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Bridget Riley

 

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Yesterday we visited the exhibition of Bridget Riley in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. ( the exhibition is till open until the 15th of October 2016).

A fascinating show on the Curved paintings she made from the early sixties until 2014. Paintings which are extremely detailed painted and very well thought out. The sketches and colored cardboard models show the way in which Riley makes these projects from idea into a large canvas. Walking through the exhibition ( yes passing these paintings) shows the effect these patterns have on your eyes. Waves and curves begin to dance before your eyes and show that a still painting can have the effect of movement in your perception. Fascinating to discover this Optical illusion and certainly very effective Op Art . Riley stayed true to this way of painting and did not produce many of these paintings over the years. These paintings take a long time to paint, but when they are ready they are  all masterpieces.

Her first solo exhibion she had at the Gallery One in London in 1964, after that she was invited for the Biennale in Venice and het break through exhibition ” The Responsive Eye” in the Museum of Modern Art in 1965.

Her works can be found in Modern Art Museums all over the world, but the Tate modern has the largest collection of them.

Look at the pictures i took at the exhibition and get an impression how she meticulously prepares each new painting. www.ftn-books.com has some nice early Riley titles available including the leperello which was published on the occasion she received the Sikkensprijs in 1992.

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Hans Bellmer ( 1902 -1975)

Hans Bellmer poster
Hans Bellmer poster

Is Bellmer a dadaist or a surrealist painter?

A discussion which is held for decades now, but to me he is more  a surrealist artist than a Dada one.

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Born in Poland, but living most of his life in Paris he led a secluded life and died a lonely man in 1975. After his dead the appreciation for his art began. Books were published, exhibitions held and his works were sold all over the world, but during his lifetime he was not that well known, nor popular because of his chosen subjects.

Finally in the last decade of his life he was considered one of the leading surrealist artist from his time and specially the photo series on the doll/ “La poupée”  he made received international praise. His main theme in practically all of his works is an erotic approach to his subjects. Fetishism, voyeurism and sado masochism can frequently be found in his subjects, but the erotic content is not easily discovered. In most cases you have to study the composition of the work to distinguish the erotic parts within.

Finally in 1959 and 1964 he received some recognition by being invited for the Documenta in Kassel.

From 1953 Bellmer lived together with the writer Unica Zürn . A sad relationship , lonely , without any social activities, living in a secluded way in hotel de l’Esperance in Paris. Unica threw herself out of the window in 1970 and Bellmer died a lonely man in 1975. A sad life of a great artist . If you do not know anything about Bellmer start with Wikipedia and learn something about him and begin to discover the surreal world he has created.There are some great titles at www.ftn-books.com to be found on this fascinating artist.

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Michael Parkes

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I must have been one of the first to have seen the work by Michael Parkes outside of Spain.

Michael Parkes lived and worked in Spain for some time where he was “discovered” by Gerrit Steltman and asked to have a show in his gallery Steltman ( location Rozengracht ). It must have been around 1978 when the first Parkes exhibition was held in this gallery and Gerrit showed me a preview of the works he was planning to show. I bought a small painting instantly and my parents decided to buy a larger one.  I traded the small painting in for a larger one as soon as his second exhibition opened and my parents bought a second painting. It must have been 20 years later that both these larger works were sold to the US. Thanks to the promotional activities of Gerrit Steltman, Parkes had become one of the leading fantasy painters from his generation and paintings were sold for high amounts. If you ask me now what i think of Parkes. …  a great painter, highly recognizable, but also one who choses the easy way of producing art and never made an effort to develop his art into a new direction. His women are beautiful and the fantasy worlds he creates are PARKES his own “Disneyland”, but it is also a world where you will not be surprised. I you have seen 100 Parkes paintings you have seen them all.

You must admire him for his technique, but there are other artists from his generation who deserve to be noticed too.

Personally  i think Parkes has created fascinating worlds, but do not close you eyes for others. In the same period Gerrit Steltman has also presented artists like Massimo Rao and Fassoni . Artist who are far less predictable and whose works can still be picked up at far more reasonable prices.

for books on Parkes see www.ftn-books.com

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Vera Molnár and computer art

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Yesterday i added a very nice publication on Vera Molnar to my inventory and realized that she was the artist i was most impressed with the time i visited the Vasarely Museum in Budapest. Molnar born 1924 studied with the art school of Budapest and was one of the first artists worldwide to experiment with computers in her art.

In 1968 she began working with computers, where she began to create algorithmic paintings based on simple geometric shapes geometrical themes.

Patterns and compositions were made with help the computer and since, her art developed in something very special.

In the 1960s, Molnar co-founded several artist research groups: GRAV who investigate collaborative approaches to mechanical and kinetic art, and Art et Informatique, with a focus on art and computing. Molnar learned the early programming languages of Fortran and Basic, and gained access to a computer at a research lab in Paris where she began to make computer graphic drawings on a plotter, several of which are included in a 2015 retrospective exhibition in New York called “Regarding the Infinite | Drawings 1950-1987.

Her works are now found in collections and museums all over the world, but the best museum to see her works is the Vasarely Museum in Budapest.

www.ftn-books.com has some nice Molnar publications in its collection. including a signed and original print.

molnar

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Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001)…erotic and bizarre

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Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001)

Pierre Klossowski’s art has always been on the border of what is  acceptable for the main stream art lover. As a viewer you almost feel always like you are intruding in an intimate scene . A little violent …and one which is drawn in delicate colors and therefore is pleasant to look at….but study it and you see what is happening and it is less pleasing

Pierre Klossowski came from an artist family and was the younger brother of the famous Balthus. You can see that they influenced each other but the works by Pierre are far more explicit as where the works by Balthus always depict a scene from which the viewer can make his own story. Klossowski   was a multi talented artist who made movies and wrote essays, but his claim to fame is his drawings and sculptures which are highly recognizable and original.

