Category: Geen categorie

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David Robilliard . musician, poet and painter (1952-1988)

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I first encountered the works by David Robilliard at the exhibition which was held at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1993. I learned that he was diagnosed HIV positive and died from aids in 1988. Before that time he was one of the models of Gilbert & George and found for them others who were willing to pose for them.

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During his life he was not that succes full, but after his death his  drawings and paintings were finding their way into museums, art dealers and collectors. Resulting in the 1993 exhibition curated by Rudi Fuchs who is a long time friend of Gilbert & George. They must have persuaded him to organize a Robilliard exhibition because on the invitation for the Anthony d’Offay presentation they described Robilliard as “the new master of the modern person. Looking, thinking, feeling, seeing, bitching – he brilliantly encapsulates the ‘Existers’ spirit of our time. This must have been for Fuchs the trigger to organize the exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in 1993 and publish the book  A ROOMFUL OF HUNGRY LOOKS.

Robilliard is strongly related to the 80’s and together with his partner Andrew Heard, they are two of those eighties artists who deserve to be remembered and must not fall into oblivion.( both books are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Richard Paul Lohse ( 1902 – 1988 )

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A few months ago i published a blog on a very special Lohse poster published by the van Abbemuseum, but that was a blog on just a single item. Richard Paul Lohse deserves much more, because he is a very important artist. Not only for Switzerland but for Modern Art as a whole. Designer, painter and

I first encountered his work when i was working at the Gemeentemuseum and Rudi Fuchs bought a beautiful Lohse for its collection. It must have been right after his death and because of the connection with cubism and the DE STIJL collection it fitted in perfectly. The painting itself is a typical Lohse painting and because this aroused my interest in Lohse, i started collecting his books and publications. Since the collection has grown and contains at this moment some very specials items that are duplicates and are for sale at

www. ftn-books.com

The most special one is Kalte Kunst ( blog next week ) which contains a beautiful serigraph by Lohse.

Lohse is a multi talented artist , 2 time participant of the Documenta and important for modern art, because without his contributions KONKRETE Kunst would probably not have existed.

 

 

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Floris Hovers … keep on playing

Yesterday….9th of December, 2016…location studio of Floris Hovers in Raamsdonksveer.

Never met him before, but an instant liking for the person and works of Floris Hovers. when we met each other yesterday . The studio visit was a result of a purchase  which we had seen at Art THE HAGUE. The result a beautiful and highly entertaining tableau of Circus wagons.

The tableau is featured in the recently published book “Hover’s Manual of Things “which is published in a limited and numbered edition of only 750 copies of which each has a different hand colored cover . Ours is yellow /green on a color of blue, but many others are available at www.florishovers.nl

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Hovers was educated at the Eindhoven Design Academy, graduated in 2004 and has since been designing and developing furniture, toys and objects. The showroom in Raamsdonksveer gives a great overview of the products he has made during the last decade, but what makes the visit to his studio really special is the workspace behind the office/showroom. A space which has been in his family for generations and in which he creates his projects. His use of color is some kind of special, because in many cases he choses for the subdued colors instead of the bright ones, which results in a typical Hovers color scheme. He has an adult approach to his designs and products and of course the marketing of them, but an imaginative mind to please adults and children alike with his designs. A designer for ages from 8-88. The same approach like Herge who’s “Kuifje naar de Maan” poster is gracing his workspace.

Last but not least…i bought myself a CARtools set and have now played for half an hour with it. You can make numerous cars from it by using the 3 kinds of chassis included and combine them together with the multi colored blocks within the set. A little bit like the Bauhaus ship block set, but as a set i prefer this one. Only one product in my own inventory comes to mind when i see his products. It is the fabulous series of ADO wooden toys. They are as nice as the ones Floris makes.

The products featured in this blog : Hover’s manual of Things (euro 49,50) and CARtools are both available at www.florishovers.nl

For the ADO toys visit www.ftn-books.com

 

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3x DELFT = Bogart, Henderikse & Schoonhoven

Just a simple announcement today. At gallery Schoots + Van Duyse, Antwerp. There will be on the 18th of December  the opening of the 3x Delft exhibition. All three artist  (BOgart, Schoonhoven and Henderikse) have Delft in common. A fascinating exhibition because rarely these artists can be seen together in one venue. 18.12.2016 – 26.02.2017

For those of you who want to prepare themselves before going. Please take a look at www.ftn-books.com for publications on these artists.

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The DYLABY correspondence

Yesterday, i dedicated my blog to the Tinguely exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum and promised to blog on the correspondence for the DYLABY ( Dynamisch Labyrinth) exhibition. Possibly the most important exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in the 60’s.

I blogged on the DYLABY catalogue some months ago…available at www.ftn-books.com,

but this extremely large and complex exhibition required thorough preparation. In the current Tinguely exhibition there is a showcase in which the letters from the invited artists are presented and because i have a great admiration for Tinguely and Sandberg , i had to photograph the correspondence for my own archives. Because the light above and the glass in between make it hard to make a good quality photograph, there is a shadow cast on the paper, but still text and names can be read and i think it is nice for all interested to read about the invitations and preparations for the DYLABY exhibition. Let me know what you think about them!

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The Jean Tinguely exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

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Jean Tinguely ….one of my art heroes …. he had his first exhibitions in the Netherlands in the Stedelijk in the mid sixties and since, his works have been on show in many theme and group exhibitions, but never again in a large retrospective until now.

