If there is one ceramist who has had an international career and exhibited all over the world it must be Betty Woodman. On several occasions she exhibited her works in the Netherlands in Museums and Galleries and i remember her exhibition from 1996 in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. With this exhibition an excellent catalogue was published, which is available at www.ftn-books.com
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The reason why she had such an interesting and world wide career must be found in the accessibility of her art. Bright, primary colors and abundant shapes of her ceramics make her work stand out and are very appealing for many and because of this many museums and collectors around the globe added her works to their collections. Betty Woodman ceramics can be found in ao.:
It was in the very first beginning of her museum career that i met Jonieke. Jonieke studied at Groningen University and after an apprenticeship at ao. the Gemeentemuseum, she became curator at this museum. Moving forward after this job to Curator of collections at the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, but sadly died at too young an age in 2012. In those early Gemeentemuseum days she started a project on the works by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, Yes the one who taught M.C. Escher, which resulted in the most spectacular book on Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. A true catalogue Raisonne, which will be the standard book on his works for at least a century. The book was published in 2005 by Waanders and is completely sold out for over a decade now. But now i finally found another copy and for those of my readers that were looking for this one….it is now for sale at www.ftn-books.com
If there is one artist who brought impressionism into dutch art, it must be Jan Toorop. Roughly you can divide his artistic career into 4 phases. The first being his impressionist period ( a memberof Les XX), the second his neo impressionist period, the third being his symbolistic period and the last period is his realistic period in which he was converted completely into a Roman Catholic artist. Toorop is interesting because of his first 3 periods. Being born in Indonesia he has a different approach to his subjects and experiments with techniques and colors and uses a color scheme completely different from his dutch contemporaries. They focussed on skies and landscapes , whereas Toorop focussed on people and their surroundings. There are some great examples to be found in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag of his very early period where he painted with a palette knife and broad brushes. His very atmospheric scenes in London, a city where he lived for a couple of years and where he painted some great paintings. The “Trio Fleuri” is one of the most appealing painting from his London years, together with the Waterloo Bridge painting and both can be seen in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
and for those interested in Modern Art. A great painting by Toorop that symbolizes the dawn and rise of Modern Art in this world.
There are some nice publications on Toorop available at www.ftn-books.com
It was 1977. …..the first time i visited the US and went to New York together with my father we visited the museum of Modern Art. In which i saw for the very first time a large Jackson Pollock drip painting. It was an amazing experience and i remember standing in that room …in awe and amazement of such a large , beautiful, impressive, overwhelming abstract painting. The size of it, the spontaneous dripping and the extreme detail when you went close up to it, opened a door to abstract Modern Art for me. Since i have seen many Pollock paintings, but none was so perfect as the very first one i encountered in the Moma. the ONE, number 31, 1950 painting
There are some nice action movies with Pollock painting to be found on Youtube and this is possibly the one that shows best the creating of a Pollock painting.
and i am proud to have both Pollock catalogues that were produced for the Pollock exhibitions in the Stedelijk Museum at www.ftn-books.
I do not know exactly what it is that draws me into the paintings by Munch. I tried to analyze their attraction for me. It is not the technique, nor the great way they are painted, but what i like about them is the use of color and the drama they radiate. Take for instance the famous Scream or Puberty. Both ooze atmosphere and “action” in a surreal colored setting.
Or compare the kiss by Much with the kiss by Klimt. The Munch kiss is a sensuous one, whereas the Klimt kiss is styled . Both done in the same decade, but for me the kiss by Munch is more authentic. Certainly the Klimt Kiss is more appealing, because the time we visited the Belvedere and saw it in reality in its special room with perfect lightning it was amazing, but the Munch kiss is a real kiss and must be admired just for that reason.
Munch is still not the household name as he should be, but that is a matter of time. Just a few decades and he will be known all over the world. Not only for a few iconic paintings , but for his complete oeuvre. Munch publications are available at www.ftn-books.com
It is the catalogue for the exhibition on still lives and flowers which was held in the Gemeentemuseum during the first months of WWII. ( exactly the months the war broke out) I do not remember ever have seen this, so i was surprised and amazed to have found such a rare catalogue of which the majority must have been destroyed or became lost during the chaotic first months of the war. The catalogue is not particularly beautiful, but is has a nice woodblock print by W.J. Rozendaal on the cover. Of course with a still life of fish and flowers. A rare catalogue and for those of you who collect the Gemeentemuseum catalogues a rare opportunity to complete your collection with this rare catalogue
For many people in the US , Willem de Kooning is an American painter , however ….for us dutch, de Kooning is a dutchman. Born in Rotterdam and educated at the Rotterdam evening academy and working for the METZ department store as an interior decorator until he decided to go to the US in 1926. He went as a stowaway and would become the abstract expressionist painter we admire. He met artists from and became part of the Abstract expressionist mouvement. Meeting with Pollock, Still, Rothko and Newman made him aware of his qualities as an abstract painter developing a style of his own and building an important oeuvre from there on. He never lost touch with his homecountry the Netherlands and this resulted in a large and very important collection of De Kooning paintings in the Stedelijk Museum. Edy de Wilde was the director who made this happen and it is the luck of the visitors of the Stedelijk that in one spot they can discover and admire so many excellent De Kooning paintings.
