At one time Pieter Brattinga and Henry Miller spoke about the graphic designs and specially the “KWADRAAT bladen” Brattinga made. Miller responded that he would love to participate in the project and promised to make something special for the series….and so he did in 1967. The Kwadraat series , printed by Steendrukkerij de Jong , published in 1967…extra mailing Written Language. A portfolio containing 4 watercolors by Henry Miller. 3 double paged ones and one title page. This rare and highly collectible publication is now available at www.ftn-books.com
This is not a blog on Versace, but a blog on Fashion house catalogues in general. The great fashion houses like Chanel , Hermes and certainly Versace, invite the best photographers to photograph top fashion models by the best photographers in the business. A very “organic” combination was Karl Lagerfeld who photographed Claudia Schiffer in the time he was responsible for all fashion designs.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
A lesser known combination is Bruce Weber who photographed at least 3 catalogues for Gianni And Donatella Versace of which the most important one is the 1997 catalogue which was published shortly before he was assassinated. Another Bruce Weber one was the 1996/97 one. He was invited to photograph the COLLEZIONE AUTUNNO INVERNO 1996/97 for which he did the main part of the male models, together with Richard Avedon who did the female models. A classic in the publishing history of fashion catalogues. www.ftn-books.com has bought a small collection of these Versace catalogues which is now for sale.
For me Fluxus is Robert Filliou and Robert Filliou is Fluxus. There are so many examples how Filliou approached art in his very personal way. Born in France, but at one time he worked in Los Angeles for Coca Cola. This is where he must have learned to speak and write english, but when you listen to him he learned to speak the language, but not without the french accent.
Still i like his works and there is always something to discover within his projects of which one was a project he did at the StedelijK Museum Amsterdam in 1971 after which project a catalogue was published. The catalogue RESEARCH AT THE STEDELIJK Nov.5-Dec.5 1971 is available at www.ftn-books.com , is one of the rarest from the Seventies Stedelijk catalogues and is an excellent introduction into the fascinating world of Robert Filliou.
Willem Sandberg was a visionary designer and director for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He was one of the first who recognized the importance of designs by artists for daily used items and so he decided to invite 4 artist to design special curtains and tissues for a ” KD” exhibition/ Kunstenaars Dessins.
The artists? …Karel Appel, Jef Diederen, Ger Lataster and Dick Elffers. These four made some wonderful designs which were presented in the KD exhibition. With the exhibition a catalogue was published in 1963 which has become one of the rarest of Stedelijk Museum catalogues of all time. Three reasons why this has become rare. Less than 500 copies were made. The paper used was fragile and it was a thin catalogue of only 12 pages and folded and last but not least…. the photography was done by Ed van der Elsken which made the remaining copies desirable and collectable. Still at least one copy is still on the market and available at www.ftn-books.com
Yesterday morning the family of Co Westerik announced the death of this great dutch painter. His works are present in practically every large dutch museum and some admiring collectors ( the late Frits Becht ao) managed to buy more than average numbers of paintings from him and that is quite an accomplishment since his production was low…..extremely LOW. In many a year he managed to complete only as few as 3 paintings, making his work a rare work to add to a collection. It was different with his prints and drawings, because here his production was “normal”. One quality all his works have in common……it is the extreme detail and craftsmanship that make his works of high quality and stand out from the rest. At the time i worked at the Gemeentemuseum i met the artist on several occasions, but i only remember that i spoke to his representatives concerning catalogue and postcard productions. Even on these occasion he was highly (rightfully) concerned about the result. But in the end he had the publication as he had visualized it. The costs did not matter to him….the result did. ww.ftn-books.com has many titles available on Co Westerik.
