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Paul Kooiker – Hotel New York

The first time i saw work  by Kooiker was about 15 years ago and he never stops to amaze and surprise me. His first exhibitions were with Willem van Zoetendaal in Amsterdam and during that time he was first presented as one of the upcoming and leading photographers in the Netherlands. Together with Arno Nollen he was considered to have a highly original point of view on contemporary photography and because of his subjects ( young and older women ) he was presented in an exhibition in the Fotomuseum together with the godfather of this kind of photography…. Gerards Petrus Fieret.

The book on Hotel New York was printed in a very small edition and is one of the nicest collectable photography books i have encountered in recent years. Beautiful publication which was presented to the residents of Hotel New York Rotterdam as a reminder of their stay. Text and photography, design and printwork all are excellent. Hard to find….. but still available at www.ftn-books.com

 

wilfried

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Corneille….A Cobra artist

First of all i do not very much like the works by Corneille, but of course there are always exceptions. I recognize Corneille as one of the great Cobra artist. Together with Appel and Constant these artists brought life into the (dutch) art world in the early days of the Cobra mouvement. But Corneille was one of the first to move away from Cobra and find his own path, paved with colorful women , birds, cats and landscapes. A kind of art he could sell to as many people as possible. He did find a way to make his art available to a larger public and earn through his art a living, not depending any longer on the stray collector who wanted his work for his collection. A brilliant business plan for mediocre art. Producing many lithographs in large editions and joining commercial companies to sell his art together with their products …..it could have been invented by a marketeer and it made Corneille art available for everybody and the person Corneille wealthy. This is the reason you can find ties, pens, vases and scarves all decorated with horrible scenes invented by Corneille, but……………

There is also a different kind of artist. The young Corneille. A searching artist who makes abstract paintings and lithographs….colorful, original and in many cases rare beauties in abstract art.

This kind of art can be found as a cover on a catalogue which i recently acquired for www.ftn-books.com

The cover is an original lithograph. The edition of this Galerie Mathias Fels catalogue from 1962 is only 800 copies of which not many will have survived. The condition of this catalogue with original lithograph is excellent and more important this is the true CORNEILLE, an artist in search of a personal style, which he found in this excellent Cobra composition from 1962.

 

wilfried

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Jean Tinguely…..Meta-Matic No. 10

Yesterday, i had a short story on the Jean Michel Basquiat Retrospective in the Beyeler Museum. The next day, after that visit we visited the Tinguely Museum in the same city of Basel. The Tinguely Museum is not to be missed and is a museum which will appeal to young and old, because many of the works on display are interactive and can be turned on or off by the public. The Museum shop had something very special at that time…..they had in operation the original Meta-Matic No. 10 by Jean Tinguely which could be operated by the public. Only condition…..buy a sheet of paper and a token with the Tinguely shop.

The paper was the original right size and had a museumstamp on the back to certify the drawing.

The choice of colors was with the buyer of the drawing, but the progress itself was purely automated by the machine. One placed a color in the holder, let the machine do its work for a few seconds, placed a different color and let it work again……and so on. Until the time was up ( i remember it was about 2 minutes in total). A rare occasion on which me, my wife and my sister in law all made drawings. All drawings were certified by the Museum with a stamp on the back.

I bought some extra drawings for my FTN collection and these are now for sale at

www.ftn-books.com

Some years later we returned to the Tinguely museum, because we had seen some lovely Modern Art  over there. Asking about the Meta-Matic No. 10 we learned that it had been removed from the shop area and was now in revision, because of the wear it had when used for making these drawings. My guess is these drawings at FTN-books are about the last drawings that will be for sale.

In any case they are very interesting to look at and to see what kind of abstract drawing a Tinguely machine can make.

 

wilfried

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Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)

Born in 1960, the time Andy Warhol would become hugely popular with his Factory, Basquiat spend his childhood years in Brooklyn. But at the time he was 24  he had become “Brothers in Art” with the great Warhol himself.

If ever you have seen a Basquiat exhibition you must agree that his paintings do not stop to impress. The sheer size, the power, the typical and highly recognizable way he paints…..it is all Basquiat.  Perhaps the success destroyed the person Basquiat, but his paintings never disappoint.  You might even argue that it is fortunate that Basquiat died at such a young age, but at the same time with such a small production in 10 years you will never be disappointed by his art. His art is of a constant high level, always original in its appearance, has its own “language” and technique and many of the great collectors of Modern Art consider a Basquiat as one of the ultimate collection additions.( but only a few of them can buy because of its price).

It was about 6 years ago is visited the Basquiat exhibition in the Beyeler Museum / Basel and was blown away by it. the Beyeler is a small Museum ( but one of the most amazing ones in Europe) and it must have been at least 3 times i looked at all the paintings before i left the museum. If you ask …what was your favorite exhibition in the last 10 years….this is it. A Rare occasion to see so many of the greatest Basquiat paintings in one location. If ever you have achance to visit a Basquiat exhibition do not hesitate, plan your trip or make a detour because these paintings are very impressive.

 

I have some nice Basquiat items available so look at www.ftn-books.com

http://basquiat.com

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Instant photography / POLAROID

There was a time when our generation was amazed when we saw the instant result when you took a picture with a Polaroid camera. It was at the end of the seventies that these camera’s were hugely popular and many artists in those days used them to get an immediate result. Recently i only know of Araki who still uses the technique of instant photography.  However , a few weeks ago, a friend of the family took a new camera out of his pocket and showed it to us. It was a similar camera to a Polaroid camera , same technique, but much much smaller. Personally i do not think it will replace the digital photography we all got used to nowadays, but maybe some artists will see new opportunities and will use it in their art. Time will tell.

