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Niele Toroni (1937)

Born in Switzerland in 1937, Niele Toroni rose to fame in an era that other Swiss artists were very much under the influence of constructivism…. Lohse and Honegger among them. Toroni left that stage behind him and developed a minimal style of his own. The main difference between these two and Toroni is that Toroni progressed his art into a form of MINIMAL ART in which he altered the space by painting with a regular space between them brushstrokes in squares onto a surface using one specific color. He usually uses one specific brush no 50. The imprints made with this n°50 paintbrush are repeated at regular intervals of 30 cm. His works are found in many modern art museum collections including the Stedelijk museum and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. In which one of the 4 Staircases is painted by Toroni ( the others by LeWitt, Forg and Tuzina).

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These four staircases are there for over 25 years now and have proven to be very important In Situ works of art. All artist have become famous contemporary artists and really make one look at these staircases with different eyes. They are not ordinary staircases any longer , but works of art and part of a great collection.

Books on Toroni can be found at www.ftn-books.com

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Anton Corbijn (1955)

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Rightfully world famous now. An excellent photographer and film maker. I am less enthusiastic about his abilities as a designer, but stil his photographs deserve some extra attention by  this blog on art. Because these are not only great photographs, but they also reflect music and their performers through the last 4 decades. Bowie, Jagger, Cobain, Davis and of course U2, name them all and all of them have been before the lens of Anton Corbijn.

 ( all photographs by Anton Corbijn )

Black and white being his favorite way to portray these great artists. As of late he made some movies during the last decade ( the American and A Most wanted man) However, he made his feature film debut with Control, a film about the life of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. It premiered to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2007. Curtis was a personal friend and it shows in the respectful way he portrayed the singer of Joy Divisison. Because his acquired celebrity status as a photographer, Corbijn has had retrospective exhibitions all over the world and 2 years ago there was a large retrospective on Corbijn in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Since a few years Corbijn took up the art of design. Personally i do not think he is a strong designer, but this is my personal opinion on his designs. There is a new logo by the Municipality of DEN HAAG which was designed by Corbijn and judge for your self.

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Better focus on his photographs….they are very personal, intriguing portraits and they are great!

for some Corbijn titles visit www.ftn-books.com ( stripping girls is made  together with Marlene Dumas)

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Ettore Sottsass (1917-2007) ,first retrospective in the Netherlands in April-October 2018

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Ettore Sottsass was one of the founding members of the Memphis group in 1981. He made some iconic designs for Alessi and Artemide and now is announced that a large retrospective will be held in the Stedelijk Museum in the April-October period in 2018 Prepare your self for this exhibition and look at the books available on Sottsass at www.ftn-books.com

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Anton Martineau (1926-2017)

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Yesterday, AntonMartineau died. He proclaimed himself the last of a great generation , together with Appel and Lucebert ( personal friends) he became known as an abstract painter, but never belonged to the Cobra movement. Born in the middle of the Red Light district in Amsterdam  a fortuneteller told him in his early youth that he would become a painter and a writer. He studied with one of the great designers in these days Paul Schuitema and was successful both as a painter and a writer. www.ftn-books.com has only one title of this fascinating artist available , but it is an important one. It contains both poetry and drawings by this great dutch artist.

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The little documentary on Youtube is in dutch , but shows what a wonderful and colorful Martineau was

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Marjolein Bastin (1943)

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This morning i had a discussion with my wife about the qualities of the illustrations by Marjolein Bastin. Is it art?….NO…are these among the best illustrations one  can find on nature and birds….YES. Bastin has become world famous over the years and her works are published all over the world and she even had a Museum presentation in Den Bosch, but this exhibition does not make it art. Specially her series of cards for Hallmark contributed largely to her fame.  Her craftsmanship is without a doubt of the highest quality and her subjects appeal to practically all, but because her works have a feminine touch they therefore mostly appeal to women. For me this is not art as i look at art, but i can respect the meaning of others on this subject. What i personally do like about Bastin’s works is her illustrations for children books. Her VERA series is great to read to young children and fascinating to look at and discover the little details in her drawings. Since i discovered that her works are admired and collected all over the world i started to build a large inventory of her classic publications in my store. So there are many Bastin titles available at

www.ftn-books.com. Please have a look and use for this weekend the discount code BASTIN10 to receive an immediate discount on all your purchases.

 

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