Tag: art

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Dorien Melis (1938-2021)

Johan Claassen describes his work as “minimal, musical visual poetry”. What can I add? Dorien Melis (1938-2021) made small paintings, primarily on canvas or panel, in which lines were drawn along somewhat larger shapes to depict memories. These memories must have something to do with the city’s reflections Like the water, the horizon at dusk, or the cold light of the morning sun streaming into the bedroom through a light curtain. Her works have titles such as Life of Water, Little Cantatas, Songs of the Night, and Between the Lines. A painting depicting how vulnerable people are protected. A minimalist, musical visual poem.

http://www.ftn-books.com has 2 small Melis publications available.

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Renie Spoelstra (1974)

The intention of the huge charcoal drawings of Renie Spoelstra is to let the viewer experience an atmosphere of deliberate apathy; hours and days go by in a split second, every moment frozen in time and every moment equal to the other. Consequently, characteristics of actual observations are diminished, making the unique more common and indefinite, so that they can function as a substitute for many similar places.

Renie Spoelstra’s arduous process of drawing always begins with a journey. For close to a decade, she has travelled to coasts, lakes and forests throughout North America and Europe, looking for landscapes that evoke overwhelming existential feelings.

Spoelstra uses film footage as a starting point for her charcoal drawings. The suede like and velvety texture is achieved by the many layers of charcoal, which are skillfully positioned on top of each other to re-create an almost cinematographic scene. The balance between darkness and soft beams of light is rendered through the many shades of black and grey, creating a notion that something may be lurking below the surface.

Themes of intensity, secrecy and mystery are reoccurring in Spoelstra’s works. There is an alluring and mythical feel of a place. The series ‘Stretching Universe’ refers to the scientific fact that our universe is expanding, while here on earth it feels as though it is shrinking with the rise of xenophobia, narrow-mindedness and the continuous threats of climate change. Fleeing, or escaping to nature is not as easy as it may seem.

Renie Spoelstra studied at St. Joost, Breda and at the Academie Minerva, Groningen. She has exhibited in the Netherlands and abroad, notably at institutions like the Louvre-Lens, Albertina, Vienna, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Kunsthal Rotterdam, Museum Belvedere Heerenveen, Rijksmuseum Twenthe and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. Her work is included in renowned collections such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris, MACBA Barcelona, Collection Frac Picardie Amiens, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Amstelveen, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, the Guerlain Foundation, Paris, De Nederlandsche Bank, Bouwfonds Collection, The National Collection of the Netherlands, Teylers Museum Haarlem, The Louis Dreyfus Family Collection NY, De Ru Collectie and many other (private) collections worldwide.

www.ftn-books.com has now the DARKNESS IS A PLACE publication available.

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David Urban (1966)

Why a blog on David Urban. The reason is simple. Urban exhibited at Barbara Farber in 1996. Unknown and available at that time at reasonable prices. Now almost 30 years later, paintings from that gallerist and its artists from that decade come again to the market. One of these artists is David Urban. Well known in Canada and the US and lesser known in Europe, but still there are some paintings to be found in European private collections and museums. One of the last auctions from last auctioning season had such a painting by David Urban. THE GOLDEN NUMBER from 1996. I was able to buy this painting for the FTN collection and it will be for sale in a few weeks. If you are interested , please contact me at wilfriedvandenelshout@gmail.com

The work of David Urban is defined by bold collisions of line and shape, clashing tones and kinetic brushstrokes. Urban builds his dynamic paintings, layer upon layer, incorporating the traditions of still life and landscape, abstraction and realism. Rhythmic geometries conjure up networks of boards, beams and girders. His work explores the physical presence of sound, with a strong sense of connectivity and rhythmical structure. Urban produces forms that engage the viewer, pursuing an endless investigation into how and why we perceive images. Urban focuses on the history and methodology of color and painting itself, embedding powerful brushstrokes and charcoal drawings in thick layers of paint. His work explores the interplay of representation and abstraction while presenting his two distinct streams of contemporary painting.
Urban is a true Renaissance man and scholar of art history, literature and music. He has a master’s degree in English Literature and is trained in several instruments. He studied the work of early Modernist painters such as Piet Mondrian and Henri Matisse. His artwork is the culmination of this creative effort and research.
Urban graduated from York University in 1989 with both BA and BA.

