The Homoerotic Art of Pavel Tchelitchev : 1929-1939
Special Edition. One of 100 numbered copies in Red Slipcase. Fine as issued in linen backed boards. Presented here is an unseen portfolio; a collection of over 70 previously unpublished drawings and paintings by the Neo-Romantic painter; to revive interest in an artist who, so far, has found small mention in the annals of contemporary art. This is a rare one of a kind oevure of the gay male nude works of Pavel Feodorovitch Tchelitchev, a contemporary Russian artist who enjoyed international attention between 1926-1956, but who has received relatively little acclaim. Flawlessly crisp and unmarked, robust without any damage, a rare 1999 Asphodel collectible, long out of print. The overall presentation of this literary masterpiece speaks to the meticulous care and preservation it has received, enhancing its visual and tactile allure. Cream linen, red title stamped to front and spine. Monochrome plates; 1 full colour each to the rear endsheet and to the rear cover. Fine copy in fine red cloth slip case.) [Modern Art, Collectible Books, Erotic Art, Erotica]  Rare collection, never published, exquisitely photographed, 128 pages, unpaginated.

PAVEL TCHELITCHEV was one of the most accomplished figurative artist's of his generation. Considered a member of the Neo-Romantic school of painting, his works reflect a sophisticated attention to the mystical forces of nature, especially that of the human body. Although his work is largely out of fashion now, his works were widely acclaimed during the height of his career in the 1940's. His dreamscapes were an evocation of complex metaphysical perspectives and were powerful statements about sexuality oeurve that has been ignored for too long. These images, completed during a ten year span from 1929-1939, reflect the artist's passion for the male form and his vision of uninhibited sexuality. Tchelitchew's male nudes live in a dream world, a dream of fulfillment, a dream free of guilt, where the body exists for beauty and has its purpose. These are dreams that were an important part of the artist's development- visions that deserve to be seen. The edition is limited to one hundred specially numbered and slipcased copies.

( shown for reference, not for sale: photograph in his studio by George Platt Lynes )

Tchelitchev (Kaluga 1898 - Rome 1957) works were collected by such prominent cultural figures as Gertrude Stein, Edith Sitwell (who described the artist as ‘tragic, haunted, and noble…one of the most generous human beings I have ever known’), Sir Kenneth Clark and Lincoln Kirstein, who published an early monograph on the artist’s drawings. From 1949 onwards Tchelitchev lived mainly in Rome, where he died in 1957, at the age of fifty-nine. His reputation lapsed before his death in 1957.

Born into an aristocratic Russian family, Tchelitchew was educated by private tutors. In 1918 his family fled Moscow during the Bolshevik Revolution, settling in Ukraine where Tchelitchev attended drawing classes at the Kiev Academy. There he met and was encouraged by the set designer Alexandra Exter, and worked on stage sets and poster designs. Working in Berlin in the early 1920’s, Tchelitchev achieved a fair amount of success as a stage designer, designing the sets and costumes for productions such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s Coq d’Or, and also began painting portraits and still-lives. He came to the attention of the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who encouraged the young artist to come to Paris, where he settled in 1923. As well as exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne, Tchelitchev was included in a group exhibition at the Galerie Druet in 1926, alongside Eugène Berman, Christian Bérard and other artists who painted in a distinctive, dreamlike manner known as Neo-Humanism or Neo-Romanticism.

Between 1926 and 1956, Pavel Feodorovitch Tchelitchev (or Tchelitchew) enjoyed international attention. Work was bought by representative museums, and collector's portraits were widely commissioned in France, England and the United States. Tchelitchev was given his first one-man exhibition at the Claridge Gallery in London in 1928, and in 1934 Tchelitchev settled in New York, where his fantastical paintings of allegorical subjects gained considerable him attention. A one-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1938 was followed four years later by an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. His friend Lincoln Kirstein described him as ‘one of the most varied and memorable portraitists of his epoch. Pavel's style is considered modern surrealist, portraits and anatomical studies.Tchelitchew’s works can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Kinsey Institute, Indiana; Dartmouth

Introduction by David Leddick