Lithograph on velin Chiffon de Mandeure paper. Paper size: 10 x 7.475 inches. Excellent condition. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Lithographies et Eaux-Fortes Originales, Livres Illustres Originaux Affiches Derriere le miroir, 1966. Published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, and Redfern Gallery, London; printed by Editions Pierre a Feu, Galerie Maeght, Paris, November 22, 1966. Excerpted from the album (translated from French), The original lithographs of Miro, Calder, Ubac, Tal-Coat, Chillida, Steinberg, and Kelly were executed especially for this album and printed on the presses of l'atelier Arte. Chagall's original lithograph was printed in l'atelier Mourlot. The edition is limited to MD examples on Chiffon de Mandeure. Finished printing on November 22, 1966 for Maeght Editeur and The Redfern Gallery. Excerpted from a Christie's, New York lot essay, The life span of Derriere le Miroir was thirty-five years. Publication began in 1946. Aime Maeght, initiator of Derriere le Miroir, had already made few attempts to start publications illustrated with fine printed lithographs in colours in the years prior to the launch of Derriere le Miroir. The name, Derriere le Miroir was suggested by Jacques Kober, manager of Galerie Maeght. The gallery had opened in 1945; the first number of Derriere le Miroir was released a year later. For this first issue Geer van Velde was invited to create lithographs to illustrate the publication. The lithographs in the first issue was printed by Mourlot, Paris. The first three issues of Derriere le Miroir were unsuccessful for Maeght as far as the edition size-the initial print-runs were far too large. From 30,000 for the first issue, the number was taken down to 10,000 for numbers two and three, until Derriere le Miroir number four was published in an edition of 1500. Maeght instituted a policy whereby unsold issues were recycled and used for the fabrication of new paper for the coming editions-this served to both conserve resources and also usually result in ultimate edition sizes far less than 1,500. With number four, the permanent format for Derriere le Miroir was established. Lithographs in colours were key; text was limited to comments on the featuring artist's exhibition taking place in the Galerie Maeght, and this catalogue format was defining to Derriere le Miroir. Galerie Maeght took on the leading role in Paris and presented all main artists including Braque, Matisse, Chagall, Leger, Bonnard, Chillida and many more. So too did Derriere le Miroir. The idea of a magazine was meanwhile still on the mind of Aime Maeght. He found an insert as a solution. Two, and later four, pages of art review were inserted from 1952 onwards. In 1968 this find had ripened to independency and the dream of Aime Maeght was now a tangible fact named l'Art vivant. Derriere le Miroir was on it's own again. Over 250 issues in a row. At that point publisher Aime Maeght wished to make a mark with the publication of an hommage to all who once contributed to the magazine which came in the form of issue number 250, but was delayed by the death of Aime Maeght. It was published after number 253 in 1982 and became a tribute to Aime and Marguerite Maeght and 35 years of friendship with artists and poets. The era of Derriere le Miroir was closed with that final publication. PIERRE TAL-COAT (1905-1985) was a French artist and one of the founders of Tachisme. Along with the artists of the new School of Paris, the Galerie de France (from 1943 to 1965), the Galerie Maeght (from 1954 to 1974), Benador (from 1970 to 1980), the HM gallery, the Clivage gallery and the Berthet-Aittouares gallery all regularly exhibited his paintings. In 1956 six of his paintings were shown at the Venice Biennale with those of Jacques Villon and Bernard Buffet. In 1963 he collaborated alongside Joan Miro and Ubac in the creation of the Maeght foundation. He designed a wall mosaic for the entrance in 1968 and received the Grand Prix National des Arts. A large retrospective exhibition devoted to his work, was held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1976.

Excellent condition