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“Fugare” (1960)

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First there was VERVE, later Fugare and finally de Nieuwe Haagse School.

Nowadays dutch art lovers know exactly what is meant by DE NIEUWE HAAGSE SCHOOL. it is a group of artist who lived and worked in Den Haag and met regularly in Pulchris Studio, de Posthoorn and de Haagse Kunstkring. But before this there was FUGARE. this FUGARE society was founded by George Lampe on the 26th of January 1960

The result? an artist mouvement with particpating artist that met regularly and inspired each other and held their exhibitions at the best venues in those days. Exhibitions were held at the Haags Gemeentemuseum, Stedelijk Museum, van Abbemuseum and Pulchri Studio. There was  a place for all in Fugare. Jan van Heel painted figures and Willem Hussem abstract paintings and everything in between was appreciated as long as you were an active member who visited the meetings. Fugare is impiortant for dutch abstract painting and some nice Fugare publications are availabel at www.ftn-books.com

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Michel Seuphor (1901-1999)

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Michel Seuphor…wrote a monumental biography on Piet Mondriaan and is one of the great names in constructivist art by himself. In the twenties he became friends with Joaquin Torres Garcia. For me their works are worlds apart from each other but somehow they became friends and started the artist mouvement CERCLE ET CARRE.

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the Netherland was not too far away for Seuphor …the result he had his exhibitions at galleries and museum in the Netherlands. Specially DEN HAAG was a well now city for him. He spent much time at the Gemeentemuseum to study Mondrian for his biography on this famous dutch abstract painter and ….he had an exhibition of his own at the Gemeentemuseum, soon followed with a gallery exhibition at the Nouvelles Images gallery ( closed now) . Both catalogues and a print by Seuphor are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Marinus Boezem (1934)

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Marinus Boezem (1934) belongs, together with Jan Dibbets and Ger van Elk, among the most important representatives of the Conceptual Art and Arte Povera movement in The Netherlands. In the 1960s, Boezem discovered that he could use elusive elements such as air, weather, wind and light as visual materials and made a name with radical, immaterial works that were far ahead of their time. Boezem was one of the initiators of the ground-breaking exhibition ‘Op Losse Schroeven: Situaties en Cryptostructuren’ (1969) at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and took part in the equally influential exhibition ‘When Attitudes Become Form’ at the Kunsthalle Bern in the same year.

In 1969 he created one of his most famous works of art, ‘Signing the Sky Above The Port of Amsterdam With an Aeroplane, 1969’: exactly as stated in its title, an aircraft’s condensation trails were used to spell out Boezem’s surname in the sky, the ephemeral wording disappearing almost as soon as it was created. In 1971 he made an artwork for television that was broadcast under the auspices of Gerry Shum’s legendary Fernseh Gallery. Furthermore, Boezem created numerous works in public space and land art. The Green Cathedral is a beautiful example: 174 Italian poplar trees are planted to reproduce the floor plan and measurements of the Cathedral at Reims, in a flat polder near Almere, the Netherlands.

In an oeuvre spanning more than sixty years, Marinus Boezem has created a body of work that stands quite independently in contemporary art. His works are part of many important museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Gemeentemuseum Den Haag; Museum Kröller-Muller, Otterloo; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; and many more public art collections.

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Josef Albers Nesting Tables 1926/27

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This set of tables i first encountered at the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop where two types of these set were sold. One with colored perspex and one set with original italian fabricated glass. I had to had this and i ordered one set direectly from the manufacturer. These are so impressive and 100% like the original set which was originally designed at the Bauhasu by Josef Albers and thnis reedition from 2010 is one of the best small furniture items ever produced. I checked and this set is still available, but not as cheap as it originally was in 2010, but choose this set and you will have the pleasure of looking at one of the greatest functional Bauhaus designs ever made. Klein und More sells the original authorised set in Europe  and the Moma stora sells a set in their store for the US. Josef Albers is one of the artist of whom ww.ftn-books.com sells many items

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MIGUEL YBÁÑEZ (1946)

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Born in Spain, but living and working for practically his entire artistic life in the Netherlands, he has managed to build a strong following of avid collectors, culminating in a Museum presentation at the Museum van der Togt.

Intense colours and bold gestures articulate Ybáñez’ paintings. Although largely communicating through abstraction, Ybáñez sometimes hints at the figurative world. However, these figurative elements have become distorted by interlacement of planes and extensive re-working of painted layers, creating complex structures and depth. The play of dimensionality is reminiscent of early Cubist painting. The Cubists, were inspired by elements of the visible world that they reduced form 3-D to 2-D, in contrast, Ybáñez creates a new dimensionality. The artist prefers innovation over conformity, therefore, to him, the tangible world has its limitations and a new visual language emerges.

