Category: Geen categorie

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Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)

Born in 1960, the time Andy Warhol would become hugely popular with his Factory, Basquiat spend his childhood years in Brooklyn. But at the time he was 24  he had become “Brothers in Art” with the great Warhol himself.

If ever you have seen a Basquiat exhibition you must agree that his paintings do not stop to impress. The sheer size, the power, the typical and highly recognizable way he paints…..it is all Basquiat.  Perhaps the success destroyed the person Basquiat, but his paintings never disappoint.  You might even argue that it is fortunate that Basquiat died at such a young age, but at the same time with such a small production in 10 years you will never be disappointed by his art. His art is of a constant high level, always original in its appearance, has its own “language” and technique and many of the great collectors of Modern Art consider a Basquiat as one of the ultimate collection additions.( but only a few of them can buy because of its price).

It was about 6 years ago is visited the Basquiat exhibition in the Beyeler Museum / Basel and was blown away by it. the Beyeler is a small Museum ( but one of the most amazing ones in Europe) and it must have been at least 3 times i looked at all the paintings before i left the museum. If you ask …what was your favorite exhibition in the last 10 years….this is it. A Rare occasion to see so many of the greatest Basquiat paintings in one location. If ever you have achance to visit a Basquiat exhibition do not hesitate, plan your trip or make a detour because these paintings are very impressive.

 

I have some nice Basquiat items available so look at www.ftn-books.com

http://basquiat.com

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Instant photography / POLAROID

There was a time when our generation was amazed when we saw the instant result when you took a picture with a Polaroid camera. It was at the end of the seventies that these camera’s were hugely popular and many artists in those days used them to get an immediate result. Recently i only know of Araki who still uses the technique of instant photography.  However , a few weeks ago, a friend of the family took a new camera out of his pocket and showed it to us. It was a similar camera to a Polaroid camera , same technique, but much much smaller. Personally i do not think it will replace the digital photography we all got used to nowadays, but maybe some artists will see new opportunities and will use it in their art. Time will tell.

There are some very nice publications to be found on the technique and the artists that used it. Of course Andy Warhol is one of the best known, but there are many more and this form of art was recognized by the Stedelijk Museum in 1982 with a large exhibition on instant photography. An excellent Wim Crouwel designed catalogue which shows many great examples of INSTANT PHOTOGRAPHY.

 

wilfried

ftn-books.com

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the Gerard Verdijk drawing……

As promissed. Here is the Gerard Verdijk drawing which is for sale.

For inquiries please contact wvdelshout@ziggo.nl

and for book titles see:

www.ftn-books.comverdijk drawing.jpg

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Opening Gerard Verdijk Retrospektief

Yesterday, 30th  of July, 2016…Location Dordrechts Museum…..time 15.30 hrs.

The director welcomes his audience, his guests to attend the opening of the exhibition GERARD VERDIJK RETROSPEKTIEF, in which the Dordrechts museum presents over 70 works by Gerard Verdijk. Mrs Saskia Monshouwer , a long time admirer of the works by Verdijk gives her speech on the person of Verdijk in relation to his works and distinguishes 4 periods in his life. She even links him to Zero. This was new to me, but when you look at several works within the exhibition you can see why she does it. Visiting the exhibition makes one thing clear….Gerard Verdijk is a very important artist and will earn his place amongthe best in Modern dutch 20th century art. Even after so many years his works are not “out dated” but still original , fresh and……mystic.

It certainly is a recommended exhibition, which can be seen until the first week of January 2017. Meanwhile a publication will be published and for those who want to start their own Verdijk collection there is a beautiful small drawing for sale at ftn-art.

Interested ? contact me at wvdelshout@ziggo.nl

 

The drawing will be published later today on this blog together with a choice of other publications on Verdijk

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Wim Crouwel + Ellsworth Kelly = Vormen van de Kleur

One of the most spectacular publications in the history of the Stedelijk Museum was the VORMEN VAN DE KLEUR catalogue. A cassette containing biographies on all the participating artists ( a.o. Donald Judd ) and 4 original silkscreens . The silkscreens were published in an edition of only 2200 copies and all had the same basic colors (red, white and blue ).

Ellsworth Kelly, William Turnbull, Bob Bonies and K.G. Pfahler were invited to make a contribution for these silkscreens. 4 square large silkscreens were included in this publication. A challenge too for Wim Crouwel who designed a cardboard container/sleeve in which the loose pages on the participating artists were presented and on top of them the 4 original silkscreens.

Crouwel chose a larger size ( 10.2 x 10.2 inches ) than usual for he thought this to be an important publications too……and it was . It is one of the many highlights in the publication history of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and will be a quintessential catalogue to have if you are a serious collector of Stedelijk Museum material or Wim Crouwel publications, but compared to the other beautiful and collectable SM publications this is in my personal top 5.

Only for FTN-books blog readers there is now a discount of $ 50.00 on this item to be had if you order and use the discount code: CrouwKel (there is only 1 copy available)

Catalogue design by Wim Crouwel, NM+ condition for the sleeve ( see picture), all sheets and silkscreens are in MINT- condition. Book measures 10.6 x 10.6 inches, silkscreens measure 10.2 x 10.2 inches. VORMEN VAN DE KLEUR/NEW SHAPES OF COLOUR. With 4 silkscreens in blue and red by Ellsworth Kelly, Bob Bonies, Georg-Karl Pfahler and William Turnbull. Amst., SM, 1966. Orig. wrappers. Illustr. b/w. 27 sheets. – Trends in abstract art of the past 10 years: Josef Albers, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Vasarely, Max Bill, Peter Struycken a.o. – Silkscreens printed in 2200 copies. – In slipcase/sleeve

wilfried / www.ftn-books.com

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Bruno Bruni (1935)

Bruno Bruni has become one of the grand old masters in the art of lithography, but beside this discipline he is also a gifted painter and sculptor.