and for some nice publications on De Kooning visit www.ftn-books.com
I always believed that Copley was as much appreciated in the US as he was appreciated in the Netherlands and Germany, But the reality must have been different since i read a short article on his life. His sixties works were not appreciated and understood in the US. People thought his work was pornographic, but in Europe there was a different understanding about these works . Here they were thought to be erotic and because of this different approach to these great works, they were presented in a solo exhibition within the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1966. Accompanied by a great Wim Crouwel catalogue, which is available at www.ftn-books.com.
This appreciation of his art in the Netherlands, must have resulted in the admiration for dutch artist from the sixties and seventies by his daughter Claire who had an influential gallery in the early seventies in which she presented Ader, Dibbets and van Elk who all have become well known outside the Netherlands
If you look at these paintings now you can only ask yourself why these are being found to be pornographic…..These are great “erotic” Pop Art paintings.
CPLY X-Rated
Copley’s works in the 1970s focused on his own understating of differences and challenges between men and women in romantic and sexual relationships. His works were now erotic, even pornographic. In 1974 he exhibited these new works at what was then the New York Cultural Center in Columbus Circle, New York in a show titled “CPLY X-Rated.” These pieces were a sudden change from his previous romantic whimsical periods. The American public had difficulty with the material, for which Copley expressed, “Americans… don’t know the difference between eroticism and pornography. Because eroticism has always existed in art. And pornography has never necessarily been in art. Copley’s experienced greater feedback in Europe, where the work was then well received. In conjunction with the New York Cultural Center Show there was a special “CPLY X-Rated Poster and Catalog.
The Claire S. Copley Gallery was a Los Angeles gallery on La Cienega Boulevard that existed from 1973-1977. Together with the galleries of Eugenia Butler, Rolf Nelson, Nick Wilder, and Riko Mizuno, the Claire Copley Gallery played an important role in the Los Angeles art scene of the 1960s and 1970sThe gallery provided a venue for emerging American and European minimalist and Conceptual artists, among them Bas Jan Ader, Terry Allen, Michael Asher, Daniel Buren, Jan Dibbets, Ger Van Elk, On Kawara, Joseph Kosuth, avid Lamelas, William Leavitt, Allan McCollum, and Allen Ruppersberg. ( part of the above information was found on Wikipedia)
This morning the Volkskrant mentioned and reviewed another Tate Modern exhibition in which afro-american artists have the leading role. I did not visit this exhibition , but it will be on my list should i visit London in the coming months. The exhibition will be open until the 22nd of October and shows the importance of afro-american artists in the sixties and seventies. None of them have become the household names in Modern Art as we know now and perhaps the only artist who reached “star” status by the end of the eighties was Jean-Michel Basquiat, but he originally was born in Brooklyn and part Haitian, not Afro American. Then i realized that my inventory has very few books on or by Afro American artist. Is it because their art is less appealing? I do not think so, The Dawoud Bey and Kara Walker books i have, show great art, but i think the true reason is that Afro American artists did not get a good platform to show their art in the best possible way. Fewer Museum and gallery exhibitions have been organized with them than with non afro-american artists and that is the reason this exhibition is important and possibly paves the way for artists from other cultures and countries which are lesser known. The mentioned artists Bey and Walker are available at www.ftn-books.com
I just received by Blouin art info the announcement that a large Giacometti retrospective will be held at Tate Modern. read the Blouin article below:
Tate Modern, London presents a retrospective exhibition of works by Alberto Giacometti.
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), celebrated sculptor, painter, and draughtsman, traced the shifting enthusiasms of European art before and after the Second World War in his remarkable career. As a Surrealist in the 1930s, he devised innovative sculptural forms, sometimes reminiscent of toys and games. As an Existentialist after the war, he led the way in creating a style that summed up the philosophy’s interests in perception, alienation, and anxiety. Although his output extends into painting and drawing, Giacometti is most famous for his sculpture. He is perhaps best remembered for his figurative works that helped make the motif of the suffering human figure a popular symbol of post-war trauma.
The exhibition reasserts Giacometti’s place alongside the likes of Matisse, Picasso, and Degas as one of the great painter-sculptors of the 20th century. Through unparalleled access to the extraordinary collection and archive of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, this wide-ranging exhibition brings together over 250 works. It includes rarely seen plasters and drawings which have never been exhibited before and showcases the full evolution of Giacometti’s career across five decades.
The exhibition is on view through September 10, 2017 at Tate Modern, London, Bankside, London SE1 9TG, UK.
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
