Fizzles

Last updated
Fizzles
Fizzles-Beckett.jpeg
Cover of Grove's 1977
English paperback version
Author Samuel Beckett
Publisher Grove Press
Publication date
1977
ISBN 9780802111937

The "fizzles" are eight short prose pieces written by Samuel Beckett:

Contents

Some fizzles are unnamed and are identified by their numbers or first few words, which appear above in brackets.

Except for Still, which he wrote in English (1972), Beckett wrote the rest in French (1960) and translated them into English later. Hardback (1976) and paperback (1977) English versions were published by Grove Press. [3] The fizzles are also included in Grove's collection The Complete Short Prose 1929–1989 . In 1976, a French version, Pour finir encore et autres foirades, was published by Editions de Minuit [4] and another English version by Calder Publications. [5] Because Beckett felt that the order of presentation was unimportant, each of the three publishers adopted a different one. [6] However, the order chosen by Grove Press, in which they appear above, has become standard.

Foirades/Fizzles

In 1972, Vera Lindsay, who was working as an editor at Petersburg Press, [7] conceived of a collaboration of Beckett with Jasper Johns. In 1973, Johns met Beckett in Paris, where they agreed to work together on a version of Fizzles, with the understanding that Beckett would translate his French texts into English. [8] Because Beckett gave Johns free rein to design the book, he decided to include only five fizzles, but in both languages. In order of appearance, Johns chose fizzles: 2, 5, 1, 6, and 4. [9]

In Paris, Johns made etchings for the book, with the aid of Aldo Crommelynck. They used a variety of intaglio techniques, to create 33 images. In addition, end papers, designed by Johns, were printed as four-color lithographs by William Law at Petersburg Press. Johns took much of the imagery from his painting Untitled 1972, [10] but he also created numerals that introduce the fizzles and a "table of contents", which incorporates stenciled letters from his repertoire. [11] In 1976, Petersburg Press published the resulting artist's book under the title Foirades/Fizzles, in an edition of 250 copies, signed by both creators. [11]

In 1977, shortly after it was published, the book was exhibited, from October 11 to November 20, at the Whitney Museum of American Art. [11] Since then it has appeared in numerous shows, [12] including the landmark Museum of Modern Art exhibit: A Century of Artists’ Books, which ran from October 23, 1994 to January 24, 1995. [13] The exhibit catalog includes an essay, Artists’ Books in the Modern Era 1870–2000, whose authors, Johnson and Stein, referring to Foirades/Fizzles, state:

This cerebral volume that provokes more questions than it answers is considered one of the greatest artist's books of the second half of the twentieth century. [14]

The fizzles have had a significant impact, not only on literature, but also on music and the visual and performing arts. They have been the subject of scholarly works, [15] and academic theses. [16] Fizzles has inspired theatrical performances. [17] So has the artist's book, [18] which has also inspired modern paintings. [19]

The English composer and musician Barry Guy released in 1993 his interpretation on the eponymous CD Fizzles (Maya Recordings) playing chamber bass and double bass. His ordering of pieces is as follows (with the timings):

  1. "Free Fall"  – 6:32
  2. "Fil Rouge"  – 2:33
  3. "Hilibili Meets...The Brush"  – 10:45
  4. "Five Fizzles (For S.B.)"  – 10:40
  5. "Invention – The Bird of Infinity"  – 8:18
  6. "Afar"  – 2:50
  7. "...But The Clouds..."  – 5:54
  8. "Tout Rouge"  – 2:59
  9. "Still"  – 8:09
  10. "Toujours Rouge"  – 1:46
  11. "She Took The Sacred Rattle And Used It (To Ray A. Bear)."

On June 15, 2012, Spitalfields Music presented the world premier of Old Earth. [20] Sets for this production were designed by Lucy Wilkinson, [21] it was directed by Jonathan Holmes, and Beckett's words were spoken by Alan Howard. The score was written by Alec Roth [22] and performed by The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Beckett</span> Nobel-winning Irish playwright, writer, translator and poet (1906-1989)

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic experiences of life, often coupled with black comedy and nonsense. It became increasingly minimalist as his career progressed, involving more aesthetic and linguistic experimentation, with techniques of repetition and self-reference. He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the Theatre of the Absurd.

<i>Waiting for Godot</i> Play by Samuel Beckett

Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives. Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original French-language play, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled "a tragicomedy in two acts". The original French text was composed between 9 October 1948 and 29 January 1949. The premiere, directed by Roger Blin, was on 5 January 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone, Paris. The English-language version premiered in London in 1955. In a poll conducted by the British Royal National Theatre in 1998/99, it was voted the "most significant English-language play of the 20th century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jasper Johns</span> American painter (born 1930)

Jasper Johns is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related topics. Johns's works regularly sell for millions of dollars at sale and auction, including a reported $110 million sale in 2010. At multiple times works by Johns have held the title of most paid for a work by a living artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Rauschenberg</span> American painter and graphic artist (1925–2008)

Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artworks which incorporated everyday objects as art materials and which blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor, but he also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking and performance.

Les Éditions de Minuit is a French publishing house. It was founded in 1941, during the French Resistance of World War II, and is still publishing books today.

Anthony Gerard Richard Cronin was an Irish poet, arts activist, biographer, commentator, critic, editor and barrister.

Events from the year 1976 in art.

Events from the year 1930 in art.

<i>Molloy</i> (novel) Novel by Samuel Beckett

Molloy is a novel by Samuel Beckett first written in French and published by Paris-based Les Éditions de Minuit in 1951. The English translation, published in 1955, is by Beckett and Patrick Bowles.

