Tag: albers

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three Sol LeWitt posters

 

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I have always been a fan of Sol LeWitt and especially his exhibition posters i always like very much. Each of them a piece of art and whenever there is chance to buy them… i do so.

For instance there was a short city break some 10 years ago, when we did go to Barcelona. Flew with one of the greatest carriers of all time…Ryanair. When you ever have flown with Ryanair, you know of their strict policy to allow only 1 piece of hand luggage. maximum dimensions aprox .55 x 35 x 15  cm. not weighing more than 10 kg. When you pack for 4 days it always is a challenge to not exceed this weight, but so far we always have managed. This time, some 10 years ago, it was winter which is a slight complication, because all your clothing is much heavier and bulkier, but still we succeeded in packing under 10 kg. But….there was this very nice  Fondacion Antoni Tapies museum in Barcelona and they sold a small poster by Sol and i had to buy some of them for my collection. Problem…. the cardboard tube did not fit in my cabin luggage suitcase, so i had to remove some of clothing to make space for it. This flight was exceptionally warm for me. 3 layers of clothing i had on my body, but the good thing is, I brought the poster home with me. Undamaged in mint condition and still a couple of them are for sale at www.ftn-books.com. The other 2 available posters come from one of my favorite museums in Germany. The Josef Albers Museum / Quadrat in Bottrop. Whenever you have a chance to visit both museum mentioned, give them a try a see their wonderful collections.

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Josef Albers Museum/Quadrat Bottrop and its excellent publications program.

I have visited this museum 5 times in a period of over 15 years and on every occasion i was impressed with the excellent publications they have for sale. Their program is simple….. They publish with every exhibition one large poster, if possible an extremely well designed catalogue and if the artist cooperates they publish a special print in a signed , numbered and limited edition.  Because of this simple but effective publication program their publications are highly recognizable and are among the best in Germany/ Europe. I really like their publications…you must have guessed that…but what is more, i collected many of these beautiful posters and books over the years and bought extra copies to sell and these are now for sale at www.ftn-books.com

so please have a look at these below to get an impression and search on my site for Albers, Bottrop or Quadrat and you will get the complete overview of all available.

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Mark Tobey (1890-1967)

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There was a time when i had not heard of Tobey, but since i saw some large works by him in both the Beyeler, Stedelijk Museum….. i am a fan.

It started with the catalogue i acquired 20 years ago. Bought the catalogue because of the Wim Crouwel design ,but was immediately attracted by the works within….They were Tobey’s .

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Tobey is most notable for his creation of so-called “white writing” – an overlay of white or light-colored calligraphic symbols on an abstract field which is often itself composed of thousands of small and interwoven brush strokes. This method, in turn, gave rise to the type of “all-over” painting style made most famous by Jackson Pollock, another American painter to whom Tobey is often compared.

Tobey is working on different sizes but for me his large works are the most impressive. The last 16 years of his live he spend in Basel, which is of course the reason why so many of his works stayed  there. Throughout the years he travelled all over the world.

He was an incessant traveler, visiting Mexico, Europe, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, China and Japan and spread his works this way in an organic way, but the main part of his oeuvre stayed in Switzerland, in Basel where le lived for 16 years.

Here are some locations where his works are part of the collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. There have been at least four posthumous individual exhibitions of Tobey’s work: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA, 1984; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, 1989; Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland, 1990; and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

The publications below are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Anni Albers

 

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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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Jesus Rafael Soto and the Josef Albers Museum

A few years ago we went to the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop. An excellent museum with a small museum shop. Small but with a very interesting inventory. The shop sells catalogues and prints from over 20 years of Josef Albers Museum exhibitions and some of them are rare and collectable. Beside the books they have a publishing program of A0 posters for each of the exhibitions they organize. Inside these editions they have the artist sign about 10 copies and sell these separately at a higher price plus……….they publish their own special editions.

On my first visit i bought a very nice silkscreened poster by Jesus Rafael Soto, signed and one of the 3 available. Half a year ago we went again for a visit and i had hopes for 2 more of these beauties , but too late…they had sold out. However i was lucky, because the special edition of the Soto print , signed and numbered by Soto was still available. Unfortunately at a much higher price than anticipated, but  still too good to be true, so i bought it. It now is for sale at www.ftn-books.com  (inquire for more pictures).

The Soto is one of those prints that will be in high demand in the next 10 years, but beside this Soto, there are many more extremely nice posters published by the Josef Albers Museum. If you live outside Germany they can not/ will not sell you because they only sell within Germany, but there is a selection of these posters/prints available in my shop , because i chose some for my stock. Search for Quadrat / Bottrop or Josef Albers Museum and you will find about 35 of them for sale……and the signed SOTO sccreenprint.

 

wilfried

www.ftn-books.com