Piet Dirkx cigarbox 435
Author: ftnbooks
Bookseller, with an expertise in art books for over 45 years.
Barnett Newman (1905-1970)
Possibly, the Stedelijk Museum had the most important Barnett Newman painting in their collection until……Who’s afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III was destroyed by a mentally unstable artist . The painting was cut several times, over almost its total length of 5 meters with a Stanley knife. Destroying the painting completely.
There was an attempt to restore the painting by Goldreyer, but the result was just an overpainted painting without any nuances in the monochrome colors. This restoration resulted in a lawsuit in which there had to be decided who was responsible. Goldreyer claimed 250 million with the Amsterdam Municipality. The result Goldreyer had to be compensated and the Stedelijk Museum “lost” its beautiful iconic colourfield painting because of the bad restoration. The last few years the painting Who’s afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III is on and off on show again in the Stedelijk, but unfortunately the restoration has devalued it tremendously in a financial and artistic way. www.ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum catalogue ( a.o. Newman titles ) for the Barnett Newman exhibition for sale.
There is an article on Newman and its destruction in the Stedelijk by the New York times over here:
Piet Dirkx daily …433
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 433
Dieter Hiesserer (1939) / Batman’s car.
One of last weeks blogs was on the Pop Art scene in Europe and there is one German artist who must be mentioned, because he was one of the most important Pop Art artists in Germany…his name Dieter Hiesserer and because he also held exhibitions in Amsterdam his works were known by dutch collectors and included in one of the most iconic company collections in the world. Hiesserer’s works were included in the Peter Stuyvesant collection. In the tobacco factory of Peter Stuyvesant, the employees were confronted with really great modern art. In many cases , large sized paintings which were bought for the Peter Stuyvesant collection. Willem Sandberg was one of the directors who advised the company and by the end of the sixties several paintings by Hiesserer were added to the collection. Among them “Batman’s car”. It is about 10 years ago that this collection was sold at auction by Sotheby’s Amsterdam and later by AAG after Sotheby’s left from Amsterdam. It was a 3 part auction and because of the size of the paintings and an economic crisis it was hard to sell some of these important paintings for reasonable prices. The lots were all sold without a reserve price. I was behind my computer following this auction on line , when this great painting , “Batman’s Car” was on the block and bidding stopped at euro 200,–. I could not believe my eyes and i made the following bid……… and became the final bidder for this great Pop Art painting. Batman’s Car has been in our collection for almost 10 years , but now it is time to part from it. I do not have the place anymore to present it properly. Therefore it is now for sale and should you be interested…do not hesitate to contact me. Price on Application.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Hiesserer
Piet Dirkx daily …432
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 432
Oskar Kokoschka … and “Die traeumenden Knaben” (1907)
In the upcoming Bubb Kuyper auction is one of the most important Wiener Werkstatte books ever published. It is the book illustrated with 8 lithographs by Oskar Kokoschka …Die traeumenden Knaben
The financier of the Wiener Werkstätte, Franz Waerndorfer, commissioned Oskar Kokoschka to create a fairytale book for his children in 1907. It was published by the Wiener Werkstätte in 500 copies, and was presented at the Kunstschau exhibition of 1908. The number of copies ordered was disappointingly small and only a few copies were bound at the time. In 1917 Kurt Wolff reissued 275 copies of the remaining printrun in a lim. numb. edition and in a slightly different binding from the original binding (without use of the gilt thread). This copy up for auction is one of the UNNUMBERED copies of the first edition and as such is very rare, especially in this fine condition. At the time of commissioning (1907) Oskar Kokoschka was still a student at Vienna’s Kunstgewerbeschule. The fairytale that he wrote shows his strong Expressionist tendencies and is not a typical children’s book. As Waerndorfer wrote to Kokoschka’s former teacher C.O. Czeschka: “Eben bringt Kokoschka sein Märchenbuch, fertig und mit Text. Zum Beispiel: Musik, Musik, Gaukler, mein Leib, Schellenrassler, Beckenschläger. Weg der Popanz meines sündhaften Vorbehalts. Helle Feur liegen an den Zwergwäldern. Hinab springe ich mit wehenden Gewändern zur Erde und wie ein hoher einziger Ton steht hinter mir auf den Gärten die Sehnsucht. Na servus, und das ist der Lehrer meiner Kinder. Aber die Bilder sind glänzend.
For less expensive books on Kokoschka please visit www.ftn-books.com
Piet Dirkx daily …431
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 431
Pop Art in the Netherlands
Of course Pop Art was first and foremost an American invention, but because of large Pop Art exhibitions held in Europe in Amsterdam, London and Stockholm, its influence blew across the Atlantic and a generation of European Pop Art artists was the result. Raysse in France, Hamilton in the UK and in the Netherlands Woody van Amen and Shinkichi Tajiri became famous for their interpretation of Pop Art.
A few years ago a large exhibition was held in the Nijmeegs Museum het Valkhof ( 2012) which showed these European artists in an exhibition in conjunction with their American counter parts. But this was not the only occasion where Pop Art was presented in relation with the Pop Art scene in the US. There were exhibitions in DE KUNSTHAL ( 1995 ), Gemeentemuseum SIXTIES !(2007) and of course the Pop Art exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum (1964) with the Wim Crouwel catalogue which started it all in the Netherlands.
There are nice Pop Art publications available at www.ftn-books.com
Piet Dirkx daily …430
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 430
A very special Piet Mondrian publication (1938)
A Stedelijk Museum publication from 1938. Publishing date well before WWII and extremely rare. One of the first publications containing an article by Piet Mondriaan ( Mondrian) and it is more than likely the only one on the market at this moment. What makes this publication valuable is not only its rarity , but also the art historical value of the articles by Mondriaan, Kandinsky and Gorin. You can find this publication at www.ftn-books.com.
here is its description and the photographs:
