Godefroy came into this world in 1822, bearing the name Abraham Nikolaas Smit. However, in 1840, he changed his last name to Godefroy.[1] His career began in 1838, when he joined the Department of Urban Works in Amsterdam. In the same year of its establishment (1842), he became a member of the Society for the Promotion of Architecture, and he even served as its president from 1862 to 1867. From 1845 to 1850, he worked at the architectural firm of Isaäc Warnsinck. In 1851, he started his own architectural practice in Amsterdam.
www.ftn-books.com has the Nai / Arlette Brouwers designed publication now available.
Johan Thorn Prikker assumed the role of Professor for Painting at Kölner Werkschule (predecessor of KISD) from 1926 to 1932. Despite the time frame of his work predating the current century, Prikker’s life and artistic output still present us with profound insights into the intricate connections between art and craftsmanship, art and society, and art and spirituality. Drawing upon the wisdom of Aristotle, Giambattista Vico, and Friedrich von Schiller – intellectuals whose discourse features prominently in my KISD seminar, “The Eye Is Part Of The Mind” – I contend that Prikker’s comprehensive perspective offers a thought-provoking lens through which to view the realms of art and politics, particularly in light of contemporary reinventions of the therapeutic potential of art. Indeed, Prikker’s seemingly ornamental paintings and designs were never intended to simply serve as aesthetically pleasing decorations. Prikker’s vast artistic repertoire, coupled with his endeavors as an educator, curator, and designer, stem from his (romantic) conviction that art has the power to liberate the human imagination, ignite euphoric states and chaos, and that these experiences are crucial for true emancipation of creativity!
Peter Gentenaar (1946) embarked on his artistic career as a graphic artist, but his encounter with the material on which he works, paper, led him down a different path. He now creates paper pulp in his self-designed paper machine and transforms it into large, cloud-like sculptures. As the initiator of the Holland Paper Biennial, he compiles a stunning book every two years.
In 1947, Lou Kreymborg (1919-1993) established the agency firm bearing his name. His travels to Denmark resulted in acquiring the latest furniture from Poul Kjaerholm and Arne Jacobsen. He personally met with them and arranged for distribution in the Netherlands. In 1954, he made contact with the Borsani brothers of Tecno in Italy, from whom he imported revolutionary furniture until his passing. He also brought fabrics from Storck and Eggert (Tulipan), furniture from Bonacina (Franco Albini and Franca Helg), lamps from Martinelli (Gae Aulenti and Achille Castiglione), furniture from Dieter Rams (Vitsoe), and fabrics from Jack Lenor Larsen to the Netherlands. His association with Bruno and Jacqueline Danese, publishers of a progressive collection of home accessories, including works from Enzo Mari and Bruno Munari, was also significant. With an early keen eye for quality, an intense personal dedication, and an unwavering belief in his innovative contemporaries, Lou Kreymborg contributed to the Netherlands’ design emancipation. With enthusiasm bordering on missionary fervor, he showcased their work in leading home stores such as Metz, Pander, and Bas van Pelt, as well as in projects by (interior) architects such as Kho Liang Ie, Hein Salomonson, and Wim Quist.
A special blog on a special artist on a very special publication.
Bram van Velde made this publication together with Pierre Hébey for one of the best publishers in the art world. This publication LE MOT “BUVETTE” was published by Yves Riviere and acquired by a longtime collector of his work at the publisher in 1975. Since it has been in his collection and now he made a request to me to sell this. Thre is only 1 other copy at this moment available and it will be a long time before this will appear on the market at a reasonable price. This 32 page publication comes in its original slipcase with the 2 sets of 4 signed and numbered lithographs. In Total 8 lithographs all signed and numbered 80/90. One set of 4 is printed on Arches paper , the other set of 4 is printed on Japon paper. Last month i photographed the set and was blown away with its quality. This is for me one of the best and most appealing sets from the 70’s i have ever encountered. The set is now available at www.ftn-books.com
With the touch screen as an interface and computer programs that translate and manipulate a simple pen stroke into a digital code, Kleerebezem rediscovered the primary expressive power of line, shape, and color. The frictionless digital liberation of his artistic handwriting proved to be the ultimate condition for the unrestrained lyricism and hybrid media use in his recent works, where he blends digital and analog methods together. Throughout the summer months, the artist works on new drawings, paintings, and (photo-)graphic works in the exhibition space. Through Instagram and his project’s own website, he reflects on the creative process and the context of the media used.
Digital formats also offer the work different modes of distribution and reception, such as through Instagram and self-publishing on the web. While under the title “Notes, Quotes, Provocations and Other Fair Use” between 1998 and 2005, he published his entire production on the internet without fail, in what was one of the first Dutch weblogs, analog and digital processes intersect in his recent work.
Kleerebezem’s imagination freely draws from both a direct and highly mediated experience of reality. The ways in which the world and reality are perceived, captured, “measured,” and represented in increasingly computerized media, shape our worldview and self-image. In Jouke Kleerebezem’s work, perception continuously falls apart only to be reassembled through improvisation, intertwining once again.
