FTN-blog

Posted on 15.09.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Wim Delvoye and Jeff Koons….

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Who is the better artist?… I truly do not know.

The last couple of days not a daily post except for the Piet Dirkx daily. We had a long weekend near Colmar in France and on the way i visited the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg, where a special exhibition on Wim Delvoye is being held. I do not know much about Wim Delvoye , but the instant i entered the exhibition i was reminded of Jeff Koons. When you enter the building , the first you see is his shit producing machine “CLOACA”. It is the center piece of the exhibition and all the exhibition rooms surrounding it show some different aspects of his art. Statues, sculpted tractor tires, ceramics….Delvoye is an artist who masters many disciplines and one can only be amazed (and smile) when you see his works. Whenever you can visit this compact museum try to visit it with this Delvoye exhibition, in all other cases visit it for the architecture of the building by Pei ( the architect who designed the pyramid entrance at the Louvre ) and go to the first floor where there is a chapel by Wim Delvoye.

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It belongs to the permanent collection and together with the CLOACA machine these alone were worth the visit.

Delvoye publications are a hard find, but Jeff Koons you will encounter at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on 15.09.201604.09.2016 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Piet Dirkx daily….015

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Posted on 14.09.201604.09.2016 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

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Posted on 13.09.201604.09.2016 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

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Posted on 12.09.201604.09.2016 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

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Posted on 11.09.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Emil Schumacher

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A short story on the works by Emil Schumacher. Being one of the proteges of Rudi Fuchs, one of the first exhibitions Fuchs curated for the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag was the exhibition on Emil Schumacher. Held in the ” Polak” zalen on the ground floor you could not avoid walking through the exhibition when you arrived by bike and entered the museum at the back. You had to pass these paintings ….and i found them unsettling. The many layers of paint on the canvas made me feel uneasy as i passed them. It felt i was walking passed a morbid crime scene. This way the painting was not only a 2 dimensional image but also a 3d piece of work because of the thickness of the paint.

I never learned to appreciate Emil Schumacher, but i know his exhibitions have drawn many visitors and the number of admirers is growing steadily.

books available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 11.09.201604.09.2016 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

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Posted on 10.09.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Anni Albers

She chose her own way and always has made her art in the shadow of her husband…Josef Albers. When you first see her work, her works are far more complex than those of Josef Albers, but where Josef uses the square and rectangle as his main subjects, Anni choses more complex patterns. They look like patterns in fabric, woven and knitted but all with a regularity and balance. No wonder, because Anni Albers was one of the foremost textile artists from the 20th century. Whenever you visit the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop you can encounter some nice works , but for the larger part of her oeuvre you have to be in the USA where she found many loyal admirers. www.ftn-books.com has some nice titles on both, but will focus this time on Anni Albers, because she deserves it for being the original artist she was.

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Posted on 10.09.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Victor Vasarely

It must have been the early 70’s. There was an art dealer in the Hoogstraat in The Hague, who had in his window 2 silkscreen prints by Vasarely. I thought them wonderful, but lost interest in them because the edition size was 100 numbered /signed copies. At that moment i never had heard of art published in an edition. Nowadays it is common practice. Artists make a living out of these editions and people can purchase an affordable original piece of art. I should have bought them at that time, but time passes and one forgets about these. All of Vasarely’s works are practically forgotten in the 3 decades to follow, but now in the present days, Vasarely works are sought after and well worth collecting…even the one’s which are published in editions of over 100 copies.

Vasarely has become one of the leading artists from the Geometric Abstract art/ optical art movement and the interest in his works is well deserved. With a highly original point of view and approach to Modern Art he has made many beautiful and impressive works of art and you can encounter them in all the large museums of the world.

When you travel Budapest do not forget to visit the Vasarely museum on the outskirts of this town. ( half an hour by tram ). It is not a museum as we nowadays have grown used to, but the art by Vasarely within this “basic” Museum is fantastic and the best OP ART you will seen gathered within one place .

It even has in a showcase one of the Kriwin catalogues which is depicted below.

It is nice to know that the Vasarely catalogue published by the Stedelijk Museum has on the backside of the cover an original relief print in black and white. (above)

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