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Georges Hugnet: Huit jours à Trébaumec

May 19, 2016 - September 30, 2016

Ubu Gallery is pleased to have presented an in-depth exhibition exploring the richness of Georges Hugnet’s Surrealist masterpiece, Huit jours à Trébaumec. Published in 1969 by Henri Mercher, the renowned bookbinder, the book appears as a Guide Rose Micheline, a clever parody of the popular Baedeker, Guide Michelin Rouge. In Hugnet’s satire, it is not a Michelin man, but a Michelin woman serving as tour guide and leading us through the fictional “Trébaumec” or as Hugnet called it, “the little lost town in Brittany, paradise regained.” In 1947, Hugnet (1906–1974) traveled along the coast of Brittany photographing his excursions and popular tourist attractions. He was so inspired by his wanderings that he combined earlier collages with newly made ones and sequenced the 82 chosen collages into a Surrealist drama with accompanying handwritten text. The collages depict humorous, racy and grotesque situations in and around Trébaumec, a word play on “good looking guy.” A gap of 22 years followed before the publication was finally realized. The exhibition featured various examples of the book, including an early maquette, one of the five deluxe copies containing 82 original photographs of the collages, and one of the 10 “semi-deluxe” copies specially bound by Mercher. Eighty-two vintage photographs of the collages acquired from the estate of Hugnet were for sale individually and represented the entire sequence of images from the book. Also on display were 12 of the original collages, as well as ephemera surrounding the book.

ARTIST
Georges Hugnet

RESOURCES
Exhibition checklist
Images of all 82 photographs from Huit jours à Trébaumec

PRESS
Manhattan User’s Guide / A Michelin Guide Parody / May 23, 2016 / 2 reproductions
L’Oeil de la Photographie / New York: Georges Hugnet, Huit jours à Trébaumec / May 23, 2016 / 12 reproductions
Salon littéraire / Surreal Paradise by Jean-Paul Savard-Perret / June 23, 2016 / 4 reproductions
lelitteraire / Georges Hugnet Eight days Trébaumec exhibition by Jean-Paul Savard-Perret / June 24, 2016 / 1 reproduction
New York Times / What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week / September 9, 2016 / 1 reproduction
The Wall Street Journal / Prison, Paper and Puns in New York’s Art Galleries / September 10, 2016 / 1 reproduction

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FROM THE UBU GALLERY SHOP
Georges Hugnet: The Love Life of the Spumifers (Deluxe limited edition publication package)
Georges Hugnet: The Love Life of the Spumifers (English translation with text only)
Behind the Surrealist Curtain: Sex, Sensuality & Silence

SELECTED WORKS FROM THE EXHIBITION