But now there is one in the Stedelijk Museum and this one is on show until the 5th of March 2017. What can i tell you about this one….it is a nice show, but…….it never has the impact one experiences when visiting the Tinguely Museum in Basel , because it lacks the space, grandeur, size and number of machines/works to show all aspects of his works. I really missed the extremely large mechanical works. I caught one on a video of his funeral

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and beside the one in the collection of the Stedelijk there is only one other one, a wall covered with a very large one, but that is all.

Not that the exhibition is not worth visiting…it really is …. but i was not knocked of my feet. Still i had a chance to make some nice photographs of the (DYLABY documents/ in a blog next week) documents on show and was amazed to see the correspondence Tinguely and Nikki de Saint Phalle had with Edy de Wilde ( the former director of the Stedelijk). On an A4 text, drawings, and illustrations were combined into great works of art.

This is an exhibition to visit for the smaller items like the documents and remember to visit the Tinguely Museum in Basel to get the best overview of his mechanical works.

See the ones in the Stedelijk as an entree to a dinner in which the side dishes steal the show.

There are a great number of Tinguely publications available at www.ftn-books.com

including some original drawings by Meta Matic 10

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Elsa Beskow ( 1874-1953)

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Is this serious art?….

No probably not, but since i have a great personal interest in book illustrations i want to share this with you. Elsa Beskow is one of the greatest illustrators the world has known in the last century. This scandinavian woman ( Norwegian father and Swedish mother ). Has made some of the greatest children’s books ever. Timeless stories with great illustrations and suitable for children of all ages ( 8-88 years as TinTin says). And since it is sometimes hard to find this series of Beskow books  . I want you to know that i managed to purchase a nice small library containing 7 of these classic Beskow titles. Enough…. here are the covers…and tomorrow i promise to blog on real art again.

www.ftn-books.com

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Jakob Bill….son of Max Bill

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The title sounds like a sequel to a popular horror movie, but it isn’t.

Somehow i have developed a liking for Swiss contemporary KONKRETE artists. Almost all are constructivists and Richard Paul Lohse and Jakob Bill are two of them. This time i will blog on Jakob Bill the son of the famous Max Bill and belonging to the group of Zurich Konkrete Kunst.

Outside Switzerland and Germany , Bill is not very well known, but when you visit the collections in Switzerland you encounter many works by Bill. The Zurich Museum/ Haus Konstruktiv organized some exhibitions with Bill, but his most important major exhibitions were all in Swiss Museums . Except for one…..Organized by one of the best galleries in the world. Galerie Denise Rene organized an exhibition in 1972. Denise Rene was the perfect gallery for an artist like Bill, they already represented great artist like Vasarely, Arp., Agam and Jesus Rafael Soto. Bill fits in perfectly. Perhaps this exhibition was a step forward for the popularity of the works by Jakob Bill, but still the artist is not very well known outside Switzerland and certainly deserves better.

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There Will be Blood…Hermann Nitsch

 

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There will be blood….This is the title of one of the most exciting movies from the last decade with a brilliant Daniel Day-Lewis. Violent, colorful story of a family followed over 60 years in the oil business…definitely a must see.

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But this title also refers to the performances of the Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch . From the early 60’s on he made well over 100 performances within his cycle of the Orgien Mysterien Theater. Bloody performances, but meticulously executed and well thought over. Naked people, audience, blood and canvases , registered on Video or film and directed by Nitsch himself make these  true works of art. The performance is one part of the art work, the other part are the canvasses which were made with material from these performances and sold by galleries worldwide. When you visit Vienna visit the Tourist Office to see if there is a performance planned. When visiting Napoli ( Italy) realize that outside Austria In Naples is the largest Nitsch collection assembled in the http://www.museonitsch.org

Blood is not only used by Nitsch, but others use blood as well. Marc Quinn uses blood to freeze it into a sculpture of a human head and Eric Orr uses it as paint for his paintings. Do not be horrified by the use of blood in art, but see the beauty of the art which is made by the use of blood.

wilfried

NItsch titles available at www.ftn-books.com

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Victor Vasarely

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It must have been the early 70’s. There was an art dealer in the Hoogstraat in The Hague, who had in his window 2 silkscreen prints by Vasarely. I thought them wonderful, but lost interest in them because the edition size was 100 numbered /signed copies. At that moment i never had heard of art published in an edition. Nowadays it is common practice. Artists make a living out of these editions and people can purchase an affordable original piece of art. I should have bought them at that time, but time passes and one forgets about these. All of Vasarely’s works are practically forgotten in the 3 decades to follow, but now in the present days, Vasarely works are sought after and well worth collecting…even the one’s which are published in editions of over 100 copies.

Vasarely has become one of the leading artists from the Geometric Abstract art/ optical art movement and the interest in his works is well deserved. With a highly original point of view and approach to Modern Art he has made many beautiful and impressive works of art and you can encounter them in all the large museums of the world.

When you travel Budapest do not forget to visit the Vasarely museum on the outskirts of this town. ( half an hour by tram ). It is not a museum as we nowadays have grown used to, but the art by Vasarely within this “basic” Museum is fantastic and the best OP ART you will seen gathered within one place .

It even has in a showcase one of the Kriwin catalogues which is depicted below.

It is nice to know that the Vasarely catalogue published by the Stedelijk Museum has on the backside of the cover an original relief print in black and white. (above)

wilfried

www.ftn-books.comwww.ftn-books.com