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They bear a semblance to a fusion of medieval knights and Japanese samurai warriors: the four monumental rust-colored sculptures – entitled “Guardians” – designed by Japanese-American artist Shinkichi Tajiri for the city bridge in Venlo. They were unveiled two years ago by Queen Beatrix. According to the sculptor, the sculptures served as “guardians of the city”. Yesterday, it was announced by his family that Tajiri, a sculptor of the Cobra movement, passed away this past weekend. Shinkichi Tajiri was born in 1923 in Los Angeles as a child of Japanese aristocratic parents, but left America in 1948 in protest against the treatment of over 120,000 Japanese people in his home country during World War II: they were considered state enemies and imprisoned in concentration camps. This also happened to Tajiri himself, his mother, sister, and brothers. “Solely based on my appearance, I was discriminated against, mistreated, and demonized.” In an attempt to leave the concentration camp, he enlisted in the US Army, was sent to Italy, suffered a serious leg injury, and spent five months in a hospital in Rome. While still in America, Tajiri studied at the Art Institute in Chicago. After the war, he first moved to Paris, where he studied under Ossip Zadkine and Fernand Léger, and later to Amsterdam. There, he joined the artists of the Cobra movement. Together with, among others, Karel Appel, Constant Nieuwenhuys, and Corneille, he exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in the infamous 1949 exhibition organized by museum director Willem Sandberg.

Displayed in the Stedelijk was his initial warrior. A decade later, he co-founded Group A’dam together with fellow sculptors Wessel Couzijn, Carel Visser, and Carel Kneulman. Tajiri became well-known to the public for his more abstract work: towering “knots” constructed from bronze, cast iron, steel, and plastic, which have appeared in city centers all over the world. One of these Knots serves as a Meeting Point for lost travelers at Schiphol airport. They are somewhat detached from his war trauma, and align more with the conceptual and minimalist art of the 1960s and 1970s. As a symbol of “the harmony between simplicity and strength,” as the artist explained.

Not to say that the war ever left his thoughts. In the 1990s, Tajiri returned to the theme of warriors. In total, he would create dozens of them. With the atrocities of the Second World War as his inspiration. “The nightmares, the dead, the wounded, they stay with you,” he said when asked. “The only way to live with it is to create images.”

In addition to being a sculptor, Tajiri was also a painter, photographer, and filmmaker. He created experimental films about smoking marijuana, an ode to the work of his second wife (Dutch sculptor Ferdie Jansen), and pin-ups interspersed with images of Richard Nixon (Nix-on-Nixon). He lived at Kasteel Scheres in Baarlo, Limburg since 1962. In 2007, Tajiri was appointed Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion. In that same year, a tumor was discovered in his pancreas, and he passed away on the night of Saturday to Sunday. Shinkichi Tajiri was 85 years old.

www.ftn-books.com has some of the best titles on TAJIRI available.

Constantin Brancusi was born on February 19, 1876, in Hobitza, Romania. He pursued his studies in the field of art at the Scoala de Meserii (School of Arts and Crafts) in Craiova from 1894 to 1898 and the Scoala Natzionala de Arte Frumoase (National School of Fine Arts) in Bucharest from 1898 to 1902. Seeking to further expand his artistic knowledge, he relocated to Paris in 1904, drawn to its reputation as a major center of creativity. The following year, he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Brancusi’s true artistic calling came to fruition after 1907, when he entered his mature period. Here, he began to experiment with abstracted forms and developed his direct carving technique, which involved working directly with the material rather than resorting to the more traditional practice of creating a model to be replicated by others. As his works evolved, Brancusi became deeply involved in the Parisian avant-garde movement. Although he was never formally affiliated with any artistic group, he counted influential artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, and Henri Rousseau among his close friends. In 1913, five of Brancusi’s sculptures were featured in the groundbreaking Armory Show in New York City. The following year, his works were showcased in Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery, 291, in the artist’s first solo exhibition.

In a landmark trial that took place in 1927, a debate arose in the United States over whether Brancusi’s Bird in Space should be classified as a manufactured object or a work of art. Ultimately, in 1928, the court ruled in favor of classifying the sculpture as a work of art.

In 1935, Brancusi received a commission to construct a war memorial in Târgu Jiu, Romania. For this task, he devised a sculptural ensemble consisting of The Table of Silence, The Gate of Kiss, and a monumental Endless Column – a project that encapsulates the primary concerns at the heart of Brancusi’s art: the idealization of aesthetic form, the integration of architecture, sculpture, and furniture, and the poetic evocation of spiritual thought.

Despite the onset of World War II, Brancusi continued to work in Paris. His final sculpture, a plaster Grand Coq, was completed in 1949. In the subsequent years, he diligently refined and adjusted his sculptural groupings in his studio, a project that exemplified his affinity for creating dynamic dialogues between his various works and the spaces they inhabited.

In 1955, the first retrospective exhibition of Brancusi’s work was held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, before touring to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Tragically, Brancusi passed away on March 16, 1957, in Paris.

www.ftn-books.com has several titles on Brancusi available

The work of Friso Kramer (1922-2019) has had a profound impact on the international design world, making him one of the most significant designers known in the Netherlands. His unmistakable mark on industrial design can still be seen today.

Born in 1922, Friso Kramer began experimenting with various materials and techniques at a young age. While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, he specialized in industrial design. And his talent did not go unnoticed. One of his most famous designs is the Revolt chair for Ahrend. A sleek and functional chair, made from conventional sheet steel. Unobtrusive and serving, just like his also well-known design of the green mailbox.

Friso Kramer’s designs are functional, timeless, and innovative. They remain relevant from generation to generation, long after they first hit the market.

“If the form does not contribute to the function, it has no right to exist.”

www.ftn-books.com has the scarce Friso Kramer catalog for his fsamous Stedelijk Museum exhibition now available.