue a little sunned, minor edge-wear variously.

Printed by Franz Larese and Jüng Janett for the Erker-Galerie, St. Gallen, Switzerland, as a New Year’s gift. Signed by the artist in pencil to front, dated ’77. Centrefold showing, with a small tear at either end. After Canto XVII.