Woolf, Virginia (Sickert, Walter; Ferlinghetti, Lawrence)

Walter Sickert: A Conversation/ Una Conversazione

ISBN: 9788896590393
Venice, Italy: Damocle Edizione, 2012. First Edition. Softcover. From the library of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, with his stylized ownership initial & date. “This essay by Virginia Woolf presents us with one of the greatest experimental writers of the twentieth century in the unusual version of critic and essayist, less known to the general public and yet always in line with tradition and in search of a new formal elaboration, in a modern key, of contemporary reality. The innovation was achieved, in his vast production, by resorting to techniques such as the interior monologue and the stream of consciousness, to the multiplicity of symbols and metaphors which, by tradition, are found more in poetry than in prose.”--Vittoria Scicchitano, “Introduzione,” pg. 5. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device, which would come to be mastered by writers like James Joyce (1882-1941), William Faulkner (1897-1962) and Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023). Woolf’s works include: The Voyage Out (1915); To The Lighthouse (1927); Between the Acts (1941); and the essay A Room of One's Own (1929) to name a few. Offered today is the 2012, Italian edition of Walter Sickert: A Conversation one of Woolf’s lesser known, but fantastically entertaining essays. Walter Sickert (1860-1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. Walter Sickert: A Conversation is a short, essay-style pamphlet, translated into Italian by Vittoria Scicchitano, that explores the life and art of the British painter Walter Sickert through a fictional dialogue between literary friends. The piece, which was first published in the Yale Review in 1934, is written in Woolf's signature stream-of-consciousness style and argues for Sickert's importance as a painter, with the characters debating his skills as a portraitist and his ability to create narrative in his work. He is often called a painter's painter, appealing primarily to artists working in the figurative tradition; there are few British figurative painters of the 20th century whose development can be adequately discussed without reference to Sickert's subject-matter or innovative techniques. He had a direct influence on the Camden Town Group and the Euston Road School, while his effect on Frank Auerbach, Howard Hodgkin and Francis Bacon was less tangible. Sickert's active career as an artist lasted for nearly 60 years. His output was vast. He may be judged equally as the last of the Victorian painters and as a major precursor of significant international developments in later 20th-century art, especially in his photo-based paintings. Woolf’s signature stream-of-consciousness style, while crafting a captivating yet fictional dialogue, is notable for its unique approach to art criticism and for advocating for the connection between visual arts and literature. It also presents Sickert as a preeminent living painter. From the library of the late, great Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), canonical American poet & founder of City Lights Books, publisher of many Beat Generation writers. Initialed & dated at half title page by Ferlinghetti “f (his signature stylized initial) / 2013.” Ferlinghetti also bracketed in thick black ink his attribution at the copyright page. Softcover. First Italian language edition “I edizione - agosto 2012 (First edition - august 2012)” as stated at copyright page, presumed first printing though not explicated as such thereon. In very fine condition with only minimal wear to fine edges and slight smudging to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #8220]

Price: $50.00