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Francis Bacon
If you ask me which artist was represented with the most beautiful and best catalogues published for every exhibition organized with his works…. the answer is Francis Bacon.
Oversized catalogues with several hundreds of pages, excellent print quality and because of its content in many cases with multiple fold out pages to show Bacon’s Triptych’s in the best possible way outside a museum.
I followed Bacon closely because in 2001 the Gemeentemuseum organized its most expensive and logistically one of the most difficult exhibitions ever ….the one on Francis Bacon. The plan was to print the catalogue in Singapore, but because of a promised book publication to the former director, he decided for a dutch publisher. An initial publication run was set in relation with the expected number of visitors. Soon after opening it proved a wrong estimate, because fortunately, the works by Bacon proved to be far more popular than expected. 3 editions of the catalogue were printed during the exhibition and in total almost 8.00o copies were sold . A huge commercial succes, but even more important a great succes for Bacon as one of the leading modern artists from the 20th century.
This was one of the last times so many large Bacon paintings ,including many Triptychs, were presented in one Bacon exhibition. The exhibition showed the importance of Bacon and because of this, the Gemeentemuseum got on loan the Bacon which is in the collection of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and one from the estate of Francis Bacon. Nowhere in the Netherlands so many Bacon paintings can be seen in one spot and and the sixties acquisition of the PARALYTIC CHILD WALKING ON ALL FOURS proved to be a worthy addition the collection of the Gemeentemuseum. ( in the JAARBOEK a study by Josephus Jitta is published on the “Paralytic child”)
wilfried
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Picked a book from the shelf and it is…. MAN RAY
The book i picked is the book published by the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum and it reminded me of the exhibition we visited 2 years ago in which the sculptures by Brancusi were combined with the Man Ray’s the Boijmans had on loan and from their own collection. Impressive exhibition in which the Brancusi’s stole my heart. The setting and the sheer volume of the sculptures made this the best “outside Paris” exhibition on Brancusi i have ever seen. Man Ray and Brancusi both have been presented regularly in the Netherlands during the last 50 years, but there are only a few works in the collections of the Dutch museums. The Kroller Muller has bought one some 20 years ago. A “head”, but this was the last acquisition by a dutch museum .
So the fact that both were combined in the Boijmans van Beuningen museum was a sheer joy. I started with mentioning Man Ray, but ended with Brancusi ….and yes ,this is also how i feel about these artists in my personal ranking….first there is Brancusi and then there is Man Ray.
wilfried
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Walt Disney in Art
Yesterday, the post on Wim Delvoye made me think about the influence Walt Disney had on art during the last 50 years. The influence must be extremely large because many of the great Modern artists from the last half century used Disney icons for their art. Wim Delvoye made me think about this relation because his signature is crafted after the original Walt Disney signature. But there is also Jeff Koons who uses Snow White and Mickey Mouse.
The skull that is in the picture is a combination between 2 iconic elements in art. The skull by Damien Hirst and the ears of Mickey Mouse. Kitsch, art and a laugh combined in one work…..beautiful ;-). Andy Warhol began making silkscreened prints of Mickey Mouse , when he realized that beside the celebrities he used for his silkscreens he made in the factory, Mickey Mouse was such a celebrity too and needed to be depicted in a large silkscreen to honor him.
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Just about a year ago the art world was surprised with a complete new amusement park. Dismaland…. a Disney inspired park by the famous Banksy in which he uses Disney themes and make these his own by making his own interpretation on these classic Disney themes and gives comments on the world around him.
Finally Keith Haring…..Haring uses the Mickey Mouse ears almost every time he makes a selfportrait. Showing that his art is rooted within the comic art of Walt Disney….great art by great artists and all inspired by the master of animation and comics…Walt Disney.
wilfried / www. ftn-books.com
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Wim Delvoye and Jeff Koons….
Who is the better artist?… I truly do not know.
The last couple of days not a daily post except for the Piet Dirkx daily. We had a long weekend near Colmar in France and on the way i visited the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg, where a special exhibition on Wim Delvoye is being held. I do not know much about Wim Delvoye , but the instant i entered the exhibition i was reminded of Jeff Koons. When you enter the building , the first you see is his shit producing machine “CLOACA”. It is the center piece of the exhibition and all the exhibition rooms surrounding it show some different aspects of his art. Statues, sculpted tractor tires, ceramics….Delvoye is an artist who masters many disciplines and one can only be amazed (and smile) when you see his works. Whenever you can visit this compact museum try to visit it with this Delvoye exhibition, in all other cases visit it for the architecture of the building by Pei ( the architect who designed the pyramid entrance at the Louvre ) and go to the first floor where there is a chapel by Wim Delvoye.
It belongs to the permanent collection and together with the CLOACA machine these alone were worth the visit.
Delvoye publications are a hard find, but Jeff Koons you will encounter at www.ftn-books.com
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