Piet Dirkx was invited on many occasions to shine his artistic light on color and architectural solutions. On this occasion he was invited to make an “in situ” work at the police station in Raamsdonkveer
Günther Förg at the Gemeentemuseum in 2003
An important discovery among the many invitations i acquired recently. It is an original sketching by Förg for what presumably could be a wall drawing in one of the rooms of the Gemeentemuseum during and after his 2003 exhibition. In that time Förg was experimenting with loosely painted forms on canvas and walls.
On the painted paper sheet is the studio stamp of Günther Förg in Freiburg and the paper is devided into two parts. The upper part is painted with a deep green and handwritten the text Gemeentemuseum in blue ballpoint, underneath in pencil Den Haag 2003. Left of the green a text in blue ballpoint ” Moikan (?)” The lower part of the design/drawing/painting is in a “leather brown” color and in pencil beside “Israel” is written . On the lowest part of the sheet the studio stamp in black ink.
My educated guess is that this is a proposal for a wall drawing in one of the rooms of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and this highly collectable item is now available at www.ftn-books.com.
Jaroslawa Dankowa (1925-1999)
Dankowa has made more than 400 sculptures, but will always be remembered for her masterpiece ” het INDISCH MONUMENT” , erected at the Prof Teldersweg in Den Haag. She was chosen among many with her design of a group of famished people who mourn and grieve, with in the background bars to symbolize the occupancy of the Indonesian people during WWII.
The sculpture had to be finished before 1988 and it was because of this set date the pressure to finish and complete the sculpture was immense. While making the sculkpture she fell from a ladder, but despite breaking a hip during this fall, she finished in time and the sculpture has been since in the centre of the remembrance ceremony of the victims who were killed during WWII in Indonesia.
www.ftn-books.com has now a monograph on Dankowa available.
New Business Card FTN books & Art
Some recent changes made it necessary to translate these changes into a new business card. The most important one being two new email addresses. One personal one and the other for the FTN books & Art contacts. So here is all the new business information to contact me and keep track of my activities, the daily blog and additions to my inventory.
Wilfried van den Elshout / FTN books
Veursestraatweg 106c
2265CG Leidschendam, the Netherlands
new email : wilfriedvandenelshout@gmail.com
new email : ftnbooksandart@gmail.com
Paul Wunderlich (1927-2010)
Paul Wunderlich can be considered as a second generation surreal painter/sculptor. First there was the generation of magritte and Dali who were recognized as being important. This generation was followed by artists who stayed true to Surrealism for their entire artist careers. Labisse, Fuchs, Tanguy and ….Paul Wunderlich . The artist for who the human figure was the start of many art work. He specially was fond of the male figure, which he used on many occasions in his art, but that was not the first art work by Wunderlich i encountered. I know exactly what and where it was. Somewhere in the early Seventies a newspaper article was published and in the article the NIKE sculpture by Wunderlich was mentioned. I learned who sold it and hoped to acquire it for my staring collection, because its edition size was large ( 1000 copies). It was not to be….visiting the gallery Steltman who exhibited and sold the sculpture i learned that the price was 1100 guilders. A price far too steep for me…so i dit not buy it. A few years later my parents decided to buy it together with another Wunderlich sculpture which is now still in my collection.
My sister has the NIKE statue. Both statues/sculptures still grace our living rooms. Wunderlich is perhaps not the most fashionable artist to have in your collection, but i can guarantee you that his works will grow on you.
www.ftn-books.com has some nice Wunderlich publications available .
Till Hohn,(1945) Musician, artist, performer
Not many will have heard of Till Hohn, since he is mainly a local celebrity in Dusseldorf.
because he is known in the Dusseldorf region he has had his exhibitions and performances mainly in this region and one was held in the IM EHRENHOF venue in 1995. With the exhibition/Performance was a a small catalogue published which is now in high demand , because Hohn is such an artist who stays true to his believe in his chosen way in art . It is fascinating to see the development over the years and the scenery he builds for his performances is like an architectural sculpture.
The Till Hohn / Unser Dusseldorf soll schoner werden publication is now availabel at www.ftn-books.com
Jean Villeri (1896-1982)
One of the nicest things of writing a daily blog is that you keep discovering “unknown” artist. One of these artists is Jean Villeri. I found a signed book on the bookmarket ( now for sale at www.ftn-boks.com) . An artist who lived through some very important periods, post impressionism was one of them and from his earliest beginning he started as a post impressionist painter. He met and was influenced by Bonnard, he later became an abstract painter/sculptor. The result …in the end his works were presented and collected by french museums and his art was sold at galleries in France. He has had some some exhibitions outside France, but his main public were the french gallery public. The book/catalogue that is now for sale is for his 1963 Galerie Blumenthal exhibition and shows in an excellent way his strength as an artist.
Piet Dirkx weekly
A superb New Years wish was this one for the year 2006. A two sided watercolor drawing with handwritten text in pencil on watercolor paper.
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Iris van Dongen (1975)
About the same time the Hadassah Emmerich exhibition was held at the GEM museum, Roel Arkesteijn curated another iconic exhibition. It was the NOX NOCTIS exhibition by Iris van Dongen. van Dongen has become a force in modern dutch painting. Her symbolic/dark paintings remind me of the best by Gustav Klimt, but they are certainly not copies.
These are highly original works of art that would grace any modern art collection. A nice insight movie by HOLLANDSE MEESTERS show van Dongen at work in her studio:
And for the iconic Nox Noctis catalogue please visit www.ftn-books.com
Hadassah Emmerich (1974)
The first time i heard about the artist Hadassah Emmerich was at the time she had an exhibition at GEM. Curated by Roel Arkesteijn this exhibition was one of the first at the GEM museum. The Neighbor of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and dedicated to contemporary art. I think her paintings are overwhelming, extremely attractive, but far too exuberant to add to any private collection beside a museum collection. Still i admire her paintings, because there is no artist alike and her works are highly original.
In her paintings, work on paper and painterly installations Hadassah Emmerich interweaves varied themes such as identity and the body, representations of the exotic and the dialogue between abstraction and figuration.
Emmerich selects material from a variety of sources including vintage photography books, texts, advertising and art historical reference books, which are fused together through a process of photomontage which is then transferred onto the canvas using a combination of painting and printing.
Negotiating a universe where tropical colors merge effortlessly with cold grey tones, where graphic silhouettes inhabit ephemeral spaces and where references to modernist painting are incorporated into urban space, Emmerich creates a fictionalized narrative in which ‘multiculturalism’ is questioned in a painterly sense.
Displaying monumental and immersive qualities, the viewer is confronted with a visceral immediacy, urging to engage conceptually as well as physically. In continuing the legacy of female ‘pop’ artists such as Evelyn Axell or Angela Garcia, Emmerich pursues a practice that combines a bold visual language with an investigation into the undercurrent of visual culture.
www.ftn-books.com has the GEM publication on Hadassah Emmerich now available now available.
