Yves TANGUY agrees to illustrate his friend Benjamin PÉRET.

Yves Tanguy (1900.1955)

‎Autographed letter signed to Alain Gheerbrant.

One page in quarto on letterhead from his American residence.

 Woodbury. January 21, 1947

"I am naturally always delighted to illustrate my old friend Benjamin…"

Rare letter from the surrealist painter, first expressing his sorrow at the discontinuation of the magazine Vrille , then agreeing to create the illustrations for his friend Benjamin Péret's book, Feu central , for Éditions K.

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"Dear Sir, I am sorry to hear that Vrille has passed away! Here we always hoped that things would eventually work out. I am, of course, always delighted to illustrate my old friend Benjamin [Péret] and I thank you for thinking of me."

Don't worry too much about the "conditions" of this collaboration. If you like, you can send me some books or magazines from there, and I'll consider myself more than compensated for my "effort." Very sincerely yours, Yves Tanguy. I don't know why your letter arrived so late. No, after all, a week isn't so bad.

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Illustrated with four gouaches by Yves Tanguy, reproduced in phototype, Péret's work, Feu central, was published by Éditions K in the autumn of 1947.

Vrille , a surrealist review published in 1945, did not survive beyond its initial issue. Edited by Evrard de Rouvre, the review aimed to "re-establish a tradition after these four years of obscurity by presenting texts, fresh witnesses of a tumultuous era and of the hope of those who found, in Surrealism, the strength to contribute to the reconstruction of modern thought."

Alain Gheerbrant (1920-2013) was by turns a publisher, explorer, ethnologist, filmmaker, poet, essayist, and memoirist! At 25, in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés of the Liberation, he had many decisive encounters: Henri Parisot, Benjamin Péret, Jean Carteret, Hans Arp, Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille… He then set up Les Editions K , an unusual publishing house that existed for three years (1945-1948), whose fifteen or so titles are all treasures.