There are some very nice publications to be found on the technique and the artists that used it. Of course Andy Warhol is one of the best known, but there are many more and this form of art was recognized by the Stedelijk Museum in 1982 with a large exhibition on instant photography. An excellent Wim Crouwel designed catalogue which shows many great examples of INSTANT PHOTOGRAPHY.

 

wilfried

ftn-books.com

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the Gerard Verdijk drawing……

As promissed. Here is the Gerard Verdijk drawing which is for sale.

For inquiries please contact wvdelshout@ziggo.nl

and for book titles see:

www.ftn-books.comverdijk drawing.jpg

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Opening Gerard Verdijk Retrospektief

Yesterday, 30th  of July, 2016…Location Dordrechts Museum…..time 15.30 hrs.

The director welcomes his audience, his guests to attend the opening of the exhibition GERARD VERDIJK RETROSPEKTIEF, in which the Dordrechts museum presents over 70 works by Gerard Verdijk. Mrs Saskia Monshouwer , a long time admirer of the works by Verdijk gives her speech on the person of Verdijk in relation to his works and distinguishes 4 periods in his life. She even links him to Zero. This was new to me, but when you look at several works within the exhibition you can see why she does it. Visiting the exhibition makes one thing clear….Gerard Verdijk is a very important artist and will earn his place amongthe best in Modern dutch 20th century art. Even after so many years his works are not “out dated” but still original , fresh and……mystic.

It certainly is a recommended exhibition, which can be seen until the first week of January 2017. Meanwhile a publication will be published and for those who want to start their own Verdijk collection there is a beautiful small drawing for sale at ftn-art.

Interested ? contact me at wvdelshout@ziggo.nl

 

The drawing will be published later today on this blog together with a choice of other publications on Verdijk

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Wim Crouwel + Ellsworth Kelly = Vormen van de Kleur

One of the most spectacular publications in the history of the Stedelijk Museum was the VORMEN VAN DE KLEUR catalogue. A cassette containing biographies on all the participating artists ( a.o. Donald Judd ) and 4 original silkscreens . The silkscreens were published in an edition of only 2200 copies and all had the same basic colors (red, white and blue ).

Ellsworth Kelly, William Turnbull, Bob Bonies and K.G. Pfahler were invited to make a contribution for these silkscreens. 4 square large silkscreens were included in this publication. A challenge too for Wim Crouwel who designed a cardboard container/sleeve in which the loose pages on the participating artists were presented and on top of them the 4 original silkscreens.

Crouwel chose a larger size ( 10.2 x 10.2 inches ) than usual for he thought this to be an important publications too……and it was . It is one of the many highlights in the publication history of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and will be a quintessential catalogue to have if you are a serious collector of Stedelijk Museum material or Wim Crouwel publications, but compared to the other beautiful and collectable SM publications this is in my personal top 5.

Only for FTN-books blog readers there is now a discount of $ 50.00 on this item to be had if you order and use the discount code: CrouwKel (there is only 1 copy available)

Catalogue design by Wim Crouwel, NM+ condition for the sleeve ( see picture), all sheets and silkscreens are in MINT- condition. Book measures 10.6 x 10.6 inches, silkscreens measure 10.2 x 10.2 inches. VORMEN VAN DE KLEUR/NEW SHAPES OF COLOUR. With 4 silkscreens in blue and red by Ellsworth Kelly, Bob Bonies, Georg-Karl Pfahler and William Turnbull. Amst., SM, 1966. Orig. wrappers. Illustr. b/w. 27 sheets. – Trends in abstract art of the past 10 years: Josef Albers, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Vasarely, Max Bill, Peter Struycken a.o. – Silkscreens printed in 2200 copies. – In slipcase/sleeve

wilfried / www.ftn-books.com

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Bruno Bruni (1935)

Bruno Bruni has become one of the grand old masters in the art of lithography, but beside this discipline he is also a gifted painter and sculptor.

But for this moment i will focus on his lithographs . His lithographs  at gallery Steltman Amsterdam were the first i had seen with such detail and yet also an abstraction. The bed in relation with the nude girl figure in front of it made it almost surreal and this is what attracted me in these works.

After this first encounter i have seen many more works by Bruni and he stayed true to his romantic figures, flowers, raincoats and of course his bronze sculptures with undressing woman, but personally i think his best works are the lithographs with these beds , ruffled sheets and a human figure on or in front of it.

Bruno Bruni , now 81 years old, is still working but the best works are from the mid seventies until 2000. This is the “GOLDEN AGE” of Bruni.

www.ftn-books.com can present some of his best lithographs and of course a small selection of books.

bruni letto a

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Marc Mulders – A travel to rome part I

In 1989 Marc Mulders published a Travel to rome part 1. For me it was the starting point to follow Mulders as an artist. We met shortly after i visited the Picaron editions stand and made an appointment with Marc Mulders to see if we could collaborate and present his publications in the Museumshop of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I still remember where we met and shortly after this meeting publications by Mulders were sold in the Museumshop of the Gemeentemuseum. This one I bought for myself because i was so impressed with the photographs and original ballpoint drawings in this portfolio. I do not not know anything about the size of this edition, but every portfolio must be different because of the original drawings which are included.

From that date on i followed Mulders and was impressed with his painting which looks “rough” but has such finesse in technique and result that one can only admire Mulders. The DE PONT museum in Tilburg has probably the largest collection of Mulders and they even have another copy of the A TRAVEL TO ROME, so you can get an excellent impression of the works by Mulder and see how he evolved during the last 3 decades.

To give the best impression of this classic Mulders publication i photographed all its pages and you can see for yourself why this Mulders is such an important publication.

Of course there are many more publications by Marc Mulders and for those that are interested take a look at my site: www.ftn-books.com

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for more info see also site : www.marcmulders.com