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Melle (1908-1976)

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Melle Johannes Oldeboerrigter in short MELLE, was born on 27 May 1908 in Wittenburg, a residential neighbourhood adjacent to Amsterdam’s harbour area. He was the youngest of three and the only son. His parents, who were forty-three and thirty-seven when Melle was born, had each been through a lot by then. His father, Hendericus Oldeboerrigter, was born on 31 January 1865 in the village of Nijega in Friesland. At age 12, he signed on to work on a sailing vessel and advanced from junior seaman to boatswain. Raised Catholic, he soon became a socialist and was politically active in the seamen’s league, an organization that subscribed to the ideals of the social-anarchist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis. Tnis is in short a “dry” biography, but it misses the reason why Melle has become famous in the Netherlands. Melle was the first to combine surrealistic scenes , combining genitals with fantasy figures into, considered by many, controversial paintings. Melle is important and had some followers who stillpaint in the tradition he started. I will give you only one example….Hans Kanters …on both artist www.ftn-books.com has some publications available.

left Melle….right Kanters

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Annie Newnham ….an artist book

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Thursday is bookmarket day and on this weekly visit i try to find some special items which will better my inventory.

Last visit i encountered this very nice artist book . The books contains 9 great original lino cuts and the artist was not known to me, but the quality of the design and lino cuts made me buy the book. I am impressed….a beautiful publication with an excellent design by Dennis Hall. Story is grate but the linocuts are the main attraction of this publication.

Newnham studied at the Royal Academie of Arts and has since build a reputation as an illustrator. Works are sold regularly at auction , but i could not find any results of this 46 page publication which contains 9 original lino cuts and was published in 1982 by the Inky Parrot Press in a numbered and signed edition of 225 copies. The atmosphere makes me think of the DIE BRÜCKE group of german artists whit dark blacks and atmospheric scenes. I only can highly recommend this publication to all collectors of artist books.

 

Here is a short biography on Newnham:

Annie Newnham sees the human body as every artist’s starting point – her own with oils, where she is well known. Catch it unawares, off guard. The awkward angle as much as the careful pose. These became mantras among her students after 20 years of adult teaching in Oxfordshire.

She spent an entire year at the Royal Academy Schools drawing from life. After being awarded the Alma Tadema prize and a Leverhulme, she went abroad, her sketchbook always handy, to meet other forms and contexts. Later her work moved into lino, which she has made a vibrant medium for illustration work.

A number of her life drawings, along with other sketches plus some lino prints, will be available to buy. The fixed display includes posters, artist’s proofs and worksheets, and illustrated books from publishers such as the Folio Society and Inky Parrot Press.

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Ad Arma (1954 )

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Ad Arma is known in real life as Ad Robert Meerman and represented by Willy Schoots gallery. A life long career in art has brought him some fame and exchibitions in the Netherlands , but it will be hard to find his works in public collections. Still he has a loyal following and  build a circle of collectors, who collect his works. Personally i have never visited an exhibition or gallery viewing, but what i saw in the book i now have for sale ( with original drawing) the works remind me of Kees Okx, Heyboer and his long rising sculptures of Giacometti. All these artist i like very much, so why didn’t i hear of Ad Arma only some years ago? I can not answer this question, but i am certain to visit his exhibition when it is organized at a place not too far away.

My work and life are completely fused. The work is my life. Themes in my work throughout time; The slipping of time, shared vulnerability, continuous change, time and timelessness, the arise and disappearance. The melancholy and beauty of consciousness.

I cannot explain what moves me. That on its own, already moves me.

 

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Ennio Morlotti (1910-1992)

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One of the almost undeservedly forgotten Italian painters is certainly Ennio Morlotti. He was a pioneer in presenting nature  as an almost abstract subject . His plants, vegetation paintings are really one of kind . Study these closely and you will see the realistic elemts but admire them in a glance and the only thing you will notice is an abstract work of art. I like his paintinsg although in the Netherlands you will not encounter them in our museums. You better go to Italy and visit the Modern art museums in Rome and Torino. Compare his painting with Marc Mulders.

left Morlotti and right Mulders

He almost works the same , but has  a style of his own. Both these artists are personal favorits, but where Morlotti is not known over here and Marc Mulders is known here and abroad.

www.ftn-books has some nice Morlotti titles available.

morlotti

 

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Koninklijke Subsidie voor Vrije Schilderkunst, 1980

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Every year the KONINKLIJKE SUBSIDIE VOOR VRIJE SCHILDERKUNST is granted to promissing, youthful artists. This series of 9 consecutive years is not randomly chosen by me. The artists that received the price are from my generation and many i have known or know personally and some are even present in our personalcollection. The reason to present these artists in this series now is because this generation is appearing on auction sites at these days, fetching such low prices that for many of you an original work of art is feasable. These artist deserve a bigger platform and your support. Many of them still make great art, some have stopped their art career, but most of them are still working every day in their studios. The series contains 9 blogs all devoted to the catalogue designed by Walter Nikkels which was published in 1987 on these artists and the price they won. This series of 7 years appears to have been important to dutch modernart and from a historical perspective it is nice to see that in the Eighties great artists and great art surfaced.

here is the first year is present to you. 1980

vrije foto 1980

from left to right: Tiny van der sar, Lex Rijnhout, Henk Metselaar, Hedy Gubbels, Eugène Jongerius

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Ettore Burzi (1872-1937)

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Just take a mixing bowl and put in it a dash of the early Mondrian, a pinch of Hodler and some part of the Scandinavian 20th century artists and presto….there he is ETTORE BURZI. Rooted within the art deco movement he produced some great paintings in the first part of the 20th century.

I like his landscapes in which he approaches the quality of some of the greatest paintings by Klimt ,Hodler and Mondrian ( de Rode Wolk by Mondrian on the right), he also stayed true to his origins since he also made some great paintings of Venice in which he catches this dreamlike s city on canvas.

For those who are not familiar with Burzi, www.ftn-books.com has the 2010 Ticino catalogue now available.burzi

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Harm Kamerlingh Onnes (1893-1985)

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Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, born in the city of Leiden was an artist whose works were hardly known and appreciated during his life. He made drawings, gouaches, Oil paintings and ceramics, but if you ask me …can you mention one monumental work by him…. I can not produce any, but bis smaller works that I encountered at auction I appreciate. Postal stamp design and small humoristic sketches on daily life I have seen and admired.

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His work was influenced by modernism in the period between 1915 and 1925 and in 1918 he designed some stained windows for JJP Oud’s vacation home ” DE VONK “. From 1925 until his death daily life is his only subject for his art. From this year on his work is only figurative.

www.ftn-books has some Kamerlingh Onnes publications available.

 

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Rik van Iersel (1961)

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If i look at the long list of most influential and important artists in the the Netherlands, Rik van Iersel is among the first 100 for the last 15 years or so, but the last few years it looks like he is loosing more and more his higher positions on the list.

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Still for me personally , i think his importance is still growing. His art ” language” is inspired by his surroundings and his paintings read like comic books. The style is a form of abstract figuration which can be compared with the spontanuous figures that populate the works by Jean Michel Basquiat. He does not belong to the FIGURATION LIBRE….no he is Rik van Iersel and on my personal list to acquire for our collection when there is a chance to buy at auction. van Ierel is “self taught” and where others persued a career in illustration and comic boooks. His career focusses on painting and graphic art.

After so many years he is established. His works being sold at gallery Willy Schoots and “one man” shows at some of the main stream museums like the Bommel van Dam museum. ( catalogue available at www.ftn-books.com)

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Richard Paul Lohse….2 silkscreened posters

 

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It must have been around 1989 that i first appreciated the works by Richard Paul Lohse. The Haags Gemeentemuseum showed a magnificent painting by Lohse , which has since been on permanent display in the Museum. Responsible was Rudi Fuchs ,who had an admiration for Lohse too. When he was a director at the van Abbemuseum he showed the works by Lohse frequently. Among these times a retropective  in 1971 for which a silkscreened poster was printed ( available at www.ftn-books.com). Now i have added the “sister” poster which was made for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1971. Two equal collectable posters and a rare commbination to be offered at one place for sale.

 

 

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Jan Vercruysse (1948-2018)

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Inspired by yesterdays blog on Niek Kemps, this one is about Jan Vercruysse, who , together with Kemps, were presenting their art on the Venice Biennale in 1993. The Belgian conceptual art scene lost one of his most important members in 2018 when Vercruysse died unexpectedly. He refused to participate in the DOCUMENTA IX, because he had completely different ideas how art should be presented. Art was made into a spectacle by Jan Hoet and vercruysse thought different about presenting his art.

kemps ven a

He was the complete the opposite of Jan Hoet, who thought art was a spectacle, where Vercruysse stood for a much more contemplative form of art.  This is reflected in his art which dooes not impress by its colors or forms , but intrigues and makes you study the setting and objects. Both the catalogues www.FTN-books.com has available show this in an excellent way.