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Time slots in art

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Within each decade there is always one or there are even multiple time slots that are important to art in genera. As for painting, the mid eighties from the 19th century is important because of the start of impressionism in art. The late Fifties from last century showed the start of abstract expressinionism in the US , followed in the Sixties by Pop ART and for the dutch there are the first four years of the Eighties. Here comes the art of some of the greatest dutch artist to bloom. Rene Daniels, Jan Dibbets, Ben Akkerman, Ger van Elk and the grand old master Bram van Velde found their way and art into galeries , private collections and museums. There even was a time that these 5 master of dutch Modern Art had a group exhibition at the MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DO RIO DE JANEIRO. It was 1984 and the museum presented these dutch modern artist together in one great group show. An important one , because now we know that these five dutch artists belong to the most important ones in the Netherlands from last century. The catalogue is now available at www.ftn-books.com

Because i like the photograph…it is Bram van Velde who represents these 5 artists for this blog

dibbets holanda

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Ben Akkerman (1920-2010)

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I have always been an admirer of the works by Ben Akkerman. The first time i saw a painting by Akkerman was at the Centraal Museum and since i have been interested in his works. The paintings and drawings i could not afford so instead i started to collect Ben Akkerman publications. The result is that i have collected myself a small but important Akkerman library and the years made me find some duplicates which i now have put up for sale at www.ftn-books.com

Ben Akkerman was , the same as Jan Schoonhoven, an employee for the municipality of Enschede and he painted in the evening in his spare time. Called a ‘hardcore abstract ” painter i personally share his paintings among the Minimal paintings from that era. These are very delicate compositions that are pure minimal art.

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The Gemeentemuseum used the “diamond” by Ben Akkerman for almost 10 years in its letters and invitations, but now that the name has changed in the far less appealing name ” Kunstmuseum Den Haag” they left the beautiful yellow diamond shaped logo for one i do not like at all. To commemorate the diamond they collected 30 Ben Akkerman paintings and made a wonderful presentation  to honor Ben Akkerman and its “diamond”.