stedelijk museum amsterdam – Page 36

Posted on 03.11.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Dieter Hiesserer (1939) / Batman’s car.

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One of last weeks blogs was on the Pop Art scene in Europe and there is one German artist who must be mentioned, because he was one of the most important Pop Art artists in Germany…his name Dieter Hiesserer and because he also held exhibitions in Amsterdam his works were known by dutch collectors and included in one of the most iconic company collections in the world. Hiesserer’s works were included in the Peter Stuyvesant collection. In the tobacco factory of Peter Stuyvesant, the employees were confronted with really great modern art. In many cases , large sized paintings which were bought for the Peter Stuyvesant collection. Willem Sandberg was one of the directors who advised the company and by the end of the sixties several paintings by Hiesserer were added to the collection. Among them “Batman’s car”. It is about 10 years ago that this collection was sold at auction by Sotheby’s Amsterdam and later by AAG after Sotheby’s left from Amsterdam. It was a 3 part auction and because of the size of the paintings and an economic crisis it was hard to sell some of these important paintings for reasonable prices. The lots were all sold without a reserve price. I was behind my computer following this auction on line , when this great painting , “Batman’s Car” was on the block and bidding stopped at euro 200,–. I could not believe my eyes and i made the following bid……… and became the final bidder for this great Pop Art painting. Batman’s Car has been in our collection for almost 10 years , but now it is time to part from it. I do not have the place anymore to present it properly. Therefore it is now for sale and should you be interested…do not hesitate to contact me. Price on Application.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Hiesserer

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Posted on 31.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

A very special Piet Mondrian publication (1938)

Schermafbeelding 2017-10-04 om 16.01.16 A Stedelijk Museum publication from 1938. Publishing date well before WWII and extremely rare. One of the first publications containing an article by Piet Mondriaan ( Mondrian) and it is more than likely the only one on the market at this moment. What makes this publication valuable is not only its rarity , but also the art historical value of the articles by Mondriaan, Kandinsky and Gorin. You can find this publication at www.ftn-books.com.

here is its description and the photographs:

https://ftn-books.com/products/piet-mondriaan-stedelijk-museum-tentoonstelling-abstracte-kunst-1938-nm

Posted on 30.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Bart van der Leck (1876-1958)

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Without me knowing and realizing it I collected many van der Leck titles. Probably because subconsciously i must have realized that for me personally van der Leck is more important than Piet Mondriaan. Both are of course important members of DE STIJL group but where Mondrian is the artist who developed his art from realism into pure abstraction, van der Leck is the artist where realism was always present in his abstract works. When you look a little longer at his compositions you can distinguish the objects he depicted in his works. Take a look at these ducks…Yes it is a typical DE STIJL composition with primary colors, but you can clearly see the ducks in this painting.

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Bart van der Leck was born in the Dutch city of Utrecht on November 26th, 1876. He started working as a glazier, but began focusing on his artistic career soon after. He started his studies at the Art Academy in Amsterdam soon after 1898. He was initially influenced by Isaac Israëls and mainly depicted scenes from everyday life. After he finished his education, his realistic working style became a more monumental and modern one.
In 1907 he rented a room in a farming establishment in Blaricum. His only possessions were a small painting chest and some clothing. He lived in complete isolation for a period of four months and thus many paintings depicting Blaricum and its surrounding area exist from his hand.
It is known Van Der Leck was a friend of fellow painter Mondriaan. They both possessed progressive working styles and their paintings were not appreciated by the painters of the Laren School.
Together with Mondriaan and a few other names, Van Der Leck can be held accountable for the establishment of ‘De Stijl'(1917). He passed away in Blaricum on November 13th, 1958.

Here are some of the van der Leck titles available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 28.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm (1953-1968)

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Only 15 years the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm was active and it was one of the first institutions in the world where you could fhave an education and follow lectures in design. After the Bauhaus it was the leading centre in the world on design and responsible for many great “timeless” designs of which the Lufthansa corporate design is probably the most best known.

The importance of this educational centre which was co founded by Max Bill and had ao. Johannes Itten ( see blog from a few days ago) as a teacher was recognized by Willem Sandberg who organized an exhibition in 1965 on the “Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm” and the catalogue which appeared together with this exhibition has become one of the rarest and most collectable Stedelijk Museum catalogues ever. Wim Crouwel designed this catalogue. Oblong format, grey cover, very nice typography ….the catalogue has become a statement for good and simple design, readability and beauty. The designs within the catalogues are beautiful, but the catalogue itself is arguably even better.

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

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There is a great timeline to discover the Hochschule at :

http://www.hfg-archiv.ulm.de/english/the_hfg_ulm/timeline.html

Posted on 26.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

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I am not an admirer of Marc Chagall. I am even one of those art lovers that does not like Chagall at all. Except there were 2 occasions i was impressed with Chagall. I remember the first time i went to the Fondation Maeght where ” La Vie ” was on display.

This painting had everything in it. Color, abstraction, symbolism and its size made it an overwhelming experience. The second time was in France too. I visited the Reims cathedral where the glass stained windows were designed by Chagall. In this religious setting everything came together again. Like the experience in Vence i had the same experience in Rheims…an overwhelming sence of piece and joy and realisation that life is great and beautiful. On the Maeght site i found this story on Chagall and for any publications on Chagall visit www.ftn-books.com

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Painter born, Moïche Zakharovitch Chagalov, 7 July, 1887 near Vitebsk, in Belarus (then part of the Russian Empire), acquired French nationality in 1937 and died 28 March, 1985 in St. Paul de Vence.

Aimé Maeght met Marc Chagall for the first time in October 1947 at the opening of his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris organized by Jean Cassou to promote and celebrate the return of the painter after years of exile in the United States.