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Kurt Löb (1926-2015

Kurt Löb

If i must choose one of the best illustrators working from the Netherlands in the last century it would be Kurt Löb.

Born in Germany he fled to the Netherlands and build a career in illustrating books, magazine and at the same time produced many great paintings and drawings. The style “fin du siecle” with loose abstract elements. He must have been influenced by Austrian Art from the 1900’s , but in his career he definitely created a style of his own. These drawings belong to the very best dutch/ german illustrators.

http://www.ftn-books.com has  a nice signed copy of the Löb / Bild + Buch publication available.

Signed Bild + Buch
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Aki Kuroda (1944)

Born in Kyoto in 1944, Akihiko Kuroda had a lifelong interest in art and painted his first work at the age of four. His family had a great influence on Kuroda as a boy. His father brought magazines like Le Minotaur from Paris. Through these magazines, Kuroda discovered the work of painters such as Picasso and Dali, inspiring him during the early stages of his artistic career. These resources were invaluable to the self-taught. In the 1960s, Kuroda traveled around Europe, finally deciding to settle in Paris in 1970. Kuroda struggled during his early years in Paris, until chance encounters with French-American writer and filmmaker Marguerite Duras, Spanish artist Joan Miru00f3, and gallery owner Adrian Margut decided his fate. Until I changed it, I was going to give up and go back to Japan. Aki Kuroda’s famous participation in the 11th Paris Biennale in 1980 signaled the beginning of his career. Kuroda flouted traditional hierarchies and in 1993 became the youngest artist to have a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Prominent artists Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami acknowledged Kuroda’s influence on their careers in their memoirs. In 2007, Kuroda became the first Japanese artist to be exhibited at the Beijing Imperial Museum and TS1 Museum in China. In Japan, Aki Kuroda’s work is in several public collections around the world, including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the National Museum of Art, Osaka. In France, it is housed in the collections of the Marguerite Aime Mag Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Paris, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg. In Ireland, Hugh Lane City Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin. And in Holland at the Peter Steibson Foundation in Amsterdam.

www.ftn-books.com has the Maeght publication from 1986 now available

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Otto Muehl (1925-2013)

Otto Muehl (16 June 1925 u2013 26 May 2013) was an Austrian artist, best known as a co-founder and one of the principal figures of Viennese Actionism and founder of the Friedrichshof Commune. It is In 1943 Muehl had to serve in the Wehrmacht. There he enrolled in officer training. He was promoted to first lieutenant and took part in infantry combat during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. After the war, he studied German and history at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, as well as art education. In 1972 he founded the Commune Friedrichshof, considered by some to be an authoritarian offshoot, which existed for several years before falling apart in the 1990s. In 1991, Muehl was sentenced to seven years in prison for sex and drug offenses against minors. He was released in 1997 after six and a half years in prison and founded a small commune in Portugal. After his release, he also published his memoir from prison (Out of Prison).

http://www.ftn-books.com has the 2008 Sammlung Friedrichshof book now available.

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Gianfranco ASveri (1948)

Gianfranco Asveri was born in 1948 in Fiorenzuola d’Arda, province of Piacenza. After graduating from the Department of Technology and Science, he found a reason to live in art in 1969, where he devoted himself to painting. For many years he lived and worked with dogs at Gasperini in the Piacenza hills.
After an early stage of self-expression in the traditional pictorial language, from the 1980s onwards his paintings took on a more instinctive and personal gesture, using rich colors and fabrics and emphasizing his brut expressionism. approached. Expressing a highly instinctive and emotional style of painting, Asveri attacks the surface with arrogant and primitive gestures, thereby coexisting with other, less perceptible matrices of expression, memories of artistic images. can. Asveri’s paintings are born from observations of reality, with deep and vibrant inspiration. animals that the artist collects and cares for, animals that he lives with and worships, and animals to which he devotes his paintings, paintings and poems.
He was ranked among the 10 emerging Italian painters by his Il Sole 24Ore newspaper and was recognized through numerous solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad.

http://www.ftn-books.com has the CHarta publication on Asveri available.