Ybáñez is an intellectual with a sardonic sense of humour. Through his titles the artist enjoys creating seemingly bizarre connections. In fact, Ybáñez’s work belongs to the realm of philosophy and metaphysics, a world that defies traditional logic.

Ybáñez works in the tradition of Arte Povera and embraces a range of techniques to create works of varying scale and form. His reliefs, sculptures and assemblages are made of cloth, cardboard, metal, plaster and found objects. The resulting works are unified by an overall off-white finish which imbues the forms with a timeless and ethereal presence. In his work Ybáñez strives to negate the boundaries between past and present, ‘high’ and ‘low’ art.

The artist won numerous awards including the Premio de Dibujo, Galiana, Spain, 1979 and the Premio de Pintura Congreso de los Diputados, Madrid, Spain, 1985

www.ftn-books.com has several Ybanez titles available

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Lord Snowdon a typical British photographer (1930-2017)

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I do not want to write about this British Gentleman who once was married with Princess Margaret , the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, but about the very talented photographer who he was.

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Of course British royalty figured frequently in his photographs, But since i added the book STILLS 1983-1987 to the collection of www.ftn-books.com, my admiration for him as a photographer was established instantly. These are among the best “Stills/ portraits”  i have ever seen and deserve to be admired by all who love photography. Among them portraits of Royalty like the Queen, Diana, Bowie and Twiggy. Here is arguably the ultimate 60’s British photographer.

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galerie du Dragon (1955-1995)

 

I recently noticed that i have several publications by galerie du Dragon in my inventory

Founded in 1955 and always at the location of 19, rue du Dragon in Paris this galerie is together with galerie Denise Rene one of the grand old institutions in the Parisian art scene. For over 40 years they were representing modern artist like Matta and Carelman,

For those who can read french….. Here is a part from an article on the galerie du Dragon in which ll the famous names of the artists that have made a contribution to the gallerie’s fame are mentioned:

Grâce au soutien de nombreux artistes, le jeune poète Max Clarac-Sérou reprend le bail de la librairie et en fait une galerie d’art à partir de 1955, véritable foyer de découvertes et de contacts : la Galerie du Dragon. De jeunes poètes, comme Edouard Glissant, Alain Jouffroy ou Michel Butor y retrouvent des écrivains plus âgés, Henri Michaux ou Gherasim Luca. Ils y croisent des artistes, peintres ou plasticiens, comme Giacometti, Matta ou Victor Brauner. De solides amitiés voient le jour, dans la fréquentation du lieu, où Max Clarac-Sérou ou Cécilia Ayala organisent les expositions : sur l’art cubain contemporain, en 1961, ou sur le thème de Seul, et le corps, en 1966, réunissant pour l’occasion des œuvres de Balthus, Bellmer, César, Cremonini, Dali, Giacometti, Magritte et Matta..

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Piet Dirkx weekly

As promissed another detail which shows the thick layers of wax paint Piet uses to make his compositions. This painting was discussed earlier in another blog on Piet and has been presented on 3 locations before it finally was part of our collection. Among the locations was the Biotoop project at the Haags Gemeentemuseum.

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Floris Arntzenius (1864-1925)

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Floris Arntzenius is one of those painters who can be called a dutch impressionist. His touch is not as sunny as the French impressionists, but more subdued and influenced by weather and seasons in the Netherlands, making his paintings less bright and cheerfull. Still his depicting of daily life and townscapes makes his work of a rare quality. His painting can be compared with that of Jan Toorop, but where Toorop changed his style for several times during his life, Arntzenius stayed true to classic dutch impressionist scenes.

left Arntzenius / right Toorop

 

The Gemeentmuseum Den Haag has some very nice Arntzenius paintings in its collection and has published several catalogues over the years of which some are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Henry Moore (1898-1986)

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There has always been a fascination for Henry Moore and his works by the dutch. Since the beginning of his career he has had exhibitions at all the major museums in the Netherlands, which resuklted in purchses by museums and privste collectors. One of the last collectors to add a major work by Moore was Joop Caldenborgh who added a very large bronze sculpture by the artist. It was one of the last sculptures he added to his collection before he build the Voorlinden museum.

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My guess is that eventually his majestic sculpture garden including the Moore and Sol LeWiit sculptures, will be integrated with the Museum Voorlinden.

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I love the large Henry Moore that is outside the Schamhart building at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and learned to truly love this one , because it was my outside view at the Gemeentemuseum when i had my office over there. Later i moved to the offices at the Museum of education and had the complete Berlage building as my view, but the office with the Henry Moore in front and a Rijsselberghe painting in our room was a great place to work.

Since there is a long history of Henry Moore exhibitions in the Netherlands , i have collected many important Henry Moore catalogues of which the Stedelijk Museum one stands out since this one is designed by Willem Sandberg.