CBD Tarot de Marseille - new Conver restoration

Yoav Ben-Dov

hello to all,

i am happy to announce in this forum the appearance of CBD TAROT DE MARSEILLE - a new restoration of the most appreciated and influential traditional tarot deck, the Conver (1760) Tarot de Marseille.

for a short video tour through the deck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKhj3WFybv0

to see all the card images, go to the gallery on my website or on flickr
http://www.bendov.info/tarot/cbd/gallery/index.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48485995@N00/sets

this is the outcome of 3+ years work by myself and two commissioned professionals (Leela Ganin, Nir Matarasso).

in the restoration, i tried to remain as faithful to the original as i could. still, i had to adapt the images to the new print techniques and materials (whiter paper, blacker ink, sharper printing..), and to the visual sensibilities of today (we are accustomed to more vivid colors, smoother lines, lighter human expressions in pictures). so it is not supposed to be an exact museum replica of Conver's original, but rather an attempt to translate his artistic genius (not to say magic) into a form that can touch and move people today.

having said that, i was surprised to discover how much of Conver's art is "up to date". once the lines were re-drawn and cleaned, i could see cubist-like compositions, openness to multiple interpretations (surfaces left uncolored, ambiguity and anomalies in forms and objects), and a complex interplay between order and chaos (regularity and irregularity, symmetry and symmetry-breaking). i tried to keep these "abnormal" features (which the new printing techniques sometimes made more conspicuous) instead of trying to rectify them.

what i didn't try to do was to restore the original symbolism of the tarot. in my view any attempt to do so would be hypothetical. so, when making decisions, my main concern was "how is it in the original woodprint", and given that, "what visual and emotional impact does it make", but not "what is it supposed to signify ". this i leave to the beholder / interpreter.

there are two explanatory videos i put on youtube -

a brief description of the restoration process
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SORDyqL26VM

composition and movement - the graphical tricks of Conver's art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYkK5BKI5mo

and some additional points:

the cards were printed on private order by Carta Mundi in Belgium. for those interested in printing their own decks, i recommend them very highly for quality of production, reliability, attention to detail and human interaction.

i kept the commercial rights on the cards - after all, i invested quite a lot in this project. but as Conver's tarot is part of the cultural heritage of humanity, i chose to distribte the card images under a creative commons license. this means that you are welcome to use them for non-commercial purposes as you wish.

for those who will be there, i am going to present the cards at the ATS 2011 Tarot convention in Sainte-Suzanne, France, on sept. 24.
http://www.tarotstudies.org/2011convention.html

for the moment, for technical reaons, i can sell the cards only in Israel. also, there is not yet an English documentation - working on it.

hope you like the card images, yoav
 

le_charior

wonderful news!

i have been thinking about which conver to get for weeks now and could never decide for one of the available reproductions. now i know why, subconsiously i must have waited for yours! :)

they look very good in the video, unfortunately the gallery links on your website seem to be down.

what dimension are the cards? the original of the images? isn't the conver smaller than the original?

any idea when/if/how it will be possible to buy them outside of israel?

congratulations on your work! i am very excited about this!
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

thanks le_charior

i just added a link to an alternative gallery on flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48485995@N00/sets/
although the first link seems to work fine for me.. maybe some temporary problem.

as for the dimensions: it is 62 x 120 mm total, 57 x 114 card frame. i took an average from the 1960 printing which was made from the original plates, so this is the size that Conver did. i had to normalize the size as the original woodcuts are not exactly identical (and not exactly rectangular).

as for selling the cards - i still have to arrange a way of getting payment from abroad, and it will hopefully be around october-november. but as you are the first to comment and ask, i will be happy to send you a deck as a good luck present. please contact me by email from my website www.bendov.info, or through a private message.
 

le_charior

i just added a link to an alternative gallery on flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48485995@N00/sets/
although the first link seems to work fine for me.. maybe some temporary problem.

as for the dimensions: it is 62 x 120 mm total, 57 x 114 card frame. i took an average from the 1960 printing which was made from the original plates, so this is the size that Conver did. i had to normalize the size as the original woodcuts are not exactly identical (and not exactly rectangular).

as for selling the cards - i still have to arrange a way of getting payment from abroad, and it will hopefully be around october-november. but as you are the first to comment and ask, i will be happy to send you a deck as a good luck present. please contact me by email from my website www.bendov.info, or through a private message.

I can open the link fine, but when i click on "22 major cards" or any of the other sub-categories, i get a "Error 404: File Not Found" message. But the alternative link works perfectly!

thanks for the info on the dimensions! and a big huge thanks for the offer to give me a deck as a present, that is so very nice and generous of you! I will contact you in a PM!
 

Elendil

Keep us posted on when we can get copies outside Israel.

An impressive project here.
 

Rafaël

Waow!

Congratulations for this fine work and for adding a must have collectors item :)

This is something that needed to be done. Mr. Omoto's 'restauration' was too much of a 'cleaned up' Jodo-Camoin, or a de-camoinized Jodo-Camoin.
I can't wait to compare you're work with the different Convers fac-simile.

The presentations on youtube are very nice also.

Is there no way to order one for Belgium and to pay you with Paypal or Mastercard for example?

Cheers,
Rafaël
 

Yoav Ben-Dov

thanks, indeed i should arrange some way of getting payment from abroad. i will work on it when i get back from france in early october - promise. sorry for keeping you waiting, but its not easy for me to switch from working on the cards to doing practical things in the world of banks, form filling and money transfers..
 

Minotauro

I actually like it and Im not a fan of the marseilles , I like th colors and the faces , in general I like it , even more so than the jodorowsky tarot I almost bought it , but I didnt like the changes he made to some of the cards , whats the point of restorating it if you're not keeping it the same? you might as well change it all then ._. dont try to sell me your similar one as a true one ¬¬ mister ojo de oro you!!!!

anyway I like it , not buyoing that jodorowski deck left me with an itch for a marseiles.
 

Debra

Ah, congratulations! It's very interesting.

The first links don't work for me, either.

I hope you can arrange to take paypal--it is easy and reliable. Money transfers are difficult and expensive :laugh:
 

gregory

Ah, congratulations! It's very interesting.

The first links don't work for me, either.

I hope you can arrange to take paypal--it is easy and reliable. Money transfers are difficult and expensive :laugh:

What she said. From the UK it is even worse than from the US... :(

Any ideas on cost yet ? (I am plotting...)