Posted on Leave a comment

Nicolaas Petrus de Koo (1881-1960)

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-08 om 11.25.24

de Koo was one of the most important of all PTT employed designers. He started as an interior and book designer, but soon after found his way into designing for the dutch postal service PTT. PTT has a long standing history with the best designers in the Netherlands. Schuitema, Piet Zwart and also de Koo have had their history with PTT.

( Piet Zwart designed HET BOEK VAN PTT, available at www.ftn-books.com)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

de Koo designed some of the most iconic of all PTT designs. Among them letterboxes,  printed matter, labels and signs.

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-08 om 11.19.24

The Gemeentemuseum Den Haag had a special exhibition on de Koo in 1988 and with it a very nice thini catalogue was published for this occasion. The book was originally published in 400 copies, but there was no interest in this publication and at the time the Berlage building was renovated , all of the remaining copies were destroyed. My guess is ther are some 100 copies being sold over time, making this one of the rarest of all Eighties publ;ications of the Gemeentemuseum and i now have an excelent copy for sale at www.ftn-books.com

de koo gm

Posted on Leave a comment

Fabio de Sanctis (1931)

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-07 om 09.53.08

Fabio De Sanctis was born on Rome on 7-2-1931. He studied in Rome. After the war De Sanctis came into contact with the word of the visual arts, making friends with various artists who worked in the capital.
At eighteen he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture in Rome, and part of his interests were absorbed by the university and the problems of his chosen discipline. During this period he executed tempera drawings, a few oils, and some ceramic sculptures.



He was graduated in 1957 and opened an architectural office,participating in competitions and designing buildings for private and public clients.
As he followed the execution of his designs, he developed a knowledge of the materials and techniques involved in the realization of his ideas.
His relations with artists sometimes led to joint efforts in the making of buildings and interiors

A fascinating artist because his surrealist art was of a kind rarekly seen. There are not many surrealist painters who use sclupture to express them selves. One exception I know of some Dali sculptures, but most them make paintings. There are not that many publications on the artist, but there is one i have in my inventory and it presents itself as one of de Sanctis sculptures. …. a true artis book and available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on Leave a comment

Gerard Petrus Fieret / Foto en Copyright Vol. 2

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-07 om 09.30.55

Gerard Petrus Fieret Foto en Copyright volume 1 is arguably the most important recent photography publication from the last 20 years in the Netherlands, but there is also Volume 2 from 2010, of which i now have some copies in stock. It is an even beautiful and nice publication as the volume 1 is. The volume 1 is sold out even with the atiquarian booksellers and it is a rare book to find, but now i have the Volume 2 available and still at a reasonable price. So buy your copy when there still is a chance to add it to your collection of photography books.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on Leave a comment

Walter Vopava (1948)

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-06 om 10.57.06

I love paintings which have “infinity” in them. It is the quality i encounter in the paintings by Gerard Verdijk, but i also find them in the paintings by Walter Vopava. Abstract forms and elements combined into a landscape of abstraction with a brighter colored center making these paintings like portals to another world.

As one of the most important representatives of Austrian painting, Walter Vopava, who was awarded the Austrian Art Prize in 2011, is known for his painterly and at the same time individual and purist colour compositions. The artist studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Today he lives and works in Vienna and Berlin. Vopava is a member of the MAERZ Artists’ Association and the Association of Austrian Visual Artists. His works have already been presented at the Wiener Secession (1994), the Museum Moderner Kunst – Stiftung Wörlen (1999), the Shanghai Art Museum (2005) and the Kunsthalle Krems (2011).

www.ftn-books.com has some Vopava publications available.

Posted on Leave a comment

Josef Albers ( 1888-1976 ), an invitation

 

Schermafbeelding 2019-02-05 om 17.49.11

It was sold within 24 hours to a customer in Arizona, but this is so important i want to share this with you. In 1968 there was a Josef Albers exhibition at the Landesmuseum in Munster (Germany). For thiss exhibition. Josef Albers made a special print for within the catalogue and the smaller version for the invitation to the opening. Both were silkscreened prints. If you are lucky you will find a catalogue, but the invitation is probably one of the rarest Josef Albers collectibles and here it is……

albers landesmuseum a

There are other Josef Albers items still availabel at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on Leave a comment

Gianni Colombo (1933-1993)

 

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-05 om 08.56.07

His art is financially far out of reach for me personally, but i really love his art. It has a mystical quality and it is the kind of kinetic art i really admire. Together Jesus Rafael Soto and Walter Leblanc he is one of the 3 artists i admire most from the era. His kinetic art has become a classic . Not the easiest kind of art to exhibit, but when it is done properly you will see the strength of his art.

