Skira Editore and Editions d'Art Albert Skira, also known as Skira, is a publishing firm founded by Albert Skira in Switzerland in 1928 and now based in Italy. The firm is known particularly for its art books of "vastly improved quality of colour reproduction".
Switzerland (1928–1932)
Originally located in Lausanne, Skira soon relocated to Geneva. Albert Skira wanted his firm to publish books in which "the greatest of artists illustrate the best in literature". For that reason Skira's first publications were a number of large scale artist's book editions. For the first book, Skira engaged Pablo Picasso to illustrate Ovid's "Les Métamorphoses" with 30 etchings, which were executed in 1930 in Picasso's neoclassical style and published in 1931 in a limited edition. These were followed by further luxury editions of poetry, including Stéphane Mallarmé's collection of poems "Poésies" illustrated with 29 etchings by Henri Matisse. Art historian John Jacobus said of Matisse's work "The etchings of the 1932 edition of Mallarmé perhaps mark the peak in his efforts in this medium". Salvador Dalí produced 43 etchings for Comte de Lautréamont's (Isidore Lucien Ducasse) "Les Chants de Maldoror" published in 1934. Virgil's Les Bucoliques was illustrated by André Beaudin 1936.
Paris (1933–1940)
In 1933 Albert Skira moved to Paris and opened a branch of his firm there. At that time Paris was an artistic centre and many of the great modern movements, such as Surrealism, were active there. To cater for this audience, Skira, in collaboration with the art critic, editor and publisher Tériade, launched a glossy avant-garde art magazine with the title of Minotaure including an editorial committee with André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Eluard, Maurice Heine, and Pierre Mabille. Skira promoted the magazine as a "primary source of information about the arts" that would reproduce works of "universal interest" and supplement them with critical studies of current artistic trends. Picasso was commissioned to photograph a series of sculptures for the first number which also included reproductions of works by Matisse and Brassaï and contributions by Breton, Eluard and Pierre Reverdy.
In 1934 Skira launched a book series with the title Les trésors de la peinture française with each volume containing "large colour plates and a brief text". The series had sold a million copies in France and Switzerland by 1950 and ultimately grew to 48 volumes ending in 1952.
Geneva (1941–1948)
In 1941 Albert Skira returned to Geneva. In the years 1941 to 1948 he devoted himself (with the assistance of Henri Matisse) to publishing Florilège des Amours de Ronsard (Anthology of the Amours of Pierre de Ronsard), a luxury artist's book created at the "highest possible standards ... in design and typography". Other major books published by Skira in the 1940s included Rabelais's Pantagruel (1943) (with "vibrantly-coloured woodcuts" by André Derain) and Malraux's Les Conquérants (1949) (with etchings by André Masson).
Towards the end of the war he also published "a monthly review of art and literature" called Labyrinthe (1944–1946) which contained essays on topics and by painters (Cingria, René Auberjonois, Gruber) and thinkers (Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, Eluard) similar to those appearing in Minotaure but whose newspaper format showed that he was attempting to reach a wider audience. The final number of Labyrinthe published the first chapter of the final draft of Malraux's La Psychologie de l'Art (The Psychology of Art). Holman wrote her art history thesis on Editions d'Art Albert Skira focusing on the years between 1928 and 1948, his desire to publish a book with Picasso, and the different types of books he published: magazines, artist's books, and history books.
Geneva (1949–1973)
In the 1950s and 1960s Skira became a multinational publisher of quality art books printed in color with very high technical standards. Skira published individual books on many areas of art, including histories, contemporary art, and decorative arts, from around the world, as well as large series of art books that were sold throughout Europe and North America. In French-speaking counties Skira's books were exclusively distributed by Achille Weber and in the United Kingdom by the art publishing firm and bookshop A. Zwemmer Ltd., which had previously distributed Minotaure in the 1930s. The books were distributed in the USA and Canada by The World Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, although for a brief time Editions d'Art Albert Skira had a subsidiary in New York City, Skira International Corporation, led by Henry Field, and Crown Publishers, Inc, New York handled them briefly in the early 1970s.