Posted on Leave a comment

Mario Deluigi (1901-1978)

Schermafbeelding 2021-07-07 om 16.41.09

Mario Deluigi is another painter from the stable of Galleria del Cavallino. He is one of the painters i like the most and his works remind me of the works from the early Seventies Sol LeWitt made for some italian publishers. Perhapd they have known eachother, but what remains is that the works by Deluigi are not cheap , but far less expensive than those of Sol LeWitt. Great art and still available at art galleries at a much more affordable price

Mario Deluigi was born in Treviso in 1901. The artist’s production was characterized by the use of grattage, a technique that required creating marks in negative, engraved on the surface layers of the painting, characterized by a lumpy and material surface. Color and light were the foundations of the artist’s research and the grattage works, fulcrum of his artistic production, were conceived and created in harmony with the spatialist current to which the artist adhered. The little book below is available at www.ftn-books.com

deluigi

Posted on Leave a comment

Herman Zeekaf (1937-2009)

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-25 om 14.36.47

Self made architect and furniture designer is known in a very small circle of admirers. Among them were Cor and Jean Rosbeek, the founders and owners of the famous Rosbeel printers in Nuth. These brothers commissioned Zeekaf to design the in and outside of their printing facilities in Nuth in 1977 and 1991.

Beside this building he became famous for some very functional furniture. This Herman Zeekaf is now getting more and more fame , because his designs are timeless.

Others have known him from a Interior Design shop he had in the city of Heerlen. His life was filled with design, furniture and architecture and in some projects he had the oppertunity to combine all into one great work of art.

www.ftn-books.com has now the ROSBEEK special on Zeekaf available.

zeekaf

Posted on Leave a comment

Pierre Paulin (1927-2009)

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-09 om 11.14.54

His designs are strongly rooted in the Sixties, but over 60 years of production by the dutch firm Artifort they have proven to be timeless.

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-09 om 11.18.30

With comfort as his starting-point, Pierre Paulin became a freelance designer for Artifort from the 1960s. This relationship produced many iconic modernist chairs, including Ribbon, Butterfly, Mushroom, Tulip and Orange Slice. His influential designs are now also produced under licence by LaCividina – Dos à Dos. Design archive Paulin, Paulin, Paulin is run by Maia Paulin, Pierre’s wife and business partner. It offers a deep dive into his works beyond the most well-known pieces, to showcase a creator who was relentlessly producing fresh concepts even after he retired in 1994. Prolific, challenging and ground-breaking, Paulin passed away in June 2009. In November of that year, the French Government posthumously awarded him the distinction of ‘Royal Designer for Industry’.

wwww.ftn-books.com has some Paulin related publications available.

Posted on Leave a comment

Walter Jacob (1893-1964)

Walter Jacob during WWI

In 1910, Walter Jacob (1893-1964) started training in decorative painting in Meerane, where he met Ernst Müller-Gräfe, who would be influential for Jacob’s artistic development.  In his early work, he created especially drawings, resulting from a lack of money.  After the First World War, Jacob was a student at the Dresden Academy and in contact with Robert Sterl, whose master student he was from 1919-20. 
Jacob is not very well known, but one look at his work and you can not only date it it as typical for the Interbellum, but you also can see that this is great German Expressionist art. It took some decades for him to be recognized as being of importance but finally in 1986 a special auction at Karl & Faber was devoted to him and his works. This catalogue and poster are now available at http://www.ftn-books.com

Posted on Leave a comment

August Sander (1876-1964)

August Sander

Sander developed an interest in photography through work in photographic firms in Berlin, Magdeburg, Halle and Dresden, Germany, 1898-1899. In 1901, went to Linz, Germany, where he first worked in Greif Studio, which he ran from 1902 to 1904 with his partner Franz Stukenberg as the Studio Sander & Stukenberg. Founded the Studio August Sander für Kunstphotographie und Malerei, 1904. Sold the studio in 1909 and returned to Cologne, Germany, where he ran the Studio Blumberg & Hermann. Founded his own studio in Lindenthal, Germany, 1910. In 1910 started his major project, “Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts”, with which he was involved until the 1950s with an interruption between 1933 and 1939. “Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts” was published in Munich in 1980. Worked mainly on the themes of the Rhine countryside and the city of Cologne, 1933-1939. These photographs were published in book form in 1975. After the demolition of his studio by bombing in 1944, retired to Kuchhausen in Westerwald, Germany, where he carried on his work. Honorary member, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, 1961. http://www.ftn-books.com has the Phillips publication from 2004 on the Geman Landscape series available.