I had the pleasure to visit the Colombo exhibition in castello di Rivoli ( near Torino) in 2009.  in which his work was brought together and it showed itself in the best possible setting.

Here is a short biography:

He is one of the most important artist in Italy in experiencing kinetic and a member of the Arte Programmata moviment.

Between ’59 and ’60 he founds the “T Group”, linked to the international movement of “Nouvelle Tendence”. He  held his firt solo show at the Galleria Pater (Milan, 1960).

He experiences in different fields of physics which include electrical and magnet devices, industrial neon lights and laser, all to exalt the aesthetic potential of technological rationalism.  In the 1960s he made experimental films, kinetic object and enviroments. He has exhibited on numerous occasions in Italy and abroad.

In 1985 he becomes director of the Brera Academy where he teaches the “structuration of space”. He also takes part in avant-garde scenography (Operstheater of Frankfurt, 1986) and in designing virtual architectures (the “Architetture cacogoniometriche” in 1988, the “Spazi curvi”, 1992).

With his art-work was the winner of the Venice Biennial in 1968.

www.ftn-books.com has the following books on Gianni Colombo available

Posted on Leave a comment

Carry Hauser (1895-1985)

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-05 om 08.47.21

Increasingly important and one  painter i discovered recently through a magnificent monograph/oeuvre catalogue on Carry Hauser which is available at www.ftn-books.com

I had to read some articles on this Austrian painter to know and discover myself how his art life developed through the years and it appears that the timeslot of the INTERBELLUM was artistically the most important one for him. For a quick biography…here is the entry on Wikipedia on the artist:

Carry Hauser was born in Vienna as Carl Maria Hauser into the family of a civil servant. He was educated at the Schottengymnasium and the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, after which he studied at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule under, among others, Adolf Michael BoehmAnton von KennerAlfred Roller and Oskar Strnad. He then began his career as a painter, illustrator, theatrical designer and author, which was interrupted by World War I, for military service in which he volunteered in 1914. His war experiences made him a pacifist.

After the war he returned to Vienna, where among others he met Franz Theodor Csokor, for whose play Die rote Straße (“THe Red Street”) he designed the set in 1918. In the same year the first comprehensive exhibition of his work was held, in the museum at Troppau, and another was arranged for him by Arthur Roessler, although his earlier works had been lost during the war and could not be exhibited. He became still better-known in 1919 through his portfolio Die Insel (“The Island”).

From 1919 to 1922 Hauser was a leading member of the artists’ group Freie Bewegung (“Free Movement”), and also belonged to the artists’ society Der Fels (“The Rock”) while he lived for a time in Passau. From 1925 to 1938 he was a member of another artists’ group, the Hagenbund, of which he was president in 1927/28. In the theatrical world he was vice-president of the Vienna Theatre Guild (Wiener Theatergilde). During the 1930s in the time of the Ständestaat he was active in the Patriotic Front (Vaterländische Front).

After the Anschluss of 1938, Hauser, because of his political stance, was banned by the National Socialists from working and exhibiting. In 1939 he was given an appointment in the art school of Melbourne but was prevented from taking it up by the outbreak of World War II. His wife, Gertrud Herzog-Hauser (1894–1953), to whom he had been married since 1922, was of Jewish origin and emigrated to the Netherlands, where she managed to survive the war. Hauser went into exile in Switzerland, where he wrote Eine Geschichte vom verlorenen Sohn (1941, privately published 1945), the novel Zwischen gestern und morgen (1945) and the fairytale Maler, Tod und Jungfrau (1946).

In 1947 Hauser and his wife returned to Vienna and took part in the reconstruction. In 1952 he became General Secretary of the Austrian PEN Club, and later its vice-president, which he remained until 1972. He was also a council member of the organisation Aktion gegen Antisemitismus (“Action Against Antisemitism”) and was involved in the revival of the Berufsvereinigung der bildenden Künstler Österreichs (“Professional Union of the Fine Artists of Austria”), of which he was later vice-president.

