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Eric Bainbridge (1955)

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One of the painters i discovered in the early Eighties was Eric Bainbridge , who exhibition was held in 1989 at the Stedelijk Museum. It waas an absolute eye opening exhibition and since i cherish the catalogue ( also available at www.ftn-books.com).

Initially recognized in the 1980s for his object-based works covered in synthetic fur, Eric Bainbridge has evolved an extensive sculptural practice addressing existential themes on an everyday level through playful assemblages. Constructed out of commonplace objects and inexpensive building materials, his pieces continuously re-contextualize Modernist principles through a reconsideration of the found object using DIY home-repair and improvement supplies as well as kitschy consumer products. Carefully staged, Bainbridge’s assemblages investigate the domestic and the everyday whilst reflexively engaging with traditional sculptural concerns.

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Eric Bainbridge was born in Consett, County Durham, UK in 1955. He studied at Newcastle Polytechnic and completed a Masters in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London in 1981. Bainbridge has exhibited Internationally in significant group and solo exhibitions and is considered an influential figure to a younger generation of established British artists. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s he showed in important group exhibitions such as “Material Culture” at the Hayward Gallery, London and solo exhibitions including “View Points” The Walker Art Centre, Minnieapolis, “Eric Bainbridge” at The ICA, Boston, “Style, Space, Elegance” at The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Bainbridge was included in “Modern British Sculpture” at the Royal Academy, London – the most significant exhibition on British Sculpture in recent years, curated by Penelope Curtis and Keith Wilson

 

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Conroy Maddox (1912-2005)

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It was a few months ago that i sold a book on Conroy Maddox and the next day i started to look into his career. This was because galerie d”eendt published the book and i ahve always admired the program by d’Eendt.

Conroy Maddox  was an English surrealist painter, collagist, writer and lecturer; and a key figure in the Birmingham Surrealist movement.

He was born in Ledbury, Herefordshire, and discovered surrealism in 1935, spending the rest of his life exploring its potential through his paintings, collages, photographs, objects and texts. Inspired by artists such as Max Ernst, Oscar Domínguez and Salvador Dalí, he rejected academic painting in favour of techniques that expressed the surrealistic spirit of rebellion. Maddox officially joined the British Surrealist Group in 1938.

His creations soon began not only to challenge the conventional view of reality, but also to push pictorial expression to the limits of consciousness. He was even implicated in both scandal and controversy when, during World War II, Scotland Yard suspected him of fifth columnist sabotage and mounted a surprise raid to seize works thought to contain coded messages to the enemy.

Following the war he moved to Balsall Heath and began his most active period. In 1948, he married Nan Burton. They had a daughter and a son together, but had the marriage dissolved in 1955. He died in London, aged 92.

The one copy of the d’Eendt catalogue that remains is now available at www.ftn-books.com

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A very special catalogue on Figuration Libre

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The year 1982, the exhibition …l’Air du Temps….location Galerie d’Art Contemporain Nice….the artists… Alberola, Blanchard, Blais, Boisrond, Castellas, Combas, Denis, di-Rosa, En avant comme avant, Favier, Gainon, Giard, Laget, Lanneau and Rousse.

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All artists were member of the FIGURATION LIBRE group and have gained world fame in the decades after this exhibition. What makes this catalogue special is that it is the only copy currently available on the market and from an art historical point of view. It presents these artists for the first time together in one of the major museums for modern art. Beside that a text is written by Ben Vautier ( Fluxus) who was and is an admirer of the Figuration Libre. This i the only copy i have available and it is very special , since the condition is excellent and it is dedicated to Riekje Swart who was the first to present these Figuration Libre artists in the Netherlands.

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Barend Blankert (1941)

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Some will say and compare him as being a dutch Lucian Freud, but Barend Blankert is for me still Barend Blankert and personally i would not compare him with anybody else.

Every time i encounter a painting by Blankert and study it i make up my own story. The scene and composition are the inspiration and the result always an original story and probabaly not the story Blankert intended.

So beside the impressive painting technique in which Blankert excels his storytelling is another quality this artist has. It is well worth studying this artist and whenever there is a possibility to see his paintings, do not hesitate and go there to admire these.

www.ftn-books.com has some Blankert publicatons available.

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Geertjan van Oostende (1941)

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van Oostende his works are relayted to the ones Anton Heyboer made during the Seventies. Many dry point etchings and filled with a symbolic/abstract language. van Oostende was at one time a pupil of heyboer and they always stayed in close contact. The admiration for Heyboer shows in his works.

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Not many books are published on van Oostende and hardly any museum presentations make this artist not very well known. Still leaf through the book ( available at www.ftn-books.com ) and you see real quality art work by an artist who derves to be known much more. Abstract etchings, painting and special publications make this an artist well worh colelcting.

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Frans Haks (2008)

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After many years , Frans Haks waved goodbye in 2008 to his beloved Groninger Museum and with this fareweel a beautiful publication designed by Swip Stolk was published. In it , contributions by all that mattered during the Eighties and Nineties in the dutch Museum world. Contributions by Wim Crouwel, Henk van Os, Peter Struycken and of course Swip Stolk, make this book very special. A well deserved farewell present to Frans Haks who made  the Groninger Mudeum one of the most important and trend setting museums in the Netherlands. This book and poster are now available at www.ftn-books.com

 

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Dario Villalba (1939-2018)

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This is the kind of art i admire. It sets you “off balance” . I have the saem experience with the works by Ossip who i consider one of the best and most oroginal artists in the Netehrlands. Villalba is spanish and walks the same path.

because Graduated in Fine Arts and member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In 1958 he moved to Paris and painted for a few months in André Lhote’s studio. In 1962 he obtained a scholarship to study at Harvard University.

