dada – FTN-blog

Posted on 05.11.202304.09.2023 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Helmut Viking Fredrik Eggeling (1880-1925)

From c1911 to c1915 he lived in Paris, probably after separating from his wife. There he was acquainted with Amedeo Modigliani, Jean Arp, Othon Friesz, Moise Kisling. Modigliani painted his portrait in 1916. At this point his art was influenced by Cubism, but soon grew more abstract. He never dated and only rarely signed his works.[3]

In the years c1915-1917 he lived first at Ascona and later other places in Switzerland, with his wife Marion, née Klein. During this time, he started working on his ‘universal language’, a theory of harmony for painting which was to open up a way for meaningful communication between viewer and artist.[4]

During one of his stays at the Mount Verita Lebensreform colony at Anconà, Italy, Eggeling met the author Yvan Goll, one of the principle advocates of film as art amongst German literary circles. In 1920, Goll published the article entitled Das Kinodram where he states emphatically that “the basis of all future art is the cinema.” During 1918 Goll helped Eggeling with first preliminary works for the latter’s abstract film (probably Horizontal-Vertikal-Messe) cutting geometrical forms and mounting them onto the celluloid support. According to Claire Goll, the two also discussed the foundations of abstract film which Goll still called Kinomalerei [cinema-painting].[5]

In c1918 Viking and Marion settled down in Zürich. There he re-connected with Jean Arp and took part in several Dada activities, befriending Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Sophie Taeuber, and the other dadaists connected to the Cabaret Voltaire. In March 1919 he also joined the group Das neue Leben [New Life], started the year before in in Basel by Arp, Fritz Baumann, Augusto Giacometti, Janco, Taeuber, and Otto Morach, among others. The group supported an educational approach to modern art, coupled with socialist ideals and Constructivist aesthetics. In its art manifesto, the group declared its ideal of “rebuild[ing] the human community” in preparation for the end of capitalism. In April 1919 Eggeling was co-founder of the similar group .

Radikale Künstler [Radical Artists], a more political section of Das neue Leben group, that also counted Hans Richter

www.ftn-books.com has the scarce Hoffmann Stiftung catalog from 1953 available with the Eggeling cover.

Posted on 30.10.202326.08.2023 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Thijs Rinsema (1877-1947)

Thijs Rinsema, a cobbler from Drachten, a town in the Frisian region, gained recognition as a prominent member of the famous art movement De Stijl. His work was displayed at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Modern in London.

The Museum Drachten is hosting the first major retrospective exhibition of Thijs Rinsema’s (1877-1947) work. The exhibition also pays tribute to his equally exceptional brother, Evert Rinsema (1880-1958). Additionally, the Museum Belvédère in Heerenveen has a small exhibition featuring Thijs’ Stijl furniture pieces and some of his paintings.

These craftsmen are skilled in creating perfect pairs of shoes with a piece of leather, but they are also well-read and have an interest in philosophy and modern art. Thijs paints while Evert writes and, during his military service, gets to know the artist Theo van Doesburg. This encounter opens up a whole new world for the brothers.

Thijs is deeply moved by De Stijl and, in the early 1920s, transforms his shop and living room. To the amazement of the people of Drachten, these spaces are adorned with the primary colors of the art movement: white walls with yellow, red, and blue accents. It becomes an incredible sight to behold.

Rinsema is already painting at this time. He learns to paint by imitating medieval art as well as works by modern artists like Picasso and Kandinsky. Following Van Doesburg’s advice, he begins creating still lifes and portraits. “Family, neighbors, and acquaintances are all subject to his artistry,” writes Thijs Rinsema’s grandson in his study ‘Thijs and Evert Rinsema, Independent and Versatile’.

Posing for Thijs is a challenge. The cobbler-painter works slowly, and customers in the shop disrupt the process. “Naturally, they all found it quite peculiar in Drachten,” says Thijs’ grandson. However, the eccentric cobbler is unperturbed and enjoys his newfound status.

In 1923, the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters visits Drachten. Van Doesburg had written to him about two remarkable individuals in Friesland, which Schwitters finds fascinating. At the round table in the Stijl room, he creates collages with Thijs using newspaper clippings, leaves, and advertising materials. These collages, now worth a fortune, are displayed at the exhibition.

The pinnacle of their friendship is a gathering in 1923 in a hall at a local hotel. Schwitters performs and recites his poems, one of which is in the Frisian language. He also presents his famous sound-image poem with the lines: “We strive to remain w88888” (referring to the town name Dr8888 – Drachten). Thus, Drachten becomes forever connected to Dada.
www.ftn-books.com has 2 important publications on Rinsema now available.

Posted on 16.10.202113.08.2021 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

DADA en Drachten ( Dr8888 )

Most people do not know it and personally i did not realise the relationship between Drachten/ Dr8888 and the Dada and Merz mouvements until recently.

But it appears that some of the artists from Friesland had strong relationships with Dada artists and even were influenced by them . In the same way Dada artists freed themselves from the bourgeois morality, Werkman tried to do the same, although freedom in morality was less important than having a free spirit, searching freedom in his art. The Museum in Drachten finally realized some decade ago that their true importance was this heritage. Dada in the Netherlands is nothing else than Dada in Friesland and Drachten. They made a choice and exploited this heritage since and with one of these exhibition a magnificent catalogue was published, which is now available at www.ftn-books.com

holland dada aa

Posted on 15.07.202114.07.2021 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

The ultimate Francis Picabia title.

picadia box oo

Without a doubt. There is only one publication that deserves that ULTIMATE title. It is PICABIA by Ronny van de Velde who made this special box available in an edition of 1000 copies and a secondary edition, with the special pochoir print of Satie, in an edition of 200. This box which is now for sale comes from the edition of 200 and contains the “pochoir” print of Erik Satie. This box was the second of a series of special publications by Ronny van de Velde . The first being the CHESSBOARD box by Marcel Duchamp. I once had two copies of it, but both are sold and now i am very happy to offer you this other great collectable item. Francis Picabia and DADA in optima forma. Only the size and weight says it all 47 x 32 x 6 cm. and a hefty 4.2 kg.

