About the work

Preceding the works that comprise her portfolio “Igitur” is a single sheet of paper on which Edda Renouf has quoted a line from Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem of the same name:

“Il se sépare du temps indefini et il est!”

“He separates himself from indefinite time and is!”

In Igitur, Mallarmé explores nihilism—seemingly an odd inspiration for this set of seven works, which is anything but nihilist. But perhaps Renouf’s inspiration comes from the deeper meaning of Igitur, in which Mellarmé portrays death as the route to spiritual existence. As Mellarmé wrote, “In Igitur, I do not appear, but I do not disappear, or rather I appear to disappear, to disappear inside me, unless, as the hero of the tale will finally verify, I disappear reappearing…. I have therefore pursued a transcendent being, but this transcendence now plays only in me.”

If you find this text to be not entirely clear, you are far from alone. French poet Stéphane Mallarmé was at the center of the Parisian intellectual circle comprised of thinkers such as André Gide, Paul Valéry, and Marcel Proust. Mallarmé referred to their group as The Decadents, referencing their bohemian lifestyles. He would later become known as a leader of the Symbolist movement in poetry. While French poetry had traditionally held fairly strict conventions of rhyme, meter, and theme, Mallarmé and his contemporaries departed from these traditions, employing condensed figures, unorthodox syntax, and the relationship between content and form—between the text and the arrangement of words and spaces on the page.

Mallarmé hosted regular salons, attended by the likes of Oscar Wilde, Paul Verlaine, Rainer Maria Rilke, W.B. Yeats, Renoir, Monet, Degas, Redon, Whistler, and Rodin. Those who attended became known as Les Mardistes, derived from the French word for Tuesday.

Attributes	Value
Dimensions	618957564572 × 618957164571 in
Condition	Excellent Condition
Date	1980-2000
Type	Modern Print-Makers
Framing	Custom framed and matted using conservation materials
Medium	Engraving
Signing, Dating, and Titling	Signed, dated, and titled by the artist en recto on bottom

Medium:

Intaglio print in colors from copper plate

Paper:

250 g Velin de Rives wove paper

Publisher:

Editions Sollertis, Toulouse

Printer:

This work was printed by Marc Leclercq at Atelier Tanguy Garric, Paris. In addition to the edition of 30, there were printed 5 Artist’s Proofs, 1 trial proof, and 1 copy reserved for the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Date:

October 6, 1995

Signature:

Hand-signed and dated by the artist in pencil en recto lower right. Titled and numbered en recto lower left.

Edition:

Impression 27 out of the edition of 30.

Framing:

Custom matted and framed behind 99% UV-filtering art glass strictly using conservation-grade materials.

Condition:

Excellent condition. Clean, well-inked, no signs of handling.

Framed Size:

12 in. (h) x 12 in. (w)