VERVE, An Artistic and Literary Quarterly.Vol. I No. 1, December 1937 [Lithographic cover by Henri Matisse, and 4 original lithographs by Fernand Léger, (Water), Joan Miró, (Air), Abraham Rattner, (Fire), Francisco Bores, (Earth), plus black and white reproductions of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Man Ray, Nora Dumas et al.

The publications of Tériade include 26 issues of VERVE, from December 1937 to July 1960, all having the hallmark of great artists of his time.

The whole history of VERVE focuses on a combination between fields traditionally considered outstanding and taking place at particularly interesting and therefore privileged times. It was the end of the surrealist movement, the height of classical writers, the maturity of new revolutionary writers such as George Bataille, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henri Michaux, or the beginning for some of these artists of a new period (for example for André Malraux) which corresponded to a particularly fertile period of visual and artistic creation (e.g. for Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, etc.).

VERVE became the natural location for their approach, and was based on the obsessive ideas of a man almost haunted by these creative forms. Documents and works speak for themselves and impose their rhythm, while the overall composition of each issue is based on completely unconventional breaches, syntheses and correlations. This is the reason why we cannot look at VERVE based on a purely chronological order. However, for practical reasons we can distinct three types of issues:

Varied issues
Issues dedicated to historical manuscripts of the Middle Ages
Issues dedicated entirely to a specific painter

Stratis Eleftheriadis – Tériade
Tériade was a man who comprehended the meaning of modern art and stood by young artists supporting them. He managed to create a dialectic relationship between writers and poets and in general among intellectuals focusing on written/printed word and painters. Thanks to him and his ability to create and inspire friendship and cooperation it was possible for his publications to remain unaffected by time and fashion, becoming monuments of written word and (visual) art.

The publications of Tériade involved a multitude of leading artists at their prime who during the specific economic and social circumstances could work with persistence and in freedom.