This morning i read in our newspaper that the artist/photograph Ger Dekkers died on the 20th of January. Dekkers will always be known for his series of landscapes that he combined into an abstract almost constructivist composition. Dekkers was the artist who needed a landscape for his art. www,ftn-books.com has several books on Dekkers available.
It is a rare find to have found this 2 months ago. This is a book which was published during the best years of the “Figuration Libre”. This special artist book was published in an edition of only 1000 copies . I doubt that it was an authorized edition which was published by Fernando Pellegrino and Saverio Perozzi, but there is no doubt about the artistic quality that oozes from the pages. Quick sketching and written text in print, making a complete story on 92 pages.
On the cover an auto portrait of Di Rosa and page after page filled with typical Di Rosa art. My guess is that not too many copies will have survived the 36 years of its existence, which makes this one of the most collectable Di Rosa publications and an absolute MUST for the avid “Figuration Libre” collector/ enthousiast.
……..and in the title also should also be Ed van der Elsken. Van der Elsken was fascinated by Myers, from his early days in Paris until his death he followed Myers and her career.
Myers was born in Canterbury, Sydney, on 2 August 1930, to a violinist mother and marine wireless operator father. She displayed a talent for art at an early age. The family moved to Box Hill, Melbourne in 1941 and Vali left home at 14. After working in factories to support her dance lessons, she became immersed in dance and later became the leading dancer for the Melbourne Modern Ballet Company.[1] In 1949 at age 19 Myers travelled to impoverished post-war Paris to pursue a dance career but found herself living on the streets of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Quarter on the Left Bank.[1] Love on the Left Bank is a 1954 book of photographs from Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken (1925–1990), documenting the bohemian life on the Rive Gauche of Paris; Vali Myers is the heroine of this semi-biographical roman à clef, and is also photographed along with some of her early drawings.
Myers was a flamboyant fantasy artist who worked in pen and ink and watercolour as well as being a nightclub dancer. She divided her life between her adopted home of Melbourne, the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, Paris, and a 14th-century cottage in a valley near Il Porto (Positano), Italy. This is wher4e the following van der Elsken documentary was filmed:
www.ftn-books.com has recently added some Myers collectibles to its collection.
A few years ago i wrote a blog on Dick Elffers , who had been designing for the Holland festival during the Fifties. I illustrated this blog with some examples which i had found on the internet, but now i have added two Holland festival items which i have found and bought recently. Both are from 1955. One is for the New York City Ballet performance and the other for Theatro alla Scala, Milano who performed l’Italiana in Algeri by Rossini. These programs ar4e a true delight . Embossed cover and the typical Elffers typography takes the spotlight. Both are now available at www.ftn-books.com
Di Rosa is the artist from the LIBERATION LIBRE group who arguably has been influenced the most by the original comic art from the previous French decades in comics. He even published some comics on his own. A bit like Raymond Pettibon also publishes his own comics. In an interview he tells the following to the interviewer:
“The great names in comics have affected me every bit as much as the great painters I love.” Growing up in the 1960s, relatively isolated in Sète on the French Mediterranean coast, Hervé Di Rosa got his culture fix from reproductions of fine art in books and from comics. “I saw no difference between them in scale or validity.” Starting to exhibit his art in 1980, Di Rosa with his brother Richard and Robert Combas drew on their passions for both art and pop culture to pioneer the radical French ‘Figuration Libre’ movement in the 1980s. Unlike most earlier Pop artists, who were not necessarily raised on comics, Di Rosa explains, “I don’t cite comics in a superficial way, I incorporate their techniques into my work.”
Personally i think the works by Di Rosa are too much like comics. I prefer the Combas works with the heavy outlines around his subjects , making his works stand out and recognized instantly. Still the Groninger Museum liked Di Rosa his works so much that they devoted a nice exhibition on Di Roda and published ” LES AVENTURES DE HERVE ET RICHARD ” in 1986. This and other Di Rosa publications are available at www.ftn-books.com
This week several blogs on “Figuration Libre” . It is the french counterpart of the mouvement which was led by haring, Scharf and Basquiat in the US, b ut with a difference, because , in my opinion, The Europeans? French were influenced by comis art from the Sixties and Seventies. The US artist did not have this legacy but invented a kind of street art on their own. Artistically more important but in many cases less pleasing to the eye.