The box is now available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on 08.12.201929.08.2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Thijs Rinsema (1877-1947)

Schermafbeelding 2019-03-18 om 16.36.50

This Frysian artist is by most known for his DADA works he made in te beginning of his career, but he searched for a much wider appreciation and therefore changed his style into a much more figurative style.

Far less interesting, but probably a necessary step to survive as an artist. I looked into the history of Rinsema and found some interesting works which are still exhibited in the Museums in the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands, but the best exhibition was held a long time ago at the Nijmeegs Museum in 1972 for which exhibition an excellent catalogue was published , designed by Harrie Gerritz who found a loyal following of admirers soon after for his playfulk and colourful abstract compositions. This catalogue is available at ww.ftn-books.com

This catalogue is a cclassic for the Sixties and Seventies with sobre style, minimalistic designdoes it stand as a great dutch design.

stichting nijmeegs

Posted on 25.10.201809.08.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Francis Picabia is “PAPA DADA”

It took a long time for me to finally appreciate the works by Picabia. Once known as “Papa Dada,” Francis Picabia was one of the principle figures of the Dadamovement both in Paris and New York. A friend and associate of Marcel Duchamp, he became known for a rich variety of work ranging from strange, comic-erotic images of machine parts to text-based paintings that foreshadow aspects of Conceptual art. Even after Dada had been supplanted by other styles, the French painter and writer went on to explore a diverse and almost incoherent mix of styles. He shifted easily between abstraction and figuration at a time when artists clung steadfastly to one approach, and his gleeful disregard for the conventions of modern art encouraged some remarkable innovations even later in his career, from the layered Transparency series of the 1920s to the kitsch, erotic nudes of the early 1940s. Picabia remains revered by contemporary painters as one of the century’s most intriguing and inscrutable artists.

on the excellent site THE ART STORY i found this text on the ideas of Picabia

In the 1910s, Picabia shared the interests of a number of artists who emerged in the wake of Cubism, and who were inspired less by the movement’s preoccupation with problems of representation than by the way the style could evoke qualities of the modern, urban, and mechanistic world. Initially, these interests informed his abstract painting, but his attraction to machines would also shape his early Dada work, in particular his Mechanomorphs – images of invented machines and machine parts that were intended as parodies of portraiture. For Picabia, humans were nothing but machines, ruled not by their rational minds, but by a range of compulsive hungers.

Picabia was central to the Dada movement when it began to emerge in Paris in the early 1920s, and his work quickly abandoned many of the technical concerns that had animated his previous work. He began to use text in his pictures and collages and to create more explicitly scandalous images attacking conventional notions of morality, religion, and law. While the work was animated by the Dada movement’s rage against the European culture that had led to the carnage of World War I, Picabia’s attacks often have the sprightly, coarse comedy of the court jester. They reflect an artist with no respect for any conventions, not even art, since art was just another facet of the wider culture he rejected.

Figurative imagery was central to Picabia’s work from the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s, when he was inspired by Spanish subjects, Romanesque and Renaissance sources, images of monsters, and, later, nudes found in soft porn magazines. Initially he united many of these disparate motifs in the Transparency pictures, complexly layering them and piling them on top of each other to provoke confusion and strange associations. Some critics have described the Transparencies as occult visions, or Surrealist dream images, and although Picabia rejected any association with the Surrealists, he steadfastly refused to explain their content. Picabia always handled these motifs with the same playful and anarchic spirit that had animated his Dada work.

Picabia learned early on that abstraction could be used to evoke not only qualities of machines, but also to evoke mystery and eroticism. This ensured that abstract painting would be one of the mainstays of his career. He returned to it even in his last years, during which he attributed his inspiration to the obscure recesses of his mind, as he had always done.

www.ftn-books.com has some excellent publications on Picabia including the very special Ronny van de Velde publication PICABIA ( price upon request)

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Posted on 15.01.201811.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971)… DaDa and photomontages

Schermafbeelding 2017-11-21 om 16.29.29

For me Hausmann stands for Dada and photomontages. He , together with Hannah Hoch ( his longtime lover) developed a style of photomontages typical for Dada. Combining classical elements together with industrial elements set on o a colorful background these photomontages are among the very best from that period.

The photomontage became the technique most associated with Berlin Dada, used extensively by Hausmann, Höch, Heartfield, Baader and Grosz, and would prove a crucial influence on Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitsky and Russian Constructivism. It should also be pointed out that Grosz, Heartfield and Baader all laid claim to having invented the technique in later memoirs, although no works have surfaced to justify these claims.

At the same time, Hausmann started to experiment with sound poems he called “phonemes”^] and “poster poems”, originally created by the chance lining up of letters by a printer without Hausmann’s direct intervention. Later poems used words which were reversed, chopped up and strung out, then either typed out using a full range of typographical strategies, or performed with boisterous exuberance. Schwitters’ Ursonate was directly influenced by a performance of one of Hausmann’s poems, “fmsbwtazdu”, at an event in Prague in 1921.

Raoul Hausmann and Dada publications are both available at www.ftn-books.com