“Ida Chagall took me to her father’s house, and in the studio I was amazed when I discovered the gouaches painted in the United States and Mexico, sixty superb works that I had the chance to bring to rue de Téhéran. We all stopped the project for the first exhibition at the gallery. This meeting marked the beginning of our close and confident collaboration and a loyal friendship.” explained Aimé Maeght. This exhibition was held in March 1950. It was also the year that Chagall came to live in Vence near Saint-Paul.

When Marguerite and Aimé Maeght created the Foundation, they asked Chagall for a large painting for the room to be dedicated to him. The artist created La Vie (1964, oil on canvas, 296 x 406 cm), a large swirling composition where real-life events and dreams that had always lived within the painter come together : the rabbi grandfather, the marriage to Bella, the birth of Ida, the two exiles, the one from Russia by horse and the one to America by boat, musicians, acrobats and dancers, Paris all in blue and at the end of the path, the painter with the palette that appears to contemplate this epic that is larger than the adventure of one man. Above him, embracing him in her arms, is Vava his companion, the beneficial ally, who seems to be born of his painting to soothe the anxiety and torment of the creator.

Posted on 25.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Johannes Itten (1888-1967)… Art & Color

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Johannes Itten. Not many know him, but through the years he has been acknowledged as being one of the teachers who developed the most important “color theory” in art.

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Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (Staatliches Bauhaus) school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feininger and German sculptor Gerhard Marcks, under the direction of German architect Walter Gropius, Itten was part of the core of the Weimar Bauhaus.

But for me there is more about Itten. In 1957 the Stedelijk Museum devoted an exhibition to Itten. The catalogue of the exhibition was designed by Willem Sandberg , who made it one of the most iconic Stedelijk Museum catalogues from the 50’s. This catalogue is still available at www.ftn-books.com. But there si more on Itten and the Stedelijk Museum to be told, because Itten also designed one of the velums ( ceiling coverings) for the Stedelijk. It is rarely on show, but there is a nice publication on the project also available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 22.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Stedelijk Museum…Beatrix Ruf final vision on the collection designed by Rem Koolhaas.

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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.

www.ftn-books.com has some nice titles available on Rem Koolhaas.

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Posted on 20.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Saul Steinberg (1914-1999)

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What have the Maeght foundation , Museum Boymans van Beuningen and the Stedelijk Museum in common? They all three organized exhibitions with Saul Steinberg. This is what i thought of before i started to look at information on the internet and found the foundation of Saul Steinberg / saulsteinbergfoundation.org. This site starts with giving an overview on his life , but soon you discover that this is one of the great sites on art on the internet totally dedicated to Saul Steinberg. Try it and if interested in the artist you soon will loose yourself completely and spent a long time on this site discovering why Saul Steinberg was important. Here is the short intro from the Steinberg foundation on the artist and please do not forget that www.ftn-books.com has some nice publications available.

Famed worldwide for giving graphic definition to the postwar age, Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) had one of the most remarkable careers in American art. While renowned for the covers and drawings that appeared in The New Yorker for nearly six decades, he was equally acclaimed for the drawings, paintings, prints, collages, and sculptures he exhibited internationally in galleries and museums.

Steinberg crafted a rich and ever-evolving idiom that found full expression through these parallel yet integrated careers. Such many-leveled art, however, resists conventional critical categories. “I don’t quite belong to the art, cartoon or magazine world, so the art world doesn’t quite know where to place me,” he said. ¹ He was a modernist without portfolio, constantly crossing boundaries into uncharted visual territory. In subject matter and styles, he made no distinction between high and low art, which he freely conflated in an oeuvre that is stylistically diverse yet consistent in depth and visual imagination.

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Posted on 19.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Anton Heyboer ( exhibition in Gemeentemuseum Den Haag) and Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Yesterday i participated in an auction in which around 15 lots by Anton Heyboer were offered. Some of them were sold but most of them were “unsold” /held up and prices stayed all below their estimates. During the auction the auctioneer urged her audience to go to the Anton Heyboer exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum and since after my lunch i had a spare half hour, i stopped at the museum and visited the Heyboer exhibition. The museum has a long history with Heyboer , because in his early years as a curator for the Museum , Hans Locher organized exhibitions on Heyboer and visited him frequently in his studio in Den Ilp, resulting in purchases and the start of a brilliant Heyboer collection. Later on Heyboer’s works became less and less important . This is the time when he started as a more commercial artist and sold his works across the street in Den Ilp, in a gallery run by his 5th wife.

But yesterday when i visited the exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag ( Heyboer is on show until the 4th of February 2018) i was overwhelmed by the quality of its works from the sixties and seventies. I knew the etchings from the collection quite well, but the paintings were an eyeopener for me and i compared them immediately with the experience i had when i saw similar kind of paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat in the Beyeler Museum some years ago.

There are many similarities between these two artists and their paintings and when you realize that most of these were made 20 to 25 years before Basquiat made his works you can only admire the Heyboer’s even more. I like this Heyboer exhibition very much and for me it is one of the best the Gemeentemuseum organized in the last 5 years.

and of course there are some nice Heyboer publications available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 17.10.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Lawrence Weiner…Two special dutch editions and discount code

The followers of this blog know of my admiration for Lawrence Weiner. I am always keen and interested in publications by or on Weiner nad therefore i was lucky to acquire to my inventory 2 special editions. The first one, BINNEN HET GEGEVEN VAN REACTIE is from the Seventies and printed on a thick carton like paper and published by the van Abbemuseum. The second is an exhibition poster from 1989 for the Weiner Exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Both are in excellent condition and when you use WEINER10 before the end of this month. There is a discount of 10% for these and all other purchases on www.ftn-books.com