Since 2003, Henri Jacobs has dedicated himself to a continuous series of drawings that have become known as the Journal Drawings. Initially a project for his students, where they were instructed to draw whatever caught their eye or impressed them on a particular day, it has now become a method for his own artistic expression. The result is an ongoing collection of drawings, each one delving into new motives and forms before abandoning them to make way for new ideas and experimentation.
Jacobs’s drawings are a masterpiece of virtuosity, with a precise yet playful technique. The images range from abstract geometric and calligraphic shapes and patterns to stylized portraits, landscapes, and architectural forms. Often, there are references to art history and renowned artists such as Matisse and Jasper Johns, highlighting Jacobs’s deep understanding and appreciation for the art world. Ultimately, the Journal Drawings represent a continual process of creation, as Jacobs continually challenges himself to redefine and reinvent his craft through each drawing.
For half a century, Rodney Graham meticulously weaved together the strands of cultural and intellectual history through the mediums of photography, film, music, performance, and painting. With a keen eye for wordplay and a penchant for allusions to literature and philosophy – be it the works of Lewis Carroll, Sigmund Freud, or Kurt Cobain – Graham spun cyclical stories that were peppered with his sardonic sense of humor, a nod to his roots in Vancouver’s post-punk scene of the late 1970s. In his nine-minute long piece, Vexation Island (1997), the artist assumes the role of a 17th-century sailor, discovered unconscious under a coconut tree with a visible bruise on his head. After eight and a half minutes, he awakens and shakes the tree, causing a coconut to fall and render him unconscious once again, triggering the repetition of the sequence. Graham reappears as a cowboy in How I Became a Ramblin’ Man (1999) and as both a city dandy and a country bumpkin in City Self/Country Self (2001) – fictitious characters perpetually trapped in an unending loop of actions. Drawing from his previous series of photographs featuring inverted oak trees, Graham’s fascination with dreamlike states and the ramblings of the unconscious are evident. As he puts it, “Inversion has a logic: you do not have to dig deep into modern physics to understand that the scientific perspective insists that the world is not truly what it seems. The eye sees a tree upside down before the brain rights it, just like how it appears to the glass back of my large format field camera.”
www.ftn-books.com has several scarce Graham publications available. Among them the 1989 van Abbemuseum catalog designed by Arlette Brouwers.
Ina van Zyl, born and raised in Ceres, South Africa, matriculated from Charlie Hofmeyr high school before studying art at the University of Stellenbosch from 1990 to 1994. During her time there, she became a regular contributor to Bitterkomix, an infamous Afrikaans comic magazine created by fellow students Joe Dog and Conrad Botes. Graduating with a BA in Fine Arts, with a focus on Drawing, she merged her studies in Graphic Design and Fine Arts.
Van Zyl’s journey to Amsterdam began in 1995 as a guest of the Thami Mnyele Foundation for a four-month residency. This led to her participation in the prestigious De Ateliers postgraduate program from 1996 to 1998, ultimately leading her to settle in the Netherlands. Van Zyl currently resides and works in Amsterdam.
Although her career began with comics, the foundation of her paintings today still centers around the same themes – feelings of claustrophobia, shame and humiliation, eroticism and sexuality, and the complexity of human connection, or lack thereof.
In her Amsterdam studio, van Zyl spends a majority of her time focusing on oil painting, which remains her primary medium. In addition to this, she also creates drawings, comics, watercolors, and occasionally ventures into printmaking.
In the Netherlands, van Zyl has been honored with various awards for her paintings and has had numerous exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Three monographs have been published, showcasing her artwork. One of these, Fly on the Wall, features all of her comics from 1992 to 2000, accompanied by an introduction written by Dominic van den Boogerd.
My mother had aspired to become a painter, though it never quite materialized. Yet her originality and intense gaze were evident. On Sundays, she would assist my brother and me with painting, each of us on opposite sides of the table.
The training for art teachers, located in the gardens of the Rijksmuseum, was timeless. It was the second half of the 1950s, as if nothing was happening at all. It exuded contentment. We studied Dufy, memorized the floor plans of cathedrals, and took trips to Paris. In our art appreciation class, Mark Kolthoff taught us to observe the classics. After school, we would paint each other or hire a model. It was a thorough education, emanating a sense of calm. In the world of visual arts, it seemed as though nothing was happening. No Documenta or major American artists were making waves here. At the Stedelijk Museum, there was Tinguely, another example of complacency. Art had yet to become a mass-produced commodity. Of course, this peace and solidity were a strong foundation for the profession, but it took a long time to break free from them. For years, I continued to make beautiful etchings – on a shoemaker’s press from the Waterlooplein – with the feeling that I had all the time in the world.
My first exhibition was in 1963 at the Anne Frank House, organized by friends as encouragement after a long illness. The opening speech by Dick Hillenius was about dowsers, who reminded him of artists, myself included. What is made visible is different from what is seen. The artist sees more than others – ultraviolet, infrared, or inaudible knocking signals. At the end of the speech, there were sounds of whales in the sea.
Fortunately, the romantic image back then – that the artist sees more than others, pleasing as it may be for everyone – is now a thing of the past.
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
