FTN-blog

The end of 2017 is near and it is time to share one of my personal favorite dutch graphic artists with you. It is Guillaume le Roy.

He is not a great name in art, but to me his works belong to the best the second half of the dutch art scene has brought. In most cases his ( woodcut) prints are of an extremely large size and when 2 sheets are put together in one composition it is truly impressive.

Being almost 200 x 120 cm. These compositions look more like paintings than woodcut prints, but study them closely and you will notice lots of (wood) details in these prints. Executed on heavy paper these are sturdy compositions, a bit like the Soulages paintings. Executed on Japanese paper they resemble the best in Japanese printing but instead of figures within the composition , the use of constructivist elements. I am fortunate to have collected these beautiful works over the past 15 years and now i have decided to part with my duplicatie copies by this magnificent artist. please inquire at www.ftn-books.com

Since a decade there is a renewed interest in the photography of David Hamilton. In the 70’s David Hamilton was a celebrity in France and became even so famous, that he was asked to direct two movies. The first was Bilitis (1977) and the second wasTendres Cousines (1980) . Of course these were made with his trademark soft focus, but when i viewed some fragments of both movies, it struck me that these were badly produced, badly acted and badly directed movies.

https://youtu.be/fFakgW8o6-Q

Conclusion….. for me David Hamilton is foremost a photographer ( and not a very good one) , who became popular because of shooting young adolescent girls. At that age ( late seventies), these photographs were accepted as being art, where as in present time there is criticism because of the age of the young girls. Different times and different mores. David Hamilton publications were popular all over the world and are now highly collectable items in Japan, Australia and China. Specially the Japanese collectors are keen on the french publications, because in quality terms, these are the very best among all David Hamilton publications. some are available at www.ftn-books.com

On several occasions i visited Richard Tuttle exhibitions during the last 30 years and the last one was at the ICA  in Amsterdam, which had a spectacular catalogue published with it. I became interested in Tuttle when i discovered the appeal of Mininimal Art by LeWitt and Judd for me and noticed that Tuttle could be considered a minimal artist too , although Wikipedia says he is more a Post minimal artist.

A postminimalist artist known for his small, subtle, intimate works. His art makes use of scale and line. His works span a range of media, from sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, and artist’s books to installation and furniture.

The Louisiana Channel has a great small documentary portrait on Tuttle

This doe not mean that he is a lesser artist than the ones from the first wave of Minimalism.  His works are as complex  as his minimalistic predecessor ones and perhaps a little more joyful because of the use of brighter colors in his later works. It is up to you if you like Richard Tuttle as much as i do, but what is a certainty is that he is important for Modern Art and the quality of his works is recognized all over the world. www.ftn-books.com has the ICA an Stedelijk catalogues available among others.