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Since the mid-sixties, he dealt with the problems of the latest artistic movements from a personal and original perspective, using photography as a means of painting. In 1970 he obtained the first major recognition of his work, after the presentation at the XXXV Venice Biennale of the so called pink encapsulated. In 1973 he received the International Painting Prize at the XII Biennial of São Paulo.

In the same decade he exhibited in major European museums: Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Heidelberg Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Stadt Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Sonja Henie-Niels Onstand Foundation, Hovikooden, Norway.

In 1983 he received the National Painting Prize in Spain. During this period he participated in solo and group exhibitions in the USA: at Charles Cowles Gallery in 1982, at the Guggenheim in 1980, New Images from Spain, in 1983, Acquisition Priorities: Aspects of Postwar Painting in America. Recent European Painting and at the MOMA in 1984, An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture. In 1987 he took part in the exhibition Cinq siècles d’Art Espagnol: l’imagination nouvelle. Les années 70-80 at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

In 1994 the Valencian Institute of Modern Art organised an anthological exhibition of his work, which was later presented at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo.

On 17 November 2002 he became a member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 2003 he received the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts in Granada.

www.ftn-books.com has 2 Villalba publications available.

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Anton Heyboer (continued)

 

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A few years before the pandemic (2017-2018) the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag organized an exhibitionon Anton Heyboer. Since the Sixties there was a strong connection between the museum and Heyboer , because Hans Locher , the curator at that time, was a stron fan of the early Heyboer and his choice has proven to be impeccable. Beautiful early etchings and drawings are now part of the collection of the museum and the exhibition showed that Heyboer has been developing his art through the decades. Perhaps less appealing than his eraly years, but the works from the end of his career impressed me very much. The catalogue published with this exhibition is without a doubt the best book on Heyboer since 40 years and now availabel at www.ftn-books.com. Heyboer’s position in dutch art is now very well established and this exhibition and catalogue show why.

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Marc Bijl (1970)

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The most informative text on Marc Bijl i encountered on Wikipedia, but on a personal note, i agree with every element of this text. Marc Bijl stands for art on the borders of society in which gothic and punk are combined with Pop Culture…. I love it.

From 1992 until 1997 Marc Bijl studied at the Royal Academy of Art & Design in ‘s–Hertogenbosch. In 1996 he studied for a year at Glasgow School of Art. In his early work, Marc Bijl reacted to global themes and to popular fascination with symbols of political power, globalization of the economy, religion and nationalism. This resulted in interventions in public space, videos, sculptures and installations that underscored or undermined world views. Bijl endeavours to expose superficialities and myths via his work. Bijl switches in his work between political activity and street culture as he does between the media of image, text and music. He exposes the superficialities, icons and myths of popular culture in his work to stimulate the spectator to contemplate about moral and ethical issues. The symbol, the logo and the label are his potential targets and his artistic tools. He likes to upset, relocate and re-connote their superficial image and their mythmaking – always aiming at a critical analysis of the social conditions of the society. Bijl employs visual elements borrowed from punk and Gothic subcultures and from anarchism. His early works are representational, cartoon-like and often textual. His recent work is more abstract and minimalistic, exemplifying a shift in approach, by which he pares down different perspectives and methodologies to a new essence. The crux is no longer the ‘symbolism’ but what that symbolism represents and signifies. In these most recent works, Bijl makes clear references to modernist art-historical icons such as Mark Rothko, Mondriaan, De Stijl (Rietveld chair) and more subtle references to Jannis Kounellis and Joseph Beuys. Bijl adapts these classical works to his own corporate style. He seeks a more abstract formal language that is in many respects more ambiguous than his earlier vocabulary.

Bijl undermines systems but at the same time he is depended on these systems. Bijl’s work is often rebellious and tends to the illegality. His work is clearly rooted in street culture and possesses elements of graffiti, performance and installation art.

www.ftn-books.com has some nice Marc Bijl publications available.

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Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908)

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Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (15 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day and i think that is the only importnat aspect from his career. I am not a great fan of his prints, drawings and paintings, but all over the world Busch is recognized as being one of the founding fathers of the comic art. A story told in pictures that describe and show the situation,

Busch drew on the tropes of folk humour as well as a profound knowledge of German literature and art to satirize contemporary life, any kind of piety, Catholicism, Philistinism, religious morality, bigotry, and moral uplift.

His mastery of drawing and verse became deeply influential for future generations of comic artists and vernacular poets. Among many notable influences, The Katzenjammer Kids was inspired by Busch’s Max and Moritz. Today, the Wilhelm Busch Prize and the Wilhelm Busch Museum help maintain his legacy. The 175th anniversary of his birth in 2007 was celebrated throughout Germany. Busch remains one of the most influential poets and artists in Western Europe. The book below is available at www.ftn-books.com

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