''Album primo-avrilesque'' is a

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

by French writer, artist and humourist Alphonse Allais. The slim volume of 26 octavo landscape pages, , bound with card, was published by in Paris on 1 April 1897, and was sold for one franc. The work is generally known by its French title, which may be translated into English as "April Fool-ish album".

Description

The artist's book includes eight printed pieces: a series of seven monochrome artworks, each a solid block of a single colour – black, blue, green, yellow (or brown), red, grey, white – displayed within an ornamental frame, followed by the score for a silent funeral march, with blank staves covering two pages. Each piece was given a humorous title in French. The booklet also includes two prefaces in French, one for the monochrome artworks and one for the funeral march. In the preface to the monochromes, Allais wrote that other painters were "ridicules artisans qui ont besoin de mille couleurs différentes pour exprimer leurs pénibles conceptions"Se
page 4
of the album. idiculous craftsmen who need a thousand different colours to express their painful conceptionsand that his ideal artist employed "pour une toile une couleur ... monochroïdal" or one canvas one colour ... monochromatic In the preface to the funeral march, for "un grand homme sourd" great deaf man Allais wrote that "les grandes douleurs sont muettes" reat pains are silent

Background

Allais exhibited his first monochrome artwork at the second Salon des Arts Incohérents in Paris in 1883: his all-white ''Première communion de jeunes filles chlorotiques par temps de neige'' irst communion of anaemic young girls in snowy weather– a blank sheet of white

Bristol paper Bristol board (also referred to as Bristol paper or super white paper) is an uncoated, machine-finished paperboard. It is not named after the city of Bristol in the southwest of England but rather after Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, a ...

, attached to a wall with four

drawing pin A drawing pin (in British English) or thumb tack (in North American English) is a short nail or pin used to fasten items to a wall or board for display and intended to be inserted by hand, usually using the thumb. A variety of names is used t ...

s. He showed another monochrome work, the all-red ''Récolte de tomates sur le bord de la mer Rouge par des cardinaux apoplectiques'' poplectic cardinals harvesting tomatoes on the shore of the Red Sea at the third Incoherents show in 1884, along with his silent funeral march. The exhibition catalogue notes that the red monochrome is an offering of

Peter's pence Peter's Pence (or ''Denarii Sancti Petri'' and "Alms of St Peter") are donations or payments made directly to the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The practice began under the Saxons in England and spread through Europe. Both before and after the ...

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

.Erik Satie's Trois Gnossiennes in the French fin de siècle
Simmons, Alexander (2013), Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham. p.51, referring to Steven Whiting's
Satie the Bohemian
' (1999), pp.80–81Le Peintre néo-impressionniste : une adaptation anticipatrice
Denys Riout, pp.258–271 Allais's monochromes were inspired by an all-black artwork exhibited by his friend

Paul Bilhaud Paul Bilhaud (31 December 1854 – 8 January 1933) was a French playwright and librettist. An old friend of the author Alphonse Allais, he is remembered along his friend as a forerunner of minimalism with his painting ''Combat de nègres pendant ...

at the first Salon des Arts Incohérents in 1882 under the title ''Combat de nègres dans un tunnel'' egroes fighting in a tunnel which had been intended by Bilhaud as a satirical response to

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. Bilhaud was not the first to create an all-black artwork: for example,

Robert Fludd Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus (17 January 1574 – 8 September 1637), was a prominent English Paracelsian physician with both scientific and occult interests. He is remembered as an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologis ...

published an image of ''Darkness'' in his 1617 book on the origin and structure of the cosmos; Laurence Sterne included a black page in his novel '' Tristram Shandy'' in 1760, immediately after the death of Parson Yorick; and

Bertall Charles Albert d'Arnoux (Charles Constant Albert Nicolas, Vicomte d'Arnoux, Count of Limoges-Saint-Saëns), known as ''Bertall'' (or Bertal, an anagram of Albert) or Tortu-Goth (December 18, 1820 in Paris – March 24, 1882 in Soyons) was a Fre ...

published his black ''Vue de La Hogue (effet de nuit)'' in ''Les Omnibus'' no.7 in 1843, satirising the very dark canvas exhibited at the 1843 Salon by Jean-Louis Petit. In ''

Either/Or ''Either/Or'' (Danish: ''Enten – Eller'') is the first published work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Appearing in two volumes in 1843 under the pseudonymous editorship of ''Victor Eremita'' (Latin for "victorious hermit"), it o ...

