Well over 3 months ago i acquired a series of 6 early drawings by FRANK VAN HEMERT. The series now is examined and photographed out of the frames and …..titles, years and backs reveal themselves . Because I think this is important I want to share this with the readers of this blog and the admirers of Frank van Hemert. The drawing above is titled “BED”, year is 1987 and it has on the back another sketch /drawing in pastel of a bed. The drawing itself was one of the reasons I wanted to buy the series. I intended to sell 2 drawings, but I am in doubt, because I have grown fond of these early van Hemert drawings and I know these are scarce items. Anyway I will share over the coming weeks all of the acquired drawings and who knows, if the price is right I will decide to sell one or two to finance a future purchase.
www.ftn-books.com has a large collection of Frank van Hemert publications available
Aiko Miyawaki was born in 1929, Tokyo. She graduated from Japan Women’s University in 1952 and lived and worked as a painter in Europe and North America 1957-1966. In 1962 Miyawaki was invited to Paris by French dealer André Schoeller. There, Miyawaki experienced an autumnal sunset that profoundly informed her relationship with representation. ‘I lost all interest in stories which have a beginning, and an end, in bold shapes, bright colours’, she said. The mixed-media, two-dimensional works she created in the 1960s expressed this perspective, incorporating materials like glass and powdered marble to create undulating dune-like surfaces that, to quote Hayashi Michio, express a ‘tension between transformations and something that remains unchanging’.
These ‘paintings’ would give way to the artist’s shift towards sculpture in 1966. Her ‘Utsurohi’ works are some of her best known: swirling stainless steel cords planted in bases as if caught in mid-dance. Miyawaki described these as more ‘intermediary’ than sculpture. ‘When the eye that observes the intermediary blends with its refractory, reflective, translucent surface,’ she explained, ‘something appears, and it is this something that I seek.’ Miyawaki was wife to the architect Arata Isozaki, and had past friendships with Man Ray and Richard Lindner.
Miyawaki work has been featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums around the world, including the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan.
www.ftn-books.com has now 2 Miyawaki publication available.
Grupo Frente was a 1950s Brazilian art movement formed by artists who rejected the figuration and nationalism of the predominant modernist Brazilian painting style.
The movement was founded by the artist and teacher Ivan Serpa in Rio de Janeiro in 1954. Many of the artists associated with Grupo Frente were former pupils of Serpa at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro. Although the group was associated with concrete art, they were not characterised by any single stylistic position rather they were united in their rejection of modernist Brazilian painting. Some of the artists associated with the group, including Lygia Clark and Lygia Pape went on to form the hugely influential neo-concrete movement in 1958.
Artists associated with Grupo Frente include Aluísio Carvão, Carlos Val, Décio Vieira, João José da Silva Costa, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and Vicent Ibberson.
www.ftn-books.com has the Helio Oitica catalogue for the Joel Edelstein gallerynow available. Oitica was inspired by the artist from this group for this series of works.
I know from experience how many of the large publicity posters are normally printed . To promote an exhibition there are approximately 30 spots in a city that are used for promotional purposes.Each spot is serviced with 3 large posters set up in a triangle to maximize exposure. These print runs are expensive so only the necessary posters are printed. This is the reason why I am always focussed on these large publicity posters since the ones that remain after the exhibitions are extremely scarce. This way I acquired posters by Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Serra and now I can offer 2 by Marlene Dumas. One from Bern and the other from the Museum Overholland which does not exist anymore. Both are available at www.ftn-books.com and I believe these are not offered anywhere else at the moment.
Cabaret Voltaire’s story begins at the start of World War I. Hugo Ball, a German actor, tried to enlist in the army but was refused entry. Any sense of patriotism that existed within him is said to have vanished after the invasion of Belgium, which he witnessed. “The war is founded on a glaring mistake, men have been confused with machines,” Ball said.
Ball fled to Switzerland – which remained neutral throughout World War I -, with Emmy Hennings, a fellow actress and poet who he would later marry. They both settled in Zurich.
Ball’s experience of the War and his penchant towards anarchist philosophy became the foundation for the Dadaist movement, which Ball launched in July 1916 – just four months before Cabaret Voltaire first opened its doors on February 5, 1916.
Hugo Ball reading “Karawane” at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916 | Public Domain/ WikiCommons
Along with a host of other disillusioned artists and political agitators, Ball and Hennings were looking for a place to express their ideas and frustration. They found it at Spiegelgasse 1, which was already home to a cabaret at the time.
Ball and his fellow artists announced in a press release: “The Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has formed with the object of becoming a centre for artistic entertainment.”
So Cabaret Voltaire opened and nights there were filled with the bizarre and the wonderful, performances that sought to go to the extremes of art and push boundaries. These were artists who had seen the madness of War tearing Europe apart at the seams, and they expressed this madness through their art.
