Tag: boymans

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Rinus van den Bosch (1938-1996)

“Dagdieven,” declared Rinus van den Bosch, the renowned visual artist, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He, a quintessential native of The Hague, roamed dreamily yet determinedly through his beloved city, delighting in all it had to offer. A masterful sketch artist, he painted, sang, composed, wrote poetry, and made music. Never had a child been born with more talent and less opportunity, some would say.

www.ftn-books.com has the 2009 Retrospective exhibition catalog at the BOymans Museum now available.

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Anna Verweij-Verschuure (1935-1980)

After Anna Verweij stopped attending the art academy in the late fifties, she began to experiment with materials and techniques. In 1958, she decided to simply go by the name “Anna”. She used leftover materials to create jewelry and small wall hangings. Soon, she devoted herself entirely to textile, the material that would remain her faithful companion throughout her entire career. In the sixties, she delved into designing large, exuberantly colored wall hangings.

In the following decade, her textile work became increasingly detailed and acquired a more conceptual nature. During this period, the concept of textile as visual art was constantly under discussion. This material was still primarily associated with applied art. With her work, Anna gave an inspiring and relativizing twist to this discussion. For her, the boundary between the two “arts” was not a fixed concept.

My Place at the Table

One of Anna’s most notable works is My Place at the Table 2 (1972/73). A pristine white cotton tablecloth is laid over a wooden table, adorned with a refined black embroidered flower border. One of the narrow edges of the cloth culminates in a chaotic array of stitches. In an earlier work, Alice Writes to Alice (1971), Anna shows how a winding strip of fabric transforms into a mysterious script. With a light sense of humor, Anna comments on the contradictions in human behavior and the conflict between inner and outer appearances in pieces like this. Experimental use of flannel, jute, cotton, silk, and printers, in combination with plastic and foam rubber, is characteristic in these works. Her love for nature also makes frequent appearances in her oeuvre, for example in her design drawings of flower fields based on compositions by Piet Mondrian.

In the year of 1978, Anna fell gravely ill. In the final period of her life, transformations of shape take center stage. She creates silhouettes of female figures, modeled after her own body. An exemplary piece is The Leap (1979), which depicts a figure pole vaulting: a clear allusion to the transition between life and death. A large portion of her body of work was realized in the last two years of her life, with her most significant exhibitions also taking place during this time. In 1979, her solo exhibition opened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and in 1984, she was posthumously honored by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

This catalog is now available at www.ftn-books.com

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Mario Sironi (1885-1961)

Mario Sironi was one of the most famous artists of the first half of the twentieth century. During his career, Sironi adhered to different artistic currents and even founded one together with other artists, as in the case of the Novecento Italiano movement. During the years Sironi was a member of Futurism, the Italian avant-garde movement born in 1909 with the famous manifesto of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Alessandria d’Egitto, 1876 – Bellagio, 1944). After that, for a certain period, he was also influenced by the Metaphysical current, founded in the Twenties by Giorgio de Chirico, and by Expressionist painting. In addition, Sironi moved to the forefront to revive mural painting, of which he became the most important exponent of his time.

However, his brilliant artistic career was tainted by his convinced adhesion to the fascist political movement, in which he saw a springboard for the rebirth of Italy and consequently of Italian art. During the years Sironi had close relations with the regime, for which he set up several exhibitions and many pavilions. Moreover, the painter worked as an illustrator for the Popolo d’Italia, the newspaper founded by Benito Mussolini. Because of his closeness to the regime, Sironi’s works were discredited for almost the entire second half of the twentieth century. On the other hand, in recent years there has been an ongoing re-evaluation of Sironi’s corpus that, without erasing the shame of the painter’s adherence to the fascist movement, is bringing to light the masterpieces of one of the greatest modern Italian masters.

www.ftn-books.com has several Sironi titles available.

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Another scarce Benno Wissing publication

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Blog readers know of the importance of Benno Wissing for dutch typography and design and today i present one of the really scarce publications by Wissing he made for the Museum Boymans van Beuningen in 1951. A smaller sized catalogue which has the typical Wissing qualities of transparent , but personal design by Wissing. It is on the exhibition ” 19e EEUWSE EN MODERNE SCHILDERKUNST UIT HET MUSEUM VAN SCHONE KUNSTEN TE LUIK “. A catlogue which i did not know existed but what appears to appear one of earliest of designs Wissing made for the Museum Boymans van Beuningen in 1951. The condition is still excellent and looking and searching for this publication on the inytern et i did not find another copy for sale….so scarce andf now available at www.ftn-books-com.

kunst luik

 

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Vincenc Kramar (1877-1960)

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Vincenc Kramar (1877–1960) was one of the first collectors worldwide to recognise the importance of Picasso and Braque’s Cubism. Without a doubt, his collection, a substantial portion of which is now held in the National Gallery of Prague, had a profound influence on the development of several decades of Czech Modern art, but most of all the importance of the collection is that Kramar was one of the first to focus on Modern Art , this way buildinh a collection of unprecedented quality. Since his death there were several occasion where his scollection was shown to the public. One of the occsions was at the Museum Boymans van Beuningen in 1968, where the Kramar collection was shown, The beautiful ( typical Sixties ) catalogue is now available at www.ftn-books.com.

kramar

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Quirijn van Tiel (1900-1967)

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Another “petit maitre” i had never heard of, but because of a catalogue find i noticed this artist. Not very well known, but his works are now emerging in the art market. Recent sales at art dealers and auction mean that this artist is getting more and more appreciated by a larger public.

