Not so many years ago Beutener seemed to be forgotten, but in the last few years a raised interest in his works can be found. With large retrospective exhibitions at the More museum and the KUNSTHAL it looks like his name is finally established. Practically all the large dutch museum have works by Beutener in their collections . Work that can be seen as a cross between realism and abstraction. Nice to see that Beutener is still feeling young enough to comment on his exhibition at the MORE museum some 2 years ago.
www.ftn-books.com has some nice classic Jan Beutener publications
I really thought i already had written a blog on Ansuya Blom, who i consider to be one of the greatest dutch artists to emerge in the last 50 years. I followed her work closely and when i finally had a chance to acquire an important work for our collection i did not hesitate. It is dark, filled with a veins structure and a central figure in the middle. Around the composition a halo of bandage clamps. Title…. Fata Morgana II ( a sister work is in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam). I love this work and for me it represents the best of art in the late 80’s.
Here is an excerpt form the Jury report from the Heineken award committee:
Her work does not clamour for attention, nor does Ansuya Blom herself. She chooses to stay in the background and lets her work subtly penetrate. For more than forty years Blom has been steadily working on an oeuvre that explores the boundaries of the inner world of experience. In films, drawings, paintings, installations and texts, she always manages to get under the skin and portrays humankind’s struggle with itself and the environment in an engaging and poetic way.
Blom’s work radiates a great social and societal commitment. With her interest in psychoanalysis and psychiatry, her work offers a space for the voices of those who are often not heard: the marginalised or forgotten people. The artist asks critical questions about the position of the individual, collective and society. At a time when much debate is polarised, her work is characterised by subtlety. Blom offers a look into the human soul, in all its fragile vulnerability, and does so authentically and autonomously.
www.ftn-books.com has some nice Ansuya Blom publications available.
In spring 2020 the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien was presenting the exhibition The Cindy Sherman Effect. Identity and Transformation in Contemporary Art.
It addresses one of the key issues in art: the preoccupation with themes of identity, its construction, forms of transformation and fiction are hot topics in the face of a world that is in constant flux through increasing globalisation. At the same time, new technologies such as the Internet, gene manipulation and cloning give cause for us to consider the concept of identity in terms of subject generation and definition.
Cindy Sherman’s work is counted among the classics of performance photography and artistic role play; starting out from this base, the exhibition will cast light on these relevant questions pertaining to the theme of Identity. Sherman’s photographic works – developed out of 1970s performance art and her specific interest in ever-changing identities – has never ceased to be a formative stylistic influence down to the immediate present.
The discussion surrounding post-structuralism not least paved the way to a reorganisation of authorship, which was trod later by many artists of postmodernism – prepared first and foremost by Andy Warhol with his Factory as a collective production site. With her first important series, the Untitled Film Stills(1977-1980), Cindy Sherman, icon of 1980s art production, demonstrated the rupture early on between authentic self-imaging and -performance by confronting the observer with the paradox of a strategy of denial.
The camera is used as a mirror or stage for performances of the self – or of a representative or surrogate of the self – in order to examine and deconstruct the imaged interpretation of both social and sexual identity. In Sherman’s legacy, this artistic approach was followed by many artists; to name only a few: Candice Breitz, Sophie Calle, Elke Krystufek, Zoe Leonard, Sarah Lucas, Zanele Muholi, Pipilotti Rist, Markus Schinwald, Lorna Simpson, Wu Tsang, Gavin Turk, Ryan Trecartin, Gillian Wearing et al.
Sherman also inspired succeeding generations to explore the thematic field of Identity and Transformation in manifold media, but without principally modifying formerly developed artistic procedures themselves.
The exhibition in the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien will juxtapose works by Cindy Sherman with those of contemporary artists in order to focus on such themes as deconstruction of the portrait, cultural, gender-specific and sexual stereotypes, also the construction and fiction of identity.
The first time i saw and met Op de Beeck was during the preparations of his GEM presentation in The Hague. Ever since i am impressed with his large installations. Thnis is not art for at home, but when place in a museum they overwhelm you i a way almost nothing else does.