He died in 1985 in Rekawinkel. He is buried in a grave of honour in the cemetery at Hietzing.

hauser

Posted on Leave a comment

Joel Fisher (1947)

Schermafbeelding 2018-12-17 om 17.19.06

Try to find a good biography on Joel Fisher and you will have a hard time finding one. The best i can come up with a a list of exhibitions:

Exhibitions

1997
Stefan Stux Gallery New York, NY
1996
Stefan Stux Gallery New York, NY
1990
Farideh Cadot New York, NY & Paris, FRANCE
1989
4 Americans–Aspects of Current Sculpture, The Brooklyn Museum Brooklyn, NY
1988
Gallery Shimada Yamaguchi, JAPAN
1987
Structure to Resemblance: Eight Sculptors, Albright-Knox Gallery Buffalo, NY
1984
An International Survey of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art New York, NY
1984
Kuntsmuseum Luzern Luzern, SWITZERLAND
1978
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
1975
Stadtisches Museum Monchengladbach
1973
Seven, Penthouse Gallery, Museum of Modern Art New York, NY
1972
Documenta V, Kassel, Germany
1971
Victoria and Albert Museum London, ENGLAND

 

Study these and you will notice 2 important things. First these are all class A venues and this shows the importance that Joel Fisher was and still is. His art is not accessible at all, which makes his art not well kmnown among art lovers. The ” trigger” for me , was that it was one of the first classic Stedelijk Musuem publications that i bought for my collection. (Available at www.ftn-books.com), another aspect is that Joel Fisher designs his own catalogues . Small books that look like true artist books and have their style , design and size in common, Beautiful little books that are worth collecting.

 

 

Posted on Leave a comment

Bridget Riley (1931) now a permanent part of the National Gallery building.

Schermafbeelding 2019-01-25 om 14.20.23

I love the walldrawings by contemporary artists. First in a long line of artists, there is Sol LeWitt. I witnessed the execution of several of his drawings in the rooms and staircases of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and they fascinated me all.

Then there is Niele Toroni who makes his wall drawings with a single brush and color

and now there is another artist who i admire who have executed a permanent walldrawing, this time at the National Gallery. Yes,…this is permanent and a part of their collection. The last time i had seen  a large walldrawing by Bridget Riley is when she executed one at the Gemeentemuseum in 2012 when she was presented the Sikkens prijs.

An excellent Leperello catalogue was published on that occasion

This beautiful leperello catalogue is available at www.ftn-books.com

Location: Annenberg Court

Spanning a vast 10 x 20 metres, the work comprises coloured discs painted directly onto the surface of the Gallery’s Annenberg Court.

The title, ‘Messengers’, is inspired by a phrase Constable used when referring to clouds, and might also be an allusion to the numerous angels, bearers of news, that we see in the skies of so many National Gallery pictures. 

Painted directly onto the wall of the Annenberg Court, this abstract work carries influences from our historic collection over into the 21st century. Throughout art history, harmonies of colour have played a large part in pictorial composition.Taking as a point of departure the paintings of George Seurat, in particular Bathers at Asnières, Bridget Riley’s ‘Messengers’ transforms the Annenberg Court into a great white space in which coloured discs float as clouds drift in the lanes of the sky. By leaving after-images on the viewer’s retina that suggest volume and movement the longer it is perceived, the work becomes a tribute to its artistic predecessors and to the process of looking at art itself.

Bridget Riley (born 1931) has a long-standing relationship with the Gallery; she made copies of paintings in the collection including Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?), 1433, as a teenager as part of her portfolio when applying to Goldsmiths College, London, just after the end of the Second World War, and Georges Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières while training as an artist. 

riley sikkens e

Posted on Leave a comment

“Fugare” (1960)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

First there was VERVE, later Fugare and finally de Nieuwe Haagse School.

Nowadays dutch art lovers know exactly what is meant by DE NIEUWE HAAGSE SCHOOL. it is a group of artist who lived and worked in Den Haag and met regularly in Pulchris Studio, de Posthoorn and de Haagse Kunstkring. But before this there was FUGARE. this FUGARE society was founded by George Lampe on the 26th of January 1960

The result? an artist mouvement with particpating artist that met regularly and inspired each other and held their exhibitions at the best venues in those days. Exhibitions were held at the Haags Gemeentemuseum, Stedelijk Museum, van Abbemuseum and Pulchri Studio. There was  a place for all in Fugare. Jan van Heel painted figures and Willem Hussem abstract paintings and everything in between was appreciated as long as you were an active member who visited the meetings. Fugare is impiortant for dutch abstract painting and some nice Fugare publications are availabel at www.ftn-books.com

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA