Just reread my blog on Ruf and had to change it a little bit because last week it was announced that Beatrix Ruf resigned as director of the Stedelijk Museum
A few weeks ago the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam announced the completion of its entrance area together with the final adjustment in its presentation of its collection.
The new plan reflects Beatrix Ruf’s vision for the Stedelijk: clearer layout of the building, more works from the collection on view, more stories and topical perspectives, new entrance area to open 22 September.
Stedelijk Base, the new collection presentation of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, opens on Saturday 16 December. It is one of the largest installation of the Stedelijk collections in its history, and will remain on view for at least five years. The presentation of the art works is organized in a circuit designed by OMA, the architecture practice founded by Rem Koolhaas. Stedelijk Base will present art and design from the late 19th century up to the present day. The display is a great way for people who are new to art to discover how modern art and design evolved, and allows seasoned art-lovers to experience the Stedelijk’s world-famous icons in a new context.
Stedelijk Base is the final element to manifest the vision of director Beatrix Ruf for the Stedelijk, in which the building is divided into three zones:
Stedelijk Base: the entire new building will be devoted to a display comprising the 750-plus works in the Stedelijk holdings, grouped around iconic pieces in the collection, and featuring a mix of disciplines.
Stedelijk Turns: the collection in topical and thematic presentations on the ground floor
Stedelijk Now: the temporary exhibitions on the first floor.
If there is one artist who realizes the same intensity as Andy Warhol with her self portraits, it is Katharina Sieverding. Sieverding’s works consist of self-portraiture and most have an abstract quality. She uses the techniques of silhouette, contrast, and extreme close-up to make the photograph more revealing of herself.
She tinted all the prints in one 1969 series a deep scarlet, and for another painted her face gold. Her work often makes statements about society and the individual, such as showing the familiarity of the self and the distance of others. Often she puts multiple portraits together in one piece. Each portrait fills the frame in a way to show the presence of self.
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Katharina Sieverding’s publication are rarely offered but www.ftn-books.com has some nice ones availabel and do not forget the discount code for the rest of this month : WEINER10
Hellen van Meene is known for her (mostly) square photographic portraits of teenage girls. Her work was first exhibited in 1996 and has been shown around the world since then. Her photos are in the collection of many museums, incl. Guggenheim NYC & MoMA. She lives and works in Heiloo and her subjects now include still lifes, dogs and other animals.
This is how her biography on her personal site starts. A poor site with not much information on which i stumbled because i was looking for more information on Hellen van Meene. However there is one highlight on the site which is available. The page with the photographs shows exactly why i think van Meene is important.
http://hellenvanmeene.com/photos
The use of the square format and mofre the way light is used in an almost “GOLDEN AGE”like way make these beautiful little portraits.
www.ftn-books.com has one tilte by van Meene available.
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The Fotomuseum gives better info on van Meene than her own site so here is the text the Fotomuseum published on their pages:
For the last 20 years, Hellen van Meene (b. 1972) has ranked among the world’s top photographers. Her highly distinctive style and timeless, intimate images of young girls on the brink of adulthood have attracted international acclaim. Solo shows and group exhibitions have won her admirers in places as far away as Japan, Korea and the US. The Hague Museum of Photography now presents the first ever major retrospective of her entire oeuvre.
Hellen van Meene career took off in a big way immediately after her graduation from the Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam) in 1996. Following various group exhibitions and a solo show at the Paul Andriesse gallery in Amsterdam, her international breakthrough came with a solo exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. Since then, her work has been acquired by major museums in the Netherlands and around the world. Collections in which it can now be found include those of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and MoMA (New York).
Although Van Meene has continued to develop and her choice of subject has widened over the past twenty years, her work has always displayed the same consistent and distinctive personal style. Whatever the nature of her photographs – whether autonomous art works, images commissioned by the New York Times or Tank Magazine, portraits of young girls in Tokyo or Los Angeles, or portraits of dogs – each of them is always and unmistakeably ‘a Hellen van Meene’.
Van Meene’s unique style is characterized by the timeless and mysterious atmosphere in her images and by her consistent use of natural light. Due to the crucial importance of lighting in her photographs, but also because of the particular way she stages her pictures of adolescent girls, her work is sometimes compared with that of major painters of the past, from Botticelli and Velázquez through to the Pre-Raphaelites of the nineteenth century.
Van Meene draws her models – often young girls – from her immediate social circle or spots them in the street. She doesn’t care who the girl is or where she comes from. For that reason, she deliberately refrains from titling her photographs; the identity of the subject is irrelevant. The photographic image represents a mere moment in time, carefully staged by the photographer; the subject may look quite different the next day – especially if she is a girl in an ‘in-between phase’, hovering on the brink of adulthood. Time flies by: The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits. What remains is a timeless image that frequently offers no clue as to whether it was produced at the start of Van Meene’s career or just this year.
To underline the intimacy of her photographs, Van Meene presents them in the form of small-format prints, forcing the viewer to come close to see them. The retrospective at the Hague Museum of Photography, consisting of over ninety photographs, is accommodated in six vivid, enclosed spaces. It extends from Van Meene’s earliest photographic works, produced in 1994, right through to her most recent images, never previously seen in the Netherlands.
Jewelry artist and a lifetime friend of Günther Förg. Both had a different approach to art. Where Günther Förg chose for abstract geometric painting. Gaby Dziuba chose for jewelry. I think it is fair to say that Dziuba was Günther Förg his “muse”. He used Dziuba on many occasion as his model in his photographs and this is the reason why i would like to show in this blog that one specific catalogue is very important as an artist book. Dziuba had in 1998 a solo exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. The catalogue with this exhibition did not sell very well, but when you look into the colofon, you will find that many of the photographs within the catalogue were taken by Günther Förg. An excellent reason to pick up this catalogue for a reasonable price at www.ftn-books.com. It is still available , but when people realize that this is a disguised artist book by Günther Förg it will be picked up by many and will become a rare collectible.
Only 41 years of age , but with an iconic oeuvre he left us.. Some examples of photographs we all have encountered for more than once in your lives. Foremost Capa was a war photographer and left us some iconic photographs. but when you study the Magmum site (https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL535353 ) you discover that beside his war photographs there are some tremendous other photographs to be found within the Magnum archives, but that his most important subject was WAR in all its aspects and cruelties. A true journalist photographer who showed us the cruelties of war . No polished photographs but a raw image of the reality.
What i stumbled upon when searching for material on Capa is that he had an affair with the famous Ingrid bergman. In 1945 after the fall of Nazi Germany, Capa was staying at the Hotel Ritz on Place Vendôme where he met Hollywood actress, Ingrid Bergman. Bergman was traveling around Europe to see the devastation caused by the war, and entertaining the troops. When they met, Bergman was still married to Petter Lindström who she had a baby with. Capa asked Bergman for dinner, and soon after they started to have an affair. In 1946, Bergman asked Capa to come to Hollywood with her, and he did. While Capa was in Hollywood, he visited her at a studio where she was filming, Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Notorious’. Capa had shot some still photos for the film which he was given no credit for when they were published Hitchcock later made a film with James Stewart and Grace Kelly in 1954, called ‘Rear Window’, loosely based on Capa and Bergman. Bergman wanted to marry Capa and also tried to convince him to quit his job to work in Hollywood. Capa knew that he wouldn’t fit in, and told Bergman that he can’t have a wife and kids because of his duties of work. Their affair ended when Capa left Hollywood for an assignment in Turkey.
There is a great Capa and Magnum publication available at www.ftn-books.com
If you like dutch photography from the 20th century and specially the photography by Cas Oorthuys, you must take a look a the series of books DE SCHOONHEID VAN ONS LAND , which were published along a general theme, depicting the typical dutch countryside, landscapes, cities , costumes and people of the fifties . The series was published by Contact over a decade. An excellent series with many photographs by Cas Oorthuys who started his career right after WWII and was contracted for this Contact series in the Fifties. Later he would publish many books of which some are available at www.ftn-books.com. His archives with over 500.000 negatives is believed to be one of the largest of any photographer. Oorthuys is a true master of dutch photography.
As Monty Python would have said ” and now for something completely different”…..
but is it really different?…. when you consider true fashion is great art and know that Karl Lagerfeld is not only a great fashion designer, but also one of the great photographers from the last century, you may consider Claudia Schiffer his “muse” and being that, she is an almost perfect work of art and therefore i am delighted to write this blog on one of my favorite fashion models of all time, Claudia Schiffer.
In the early 1990s, she starred in campaigns for Guess?.Guess? co-founder Paul Marciano said in E! Forbes Top 15 Supermodel Beauties Who Made Bank, “Guess? name became really much more known around the world because of Claudia”. After several other magazine appearances including the cover of British Vogue, shot by Herb Ritts, Schiffer was selected by Karl Lagerfeld to become the new face of Chanel. In May 1997, Schiffer was featured on the cover and in the pictorial of Playboy.
Schiffer appeared on the November 1999 millennium cover of Vogue as one of the “Modern Muses”. Named one of the most beautiful women in the world,[by whom?] her ability to appeal to a global audience assured an internationally successful career spanning over 25 years. Other magazines Schiffer has appeared on the covers of include Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, People, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Time. Schiffer has walked in fashion shows for numerous fashion houses, including Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, Chloé, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Fendi, Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Balmain, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Valentino.
www.ftn-books.com has some nice books on Schiffer, Fashion, Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld
If ever there is a photographer who is recognized as one of the greatest ever, it is Henri Cartier Bresson. Being a Magnum photographer you can see and discover many known and unknown photographs by Henri Cartier Bresson on this site:
What it also shows is the power of black and white photography. It is in many cases far more authentic and beautiful than color photography and Heni Cartier Bresson proves that he is one of the most original and talented . Beautiful compositions and catching the very best important moments to make the perfect photograph.
www.ftn-books.com has some nice books on Henri Cartier Bresson , including the excellent Sandberg designed catalogue for his Stedelijk Museum exhibition in 1963.
You possibly know the name Herb Ritts from his many celebrity photographs he has made through the years, but if the name does not ring a bell immediately…just have a look at his site. http://www.herbritts.com and you will recognize so many known faces. You will find Gwen Stefani, but also Ronald Reagan ao.
But beside these portrait photographs, Ritts has made so many iconic stylized staged photographs in which he plays a game with shadows and light that makes him stand out from all the others from his generation. I strongly recommend you to visit the Herb Ritts site because you will discover so many great photographs over there and have fun with all the short (commercial) movies of there. Here is one as a preview
and please take notice that there are a few Ritts titles available at www.ftn-books.comHerb Ritts was HIV positve and died of complications from pneumonia at the age of 50.
John Heartfield is considered as one of the inventors of the PHOTOMONTAGE. Together with George Grosz he experimented with this new technique. Because of this new technique he made some of the most powerful anti Nazi statements in art.
On the back of a photograph which was taken in 1912 his name is written as “Helmut.” While living in Berlin, in 1917, he anglicised his name from “Helmut Herzfeld” to “John Heartfield,” an English name to protest against the anti-British fervour sweeping Germany. In 1916, crowds in the street were shouting, “Gott strafe England!” (“May God punish England!”)
In 1917, Heartfield became a member of Berlin Club Dada. Heartfield later became active in the Dada movement, helping to organise the Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (First International Dada Fair) in Berlin in 1920. Dadaists were the young lions of the German art scene, provocateurs who disrupted public art gatherings and ridiculed the participants. They labeled traditional art trivial and bourgeois. Heartfield was a member of a circle of German titans that included Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, Hannah Höch, and a host of others.
Heartfield built theatre sets for Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht. Using Heartfield’s minimal props and stark stages, Brecht interrupted his plays at key junctures to have the audience to be part of the action and not to lose themselves in it.
He is best known for the 240 political art photomontages he created from 1930 to 1938 to expose fascism and The Third Reich. These famous works of political photomontage were an astounding cohesive critique of the rise of fascism.
Heartfield’s artistic output was prolific. His 240 political montages appeared as covers for the Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ, Workers’ Illustrated Newspaper) from 1930 to 1938, a popular weekly whose circulation (as large as 500,000 copies at its height) rivaled any magazine in Germany during the nineteen thirties. Heartfield’s anti-nazi photomontages were featured monthly on the AIZ cover, an important point, because most copies of the AIZ were sold at newsstands. His anti-fascist art mocked Hitler, fascism, and The Third Reich on major street corners throughout Berlin where Heartfield lived until he nearly escaped assassination by the SS in April, 1933.
It was some 30 years ago that the art / photomontage were first recognized as true works of art and the van Abbemuseum presented them in a special exhibition of which the catalogue is available at www.ftn-books.com
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