If there is one book book from the Fifties published by the Stedelijk Museum and designed by Willem Sandberg, it is the catalogue no. 158…Fernand Leger / Wegbereider. The typography and book design is typical Sandberg and “stunning” and to mark the end of January this book is for a limited time (until the 5th of February) for sale for only $ 25.00 when you use the discount code “Sandbergforonly25”
More Leger and Stedelijk Museum publications available at www.ftn-books.com
Another obscure artist from the exhibition history of the Stedelijk Museum is this Piotr Kowalski who had his dutch SM presentation in 1970. The catalogue design was done by Wim Crouwel, who made this publication a very special one and for me personally one of the most striking from the Seventies
Piotr Kowalski was an artist, sculptor, and architect. He was born 2 March 1927, in Poland, and died 7 January 2004 in Paris, France
Piotr Kowalski worked in non-traditional materials including electronic and mechanical devices, neon art, large earth works, explosions and other natural phenomena including plant growth and gravity. His work often expressed science or natural laws in direct and tangible ways, immediate to the senses.
A refugee of World War II, a graduate of MIT, he immigrated to France as an architect for UNESCO and spent most of the rest of his life in Paris. Along with gallery works, he installed several large outdoors projects.
The catalogue is available at www.ftn-books.com
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 648
Another great artist who surfaced in the Sixties was Jasper Johns. Starting his career at the end of the Fifties , he soon became one of the best known and expensive artists from his generation. At one time one of his flag paintings was the first to fetch an incredible 10 Million dollars at auction, making it the most expensive painting by a living artist.
Now we are accustomed to these crazy prices collectors are paying for art, but at that time is was unbelievable that a living artist could fetch such a price. Because of his popularity Johns soon had an exhibitions in the Netherlands at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. A special print exhibition and this exhibition was for me personally the perfect one.
It was one of the first exhibitions i ever visited in the Stedelijk. I had an interest in graphic art and , young as i was, a rookie in the world of art, i had no idea of prices. I thought i could afford a small print. But no way, these were far too expensive for a young starting collector. What remains? … i still have the catalogue for sale at www.ftn-books.com and cherish it together with my personal copy. Book design was done by Wim Crouwel and it is available at www.ftn-books.com together with other Jasper Johns titles.
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 647
Just a screenshot from my computer when i searched for some information on Paul Schuitema and instantly you see the importance of Schuitema for dutch design.
Here it is the ultimate combination between a spectacular lay out, great typography and photo montage resulting in a highly recognizable style….this is Paul Schuitema. Schuitema a contemporary of Piet Zwart, was not as well known as Piet Zwart , but both did their ground breaking work in the Interbellum and can be considered as extremely important for graphic design. Schuitema differs from Piet Zwart.
Where Piet Zwart excels in Typography and lay-out, the photo montage is the part in which Schuitema excels. Both are important, not only because they are essential in the development of dutch design, but more and more they are recognized as being important for graphic design all over the world in general and their influence can be found everywhere. This imporance is underlined by orderes on these 2 artists from all over the world.
The Gemeentemuseum has both artists in its collection and because of the former curator Flip Bool , these collections are possibly the most important in the world.
When you come to the Netherland check the exhibitions at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, maybe you are lucky and there is a special exhibition on one of them. If not know that www.ftn-books.com has some nice books available on both these graphic designers.
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 646
Thursday is bookmarket day and sometimes you are lucky and you encounter a rare publication. Last Thursday there was one. I found an extremely nice publication published by Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft on the occasion of a WillMe Hussem Carel Visser exhibition. My guess it must have been in 1967 because an inlay with actual prices of the works in the exhibition s included with the mention that the works are from 1966-1967.
Willem Hussem died in 1974 and the works that are included were probably from his best years. Carel Visser started at that time his career and stayed true to iron, the material he kept using for all the decades to come. Both these artists became famous in their own way. The Delft catalogue has a simple layout, where the first part is used to cite some of the Haiku’s Willem Hussem used to write in those years. The second part is for Carel Visser’s works. I tried to find another copy on the internet, but could not find one. Conclusion www.ftn-books.com is probably the only internet store that has this rare title available
Piet Dirkx cigarbox 645
This morning you could read in the Volkskrant that Erwin Olaf donated 500 of his key works to the Rijksmuseum. Why the Rijksmuseum….because the last 5 year a bond between these 2 major forces in the art world grew now resulting in the extremely generous and large gift of the 500 most important works from Erwin Olaf’s career.
At the same time as this gift was announced, it was announced that the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and the Fotomuseum will both open an Erwin Olaf exhibition in February 2019. Please check both their sites in half a year when the details will be known for both these exhibitions. If you can not wait until February…… Check Erwin Olaf’s site and visit www.ftn-books.com for his publications.
