Serge Gainsbourg – Ecce Homo – Signed Ginzburg. Ecce Homo.

Serge Gainsbourg (1928.1991)

Partly handwritten typescript. Signed Ginzburg in the text. ECCE HOMO.

Four-page paperback booklet, quarto format. (Paris, 1980)

Document presented in a modern slipcase (Binding signed P. Goy & Vilaine)

Marbled paper plates with burgundy patterns, endpapers lined with red velvet.

Smooth spine, author and title in silver lettering.

"Ugliness has this advantage over beauty: it lasts."

A precious typewritten booklet – very extensively annotated and corrected by Serge Gainsbourg – preparatory to the publication of the book Gainsbourg, Au pays des Malices published by Le Temps singulier in October 1980.

A fascinating dive into the artist's world, revealing his personality through some twenty aphorisms and fragments of dialogue. The phrase of Pontius Pilate, ECCE HOMO , was frequently quoted by the artist, who here uses it as the title for his work, which blends autobiographical narrative with various provocations.

As an epigraph, Oscar Wilde's aphorism on cynicism is crossed out and replaced by Lichtenberg's famous quote, written by Gainsbourg in black ink: " Ugliness has this advantage over beauty: it lasts ."

What follows are about twenty typed and handwritten entries, as well as numerous deletions; here are a few examples:

Lucien Ginzburg, that's fine now . I wanted to be called Julien because of Julien Sorel, Stendhal's hero. Then I came across Lucien Leuwen, another Stendhal hero. That made me feel better about my name, and finally I chose Serge.

Why Serge? - Out of nostalgia for a Russia I never knew…

I changed my mind when I realized it was lined with mink.

I am not of this world. I am not of any world.

I'm Jewish. In '42, I had a Sheriff's star like that! But being Jewish isn't a religion. No religion makes a nose grow like that. I don't have a religion.

Hush! Love is a crystal that breaks in silence.

My Rolls has this peculiarity: the two Rs on the grille are red. That's very rare. When Mr. Rolls died, one R turned black. And after Royce, both did. (SG notes in the margin: First names and knowing which one kicked the bucket first).

Have you ever had a heart attack? – Yes, I've already killed two cardiologists.

Ref: Gainsbourg, Au pays des Malices – pages 317 to 324 (Éd. Le Temps singulier ).

Slight damp stains in the lower right margin.