Posted on Leave a comment

H.P. Bremmer (1871-1956)

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-13 om 14.08.11

The book i recently read on H.P. Bremmer shows the importance of this art consultant/artist. Not only he advised Mrs Kröller Muller , but he maintained one of the most important art networks during his life, which made it possible for him to advise mrs. Kroller Muller, the very best of art which at that time was and became available. His network made it possible to acquire works by van Gogh, Seurat, Signac, Toorop ….but also more modern artists like Matisse, Toorop and Severini. The result was one of the most stunning art collections in the world and the collection still stands out for its quality and location in Otterlo. . At random some names that made it possible for H.P. Bremmer to maintain his network untiul his death in 1956. : Hannema, Huszar, Lemmen, Israels, Modriaan, Sluijters, Redonm, Toorop, Mendes da Costa.

netwerk bremmer

For those who mastered the dutch language….the very interesting book on H.P. Bremmer is now available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on Leave a comment

Viktor & Rolf….a very special publication

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-14 om 11.48.14

The Australian exhibition from 2016 was the fundament of the exhibition held at the Kunsthal to celebrate 25 years of fashion by Viktor & Rolf. Even the layout from this exhibition publication was used, but…….extended!

Beautiful and spectacular additions by the worlds best photographers and designers. Contributions by Anton Corbijn,, Cindy Sherman, Herb Ritts, Inez & Vinoodh, showing pieces worn by Madonna, Tilda Swinton and many others. I have seen many books on Fashion , but this is without a doubt one of the most spectecular ones and now available at www.ftn-books.com

viktor rolf c

 

Posted on Leave a comment

Natasja Kensmil (1973)

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-16 om 14.08.24

Natasja Kensmil is one of those talents that emerged in the last 10 years and proved tobe highly important for modern art. Her art is personal and her style can not be compared to anyone else’s. If any….. i immediately though of Basquiat, but these paintings and drawings by Kensmil practically all tell a story or contain a message for the viewer. Her series of REGENTEN PORTRAITS  is a tribute to women who held a position in boards and committees who took care of the old and sick. It was not possible for women to hold a position within a company or government , but these woman made charity in these years possible and took care of the old and sick in society.Schermafbeelding 2021-08-16 om 14.07.56

Another multi panelled work is the “HUWELIJKS PORTRET VAN JOHANDE WITT AND WENDELA BICKER “. Natasja Kensmill forces us to look at our (not so nice) history and beside the importance of the art itself it makes us aware of the message too.

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-16 om 14.29.09

The book i now have for sale at http://www.ftn-books.com is different. Personal, horror like drawings bound and published by Boekhandel Broekhuis in 2003. Edition of only 500 copies, this book already shows the attraction of Kensmil’s drawing. They attract and repel at the same time. This is the kind of art one must admire and i will be on thelook out for work by Kensmil for our collection.

Posted on Leave a comment

Phil Bloom (1947)

Phil Bloom for the HOEPLA TV program

The year 1967 and half of the dutch population spoke about the nude appearance of Phil Bloom on national Television. Phil Bloom lowered the newspaper and showed her nude upper body. It was a dutch first and raised a scandal. Later on one understood that this was not just nudity , but more a kind of Avant Garde kind of art initiated by Wim T. Schippers, who made 4 Hoepla programs of which the last one was withdawn by VPRO. You can see the actual appearance of Phil Bloom here:

https://archief.ntr.nl/jarenzestig/#/artikel/avant-garde-op-televisie

Since that appearance Phil Bloom wrote history and her name became  a household among my genaration, but Phil Bloom is still active as an artist, but now on the creating site. She makes and creates what is called Synthetic realism. Scenes in which realism is combined with a fairytale like surroundings. A colorful figure and one of those that wrote not only history but creates better world with her art.

http://www.ftn-books.com has a nice signed print by Phil Bloom available

Posted on Leave a comment

Bernard Buffet ( continued)

Schermafbeelding 2021-07-14 om 14.07.29

Readers will notice this second blog on Bernard Buffet. Buffet was a well known painter in the late Fifties and Early Sixties, but became out of fashion by the end of that decade. But lately there is a new interest in this painter and i can explain why. HIs gallery , galerie Garnier stayed with him during his career and never lost faith and secondly…..his way of painting in series was a way of producing a large number of paintings and i must say not all are of interest and have enough quality to convince, but there is one quality they have in common. These paintings have a style of their own. The Buffet style is there and it really is a style Buffet developed by himself. This makes these paintings stand out and the truly great ones are paintings one must admire. Perhaps Buffet is not the artist who has rose to absolute fame lije Picasso or Pollock. But his art is still there and with this art Buffet is a name which deserves a place in art history. www.ftn-books.com has added some galerie Garnier exhibtion catalogues and has collected a nice series of exhibition catalogues by Garnier which are still available.