Figuration Libre (“Free Figuration”) is a French art movement which began in the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. Arists in the movement typically incorporate elements of comic book art and graffiti into their work. They use bright colors and exaggerated, caricature-like figures.
The group was formed in 1981 by Robert Combas, Remi Blanchard, François Boisrond and Hervé Di Rosa. The term ‘Figuration Libre’ was coined by Fluxus artist Ben Vautier. Other figures include Richard Di Rosa and Louis Jammes. Between 1982 and 1985, these artists exhibited alongside their American counterparts Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf in New York City, London, Pittsburgh and Paris.
Figuration Libre (Free Figuration) can be translated as “Free Style”.
Of course there is a reason to devote these blogs to Figuration Libre. I have acquired a small collection of important books by these artists which is now for sale at www.ftn-books.com
on Donald Janssen
Exhibition design is a relatively young design discipline that in recent decades has been developing strongly. Graphic and industrial designer Donald Janssen has for fifty years been part of this development, first as an independent designer and then with his design office in The Hague. In the 1970s he started as a freelance designer at the Haags Gemeentemuseum. Gradually several museums in the Netherlands and abroad followed, from which frequently long-term working relations emerged. He is a passionate designer who is constantly looking for new ways and sustainable solutions within the framework of a clear design concept.
This is an excerpt from an excellent series of blogs on great Dutch graphic designers. And Donald is certainly one of them. You can find the complete article on Donald Janssen at https://www.dutchgraphicroots.nl/?p=1757
and of course www.ftn-books.com has some very nice Donald Janssen designed books in its inventory
On a recent book market visit i found 2 totally different publications on the same artist. Malevich being the subject it occurred to me that there was a great difference between both publications. One rather modern with the emphasize on his early works proved that the interest in his early works was not there from the early beginning. The other being earlier…. a Louisiana / Denmark Museum publication from 1959. Shows the influence of Willem Sandberg in its catalogue design and its approach is totally different. Only a few early works are depicted and the focus is on his Suprematist works, which were being discovered as highly important in those days. The ultimate “BLACK SQUARE” being the final result of his search in constructivist painting.
These and other great Malevitch publications are available at www.ftn-books.com
I remember it well. Together with a huge publicicty campaign the Book by Charlotte SALOMON, Leven of Theater? / Life or Theater? was published on a worldwide scale. In the Netherlands it was pub lished by Meulenhoff and in the US by Viking press. My estimate is that there were several 100K book printed and published, but it is remarkable that this title is a rare find nowadays. The one i finally have in my inventory is a 1st printing by the original publisher of the work GARY SCHWARZ. Book is in english and a highly collectable item. here is the blog from some years ago i wrote on Charlotte Salomon
The Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam shows the complete set of “LEBEN ODER THEATER” the magnificent works by Charlotte Salomon . It is the equivalent of a written diary of her life in Auschwitz before she was murdered. The complete original set is now on show at the Joods Historisch Museum until the 25th of March 2018, but…. not only the complete set is on show, there is another way of viewing the set…..for those who are interested and live to far away you can view the complete set at :
https://charlotte.jck.nl/section
This is what makes the internet worthwhile, so visit this site and convince yourself why this is not only a historical important work, but also a great work of art by a gifted artist.
www.ftn-books.com has the very rare first dutch publication on Charlotte Salomon availablle at www.ftn-books.com
For many among us Günther Förg is the painter of lead surfaced paintings and one great print maker, but there is another quality in which he excels. Förg was a great photographer and made some high quality photo books on the almost forgotten ( Bauhaus )architecture of Tel Aviv and Moscow. The book on Tel Aviv i have sold a very long time ago, but was fortunate to find a Moscow copy with his photographs on a recent book market. This is a truly outstanding publication. Large sized , printed and published by Snoeck and of the highest print quality. The book shows the excellence of his photographs and makes you wonder why art lovers all over the world are not familiar with this part of Förg’s work.. The photographs look like still lives and do not only have an artistic quality but a historic quality too. Where the Tel Aviv book is of the highest quality, this Moscow book even looks better. It is a publication of a rare quality and a highly collectable photography/art book.
