FTN-blog

Posted on 26 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Maeght – Derriere le Miroir…Great art can be inexpensive.

Maeght editeur is one of the leading art publishers from the last 50 years. Beside the exhibitions they organized, they are also a very influential publisher in the art scene. One publication in particular stands out …and that is the DERRIERE LE MIROIR series….which was published from 1946-1982. Many great names were presented within this series and beside the many Miro publications, there were also volumes devoted to Picasso, Braque, Calder, Bazaine and many others. What makes this series so great is the original lithographs that are included in each volume. Beside the normal illustrations there were original lithographs in almost each volume. depending on the number of pages there were at least 2, but in many cases 8 to 10 originals to be found in each number and sometimes they were printed over 2 pages, which made the size 22 x 14.8 inches. really impressive and because they were not numbered nor signed they were published with a reasonable retail price, but they stayed affordable and when you calculate the price per original lithograph, they are right out “cheap”.

The series eventually stopped in the early eighties , but during the time of its publication the artist within the series got an opportunity to make a publication for “everyman” .

www.ftn-books.com still has a nice selection of this great and historic series. Among the titles available there are volumes containing works by Calder, Braque and Miro and i can only give the highest recommendation to these very nice books with great art within them.

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Posted on 25 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Mark Brusse… “the blue shed”

About 4 weeks ago there was an auction at Venduehuis in which the complete company collection of Imtech was sold. Among the lots were several works by Mark Brusse. There was this one painting called the BLUE SHED which was very impressive . Excellent and because of its simplicity spectacular. The outlines of a blue shed and in the background just one sombre color made it very powerful. Yesterday, i remembered the painting and decided to list the small collection of Mark Brusse titles i bought last year from a collector. Some rather obscure titles among them and because of these special titles, they should be of interest to other collectors.

Take a peek at them and go to www.ftn-books.com for more information.

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wilfried

Posted on 24 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jurgen Partenheimer part II

As promised ….here are some of the publications which are for sale. Jurgen Partenheimer is one of those artists that like to control everything in a publication. This shows in all his books. choice of paper, lay out, printing, binding….everything is done with the ultimate result in mind and of the highest quality. Go to www.ftn-books.com and search for Partenheimer.

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Posted on 24 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Al Held … Genesis, 1966 catalogue Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Genesis was the quintessential part of the exhibition Al Held held at the Stedelijk Museum in 1966. The catalogue was published with no.394 and the exhibition was from the 25th of March to the 1st of May.

A very short time, but the exhibition came with everything which makes the publications of the Stedelijk Museum special. Organized and curated by Willem Sandberg, catalogue design by Wim Crouwel and last but not least the contributions by Held himself who designed the cover with flaps and the fold out pages. The result is one of the most striking catalogues the Stedelijk Museum published during the sixties .

www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 23 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Peter Pontiac ( 1951-2015)

Peter Pontiac ( Peter J.G. Pollmann ) was one of the leading underground dutch comic artists, but in the past 10 years i have learned that he has a very loyal following outside the Netherlands. His style is unique and can be recognized immediately and through the years he more and more moved away from the comic style he used in his early years. Like Joost Swarte, he became involved in other aspects of graphic arts and designed and published together with Oog & Blik and Griffioen grafiek. His subjects scenes ranged from his personal life and sex to the darker side of society. In almost all cases it had a sombre, dark tone which was emphasized with very detailled drawings

many legendary publications of which the Pontiac REVIEW series may be the most remarkable one.

A few days ago i sold one of these books to Spain, but still there remain some extremely nice Pontiac publications to be picked up.

wilfried

www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 22 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Josef Zotti ( 1882-1953) ..Wiener Architect

A few years ago i found a very nice remainder stock of books on Josef Zotti, who i dit not know at that time. Triggered by the quality of the book i found that i really loved his works. Buildings and design go hand in hand and last year when we visited Vienna i encountered many buildings which were designed by Zotti and saw the buildings “live” and was even more impressed. There are not many titles on this architect designer but this is the one i have in my stock which i can truly recommend and shows best why he is such a multitalented artist.

wilfried

www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 20 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jurgen Partenheimer

Since the beautiful WELTACHSE V blue sculpture in the inner garden of the Gemeentemuseum i have been a loyal fan of Jurgen Partenheimer and build a nice collection of books on this fascinating artist. I am not the only one, because a few years ago a managed to acquire a selection of books from another admirer and upon studying them i found some original art work on their title page. One of these books i want to share with you. It is not for sale but shows the quality of Partenheimer’s work. Of course i must make the picture complete and show you the books that are for sale and will do so tomorrow, but for now there is only this very nice small publication. Originally published in an edition of 500, but only 10 were numbered and had a beautiful little drawing on their title pages.

wilfried

www.ftn-books.com

part word d

Posted on 19 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Gunter Tuzina

Why Tuzina in this blog. Tuzina is one of those artists who remained true to a certain principle in art and researched it over 40 years now. Het started with a line in one corner and developed his art from there on. Tilted rectangles, which are crossed from corner to corner in different kinds of colors is the main figure used by Tuzina and is very recognizable and one can find an excellent walldrawing with this “window” in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

The Gemeentemuseun was one of the first who presented his works and in the eighties Pablo van Dijk commissioned Tuzina to make 55 separate drawings in different colors for his Bebert publishing house. The one depicted here is one of these 55. Signed and dated by Tuzina and in excellent mint condition. This one is available at www.ftn-books.com and soon there will be a second “green” one listed from the same series. Impressive art from an artist who can be considered as a post minimal artist.