I noticed this painter because of a publication from 1970 by the Boymans van Beuningen where a retrospective was held. Influenced by Campendonck and Flemish artists, but in the end a style of his own. A nice catalogue and now available at www.ftn-books.com

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“de Pot” is the new DEPOT of the Boymans van Beuningen Museum

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Another few weeks and the new depot for the Boymans van Beuningen collection will be open for the public. Now are the weeks of moving and placing the many objects from the collection of the Boymans van Beuningen museum and an openingof the new building is foreseen on the 25th of September next. This building promisses to be something very special and i predict it will have the same appeal as the Guggernheim Museum in Bilbao. Inside , outside and the direct surroundings are all functional for visitors and citizens of Rotterdam alike. It will be an iconic building for Rotterrdam and the Netherlands and i can not wait to visist the building and see its collections by myself. To follow the progress of the opening of the building follow this site; https://www.boijmans.nl/depot

and for all historical publications visit my site at www.ftn-books.com

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Mark Manders (1968)

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Just to illustrate the work by Mark Manders here follows a text he wrote in 1994.

The Absence of Mark Manders

Under a table you have the possibility to test your own absence. The realization that life is taking its course, even without you, is an intense human experience; it shows the finiteness of personality. Mark Manders has inhabited his self-portrait since 1986. This building can expand or shrink at any moment. In this building all words created by mankind are on hand. The building arises, like words, out of interaction with life and things.

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The thoughts that surround him in his building are, materialized or not, always important and never gratuitous. ‘When years ago I went for a walk, I would walk through streets where sometimes a clothespeg would be lying, or, when I entered a place, there would be a table with, for instance, a telephone and an empty vase, briefly I would find myself in a world that I hadn’t determined myself. I decided to build a building next to that world, or rather, in that world. A building which was dominated by a changing arrest, where and through which I would be confronted continuously with my choice, the choice of Mark Manders.’ Mark Manders considers the world surrounding his building as an evolved organism that has been constructed from so-called semi-truths. These fall as some loose atom-truths in a kind of ‘encyclopaedia basement’, a space of about four by five metres, around which he constructs his building. Herewith, Mark Manders places his self-portrait as a building actually between two world views: the world as constructed from atom-like semi-truths and the one in which these truths are accepted as facts. Often, we are not afraid in our materialized projection, the world itself has been confided to us. I remember how we determined our first priority roads and that diviners (reading the future in liver) indicated the place of the city. Walking through my building, I get confronted everywhere with deep arrest, it is terrific, the things over here surmount my momentaneous thinking and are familiar to me, I never get bored.

Mark Manders, 1994

www.ftn-books.com has some nice Mark Manders publications available

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Marijke van der Wijst (1940)

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Marijke van der Wijst is a true force in the dutch design world and responsible for many of the great dutch interior designs of public cultural places. There is of course the interior of the Anne Frank huis and the Berlage wedding room,

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but for me, van der Wijs most important project was her influence tof the way the Boymans van Beuningen Museum reshaped its presentations in the Eighties. More spacious, clean coll colours and almost transparent. This way of presenting the great collection of the Boymans van Beuningen was followed by many in the years after they had made the changes in resenting the collection. This is part of the great book on van der Wijst published by 010 Publishers and designed by the very best for this subject…Gracia Lebbink. A beautiful publication, timeless and filled with great van der Wijst designs. Available at www.ftn-books.com

wijst

 

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Jacob Jongert (1883-1942)

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Jac ( Jacob ) Jongert is one of the classic dutch designers. It is highly likely that you once have seen a design of his , since his van NELLE box has grown into a world famous design object from the Twenties/Thirties.

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It has been one of those iconic design objects executed in a style which have been of great influence to designers in the following decades. Look at the second poster and you will recognize that this typography and design elements must have influenced the POP ART designs from the Sixties.

But beside the avant garde designs there are so much more beautiful designs by Jongert and for those interested in Jongert and his design career i truly recommend the book which has been published in 2009 for the Jongert  special exhibition at the Boymans van Beuningen Museum. A book which shows why Jongert is important as a designer and what is more . The book itself is one of the best and most beautiful published books which i encountered in recent years. This book is now available at www.ftn-books.com

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