Hans Op de Beeck produces large installations, sculptures, films, drawings, paintings, photographs and texts. His work is a reflection on our complex society and the universal questions of meaning and mortality that resonate within it. He regards man as a being who stages the world around him in a tragi-comic way. Above all, Op de Beeck is keen to stimulate the viewers’ senses, and invite them to really experience the image. He seeks to create a form of visual fiction that delivers a moment of wonder and silence.
Over the past twenty years Op de Beeck realised numerous monumental ‘sensorial’ installations, in which he evoked what he describes as ‘visual fictions’: tactile deserted spaces as an empty set for the viewer to walk through or sit down in, sculpted havens for introspection. In many of his films though, in contrast with those depopulated spaces, he prominently depicts anonymous characters.
Hans Op de Beeck was born in Turnhout in 1969. He lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Op de Beeck has shown his work extensively in solo and group exhibitions around the world.
He had substantial institutional solo shows at the GEM Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague, NL (2004); MUHKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, BE (2006); Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL (2007); Towada Art Center, Towada, JP (2008); Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, US (2010); Kunstmuseum Thun, CH (2011); Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos, ES (2011); Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, IE (2012); Kunstverein Hanover, DE (2012); Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, US (2013); Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL, US (2013); FRAC Paca, Marseille, FR (2013); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, US (2014); MOCA, Cleveland, US (2014); Sammlung Goetz, Munich, DE (2014); Screen Space, Melbourne, AU (2015); Château de Chimay, Chimay, BE (2015); Espace 104, Paris, FR (2016); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, DE (2017); Fondazione Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare, IT (2017); Kunstraum Dornbirn, DE (2017); Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, DE (2017); Galleria Continua, Boissy-le-Châtel, FR (2018); Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, NL (2018); Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, AT (2019); …
Op de Beeck participated in numerous group shows at institutions such as The Reina Sofia, Madrid, ES; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona, US; ZKM, Karlsruhe, DE; MACRO, Rome, IT; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, GB; PS1, New York, US; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Wallraf- Richartz Museum, Köln, DE; Hangar Bicocca, Milano, IT; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, JP; 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, US; The Drawing Center, New York, NY, US; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, AT; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, CN; MAMBA, Buenos Aires, AR; Haus der Kunst, Munich, DE; Museod’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna, IT; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, DE; Den Frie Center of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, DK; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels, BE; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main, DE; Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, DE; …
His work was invited for the Venice Biennale, Venice, IT; the Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, CN; the Aichi Triennale, Aichi, JP; the Singapore Biennale, Singapore, SG; Art Summer University, Tate Modern, London, GB; the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, IN; Art Basel Miami Beach, US; Art Basel Unlimited, Basel, CH; Setouchi Triennale, Bruges Triennale, BE, and many other art events.
Not a history , not a personal opinion about this great composer, but letting you know that i have some nice Cage publications available and let you know that the official site on Cage : https://www.johncage.org
For those living in the Nethelands the wok by Caro is not unknown. Exhibitions at the Kroller Muller Museum and being present is some publica collections his works are quite known.
Anthony Caro (1924 – 2013) played a pivotal role in the development of twentieth century sculpture. After studying sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools in London, he worked as assistant to Henry Moore. He came to public attention with a show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1963, where he exhibited large abstract sculptures brightly painted and standing directly on the ground so that they engage the spectator on a one-to-one basis. This was a radical departure from the way sculpture had hitherto been seen and paved the way for future developments in three-dimensional art.
Caro’s teaching at St Martin’s School of Art in London (1953 -1981) was very influential. His questioning approach opened up new possibilities, both formally and with regard to subject matter. His innovative work as well as his teaching led to a flowering and a new confidence in sculpture worldwide.
