Error during command authentication.

The Morgan Library & Museum is pleased to announce the publication of a comprehensive catalogue on the radical artistry of French writer, illustrator, and pataphysician, Alfred Jarry (1873-1907). The book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Alfred Jarry: The Carnival of Being, on view at the Morgan from January 24 through May 10, 2020. Best known for his scandalous play Ubu roi (1896) and irreverent personality, Jarry’s seminal role in modernism is explored in the catalogue through the lens of his innovations in book and magazine design and in the graphic arts. One of the first writers to experiment with visual typography, Jarry’s singular approach to the relationships between image and text and his use of assembling, anachronism, collage, and appropriation were bellwethers of modern and contemporary artists’ publications. More than 160 color illustrations help to document this lesser-known aspect of Jarry’s oeuvre in the context of fin-de-siècle book culture and his formative friendships and collaborations with Henri Rousseau, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, among others. With four essays: “The Carnival of Being” by Sheelagh Bevan, the Morgan’s Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator in Printed Books & Bindings and curator of the exhibition; “Ubu, the Pataphysician and Tyrant: Jarry, Miró, Kentridge” by independent scholar Linda Klieger Stillman; “Jarry and the Visual: Avant-garde Aesthetics and Ubu” by Jennifer Johnson, St. John’s College, Oxford University; and “Between Bible and Grimoire: Jarry and the Materiality of the Text” by Julien Schuh, Université Paris, Nanterre; followed by an Afterword by Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky.

The book can be purchased at The Morgan's shop online.

Alfred Jarry: The Carnival of Being is published by The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Paperback, $30, [182] pages, 164 color illustrations. ISBN: 978-0-87598-197-0.