In the Netherlands van der Weijde is famous and abroad he is loved by photography collectors because of his bold and ground breaking photography publications and for those looking to start a nice collection of photography books with great design , just look into wat vander Weijde has published. Personally i love his SUBWAY magazine and the Praia book which is now for sale at www.ftn-books.com is outstanding too. Well worth checking out this photographer/publisher from the Netherlands.
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Pablo Picasso’s fascination with the female form spawned from a long line of women he called his muses. Possibly his most reputable muse was his long- term partner, Françoise Gilot, whom he wooed with a bowl of cherries when he spotted her across the restaurant in which they were dining. At the tender age of 21, Gilot was already producing well-respected paintings of her own, although she was still a student at the time. While technically married to another, Picasso carried on a turbulent ten-year affair with Gilot – fathering her two children. The relationship was a nasty one, but the couple inspired each other artistically: Gilot acted as Picasso’s muse for the decade, and Picasso’s work influenced Gilot’s take on cubism.
www.ftn-books.com has many Picasso titles available
Yesterdays blog and the acquisition of some former Ben Bos library books on grapphic design inspired me to find some more information on Jean Widmer.
Jean Widmer is an acclaimed Swiss graphic designer too based in France.
From 1946 to 1950 he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) of Zurich, then directed by the former Bauhaus master Johannes Itten (1888-1967). In 1953 he moved to Paris, where attended lithography courses at the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts).
After one-year internship at the Atelier Tolmer, located on the Île Saint-Louis, he was appointed Art Director of SNIP—Société Nouvelle d’Information et de Publicité (New Society of Information and Advertising), holding this charge from 1956 to 1959. He later moved to Galeries Lafayettes, a major department store, substituting Peter Knapp as its Art Director, from 1959 to 1961. At the same time he also worked at Jardin des Modes magazine as art director and photographer, holding the position until 1969. During the 1960s he also travelled in Japan to study ‘shodo,’ Japanese calligraphy, and ‘mon,’ Japanese traditional crests.
In 1969 he opened Visuel Design, focusing on coordinated graphic communication for cultural and public institutions. The same year he was the first designer to develop a corporate identity system for a French cultural institution, developing the graphic communication of the CCI—Centre de Création Industrielle (Center of Industrial Creation).
It was during this period that Widmer developed his own original graphic language, based on synthesis, rigorous geometry, and schematic typography that to this day represents the first and one of the few examples of Modern graphic design in France.
In 1972 he took charge of the first design for the French Highways signage, drawing a beautiful and effective pictogram system. From 1974 to 1977, and again in 1985, he designed the coordinated identity for the Centre Georges Pompidou, formed from the merging of the CCI with other cultural institutions, for which he designed a beautiful and iconic mark that portrays the famous façade of the building.
In 1979 he designed an acclaimed poster for Kieler Woche, the major sailing event in the world that is famous in the world of graphic design for its striking communication. From 1983 to 1987 he worked on the corporate identity design for the prestigious Musée d’Orsay, in collaboration with the prominent graphic designer Bruno Monguzzi.
He continued to focus on corporate graphics for cultural institutions, developing the identity for the Théâtre National de la Colline, and the IMA—Institut du Monde Arab, both in 1987, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 1994. In 1989 he also designed a typefaces, Bi-89, on the occasion of the French Revolution’s bicentennial.
In 1960 he joined the faculty of the ENSAD—École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (School of Decorative Arts), Paris, where he taught until 2000 remodeling the graphic design curriculum, stressing mastery of typography and color as fundamental skills. Since the early 1990s, he also taught at the Atelier National de Recherché Typographique (National Bureau for Typographic Research).
During his career he received important recognitions, including the Toulouse-Lautrec Prize in 1980, the Grand Prix National des Arts Graphiques from the French Ministry of Culture in 1994, and the Distinctive Merit Award from the ADC (Art Directors Club), New York. He was appointed Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1983, Officer of the same order in 1991, and Commandeur in 2001.
The important Centre Georges Pompidou publication is now available at www.ftn-books.com
I have always taken great interest in the works by jean Dubuffet.
A few years ago i was ver impressed with a small exhibit of paintings that were on show in the permanent collection of the Musee des Art Decoratifs in Paris. At the time we visited with David and Monica the Chtchoukine collection at the Fondation Vuitton and seeing the Dubuffets was certainly one of the artistic highlights of the trip. I was delighted to encounter what is (arguably) the best exhibition catalogue on Dubuffet ever.
It is a combined effort of the three venues that all had the same show with works by Jean Dubuffet. The three venues were Akademie der Kunste in Berlin, Museum Moderner Kunst in Vienna and the Josef Haubrich-Kunsthalle in Köln. The three combined publihed one of the most impressive and important catalogues with an exhibition ever. 428 pages filled with impressive and important Dubuffet works of Art. This cataloguefrom 1980 is now available at www.ftn-books.com
Last year i stumbled upon this title…PORTRAIT OF THE ART WORLD…..published in 2002 by Yale, hardcover edition, 160 page filled with artists photographs. It is outright a fun book to own and even important because it portraits most of the arists in their studios, so you have a peek into the working space of these famous artists. As for the cover….one of my all time favorit artists….Lousie Nevelson on the cover. www.ftn-books.com has this book now available and as for the artists a photograph by Suzy Embo of Louise Nevelsoen is also available.
