Category: Geen categorie

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Greg Gorman (1949)

Schermafbeelding 2017-07-17 om 10.30.42

If ever there was a celebrity photographer with a personal approach to his subjects Gorman is for me second best after Koos Breukel. To get an impression of his many excellent and sometimes even superb photographs please visit his site first and then continue reading.

http://www.gormanphotography.com

Greg Gorman’s work documents that peculiar obsession of the 20th century celebrity. Each shot, a testament to the individual character, gives a picture of human nature in its infinite range. For me a photograph is most successful when it doesn’t answer all the questions, Somewhere it must be an enigma . Breukel excels in that area and for me Gorman has the same qualities .

For over three decades, Greg Gorman has continued to master the art of photography. From personality portraits and advertising campaigns to magazine layouts and fine art work, Gorman has developed and showcased a discriminating and unique style in his profession. There are several books by Gorman available at www.ftn-books.com

, including the special edition of INSIDE LIFE, which contains an original signed photograph of a male nude body.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Pinot Gallizio (1902-1964)

Schermafbeelding 2017-07-14 om 15.00.38The inventor of industrial painting? i am not sure, but here follows the text i found on Wikipedia on Gallizio after i sought information on him. He is rather obscure and rarely presented in collections , but in the 60’s the Stedelijk Museum held an exhibition and published an extremely nice catalogue on him. But this artist deserves better because for many he was a source of inspiration and a great influence. he was admired by Jorn, Constant and Debord.

https://youtu.be/XD21kq8bz0s

Pinot-Gallizio was born in Alba, Piedmont, where he became an independent Left councilman and a chemist. In 1955, he met Asger Jorn, with whom he co-founded the Experimental Laboratory of the Imaginist Bauhaus in Alba, which was part of the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, in opposition to the return to productivism by others in the Bauhaus school, in particular Max Bill. It was held in Pinot-Gallizio’s studio, a monastery from the seventeenth century, and was attended by such artists as Enrico Baj who experimented with nuclear painting techniques, Walter Olmo, who experimented with musical interventions, Ettore Sottsass, Elena Verrone, and Piero Simondo.

Pinot-Gallizio drew from his background as a chemist in developing new painting techniques. In 1956 he, along with Jorn, organized the First World Congress of Free Artists, at which a representative from the Lettrist International spoke, foreshadowing the foundation of the Situationist International in 1957 by members of both groups, including Pinot-Gallizio. At this conference the Italian artists withdrew from the Laboratory, and after the formation of the SI only Pinot-Gallizio and his son, Giors Melanotte, remained. He helped to make the SI known in the art world with an exhibition in Paris in 1959

www.ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum publication available

 

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)… fauvism

Born in Rotterdam, but French in all his veins , there is still a discussion going on if he is a dutch or a french painter. For me he is 100% french. Practically all his subjects and his registration in paint or drawing of daily life is done in France and influenced in every way possible by French society. He was famous for his portraits of society men and woman ( possibly his most famous portrait is of Brigitte Bardot), but his strength for me is when he watched and depicted french daily life.

For instance the painting which he made on the Moulin de la Galette ( 1904-1905) is one of the very best paintings of the end of the early 20th century and a breakthrough in Modern art and for van Dongen himself, finding eventually a style which in bright unnatural colors ( like green and pink, reality was depicted). Fauvism was born in the work by van Dongen.

www.ftn-books.com has some nice titles on this great artist

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Karel Appel and Jan Vrijman ( Ik rotzooi maar wat aan, 1961)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Of course the official title is different . The documentary by Jan Vrijman from 1961 is called ” De werkelijkheid van Karel Appel”, but most people from the generation of Karel Appel know these famous words ….”ik rotzooi maar wat aan”, but reality is his painting is far from intuitive and improvisation. Many of his complex paintings were thought out and prepared on paper and i suspect that even the painting Appel is executing in the documentary is prepared and worked out on paper before he paints the canvas.

https://youtu.be/uOucmlHp-m0?list=PLKdaBOQFhN1NcGJTBYV6mj2r8iQoMvSJl

Appel is a great artist and certainly one of the most important ones in the Netherlands from the last century. His painting is the summit in abstract expressionism and he deservedly earned his place among the worlds greatest artist.

www.ftn-books.com has a large collection of Karel Appel books available

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Ad Dekkers (1938-1974)…. dutch Minimal art

Schermafbeelding 2017-07-10 om 12.01.18

Ad Dekkers was probably the first dutch minimal artist and even is somehow related to the dutch NUL / ZERO art of the sixties and because of his age 36 , on the day he died, there are not too many works by Dekkers. His oeuvre is limited and most of the important works are to be found in dutch ( museum) collections. ALL important dutch museums have work(s) by Ad Dekkers in their collections and these works prove to be more and more important when you look at them in conjunction with other art from the sixties and seventies. Dekkers announced his own death. He was manic depressed and his suicide was no surprise to the ones that had known him. He left us  a great and important oeuvre and many of the publications are available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Gerard Petrus Fieret (1924-2009)

fieret portrait m

 

Because i visited the Gemeentemuseum on Sunday and i had another hour available i decided to visit the Fieret exhibition in the GEM museum next door , curated in an excellent way by Wim van Sinderen and giving more insight in the person Fieret was and the art/photographs he made. When you have finished the exhibition and continue within the GEM and go downstairs you pass a long corridor in which the portraits of Fieret, which were taken throughout his life are presented. Portraits by Willem Diepraam,  Koos Breukel, Helena van der Kraan and many others make a great portrait gallery on Gerard Petrus Fieret. Of course this is not the best quality, but here are the photographs. They give a great impression of the colorful figure Fieret was.

 

For publications on Fieret please visit www.ftn-books.com

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Illy …. cups to collect

Schermafbeelding 2017-06-30 om 12.18.49

About 20 years ago Illy, the Italian coffee producing company started with their Illy collection. A prestigious collection of (espresso) cups, produced in limited editions in which they invited contemporary artists to paint and decorate their Matteo Thun designed illy cup. Since , over 100 editions have appeared in their series of art designed cups. Great names in Modern art, Fashion and design contributed to the series. Koons, Rauschenberg, Penck, Thun, Pistoletto, Bourgeois, Fabre and many others have made their appearance in the series of espresso and cappuccino cups. For those who started their collection around 2000 some great names were there to be picked up and the editions from that period belong to the highlights in many Illy collection. www.ftn-books.com still has some nice series available with their original boxes and of course never used. The illy coffee can was in most cases removed, because it was well passed its expiration date , but the cups are timeless and will grace any collection.

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Max Beckmann (1884-1950) …a new auction record

A few blogs ago , i argumented that auction records do not justice to the art itself. A record does not automatically mean that the work is of interest or belongs to the best the artist has ever made. But there are of course exceptions. On June 27 Christie’s London  achieved a record for a Max Beckmann painting.   “Hölle der Vögel (Birds’ Hell)” 1937-38 was sold to American art dealer Larry Gagosian for £36,005,000 / $45,834,365 / €40,865,675.

Schermafbeelding 2017-06-29 om 11.46.34

Beckmann’s “visceral response to the rise of the Nazi regime in his native Germany is one of the most striking and important expressionist paintings ever made, because it comments on the political situation in Germany. He painted the painting in his Amsterdam studio. It is filled with symbols  The nude men scratched and mutilated, youth in the background bringing a Hitler salute and the Hell birds guarding the naked man. If ever there was a comment in art on the rise of Nazi Germany , it is this painting. It was part from an American private collection and probably become part of another private collection again and this is a pity because a work as important as Birds’ Hell should be visible to the public.  Is it worth as much money as now paid for. I don’t think so, …….but what an important painting this is.

Beckmann publications are available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Nan Goldin (1953) and Boris Mikhailov (1938)…”Grunge” photographers

Schermafbeelding 2017-06-28 om 09.51.43

With her publication THE BALLAD OF SEXUAL DEPENDENCY Goldin became the photographer of the LGBT community. Her photographs are rarely staged , but are set up in a documentary style. Because of their content,( drug abuse, heroin, death, alcohol and mistreatment) these photographs are in many cases unpleasant to look at as is the same with the photographs by Mikhailov. They can be compared with the photographs by Boris Mikhailov, who in the same decade photographed the less fortunate in Russian society. Both have won the Hasselblad award for photography and will be remembered for the excellent way they portrayed the people and society around them. Publications by Nan Goldin are available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Eugene Brands (1913-2002)…there are forgeries on the market.

Schermafbeelding 2017-06-27 om 09.37.02

In 1946 he participated in the exhibition JONGE SCHILDERS in the Stedelijk Museum and joined the experimental group of young painters in the Netherlands which would later become the COBRA mouvement. From there on he developed a very recognizable style with light bright colors, using many shades of red and yellow. Almost every large museum in the Netherlands has works by Brands in their collections and paintings and drawings are frequently offered for sale at auction or on auction sites. But beware !….. at one time i was visiting a viewing day ( many many years ago) by Sothebys on their Nes location when Brands walked in with the Amsterdam director of Sotheby’s. At that time there were about 10 works by Brands for sale. Brands walked around, glasses and furcoat still on (inside a heated room) , made a quick tour in the viewing hall, pointed out  and marked at least 5 works that were forgeries, since that occasion and knowing that there are many fake Brands paintings, i stayed away from them. Of course you can buy them at the gallery Nouvelles Images and Galerie de Rijk. It will be a safe buy, because all works sold by them are genuine, guaranteed and mostly registered pieces from the Brands studio, but from other sources …..BEWARE. Eugene Brands publications are available at www.ftn-books.com