Brice Marden is an American artist generally described as Minimalist, although his work may be hard to categorize. He lives and works in New York City; Tivoli, New York; Hydra, Greece; and Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Douglas</span>

Stan Douglas is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

For the song "That Time" by Regina Spektor see Begin to Hope

Mark Stock was an American painter. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1951. The son of an Army officer, Stock lived in many states across America before settling in St. Petersburg, Florida. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he studied under Theo Wujcik. Upon graduating in 1976, Stock was hired to work at Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles as a lithographer. While there, he printed for notable artists such as Jasper Johns, David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein before leaving to paint full-time.

<i>Mercier and Camier</i> Novel by Samuel Beckett

Mercier and Camier is a novel by Samuel Beckett that was written in 1946, but remained unpublished until 1970. Appearing immediately before his celebrated "trilogy" of Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, Mercier et Camier was Beckett's first attempt at extended prose fiction in French. Beckett refused to publish it in its original French until 1970, and while an English translation by Beckett himself was published in 1974, the author had made substantial alterations to and deletions from the original text while "reshaping" it from French to English.

<i>Stories and Texts for Nothing</i>

Stories and Texts for Nothing is a collection of stories by Samuel Beckett. It gathers three of Beckett's short stories and the thirteen short prose pieces he named "Texts for Nothing"(1950–1952). All of these works are collected in the Grove Press edition of Beckett's complete short prose. They were originally written in French and published in 1955 by Les Éditions de Minuit as Nouvelles et Textes pour rien, with a second edition illustrated edition published by the same publisher in 1958.

The Arion Press in the United States book publishing company founded in San Francisco in 1974. It has published 120 limited-edition books, most printed by letterpress, often illustrated with original prints by notable artists. Minneapolis Star Tribune described it as "the nation's leading publisher of fine-press books".

<i>The Complete Short Prose 1929–1989</i>

The Complete Short Prose 1929–1989 is a collection which includes all of Samuel Beckett's works written in prose, with the exception of his novels, novellas from Nohow On, and More Pricks Than Kicks which is considered "as much a novel as a collection of stories". The book was edited by S. E. Gontarski and published by Grove Press in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldo Crommelynck</span>

Aldo Crommelynck was a Belgian master printmaker who made intaglio prints in collaboration with many important European and American artists of the 20th century.

Judith Goldman is a writer, curator and publisher who lives in New York City.

References

  1. Beckett, Samuel. "Text of Fizzle 3" . Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  2. Beckett, Samuel. "Text of Fizzle 4" . Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  3. Beckett, Samuel (1977). Fizzles. New York: Grove Press. ISBN   9780802111937 . Retrieved 2012-05-19.
  4. Beckett, Samuel (1976). Pour finir encore et autres foirades . Paris: Editions de Minuit. pp.  53. ISBN   978-2707301123.
  5. Beckett, Samuel (1976). For to End Yet Again and other Fizzles. London: Calder Publications. p. 54. ISBN   9780714536002.
  6. Johnstone, Patrick. "A note on the order of the Fizzles and their titles". Birkbeck University of London. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  7. Cornwall-Jones, Paul; Tamie Swett. "Petersburg Press website". Artnet. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  8. White, Edmund (October 1977). "Jasper Johns and Samuel Beckett". Christopher Streer. 20 (2): 48–55. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  9. Perloff, Marjorie (1983). "6". The Space of a Door (PDF). The Poetics of Indeterminacy: Rimbaud to Cage. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. p. 201. ISBN   0-8101-1764-9 . Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  10. Johns, Jasper (1997). "Untitled. 1972". Museum Ludwig, Ludwig Donation, Cologne. The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2012-05-21. Oil, encaustic, and collage on canvas with objects (four panels)
  11. 1 2 3 Goodman, Judith (1977). Foirades/Fizzles: Catalog for an Exhibition October 11, - November 20, 1977. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art. ISBN   9780902825093 . Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  12. "Harvard Art Museums Present Exhibition of Jasper Johns's "Crosshatch" Works of the 1970s". Harvard Art Museums. April 20, 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-28.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. Riva Castleman (October 23, 1994). "A Century Of Artists Books" (PDF). See p3 of this press release. The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  14. Tranter, Rhys (August 2009). "Rare edition of Beckett's Foirades/Fizzles". A Piece of Monologue. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  15. Pireddu, Nicoletta Pireddu (1998). "Sublime Supplements: Beckett and the Fizzling Out of Meaning". In Cathleen Culotta Andonian (ed.). The Critical Response to Samuel Beckett. Westport, Conn. and London: Greenwood Press. pp. 391–401. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  16. Hager, Stephen R. (2010). ""For to End Yet Again": Continuity and Closure in Samuel Beckett's Fizzles". Honors Thesis;Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Emory University . Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  17. Gussow, Mel (December 16, 1984). "Drama: Beckett Pieces". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  18. Klein, Alvin (May 9, 1993). "Exploring Essentials Of Life And Death". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  19. Crockett, Alan (2012). "Fizzles (for Beckett)". Large, colorful abstract paintings. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
  20. "Old Earth: Summer Festival 2012". Spitalfields Music. June 15–16, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-06-17. Retrieved 2012-06-18.
  21. "Biography of Lucy Wilkinson". Bush Theatre. Archived from the original on 2013-04-19. Retrieved 2012-06-18.
  22. "Biography of Alec Roth". Signum Classics. Archived from the original on 2012-06-20. Retrieved 2012-06-18.