RADIO/AETHER SERIES 1966/1974
Los Angeles: Gemini G.E.L., 1974. First Edition. Berman's last major work, a Verifax series of Kabbalistic collage-facsimiles dominated by multiple iterations of a hand holding a transistor radio, with each version containing a different erotic, occult, or mundane image. According to Shirley Berman, "Wallace got the idea of his Verifax series...from reading Radio-Mastery of the Aether, a small science book from the 1930's"...The images inside the face of the radio change with each image, and are flanked by Hebrew lettering. The Cabala is circumscribed as the running current, the most foundational transmission of the series...a clear indicator of Berman's serious yet "intuitive" study and exploration of the Cabala as a system for understanding and utlizing Hebrew letters" (Behle, Chelsea Ryanne. "Art is Love is God": Wallace Berman and the Transmission of Aleph, 1956-66." 2006. pp.25-26). A scarce and significant work by this important post-War California artist, seldom found complete. OCLC notes an identically-titled card for an exhbition held at Gemini G.E.L. (Los Angeles), at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and one holding for the portfolio (Northwestern). We note copies held at the Getty, Williams College Museum of Art, Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum, and the National Gallery of Australia, with a single lithograph from a broken set held at Minneapolis Institute of Art. Item #5175
One of 50 copies numbered and signed by Berman on the title leaf (with 10 additional artist's proofs), this being copy no.43. Thirteen offset lithographs from Berman's verifax series, printed on Starwhite cover and mounted on Gemini ragboard, measuring 13.25" x 12.25"; each lithograph bearing publisher's rubber-stamped name, embossed logo, and "WB 74-683" penciled to lower right corner on verso; housed in a black cloth-covered wood slipcase (measuring 13.5" x 12.75"), with titles, Hebrew alphabet, and numerical correspondences of each letter stamped in white on spine and front cover.
Price: $17,500.00