'' (1843),

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , , ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on ...

gives the story of an artist painting the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, painting a wall red, and contending that the Israelites had crossed and the Egyptians had drowned.'

Reception

Allais's joke was repeated by

Émile Cohl Émile Eugène Jean Louis Cohl (; né Courtet; 4 January 1857 – 20 January 1938) was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherents, Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "Th ...

, himself formerly a member of the Incoherents, in a cinema film in 1910, ''Le Peintre néo-impressionniste'' he Neo-Impressionistic Painter which included intertitle cards introducing monochrome presentations, such as ''Un cardinal mangeant une langouste aux tomates sur les bords de la Mer Rouge'' cardinal eating a lobster and tomatoes by the Red Sea or ''Chinois transportant du maïs sur le Fleuve Jaune par un temps d'été ensoleillé'' Chinamen" transporting corn on the Yellow River in the sunny summer The publication of Allais's book of monochrome artworks predated

Kazimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...

's ''

Black Square Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

'' and '' Red Square'' printings by nearly two decades. It was reported in 2015 that X-ray analysis of one version of Malevich's ''Black Square'' had uncovered a hand-written inscription in the white border that may read "Negroes battling in a cave", suggesting Malevich was familiar with Allais's earlier work. The blank score of Allais's silent funeral march came five decades before

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

's soundless

4′33″ ''4′33″'' (pronounced "four minutes, thirty-three seconds" or just "four thirty-three") is a three- movement composition by American experimental composer John Cage. It was composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of instruments, ...

. Cage has denied being aware of Allais's work before composing his piece.
CageTalk: Dialogues with and about John Cage
', edited by Peter Dickinson, pp.11–12

Gallery

File:Combat de nègres dans une cave.jpg, ''Combat de nègres dans une cave, pendant la nuit'' egroes fighting in a cellar, at nightFile:Stupeur de jeunes recrues.jpg, ''Stupeur de jeunes recrues apercevant pour la première fois ton azur, O Méditerranée!'' stonishment of young naval recruits seeing for the first time your blue, O Mediterranean Sea!File:Des souteneurs boivent de l'absinthe.jpg, ''Des souteneurs, encore dans la force de l'âge et le ventre dans l'herbe, boivent de l'absinthe'' imps, still in the prime of life and stomachs on the grass, drinking absintheFile:Manipulation de l'ocre par des cocus ictériques.jpg, ''Manipulation de l'ocre par des cocus ictériques'' aundiced cuckolds handling ochreFile:Récolte de la tomate par des cardinaux apoplectiques.jpg, ''Récolte de la tomate par des cardinaux apoplectiques au bord de la mer Rouge (Effet d'aurore boréale)'' poplectic cardinals harvesting tomatoes on the shore of the Red Sea (effect of the Aurora Borealis)File:Ronde de pochards dans le brouillard.jpg, ''Ronde de pochards dans le brouillard'' ance of drunks in the fogFile:Première communion de jeunes filles chlorotiques.jpg, ''Première communion de jeunes filles chlorotiques par un temps de neige'' irst communion of anaemic young girls in snowy weatherFile:Marche funèbre composée pour les funérailles d'un grand homme sourd - Alphonse Allais.jpeg, ''Marche funèbre, composée pour les funérailles d'un grand homme sourd '' uneral March, composed for the obsequies of a great deaf man

Similar works

File:Darkness, "De metaphysico macrosmi...ortu", Fludd, 1617 Wellcome L0016156.jpg,

, "Darkness", from his book ''Utriusque Cosmi ...'', 1617 File:Kazimir Malevich, 1915, Black Suprematic Square, oil on linen canvas, 79.5 x 79.5 cm, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.jpg,

, ''

'', 1915 File:Red Square. Visual Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions.jpg,

, '' Red Square'', 1915 see also some monochromatic paintings by

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

References

Notes

{{reflist, 30em

Bibliography

Scanned pages from ''Album primo-avrilesque''
Bibliothèque nationale de France

External links

''First Communion of Anaemic Young Girls in the Snow''
wikiart.org
Album primo-avrilesque
1897 books Artists' books