FTN-blog

Posted on 21.04.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Asger Jorn ( 1914-1973)

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I appreciate all the COBRA mouvement artists, but if i had to chose one…it would be Asger Jorn. His paintings have a mysterious quality and within their abstraction one can always recognize a realistic element. Wether its a face, a human figure, an animal they are there …hidden within the picture, brightly colored and sometimes outlined with black. Before COBRA, Jorn was painting realistic scenes, and was an assistant to Le Corbusier, but after he met Appel, Constant and Corneille, with whom he founded COBRA and travelled to France, his style became completely abstract and strongly influenced by child drawings. He discussed this frequently with Christian Dotremont , because they both were ill with tuberculoses and treated within the same hospital in Silkeborg. In this same city, nearby his birth town an Asger Jorn museum was founded and financed by Jorn. http://www.museumjorn.dk/da/

This museum has become one of the most important ones in Denmark.

Jorn is now a classic among modern art lovers and will become more important every decade to come. www.ftn-books.com has some great Asger Jorn titles available in its inventory.

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Posted on 21.04.201722.03.2017 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Piet Dirkx daily ..233

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Piet Dirkx cigarbox 233

Posted on 20.04.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Eva Besnyö (1910-2003)

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Eva Besnyö has reached a very high age and stayed active in photography for almost her entire life. It was not until her children had left the house, she took up photography again and started to make a name for herself with photographing the feminist movement of ” DOLLE MINA” in the early seventies. This made her quit famous in the Netherlands and with this recognition her older photographs of portraits and architecture were appreciated again too. Since she has had multiple exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad and is now considered with Oorthuys, Andriesse, Diepraam and van der Elsken to be the photographers that photographed the Netherlands and its society after WWII.

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

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Posted on 20.04.201722.03.2017 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Piet Dirkx daily ..232

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Piet Dirkx cigarbox 232

Posted on 19.04.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Bořek Šípek (1949-2016)

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Architect, designer and glass artist. Bořek Šípek sipek was one of the leading artist in the eighties and influenced many young artist . Named the father of Neo Baroque and together with the designers of Memphis Bořek Šípek he first became famous for his glass designs. He was presented in the Netherlands by galerie Steltman and it was at one of the first exhibitions held in the gallery that i met the artist. The interior furniture in the Steltman gallery , (Spuistraat location), was specially commissioned by Steltman and some of those were produced in a very small limited editions. This was the start of the exhibitions by Steltman resulting in many more exhibitions and over 200 signed and numbered editions. On more than one occasion Sipek worked together with Erwin Olaf who at that time started to make a name as a photographer and this friendship resulted in some remarkable books.

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Some of the books on Sipek are available at www.ftn-books.com. For some very special Sipek/signed items contact me, because i have some glass works and the very special Kronos set for sale.

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Posted on 19.04.201722.03.2017 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Piet Dirkx daily ..231

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Piet Dirkx cigarbox 231

Posted on 18.04.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

GÜNTER BRUS (1938)

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First of all aq uote by Peter Weibel…GÜNTER BRUS, An observer of the second order, he explored the contexts of body and painting, the body’s social and sexual functions, the social and cultural functions of painting. By treating painting and body as a single system, and by analysis of these media of expression, he ultimately pursued an anatomy of society and its social systems.”

It was one of the first artists Rudi Fuchs introduced to the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and since that occasion , GÜNTER BRUS fascinated me. Specially his drawings are my favorites and 2 years ago i saw some movies by Brus in Vienna in an exhibitions on Aktionismus. Self mutilation does not make this an easy art form, but fascinating it is. You do not have to watch the video, but for those interested know that this is not a pleasing art form and could be shocking to some. There are some more examples to be found on you tube and for those interested in Brus, know that there are some nice publications available at www.ftn-books.com

https://youtu.be/8kiAG1M67Io

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Posted on 18.04.201722.03.2017 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Piet Dirkx daily ..230

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Piet Dirkx cigarbox 230

Posted on 17.04.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Antoni Tapies (1923-2012)

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It must have been some 12 years ago that i first visited Barcelona and found myself amazed and surprised by this city full of Gaudi and other modernista marvels, but the best find for me was the discovery and first visit of the Fundacio Antoni Tapies.

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The building itself is already worth visiting and the inside is even more spectacular. An old facade houses a very modern museum inside which houses the works donated by Antoni and Theresa Tapies. I loved its collection and it proved to me that Tapies his art is timeless, very spanish and cosmopolitan at the same time. Tapies is possibly , next to Picasso and Dali , the most important spanish name in Modern Art. He often uses large canvasses and on them paints with “earth” colors impressive abstract compositions and uses matter in them.

In these matter paintings , the materials used are no longer simple media used to express an idea; they are the idea itself. That process produces a complete identification between material and form, between concept and language. Those works become opaque surfaces, walls on which the artist writes his graffiti and attaches the forms of objects or people. His identification with the work through his surname (in Catalan Tàpies means “walls”) expresses a more profound desire to break with Western dualism and blend with the material in a continuous formlessness.
Over the post-war years there was a general interest among artists on both sides of the Atlantic in material. Awareness of the atomic bomb and the new scientific discoveries aroused a strong curiosity in science, the new ideas about space-time and substance, while inventions such as the electronic microscope provided a new view of nature.
At the same time, Tàpies had developed an interest in Eastern philosophy, because of its emphasis on material, the identity between man and nature and its denial of the dualism of our society.

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