But for this moment i will focus on his lithographs . His lithographs  at gallery Steltman Amsterdam were the first i had seen with such detail and yet also an abstraction. The bed in relation with the nude girl figure in front of it made it almost surreal and this is what attracted me in these works.

After this first encounter i have seen many more works by Bruni and he stayed true to his romantic figures, flowers, raincoats and of course his bronze sculptures with undressing woman, but personally i think his best works are the lithographs with these beds , ruffled sheets and a human figure on or in front of it.

Bruno Bruni , now 81 years old, is still working but the best works are from the mid seventies until 2000. This is the “GOLDEN AGE” of Bruni.

www.ftn-books.com can present some of his best lithographs and of course a small selection of books.

bruni letto a

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Marc Mulders – A travel to rome part I

In 1989 Marc Mulders published a Travel to rome part 1. For me it was the starting point to follow Mulders as an artist. We met shortly after i visited the Picaron editions stand and made an appointment with Marc Mulders to see if we could collaborate and present his publications in the Museumshop of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I still remember where we met and shortly after this meeting publications by Mulders were sold in the Museumshop of the Gemeentemuseum. This one I bought for myself because i was so impressed with the photographs and original ballpoint drawings in this portfolio. I do not not know anything about the size of this edition, but every portfolio must be different because of the original drawings which are included.

From that date on i followed Mulders and was impressed with his painting which looks “rough” but has such finesse in technique and result that one can only admire Mulders. The DE PONT museum in Tilburg has probably the largest collection of Mulders and they even have another copy of the A TRAVEL TO ROME, so you can get an excellent impression of the works by Mulder and see how he evolved during the last 3 decades.

To give the best impression of this classic Mulders publication i photographed all its pages and you can see for yourself why this Mulders is such an important publication.

Of course there are many more publications by Marc Mulders and for those that are interested take a look at my site: www.ftn-books.com

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for more info see also site : www.marcmulders.com

 

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Gerard Verdijk (1934-2005)

verdijk dordrecht

First of all a personal note on Gerard Verdijk. I have known Gerard and met him on several occasions because he frequently visited the Haags Gemeentemuseum and its museum shop. One day after one of his visits , in which i expressed my interest in his works, he invited me to come over at his house and look at several ones he had for sale at that moment. Problem was…. i did not have the money to buy a work, but what remained after that visit was the appreciation for his works in which he explored contrasts in shape and color. Many, many years later all fell in place with the acquisition of a very large work by Verdijk, which was part of the Stuyvesant collection and sold at AAG auction. The work titled ….Horizontaal/Verticaal was from 1992 and exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in the Verdijk exhibition so this together with the Stuyvesant collection it had an excellent provenance and had all the elements in it for which i admired Gerard’s his works. The contrast between the left and right side, the use of color. It looked so simple and yet its complexity is enormous.

That for a personal note. Now it is time Gerard Verdijk is remembered as one of the greatest painters from last century and the Dordrechts Museum recognized that and will open a retrospective on Verdijk on Saturday next, the 30th of July. A well deserved retrospective in which the different periods of his works will clearly show the evolution of Verdijk into the abstract painter he eventually became.

Because i have this personal interest in Verdijk, it is no wonder that the selection of books on Verdijk is quit large. Interested in Verdijk too? look at www-ftn-books.com or mail me for information on the little drawing i have for sale.

 

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Maeght – Derriere le Miroir…Great art can be inexpensive.

Maeght editeur is one of the leading art publishers from the last 50 years. Beside the exhibitions they organized, they are also a very influential publisher in the art scene. One publication in particular stands out …and that is the DERRIERE LE MIROIR series….which was published from 1946-1982. Many great names were presented within this series and beside the many Miro publications, there were also volumes devoted to Picasso, Braque, Calder, Bazaine and many others. What makes this series so great is the original lithographs that are included in each volume. Beside the normal illustrations there were original lithographs in almost each volume. depending on the number of pages there were at least 2, but in many cases 8 to 10 originals to be found in each number and sometimes they were printed over 2 pages, which made the size 22 x 14.8 inches. really impressive and because they were not numbered nor signed they were published with a reasonable retail price, but they stayed affordable and when you calculate the price per original lithograph, they are right out “cheap”.

The series eventually stopped in the early eighties , but during the time of its publication the artist within the series got an opportunity to make a publication for “everyman” .

www.ftn-books.com still has a nice selection of this great and historic series. Among the titles available there are volumes containing works by Calder, Braque and Miro and i can only give the highest recommendation to these very nice books with great art within them.

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Mark Brusse… “the blue shed”

About 4 weeks ago there was an auction at Venduehuis in which the complete company collection of Imtech was sold. Among the lots were several works by Mark Brusse. There was this one painting called the BLUE SHED which was very impressive . Excellent and because of its simplicity spectacular. The outlines of a blue shed and in the background just one sombre color made it very powerful. Yesterday, i remembered the painting and decided to list the small collection of Mark Brusse titles i bought last year from a collector. Some rather obscure titles among them and because of these special titles, they should be of interest to other collectors.

Take a peek at them and go to www.ftn-books.com for more information.

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wilfried