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Tom Claassen (1964)

Tom Claassen (1964, The Netherlands) is best known in the art scene as well as among the general public for his works created for the public arena. Klaasen’s work often traverses the boundaries of culture and nature, firmly rooted in the sculptural tradition, but with a unique, playful and personal touch. Soft, rounded shapes often invite caresses, but this proves to be deceptive. Because the material that looks so soft and friendly is actually bronze. Similarly, sculptures that appear hard and unattractive to the touch are actually made of rubber. artistic background

Claassen studied at the St. Joost Academy of Fine Arts in the Netherlands and was awarded the “PRIX DE ROME” in 1992. Claassen’s work is in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo (both in the Netherlands), the FRAC Franche-Comte Museum in Besançon, France, and the Gateway Foundation in St. Louis, USA.

www.ftn-books.com has the 2009 Tom Claassen book now available

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Diango Hernandez (1970)

Diango Hernandez in 1994 a co-founder of Ordo Amoris Cabinet, a group of artists and designers focused on devising home design object solutions to fill permanent shortages of materials and goods. I started my artistic career in Cuba in 2004. The artist moved to Europe in 2003 and currently lives and works in Dusseldorf. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Basel (2006) and the Neuer Aachener Museum (2007). His work was exhibited at the Arsenal as part of the 51st Venice Biennale, as well as at the 2006 Sydney and Sao Paulo Biennales. His work has been acclaimed for his new exhibition Losing You Tonight (2009) at the Gegenwartkunst Museum in Siegen, and two installations for The New Decor at the Hayward Gallery in London in 2010. was included. From 2011 to 2012, a research exhibition of his work was held at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MART) in Rovereto. In 2013, a solo exhibition of his work “The New Man and the New Woman” was held at Marlborough Contemporary in London. His work was the subject of a solo exhibition “Socialist Nature” held at the Landesgalerie in Linz in 2014. Hernandez had a solo exhibition in 2015 at Marlborough Contemporary, London and Kunsthalle Munster. In 2016, a solo exhibition of Hernandez’s work titled ‘Theoretical Beach’ was held at the Morsbroich Museum in Leverkusen.

www.ftn-books.com has now the Marlborough Contemp[orary pub;location available.

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Joncquil (1973)

Jonquil’s work is difficult to understand. It shows us common situations and features of the world, but it seems more strange than familiar. He says of himself, of his own paintings: “Usually it happens outside of our field of vision. It tells stories of everyday life as we are stunned by a reality that we are largely unaware of. I paint the moment between the question and the answer.I see motifs as a collection of planes, planes, lines, colors and angles that together take a recognizable form and give meaning. I understand and rethink their value and necessity, reconstructing these areas of light and darkness to represent the moment when form takes on content. “
These images appear as physical results of searching for mundane, everyday situations that can reveal universal truths. How to make the invisible visible and the mundane eternal. The final result is not a fait accompli and leaves interpretation to the viewer. Exploration is not only in the choice of topic, but also in the choice of technology. From an early age, the artist was inspired by photography, especially chemical processes in the darkroom.
His influence can still be seen clearly in the almost cinematic light that falls on his paintings, and in the reversal from slide to slide to his negatives and vice versa. This meeting of the color spectrum appears to form a self-contained palette that reinforces the vibrations of form and meaning in the painting. Just as many early 20th-century painters used photography to capture, replicate, and equalize reality, Yonkil uses his paintings to express the truth within himself, and to bring us closer together. I chose to paint from the heart to reveal the reality inside.

http://www.ftn-books.com has the galerie Ramakers AH UM book now available.