An earlier blog on Fulton told the story i met Fulton and he graciously signed 20 copies of his book “100 walks” to be sold in the shop of the Gemeentemuseum, but this time i want to tell you about the special publications Fulton has made in the Netherlands. As far as i know there are 4 publications that are worth mentioning of which 3 are available at www.ftn-books.com.
the Art & Project publication is rare and very hard to find
the 100 walks is available at www.ftn-books.com
the van Abbemuseum / Hamish Fulton is available
the Stedelijk Museum Hamish Fulton publication from 1973 is the rarest of them all and…..available
These publications are real finds when you find one and true artist books which are highly collectable Fulton items. Hamish Fulton is becoming more an more important, s as long as these publications are available add them to your collection.
A few years ago i devoted a blog to Paul Kooiker of whom i have several publications available. Among these is the Hotel New York publication, but this time i publish this blog to announce the sale of an original photograph by Paul Kooiker.
Kooiker is one of the leading photographers in the Netherlands these days and it is a rare opportunity to sell anoriginal signed photograph. One from the series i keep for my own collection but the one below is for sale:
It is a great Paul Kooiker photograph. The setting and the models are typical for Kooiker and used in many series oof which some of the books are available at www.ftn-books.com
There are 3 reasons why i like the works by Steven Aalders.
First of all these are contructivist paintings which i think belong to the best produced in the Netherlands these days
Second . One of the best exhibitions held at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag was the Steven Aalders exhibition held in 2010
Third.. With the exhibition an Irma Boom designed catalogue was sold at the Gemeentemuseum shop and i think this is one of the best Irma Boom ordinary books she has made in the last 10 years. ( This book is available at www.ftn-books.com)
enough reasons to write this blog on Steven Aalders and recommend to follow this artist in the future, because his art is a little different from the other constructivist painter and deserves to be known outside the Netherlands too.
Steven Aalders is well known for his exact painted constructive oil paintings, where he deals with and continues the concept of modernism of Piet Mondrian, De Stijl and American Minimal Art. At his first exhibition in Munich Aalders shows a new body of work on the issue “Red, Yellow and Blue”, where the areas of the color fields follow the “Golden Ration”. An extensive retrospective catalogue was published in 2010 for his solo exhibited at the Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag. Steven Aalders, born in 1959, lives and works in Amsterdam.
My first encounter with work by Piet Klaasse was the time i bought a book on music, illustrated by Piet Klaasse. It certainly was not my kind of art i was interested in, but later i saw the quality of his illustrations. Specially his drawings and paintings of horses are of a rare quality. I compared his work with Rien Poortvliet’s but where Poortvliet tells a story with his illustrations, Klaasse doesn’t. HIs works stand as individual works of art and each tell a story of their own and are much more mature than those by Poortvliet. I will never buy a Klaasse for my collection but i know of people very much interested in his works. For those …know that www.ftn-books.com has the famous PIET KLAASSE TEKENT PAARDEN in its inventory.
Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard, also known as Pierre et Gilles, are French artists and romantic partners. They have been producing works together since 1976, creating a world where painting and photography meet. Their art is peopled by their friends and family, anonymous and famous, who appear in sophisticated life-size sets the artists build in their studio. They meticulously apply paint to the photographs once printed on canvas. Accomplished image creators, Pierre and Gilles have built up an extraordinary contemporary iconography on the frontier between art history and popular culture.
Pierre et Gilles have sometimes attracted controversy. For example, in 2012 there was a public outcry in Austria when their work entitled Vive la France was displayed on large street posters.
It depicts three naked French footballers with their genitals fully revealed: the first black, the second Arab/Muslim and the third white, to represent the multi-ethnic composition of modern French society. The ensuing controversy led to an act of self-censorship by the artists, who decided that the largest street posters should be changed, and instead use coloured ribbons to hide the players’ genitals. Personally i understand that this self censorship is the right thing to do when one choses to show these photographs in public places, however sex, gay subjects and male nudity are frequently present in their photographs making it difficult to avoid these photographs because these are such an integral part of their oeuvre. Are these typically 80’s /90’s photographs?….i do not think so. These are “classic” highly creative and original photographs with one signature, as if they were made by one and the same person. Pierre et Gilles is not two, but artistically one person/artist. www.ftn-books.com has a number of Pierre et Gilles publications available.
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