From 20 September to 19 October 2006 there was a display of Klossowski’s drawings and life size sculptures made after them with sculptor Jean-Paul Réti along with the art of Hans Bellmer at the Whitechapel also presented at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and the MNAM Paris with a film retrospective. Since, many publications have been published on this artist, but some of the earlier ones are available at www.ftn-books.comwww.ftn-books.com

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James Turrell…a magic place in the dunes

Nearby the city of Den Haag, close by the beach of Kijkduin you can visit one of the most important works of art in the Netherlands. Stroom has commissioned James Turrell some 20 years ago to realize a Turrell masterpiece in the dunes of Kijkduin titles CELESTIAL VAULT. You can enter through a tunnel a beautiful shaped bowl covered with grass , with in the middle a stone bench, which functions as a bed. When laid down, you can experience the serene surroundings and look at the sky, which of course is always different. Dutch landscapes are renowned for their skies and because of the focus on the sky when you are lying down you can experience this for the full 100%

An absolute must for the Turrell admirers and good to know that the CELESTIAL VAULT has been restored to its original splendor some 5 years ago.

www.ftn-books.com has some nice titles on Turrell including the one on this masterpeice in the dunes. This one is signed and from a limited signed edition. Beautiful publication and today for the special price USD 150.00

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Jakob Bill….son of Max Bill

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The title sounds like a sequel to a popular horror movie, but it isn’t.

Somehow i have developed a liking for Swiss contemporary KONKRETE artists. Almost all are constructivists and Richard Paul Lohse and Jakob Bill are two of them. This time i will blog on Jakob Bill the son of the famous Max Bill and belonging to the group of Zurich Konkrete Kunst.

Outside Switzerland and Germany , Bill is not very well known, but when you visit the collections in Switzerland you encounter many works by Bill. The Zurich Museum/ Haus Konstruktiv organized some exhibitions with Bill, but his most important major exhibitions were all in Swiss Museums . Except for one…..Organized by one of the best galleries in the world. Galerie Denise Rene organized an exhibition in 1972. Denise Rene was the perfect gallery for an artist like Bill, they already represented great artist like Vasarely, Arp., Agam and Jesus Rafael Soto. Bill fits in perfectly. Perhaps this exhibition was a step forward for the popularity of the works by Jakob Bill, but still the artist is not very well known outside Switzerland and certainly deserves better.

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Anton Stankowski

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What is the best book on Anton Stankowski? ….Without any doubt this is FREE and APPLIED 1925-1995. A two volume publication which gives the very best possible overview on the works by Anton Stankowski. A hard to find book in these days and sold out at www.ftn-books.com, but if you are willing to pay for it there are still some to be found. Because of the weight of almost 5 kg, shipping is very expensive, so be careful where you order. This said there are many more nice publications on this great artist to be found. Some on his photography others on his designs, but most on his paintings and graphics. Stankowski is such an artist who is recognized as being important by a small group of admirers, but when you look into his history you become more and more aware of his importance to his fellow artists and within a decade or so his works will become extremely important in relation to others ( like Albers is to Minimal art) and with that too expensive to collect.

For those interested in Stankowski , please look at my small inventory i have at www.ftn-books.com including some nice signed and numbered graphic art.

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There Will be Blood…Hermann Nitsch

 

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There will be blood….This is the title of one of the most exciting movies from the last decade with a brilliant Daniel Day-Lewis. Violent, colorful story of a family followed over 60 years in the oil business…definitely a must see.

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But this title also refers to the performances of the Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch . From the early 60’s on he made well over 100 performances within his cycle of the Orgien Mysterien Theater. Bloody performances, but meticulously executed and well thought over. Naked people, audience, blood and canvases , registered on Video or film and directed by Nitsch himself make these  true works of art. The performance is one part of the art work, the other part are the canvasses which were made with material from these performances and sold by galleries worldwide. When you visit Vienna visit the Tourist Office to see if there is a performance planned. When visiting Napoli ( Italy) realize that outside Austria In Naples is the largest Nitsch collection assembled in the http://www.museonitsch.org

Blood is not only used by Nitsch, but others use blood as well. Marc Quinn uses blood to freeze it into a sculpture of a human head and Eric Orr uses it as paint for his paintings. Do not be horrified by the use of blood in art, but see the beauty of the art which is made by the use of blood.

wilfried

NItsch titles available at www.ftn-books.com

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Josef Koudelka….not only a Magnum photographer.

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Czech nationality and now 78 years of age, spanning a photography career of over 55 years, multiple exhibitions all over the world, Koudelka has become one of the most important photographers in modern photograph. Street scenes and the Romani ( Gypsies from Romany) are subjects he has become famous for. Not only a Magnum photographer but also a photographer who found his subjects among people he cared about. They were not only his subjects. In the photographs you could see that he could come very close by and had become more of  a friend than the photographer who followed his subject.

I thought about Koudelka because i found a very interesting article about Koudelka in which is explained what the 10 most important lessons were Koudelka has taught a fellow photographer.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/03/28/10-lessons-josef-koudelka-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

this is what the author Eric Kim says about Koudelka and i totally agree with him.

“To me, Josef Koudelka is one of the most brilliant photographers out there and a true master of black and white. Not only does his work carry a strong sense of composition, form, and geometry but they also carry an emotional impact. His photos are raw, gritty, and show both the hope and melancholy of life”

If you are interested in modern photography you must look at these breathtaking and intriguing photographs and certainly you will agree with me that this is a true master of black and white photography.

wilfried

book below is available at www.ftn-books.com

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