FTN-blog

Posted on 02.07.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — 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.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 01.07.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Walter Dahn (1954)….almost forgotten

Schermafbeelding 2017-06-30 om 11.55.07

Beside a gifted painter and belonging to the JUNGE WILDEN movement and member of the Mülheimer Freiheit in Germany in the Eighties, Dahn is also known as a photographer and a musician. In the eighties he was invited for exhibitions all over Europe and in the Netherland the Groninger Museum presented his works on several occasions, but in the Nineties and Zero’s the art of Dahn became almost extinct and the artist Walter Dahn disappeared from the art radar completely. Nowhere his art was shown and only an occasional gallery presented his new works. Personally i do not think this is fair, because his art is highly recognizable and sometimes shows great quality.

I like his art and maybe he will be appreciated once again when time passes and the JUNGE WILDEN painters like Fetting, Dahn and Bach will be reestablished as the great German painters they onmce were considered. Until that time you have to rely on the publications from the 80’s and 90’s that are available at www.ftn-books.com

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 30.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Claes Oldenburg and Wim Crouwel

Claes Oldenburg has had 2 solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The first in 1970 and the second in 1977. With both exhibitions, catalogues by Wim Crouwel were published , but the one from 1970 has a special lettering by Wim Crouwel. The same letter was used as the one on the poster which was printed in a bold deep blue color. Underneath the title of the catalogue there was in the same letter a blind print of the SM logo. Both items, catalogue and poster are now for sale at www.ftn-books.com. This is a rare opportunity to collectors to add both items to their collections.

oldenburg poster a

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 29.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — 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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 28.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — 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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 27.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — 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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 26.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Johannes Gachnang (1939-2005)…quality publications

Schermafbeelding 2017-06-26 om 11.44.27.png

The first time i met Gachnang was during an exibition at the Haags Gemeentemuseum when he visited his friend Rudi Fuchs , who was at that time the director of the Gemeentemuseum. I remembered an unpleasant person, but Rudi wanted the publications by Gachnang to be sold at the shop of the Gemeentemuseum and i was critical about them. It was not that i was not convinced of the art within these publications, but the art by Gachnang was so personal and i thought “strange” that i did not see any selling possibilities for them. Years later, i started to encounter his works in museums and found them far more accessible than i first had thought they were. ALL Gachnang publication have a certain quality and belong to the best publications on art in the last 3 decades of the 20th century and some of them are available at www.ftn-books.com

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted on 26.06.201725.05.2017 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Piet Dirkx daily ..300

dirkx 300.jpg

Piet Dirkx cigarbox 300

Posted on 25.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

It is just a painting by …Kandinsky

…..and there are many more far more important Kandinsky paintings than the one recently sold at a record price.

Source is Blouin art info. This is what i read this morning and shows exactly what i was talking about yesterday.

Sotheby’s has smashed the auction record for Wassily Kandinsky not just once but twice during its Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London.

“Murnau – Landschaft mit grünem Haus” 1909 was the first to break the artist’s previous auction record of $23.3 million when it sold for £21 million / $26.4 million.

Six lots later “Bild mit weissen Linien” 1913 broke the record for the second time, selling for a monumental £33 million / $41.6 million.

The sale also achieved a new auction record for Joan Miro in sterling with the artist’s “Femme et oiseaux” 1940 selling for £24,571,250.

Sotheby’s, Actual Size and Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sales achieved a combined total of £148.9 Million / $187.7 Million / €169.5 Million, with the three top sales marking the first time that three works have sold for over £20 million in a London auction.

Helena Newman, Global Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department & Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “To have three landmarks in the development of 20th Century art by Kandinsky, Miró and Giacometti come to the market in a single sale tonight was momentous.”

“Collectors were out in force, participating from a record number of locations around the globe, with the level of Asian buyers as numerous as those from the US, underscoring the enduring importance of London as a key driver of the global art market,” she added.

Art has become an investment and something to break records with. Accessible to the “Happy Few”, but art is more than just a record at an auction sale. Art is a very personal experience. In which it moves you, reaches out to you and eventually stays with you the rest of your life. There are some Kandinsky books available at www.ftn-books.com