Frans de Wit deserves to be known better. Not only for his land art , but his sculptures were well ahead of their time. de Wit was well known in Rotterdam and surroundings , but hardly known outside Rotterdam. He deservedly was commissioned the VIERKANT EILAND IN DE PLAS , which wasd executed on the lowest spot in the Netherland well below sea level. A large project and just recently i learned of its existence. For those living in the neighborhood or visiting Rotterdam. The location is 1.5 kilometers east of the Kralingseplas. realized in a Nineties development and commissioned by CBK Rotterdam.
I think it is an important art work and certainly one of the most important works Frans de Wit realized. The special publication on Vierkant eiland inde plas is available at www.ftn-books.com
The following text comes from the Paul Smulders site: https://www.paulsmulders.com
Paul Smulders (born in Breda in 1962) is a painter through and through. He has chosen the painting process as the theme of his work.
There is no preconceived plan. Instead, he lets his artist’s materials lead him where they want to go. He employs various types of paints, inks and varnish, allowing them to interact in a sort of alchemy. The colours are left to mix freely resulting in something the painter himself initiated but which largely takes place in an unpredictable manner.
Of course even Smulders cannot avoid imposing order on his materials, but at the same time he gives them as much space as possible, so they can be a deciding factor in the ultimate composition.
The main theme of his current series are motifs from the natural environment. Yet the paintings do not wish to give the idea of being perfect reflections of nature. Painting is not merely a question of creating an image. It also involves bringing artistic materials – which in themselves have no meaning – to life. The paint and the gestures made in the act of painting represent the sensory element in the artistic process, whereas the eventual image is in fact a form of order and organisation.
Smulders’ work shows not only landscape motifs but also the vigour that is evident in nature. In fact, his paintings reveal the interaction between two sorts of nature: there is the natural effect of art that is as uninhibited as possible, and this competes on the canvas with the age-old design that characterises living nature. His work looks like a dynamic tissue of organic forms but it could also be regarded as abstract, a work that does not refer directly to nature at all.
You could say about Smulders’ paintings: “They are nature’s fabric, having the unity you would expect from nature”. The struggle between image and material, and between structure and chaos is palpable when you look at his work. He wants the image to become paint and paint to become the image. There is certainly a suggestion of figurative work in his paintings, but only beneath the surface. The figurative and the abstract are experienced simultaneously in the canvas.
On a personal note. I like his older work better, but Smulders is a great artist to admire and collect. www.ftn-books.com has some publications available.
Richard Strange Mortensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied between 1931 and 1932 at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Influenced by the works of Wassily Kandinsky, he developed an abstract art style. In Copenhagen, Mortensen was joint founder of the “Linien” school of abstract painters.
In 1937, he undertook a study trip to Paris, where he met pioneers of surrealism, such as Roger Vitrac, Gala Éluard, Michel Leiris, Antonin Artaud, Raymond Queneau and André Masson. During the Second World War, Mortensen’s works reflected the violence of Europe. After the death of his wife Sonja Hauberg, in 1947 moved to Paris remaining there until 1964. Together with Robert Jacobsen, Mortensen became connected to the Galerie Denise René in Paris, which became famous for concrete art. His later works are concrete works of art characterised by large, clear, bright colour surfaces. After his return to Denmark in 1964, he received a professorship at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen, which he held until 1980..
Mortensen was awarded the Edvard Munch Prize (1946), the Kandinsky prize (1950), the Prince Eugen Medal (1967) and the Thorvaldsen Medal (1968). In 1945, he married author and poet Sonja Hauberg (1918–1947). They were the parents of literary researcher and professor Finn Hauberg Mortensen (1946–2013). Richard Mortensen died at Ejby in Lejre Municipality
The works by Mortensen were presented in the last two decades of his life at gallery Willy Schooots, bu unfortunately the gallery in Eindhoven and the foloow up in Antwerpen closed recently. However ….somne of the catalogues are available at www.ftn-books.com
Galerie Willy Schoots was one of the iconic galeries that started in the Nineties with some great exhibitions. Later the gallery was continued in Antwerp as Galerie Schoots – Van Duyse. But trying to find the internet pages of the gallery i found out that the gallery is now closed. A pitty since another great gallery whichg has dutch roots has now closed its doors . Just a few dozen of galeries for Modern Art continue their work to present dutch and international art to a dutch audience. I predict that in another decade most of these will have closed and ond only “an “online” art market will exist. Still there is lots of these galeries to collect. I have recently added some catalogues and invitations of the galerie Willy Schoots to my inventory at www.ftn-books.com
These are now for sale today the invitations and tomorrow the catalogues which are added.
Galerie Neuendorf is one of those iconic galeries that was active in the Eighties and early Nineties selling the very best works by the very best artists.
It nowadays is a private fine art dealership and advisory service based in New York, London, and Berlin, offering expertise on modern and contemporary art and specializing in sourcing the highest quality artworks for clients.
Founded as a gallery by Hans Neuendorf in 1964; Neuendorf represented, and was instrumental in the development and present artistic legacy of renowned artists including Georg Baselitz, Lucio Fontana, David Hockney, Francis Picabia, Cy Twombly, and others.
Since closing the gallery in 1995, Neuendorf has continued to work with a select group of clients to build and manage their collections. With over 70 years combined experience in the art market, we offer our clients a direct, personal, and discreet option to buying and selling artworks, but this is all “old school”….he probably will be remembered as the founder of Artnet.
When Hans Neuendorf created his online art company in 1989, he had little inkling that providing transparent art-market data would transform what was then a boutique art business into, 30 years later, a global industry that regularly transacts in $100 million sales. But that is exactly what has happened.
www.ftn-books.com has some of the Neuendorf catalogues availabel. The best one is the 1992 book, which included the list of available works and their prices. It shows exactly what Neunedorf predicts for the future. Prices of great art will rise in the decades to come