Caro often worked in steel, but also in a diverse range of other materials, including bronze, silver, lead, stoneware, wood and paper. Major exhibitions include retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1975), the Trajan Markets, Rome (1992), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1995), Tate Britain, London (2005), and three museums in Pas-de-Calais, France (2008), to accompany the opening of his Chapel of Light at Bourbourg. He has been awarded many prizes, including the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture in Tokyo in 1992 and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sculpture in 1997. He holds many honorary degrees from universities in the UK, USA and Europe. He was knighted in 1987 and received the Order of Merit in May 2000.
The best way to remember one of the greats in dutch photogrpahy is by showing some examples of his magnificent photographs. 3 days ago Arno Nollen died, age 58, as “HET PAROOL described him….a photographer without any compromise…..
www.ftn-books.com has the scarce limited edition y the Annet Gelink gallery and the “Hooked” book now available .
The fiirst time i heard about Piet Paris was the time i read a short review on an exhibition by Viktor & Rolf. But since i have been a fan. His fashion illustration are highly recognisable and have a graphic quality.
Piet Paris has been working for more than twenty five years as a fashion illustrator for magazines and corporate clients all over the world. As an illustrator and designer he has always been concerned with design in the broader sense. Through his lectureships and masterclasses for fashion designers at various academies, as well as in his role as the co-founder of a post-graduate course for fashion designers, Piet Paris has developed a wealth of expertise and has gained a great breadth of experience in the world of design. In 2008 Paris received the Grand Seigneur, the most important fashion award in the Netherlands, an accolade for his achievements within Dutch fashion training, as artistic director of the Arnhem Mode Biennale and, of course, as a fashion illustrator who has garnered global renown. Piet Paris is also creative director at Harper’s Bazaar Netherlands.
www.ftn-books.com has two very nice publications by Piet Paris now available.
Frank Van den Broeck’s (1950) drawings and paintings have a characteristic and unmistakable handwriting. In mobile lines he draws performances that are concrete but ambiguous. The hovering often returns in Van den Broeck’s work, objects seem to be in a state of transition, on the way to another place or dimension. The artist’s universe is often the subject of his work.
Motives such as the painter’s palette and the open book, of which the butterfly is a derivative, play an important role in the drawings. Other representations are more threatening with ghostly creatures and mask-like faces that suddenly appear. There is always a sense of transition present, the objects and figures seem to refer to an underlying reality.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Borofsky was instrumental in focusing the art world on the idea of “installation art” – that is, art that focuses more on how the entire room or space connects together as a whole, and less on the individual object. His blending of both spiritual and archetypal images focused on the human psyche and extended the perception of art beyond the existing imagery of pop and minimalism. During that time, his large-scale, interactive, multi-media installations were featured in many solo exhibitions around the world, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1977), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1979), the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art (1986), and the Kunst Museum, Basel (1983). A retrospective exhibition originating at the Philadelphia Museum of Art traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the University Art Museum, Berkeley, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1984 – 1986).
In 1990, after living and working in New York City and Los Angeles for many years, Borofsky moved to Ogunquit, Maine, where he began to focus primarily on producing large sculptures for public locations around the world. Over 35 large scale public sculptures have been completed, including the 30-meter tall Molecule Man standing on the Spree River in Berlin, the 21-meter tall Hammering Man in Frankfurt, and the 30-meter tall Walking To The Sky in Seoul, South Korea.
Borofsky continues to live and work in Ogunquit, Maine, and creates his large outdoor public sculptures at the La Paloma Fine Arts factory in Los Angeles. Most recently, he has completed the 20-meter tall People Tower for the Beijing Olympics, as well as several projects in the United States, including the 11-meter tall Human Structures sculpture in San Francisco, and the Humanity in Motion installation for the 43-meter tall atrium of the Comcast Center in Philadelphia.
From the beginning of his career, all of Borofsky’s work has been symbolic of humanity uniting together to build our world. People Tower (in which 136 life-size figures are connected together), the Molecule Man, the Hammering Man (which he often refers to as ‘the worker in all of us’), Walking to the Sky, and the Human Structures series are all efforts to encourage humanity’s understanding of our collective consciousness.
www.ftn-books.com has some nice Borofsky publications available at the moment.
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