“Dada is anti-Dada”
On July 28, 1916, Dadaism was born. Ball read his Dada Manifesto in the Cabaret Voltaire, allegedly saying he did not want it to become an artistic movement (his followers agreed, supposedly crying “Dada is anti-Dada” on occasion). It’s said that the name Dada was chosen after one of the founders plunged a knife into a dictionary and picked the word that the point happened to strike.
www.ftn-books.com has on all the artists that were participating in Cabaret Voltaire publications available.
Marianne von Werefkin was born in the Russian town of Tula as the daughter of the commander of the Ekaterinaburg Regiment. She had her first private academic drawing lessons at the age of fourteen. In 1880, she became a student of Ilya Repin, the most important painter of Russian Realism. Her progress was dealt a setback by a hunting accident in 1888 in which she accidentally shot her right hand which remained crippled after a lengthy period of recovery. By practicing persistently she finally managed to use drawing and painting instruments with her right hand again.
In 1892 she met Alexej von Jawlensky, who desired to be her protégé, and in 1896 she, Jawlensky, and their servant moved to Munich. Werefkin studied with other Russians in Munich at an art school directed by the Slovenian Anton Ažbè.[1]
For the sake of Jawlensky’s painting, Werefkin interrupted her painting for almost ten years.
She began painting again in 1906. In 1907 she created her first expressionist works; in these she followed Paul Gauguin‘s and Louis Anquetin’s style of “surface painting”, while also showing the influence of Edvard Munch. She and Jawlensky spent in 1908 several periods working with Kandinsky and Münter after their discovery of the picturesque rural town of Murnau near Munich, where Gabriele Münter owned a house. The four artists frequently painted together in open air in and around Murnau.
At her Munich apartment, Werefkin initiated a Salon which soon became a center of lively artistic exchange between members of the German and Russian avant-garde who would later be founders of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Association of Artists in Munich, NKVM) and Blaue Reiter.[1] The NKVM, founded in 1909, became a forum of exhibitions and programming. At the first touring exhibition of NKVM, Werefkin exhibited Washerwomen (1909) and The Storm (1907). The simplified form and psychological content of works relate to the sources Werefkin admired at this time including the artist Paul Gauguin, Japanese woodcuts and the expressive works of the Nabis in France.[2]
Werefkin also founded the “Lukasbruderschaft” of which also Kandinsky was a member.[3]
The two principals of Blaue Reiter, Kandinsky and Marc, met each other at Werefkin and Jawlensky’s home on New Year’s Eve in 1911.[1] After a few years Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc distanced themselves from NKVM and formed Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider). The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky and a number of native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and Gabriele Münter. Werefkin began exhibiting together with Blaue Reiter in 1913.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Werefkin and Jawlensky immigrated to Switzerland, near Geneva. They later moved to Zurich. By 1918, they had separated, and Werefkin moved alone to Ascona, on Lago Maggiore where she painted many colorful, landscapes in an expressionist style. In 1924 she founded the artist group “Großer Bär” (i.e., Big Bear, Ursa Major).
In her later years, she painted posters. Her friends “Carmen” and “Diego Hagmann” protected her from poverty.
Marianne von Werefkin died in Ascona on 6 February 1938. She was buried in the Russian graveyard in Ascona.
The reason to introduce these two great artist together is that they have known each other for a very long period of time. Books were published on their conversations and because of the importance of these conversations an excerpt was used for the 1968 Knoedler exhibition. A small , but very important Bram van Velde publication which is now available at www.ftn-books.com.
She is not the most wellknown artist in the Netehrlands, but her work still fascinates me. At one time she started with Albert Waalkens a gallery in the Frysian town of Finsterwolde. The NRC called it the Small Pompidou, but it was also a venue in which she presented her art. A kind of minimal art and many times executed in textile. The catalogue which is now on offer is on her drawings and shows that she had beside her textile paintings many other talents. It is from an edition of only 250 copies and now available at www,ftn-books.com.
Discovered the almost complete set of the important BEELDEN IN DE KOEPEL II exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem and curated by Anneke Oele. A memorable exhibition series in which Dirkx and Lafontaine were presented. Artists were asked to fill and decorate DE KOEPEL room . The result some memorable installations. The series is now available at www.ftn-books.com
To be honest….I never had heard of Hubert Leyendeckers until recently i found an ICC catalogue from 1973 where the typographic font was intriguing since I thought it to be by Wim Crouwel Still the catalog published by ICC was a typical and interesting 70’s catalog which included titles and prices of works on sale. From the mid eighties it became silent around Leyendeckers until in 2018 he received an exhibition ” TRUE BEAUTY” in which his works were in the centre of the exhibition. Maybe this is such an artist that looks to be forgotten, but will become in the coming years increasingly more important.
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
