Recently i found a small book on the cultural festivities of the city of Nijmegen in 1930. “700 jaar stad” and “Kunst tentoonstelling” including works by Ansingh, Mastenbroek and Jessurun de Mesquita. The design of the cover is the problem…i can not figure out who made this… who can help?
Please respond to ftnbooksandart@gmail.com.
Here he is …..one of the leading experts on Multiples in the world and a gifted galery owner with his galerie A in Amsterdam. I met Ruhe at one time , some 30 years ago when i bought a small multiple by Robert Barry and Ruhe has since become one of the leading experts on everything MULTIPLE and built one of the greatest collections on Fluxus in the world.
This is the reason he deserves a blog, since there is probably no one who is more knowledgable on Fluxus in the world. And there is more….what about his knowledge on Fontana! The result the most important book on the Fontana multiplpes on the world. Compiled, edited and written by Ruhé ( available at www.ftn-books.com)
For those visiting Amsterdam. Here is the address of the Galerie A:
Galerie A
Johannes Verhulststraat 53-hs
1071MS Amsterdam
Nederland
+31 206714087
all the above books are still available
On first observation there is no relationship between Paul Signac and Henk Peeters, but after i had included a book on Paul Signac from the library of Henk Peeters to my inventory it was clear to me that Peeters must have had a great admiration for Signac and his Neo Impressionist friends.. The placing of the dots i compare to the placing of the cotton pads or feathers by Peeters on the Canvas.
I can be sure that this book comes from the library of Peeters , since it is signed in ink on the title page and has 2 stamps. The oldest being with his address Fahrenheitstraat 671 in Den Haag, the second his Arnhem address at the Hoogstedelaan 12. Just to illustrate:
On the left signac’s enlarge part of the sky above Rotterdam and on the right a canvas by Peeters. The Signac book is now available at www.ftn-books.com
Vincenc Kramar (1877–1960) was one of the first collectors worldwide to recognise the importance of Picasso and Braque’s Cubism. Without a doubt, his collection, a substantial portion of which is now held in the National Gallery of Prague, had a profound influence on the development of several decades of Czech Modern art, but most of all the importance of the collection is that Kramar was one of the first to focus on Modern Art , this way buildinh a collection of unprecedented quality. Since his death there were several occasion where his scollection was shown to the public. One of the occsions was at the Museum Boymans van Beuningen in 1968, where the Kramar collection was shown, The beautiful ( typical Sixties ) catalogue is now available at www.ftn-books.com.
I always thought that Klaus Staeck was just a publisher, but now i have learned him not only being an art publisher but also a graphic artist and lawyer. His bond with Joseph Beuys and a political engagemnet is well know, but him being an artist by himself not. It is always nice to encounter a Staeck publiction. Always on the border of being an artist multiple. www.ftn-books.com has several Klaus Staeck publications available
Klaus Staeck grew up in the East German city of Bitterfeld. After passing the abitur in 1956 he moved to the West German city of Heidelberg where he lives down to the present day.
From 1957 until 1962 Mr Staeck studied law at Heidelberg, Hamburg, and Berlin before taking both state exams. He was admitted to the German bar in 1969.
Klaus Staeck is probably best known for his political poster art. He began to teach himself how to work as a graphic designer while pursuing his legal studies, creating posters, postcards, and flyers. In 1960, Mr Staeck became a member of Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the late 1960s he took part in local politics in Heidelberg. Over the years he created three hundred different motifs, drawing from current political discussions. He took sides for the poor, the environment, and for peace, urging his countrymen to join him and to interfere in political affairs. In his campaigns he employed claims such as, e.g., Deutsche Arbeiter – die SPD will euch eure Villen im Tessin wegnehmen (“German workers: the SPD seeks to take away your villas in Tessin from you”), or Die Reichen müssen noch reicher werden – deshalb CDU (“The rich must become richer yet, therefore vote CDU”).
First he made woodcut prints, while from 1967 onward he changed to screen printing. Mr Staeck managed to finance his political actions by selling his artwork in Edition Tangente publishing house which later came to be known as Edition Staeck. He worked together with other political artists and writers, most notably Joseph Beuys, Panamarenko, Dieter Roth, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Daniel Spoerri, Günter Grass, Walter Jens, and Heinrich Böll who publicly spoke out in his favour. At the beginning of the 1970´s Staeck began his long time collaboration with Gerhard Steidl. So far, Klaus Staeck was sued in 41 cases for his artwork to be banned from public, to no avail.[2]
Since 1986 Mr Staeck has been visiting professor at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In April 2006 he was elected president of Berlin Akademie der Künste, succeeding to Adolf Muschg who had stepped down from this position late in 2005.
Klaus Staeck was awarded the first Zille prize for political graphic design in 1970, and the Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2007.
There is not much information to be found on this french artist, but he was part of the younger generation supported by D.H. Kahnweiler / the Galerie Louise Leiris.
Eugène de Kermadec was born in Paris in 1899. His father, a teacher, was from Guadeloupe, and Eugène spent his childhood there. Returning to Paris in 1915, he trained in sculpture at the Artc Décoratifs, and in drawing at the Beaux-Arts. In 1920, Kermadec became a friend of Soutine’s who gave him several pictures, Modigliani and Desnos were also among his friends. He showed at the Paris Salon des Indépendants in 1920, and in 1927 became one of the Kahnweiller’s regular artists.
