stedelijk museum amsterdam – Page 52

Posted on 21.11.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Daniel Buren

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For this day’s blog i thought of something more colorful. This to compensate for the rather sombre previous ones and i immediately thought about Daniel Buren, who has done some tremendous beautiful projects with light and color. The latest i have seen of him was 1,5 years ago in Strasbourg where he altered the ceiling with colored panes of glas. I have put together some examples of his projects below, so you can see yourself the impact it has on the space.

One of his projects was during the seventies in the Stedelijk Museum, on which occasion a catalogue was published titles “HIER”.

Is this minimal art?…..possibly, but it is highly recognizable and what is more ….the effect on the space where the colored stripes are applied is extremely large.So i agree with what Wikipedia says about him that he is more a conceptual artist. Many of his art can be seen in public places in France , but the largest collection of Buren’s work is still in French museums like the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Some very nice items by Buren are available at www.ftn-books.com

and yes….the one on the left are expresso cups by illy

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Posted on 17.11.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Mark Tobey (1890-1967)

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There was a time when i had not heard of Tobey, but since i saw some large works by him in both the Beyeler, Stedelijk Museum….. i am a fan.

It started with the catalogue i acquired 20 years ago. Bought the catalogue because of the Wim Crouwel design ,but was immediately attracted by the works within….They were Tobey’s .

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Tobey is most notable for his creation of so-called “white writing” – an overlay of white or light-colored calligraphic symbols on an abstract field which is often itself composed of thousands of small and interwoven brush strokes. This method, in turn, gave rise to the type of “all-over” painting style made most famous by Jackson Pollock, another American painter to whom Tobey is often compared.

Tobey is working on different sizes but for me his large works are the most impressive. The last 16 years of his live he spend in Basel, which is of course the reason why so many of his works stayed there. Throughout the years he travelled all over the world.

He was an incessant traveler, visiting Mexico, Europe, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, China and Japan and spread his works this way in an organic way, but the main part of his oeuvre stayed in Switzerland, in Basel where le lived for 16 years.

Here are some locations where his works are part of the collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. There have been at least four posthumous individual exhibitions of Tobey’s work: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA, 1984; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, 1989; Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland, 1990; and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

The publications below are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 16.11.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Henk Tas and his staged photography

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A dutch master in the art of staged photography is Henk Tas. Inspired by many great classic ( Pop & Rock) songs, he places objects from (his) childhood around him in a special setting and instantly it is recognizable as “HENK TAS”. Definitely a personal signature.

The photograph is taken and then , compared with the original setting, enlarged to enormous proportions. It makes you feel like an intruder in the staged scene, participating in it and encountering the figurines which populate it.

In 2001 the Henk Tas publication “Why me Lord” is chosen for the competition ” BEST VERZORGDE BOEKEN 2001″ and is one of the contenders for Best.

The book called ” WHY me LORD ” is still available at www.ftn-books.com.

This is what the jury said about the book and his staged photography:

Best Dutch Book Design 2001

Henk Tas, photographer and grabber at life’s banquet, belongs to that select band of cultural indefatigables. His work has never been completely in vogue, for reasons difficult to fathom, but never completely out of it either. It was relevant during the days of both staged photography and postmodernism, and went down well in New Age circles too.
The theme of Henk Tas’s work is pop music, with the occasional foray into rock’n’roll and blues. Henk Tas is the Rotterdam cowboy. He is second to none in taking plastic figures, artificial flowers and other generally unsightly accessories and infusing them with life. He is, besides, a great colourist. The staged photographs are exuberant in their hues, their synthetic extras embodying the passion of the professional artiste along with the fame and the impermanence immutably bound up with that passion. A great many photographs by Henk Tas and a text apiece by Els Barents, Roel Bentz van den Berg, Ute Eskildsen and Greil Marcus have been brought together by the book’s designer, Rick Vermeulen.

www address: www.henktas.nl

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Posted on 15.11.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Günther Uecker

All you need is a hammer and a bucket of nails….this is what you first think when you see the early ZERO works by Günther Uecker.

Together with Mack and Piene he belongs to the German part of the Zero mouvement.

It is now 15 years that ZERO is collected the world all over, but before this period the works by Uecker could only be seen in some of the larger german Museums.

Now his early Zero works and editions have spread all over the world, all because Zero has become such an important art mouvement.

Outside Germany , Uecker works was first presented in the dutch NUL exhibition from 1962 in the Stedelijk Museum. Together with Mack and Piene he made the light salon, which is still one of the masterpieces of Zero art.

Personally i have a preference for the works by Piene…. Uecker is a great artist, but what troubles me is that Uecker has not progressed with his art… he is still making paintings and objects with nails, cashing the great idea he once had. So an early Uecker for a collection can be one of the highlights, but a later period Uecker is just adding a famous name to a collection. Still there are some nice publications on Uecker at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 13.11.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — 2 Comments

Armando, Riki Mijling + Eja Siepman van den Berg in Projectruimte Hoofdstraat 17

Another and exciting small exhibition to be opened in Projectruimte Hoofdstraat 17 has just been announced . 3 artists will be presented in conjunction which each other. The homebase of Eja Siepman van den Berg gives room to 2 other artists. This time Riki Mijling and Armando will be the guests. Mijling is the least known of these three, but works are present in the most important and prestigious collections, Caldic, DSM , Zadelhoff and the British museum among them. Armando needs no introduction and is known for his participation in the NUL and Informelen mouvements. Personally i think his Berlin years are his strongest period with the beautiful and impressive Fahnen and Tree paintings. And last there are the sculptures by Eja Siepman van den Berg. Each time i visit the Projectruimte Hoofdstraat 17 i notice how excellent they blend with the works by the other artists. An exhibition to visit in the coming months.