I found an excellent biography on Art index:

Günter Tuzina studied at the Hamburg Art Academy between 1971 and 1977. He has been exploring the fundamental principles underlying painting since 1975. Günter Tuzina combines lines, squares, rectangles and Colour Fields within a frame in a fascinating and inexhaustibly rich quest for equilibrium and tension. In its stringent simplicity Tuzina’s work is based on Minimal art and the principles laid down by Theo van Doesburg and De Stijl.
Tuzina was awarded a Villa Romana Prize in Florence in 1981. A retrospective was mounted in 1985 at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, for which Tuzina executed a mural two years later that was, unfortunately, lost when the museum was restored.
From 1982 until 1999 Tuzina lived and worked in Cologne but now lives in Berlin. He has had numerous exhibitions: at the David Nolan Gallery in New York (1991), the Cologne Kunstverein (1992), the “Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus” in Munich (1993) and again at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague in 2002.

wilfried

www.ftn-books.com

https://ftn-books.com/products/gunter-tuzina-drawing-with-lines-on-yellow-1987-signed

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Posted on 18 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Joost Barbiers and Land Art Delft

A logical combination!

Honestly… i must say that i had not heard from both, but because we were traveling a few weeks ago Wageningen ( Hotel de Wereld) and visited the local museum HET DEPOT, in which sculptures related to the human body are exhibited, we came across Joost Barbiers’s his work. Immediately , me and Linda liked it very much. The use of material which is left unworked and partly rough and in most cases in the same sculpture is polished in other parts ,is beautiful.

The museum HET DEPOT itself can be highly recommended too, but i will discuss this in another blog.

After a few days we came home and i contacted through the site of Joost Barbiers (http://www.joostbarbiers.nl) the artist and was replied by his wife who told me that Joost had passed away in November 2015 and that all of his remaining works were exhibited in LAD/ Land Art Delft ( http://www.landartdelft.nl ). This announcement came as a shock, because we did not expect that, but we also learned that the remaining works from his studio were transported to LAD .

Another great project of which i had never heard before. Included in the mail was an invitation to attend the opening of the exhibition of Joost Barbiers, but because of a tight time schedule on that Sunday i could not attend, so i decided to go early and visit LAD. What a nice surprise!….. a landscape with wild flowers, birds and Land Art makes this a beautiful place to visit, experience great art and….walk the dog. The statues of Barbiers are presented in the best possible way in these surroundings and show why this artist is one to have a bigger audience. Rough and cultivated go hand in hand and these sculptures blend into the landscape as if these sculptures have always been there.

Besides the sculptures by Barbiers ( ca. 20 sculptures ) many other can be found there because LAD has a program with artists in residence who work there and leave there sculptures behind.

Conclusion….do not visit Delft solely to see the original scenery of Vermeer, but visit Land Art Delft too and be amazed by the Barbiers sculptures.

Wilfried

www.ftn-books.com

Posted on 17 July 201612 February 2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Ko Verzuu (1901-1971) , the force behind ADO (wooden) toys

Ko Verzuu ( 1901-1971) had a technical background and with this background he designed and developed wooden toys from 1925-1962 for ADO. These toys were produced in the workshops from the Berg and Bosch hospital and were influenced by ” de Stijl” which Gerrit Rietveld promoted in those days. Primary colors in relation to clear and straight lines and these characteristics found their way into the ADO toys. The wooden bank is such an example. …..Blue and Yellow in a small designed wooden bank,which could be an element of the Rietveld Schroder Huis in Utrecht.

Verzuu designed these toys with their playability in mind and tested them with his own 11 children to be sure that these were the ultimate wooden toys

The BESTELDIENST in this blog comes from a limited edition of only 250 copies. All with certificate. This was a “prestige” project by ADO from some 15 years ago in which they showed their history and expertise in wooden toys. Made and painted by hand , all numbered this was made in two editions/ A yellow one , which was specially made for the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in an edition of only 50 copies and….. the one in the picture made in an edition of 250 copies. It was about 12 years ago that SWZ stopped production of all ADO school furniture and other ADO products and this ended all other ADO projects to be made in the future. The remainder of the banks, beetles ( yes, another special product to be discussed in the near future) and the BESTELDIENST were bought by FTN and were sold on special occasions and on eBay. Now the stock comes to an end and the only place that these will be sold is at www.ftn-books.com.

These last copies ( all mint, numbered with certificate and original ADO box ) can still be picked up at a fair price.

The quality is superb and these pieces are highly collectable.

wilfried