The Simon Gallery in Paris showed his work in 1929, but he mainly showed at the Leiris gallery, with exhibits in 1946, 1957, 1973, 1977. Many shows of his work were held abroad as well : Berlin 1929, Tokyo 1933, Toronto 1949, Stuttgart 1960. He was also well known as a tennisman, later becoming an international Tennis umpire. Another of his friend was Francis Ponge whose book “le verre d’eau” he illustrated with lithographs in 1949, of the 110 copies printed, not a single one is to be found today. Eugène de Kermadec died in 1976
I like his art…. it is playfull, filles with color and the abstraction feels far more contemporary than the late Fifties in which his art became well known through the presentations at the galerie Leiris. www.ftn-books.com has a galerie Louise Leiris catalogue from 1957 available.
Italian artist Roberto Fanari imagined such a vivid story-telling collection of sculptures Seconda B 2012. Each piece forms itself in a barely visible outline. Sweet subjects are wrapped in iron wire, appearing more dense toward the feet, hands, and head. Royal placement sets some high on a pedestal where a bit of romance introduces a ceramic glazed gentlemen.
An excellent expose on the art of Roberto Fanari is found at this site:
a signed copy of his Nella MIa Foresta publication is available at www.ftn-books.com
Imre Reiner is most known for his typograohic innovations and fonts, but recently i added a book on his Ziffernbilder to my inventory. It shows that he was beside as typographic artist a very talented graphic artist too.
Born August 18, 1900 in Versec (Hungary), died August 21, 1987 in Lugano. Staatliche Bildhauerschule Zalatua (Zalatua State Sculpture School) and Kunstgewerbeschule Frankfurt (Frankfurt School of Arts and Crafts), from 1921 Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Stuttgart (Prof. F. H. Ernst Schneidler).
1923 to 1925 – worked as a graphic designer in London, Paris, New York and Chicago. Until 1927 – master-class student of F. H. Ernst Schneidler. From 1931 worked in Ruvigliana near Lugano as painter, graphic designer and illustrator.
Fonts: Meridian (1930), Gotika (1933), Corvinus (1934–35), (1938), Symphonie (1938), Floride (1939), Reiner Script (1951), Contact (1952), Reiner Black (1955), Mustang (1956), Bazar (1956), London Script (1957), (1957), (1959).
Matura, Mercurius Script and Pepita are trademarks of Monotype Typography.
the book below is available at www.ftn-books.com
The following text comes from the site of Oscar Lourens. This is not the standard artist i follow , but one who’s works grow on you when you one have seen them on location.
THE ARTIST AS ARCHITECT
Oscar Lourens employs photography and film as means to bring the reduced space back to human dimensions. For the exhibition ‘Vormen van aarden / Ways to root’ (Apeldoorn, 2005) he draws upon the principle of magnification: using a scaffold construction and whitewashed plywood plates, Lourens creates ‘a new house for Helene’. Referring to the live-sized pinewood-with-cloth models that Helene Kröller-Müller had built on the Ellenwoude mansion near Wassenaar, which functioned as studies for the to-be-built museum. Likewise, Oscar Lourens’ creation is a blown-up but otherwise exact replica of one of the models of La Lue. But this ‘new house for Helene’ isn’t a study for the future architecture, but a new artistic attempt to realize the miniature model in original size. In 2005, Oscar Lourens trades his role of artist for that of an architect. For the owners of the La Lue farmstead he designs a square tower of 5 by 5 by 12 metres. The tower with a pointed roof consists of three floors on which two people can cook (ground floor), live (first floor) and sleep (second floor). The dimensions are loosely based on existing rooms in the La Lue buildings. Important to Lourens is also the choice of a compact and slender tower that fits the landscape. The materials, style and position to the other buildings and the landscape are chosen accordingly. This is the first time Lourens creates a new architectonic space of his own design. Herewith, his miniature art has grown to true architecture in which the wandering spectator/visitor is able to truly experience the actual space. That the building has left the realm of art and entered that of architecture is also clear from the reactions of neighbours and visitors of La Lue. Many of them think the tower is a restored building that has been a part of the farmstead all along. The tower led me to ask Oscar Lourens whether he hadn’t rather chosen for the profession of an architect instead of being an artist. After an initial hesitation, he confirms. This hesitation is very understandable, because my question is like that of the farmer of the Lewis Caroll’s novel, who asked Mein Herr to accept the existing landscape as the best possible map. For is the tower of La Lue not the best means to truly take possession of architectonical space?
the book Possessing Space is available at www.ftn-books.com
Harry van Kruiningen is one of those dutch artist who’s importance grows by the year. He was a multi disciplined artist. Painting, etching, sculpting….he did everything. Personally i think his etchings and illustrations belong (arguably) to the very best that were made during the second half of last century in the Netherlands.
They all have something mystical and when you see where his inspirations was coming from ( African masks) one can see the mystic and recognise the mysticism in his works.