Opening on the 27th of November 2016 and closing on Sunday 26th of February 2017.

address:

Projectruimte Hoofdstraat 17

Hoofdstraat 17

9244Cl Beetsterzwaag

info@projectruimte-hoofdstraat17.com

There are some nice publications available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 01.11.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Roman Cieslewicz

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Another great artist who i forgot to mention in my blog on Topor is Roman Cieslewicz. Cieslewicz was a long time friend of Topor , lived in Paris too and rose to fame in the sixties with his graphic design for Vogue and Elle and the posters he designed for several other events.

For the dutch his work was presented for the first time in the Stedelijk Museum in 1973 . An excellent catalogue designed by Wim Crouwel was published on that occasion. The exhibition showed the strength of this artist, because the main part of the exhibition consisted of poster designs he had made in the previous 20 years.

Cieslewicz is one of those rare artist, who in his life was far less appreciated than in these days. Graphic art students from all over the world have inquired about his books in the last few years, which shows to me his star is on the rise and soon the books on Cieslewicz will become rare collectable items.

catalogue available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 28.10.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jeff Koons / Ushering in Banality

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The first time i could see the works by Jeff Koons in a museum setting was during his first exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. It was 1992 and Wim Beeren, the former director of the Stedelijk, had just bought Ushering in Banality. It was a scandal , because of the price he had paid for the sculpture. ( If i remember well it was 300.000 guilders / is $ 120.000) …. a steal, but more important it is still on show and one of the works that raises many smiles. I even saw people taking photographs leaning on the statue. Of course this is not allowed , but it shows the popularity of this impressive work.

Since, i have encountered on many occasions the works by Koons in different settings and he always amazes me. There are several in the Guggenheim in Bilbao ( In and outside the building), of which the most important is the very large PUPPY outside covered with flowers. Koons is an artist who shocks and pleases, but in almost all cases , you look differently at an object after you have seen the work Koons has made after it.

For me it means …i can not pass a shop with “Hummel” statues without thinking about the USHERING IN BANALITY by Koons.

For some nice publications on Koons visit my shop www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 14.10.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Peter Struycken… multiple structuur 67

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Yesterday i listed the Peter Struycken publication Structuur 67 on the www.ftn-books.com site and found this publication surprisingly mature.

structuur-shop

The publication was published in the mid sixties and the only dutch museum that did something ” special ” with their publications at that time , was the Stedelijk Museum, however this publication shows that the Haags Gemeentemuseum knew about the importance of good design and because the artist himself did the design, an excellent and collectable multiple was published. The Structuur 67 consists om several silkscreened sheets , all bundled within one see through cover , making together a constructivist composition. One of the first special Struycken publications , which would be followed by many more. Struycken always had his special wishes regarding most of his publications which resulted in highly collectable “multiple” items. The monograph which was published some years ago gives an excellent overview of these publications.

Struycken is an artist who will become increasingly more important each year and now is the time to collect his works and special publications.

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Posted on 08.10.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985)

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The Finnish master of design and glas has had some great exhibitions in the Netherlands, but the most important one was the one in the Stedelijk Museum ( 1976). The Stedelijk Museum took a special interest in Wirkkala and acquired many beautiful works by him and from his wife Rut Bryk, who also had her exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum (1970) , even before her husband had his. Both their catalogues were designed by Wim Crouwel and both catalogues are collectors items now.

Wirkkala designed many great glas objects for Iitala which are still in production. I wish i had more publications on Wirkkala and his wife, but these are rare. The ones i have are both from the Stedelijk Museum. One is the monography and the other two are on a group exhibitions on Finnish glas and design.

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Posted on 01.10.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Hans Bellmer ( 1902 -1975)

Is Bellmer a dadaist or a surrealist painter?

A discussion which is held for decades now, but to me he is more a surrealist artist than a Dada one.

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Born in Poland, but living most of his life in Paris he led a secluded life and died a lonely man in 1975. After his dead the appreciation for his art began. Books were published, exhibitions held and his works were sold all over the world, but during his lifetime he was not that well known, nor popular because of his chosen subjects.

Finally in the last decade of his life he was considered one of the leading surrealist artist from his time and specially the photo series on the doll/ “La poupée” he made received international praise. His main theme in practically all of his works is an erotic approach to his subjects. Fetishism, voyeurism and sado masochism can frequently be found in his subjects, but the erotic content is not easily discovered. In most cases you have to study the composition of the work to distinguish the erotic parts within.

Finally in 1959 and 1964 he received some recognition by being invited for the Documenta in Kassel.

From 1953 Bellmer lived together with the writer Unica Zürn . A sad relationship , lonely , without any social activities, living in a secluded way in hotel de l’Esperance in Paris. Unica threw herself out of the window in 1970 and Bellmer died a lonely man in 1975. A sad life of a great artist . If you do not know anything about Bellmer start with Wikipedia and learn something about him and begin to discover the surreal world he has created.There are some great titles at www.ftn-books.com to be found on this fascinating artist.