ANDRE (Francis). - Lot 575

ANDRE (Francis). The Black Laughter or the Hopeless Vessel. Nightmare of an examination night comprising: 1. images.- 2. commentary on the images.- 3. a drunken oath. Antwerp, De Sikkel, n.d. (1932), 8° square, Japanese style paperback, illustrated cover (cover soiled, spine damaged reinforced, interior very fresh). Second edition. The extremely rare first edition of 1928 has only 12 numbered copies, published by the "Presses du Canard Polynésien" / "Le Sous-marin à voiles". N° 1. L'Assassinat bien tempéré. Brux, L'Auteur, 1948, 4°, in sheets, illustrated cover (cover heavily soiled). First issue (of 8 in total) of the post-war series of the magazine "Le Sous-marin à voiles". Sailor, sailor, journalist, painter, draftsman, sculptor, decorator, costume designer, inventor, Francis André (Mons, 1906 - Brussels, 1972) is a marginal and anarchist. He dropped out of university to travel on cargo ships, until he found himself imprisoned in a camp during the Second World War. First a draftsman, he expresses himself in his own magazine 'Le Sous-marin à voiles', "a small independent organ of the dolorous navigation and of the small troubled song of the maritime continent". He then created animated stage statues for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and left a whole world of automata-totems. Francis André is a visionary, an anxious man, a poet of movement and mechanics.