Cy Twombly, Fifty Days as Illam, Edition Cantz, Germany, 1990

An interesting accordion that reproduces this major work by Twombly. I particularly like how some of the images of the individual works wraparound the accordion's pages. Interestingly, this accordion has a central binding and the two halves of the work fold out from the center, kind of odd really. The work is located at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The online label for the work states:

In the summer of 1977, Cy Twombly began working on a "painting in ten parts" based on Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad. Completed in 1978 and collectively titled Fifty Days at Iliam, the works evoke incidents from Homer's epic poem in Twombly's characteristic synthesis of words and images. The ten large canvases follow one another much like a developing narrative. They are ordered as follows: Shield of Achilles; Heroes of the Achaeans; Vengeance of Achilles; Achaeans in Battle; The Fire that Consumes All Before It; Shades of Achilles, Patroclus, and Hector; House of Priam; Ilians in Battle; Shades of Eternal Night; Heroes of the Ilians.

16 pages, single-sided, individual pages 11.75" (h) x 8.25 (w), when fully open 11ft long.

For photographs of the work installed in the museum see:  

https://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/85709.html

Warja Lavater (1913-2007), Tanabata, Adrien Maeght, Paris, 1994

Another of Lavater's pictographic accordions and this one recounts the story of Deneb, the king, who gives permission for the daughter of Vega to interrupt her celestial weaving and to leave for a bath in the luminous stream, the Milky Way. How can one resist a story such as this!  

The cover flap includes the chart for interpreting the pictographic images and is a guide to all the characters, players and locations in the story. Look for the other two Lavater accordions on this blog.

Warja Lavater (1913-2007) was a Swiss illustrator and designer who adopted the accordion format for all her artists' books. A neglected contemporary of Edward Ruscha, she published her first artists' book (William Tell) in 1962, the same year Ruscha published his first (26 Gasoline Stations), and perhaps more significantly the same year as Etel Adnan created her first accordion book.

17 pages, double-sided, individual pages 8.5" (h) x 5.5" (w), when fully open 7ft 9.5".

the chart with the guide to her pictographic language

reverse side

map showing location of Deneb and Vega