den haag – Page 5

Posted on 21.08.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Constant (1920-2005)

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Another Cobra artist that i have met personally ( but only for a very brief conversation about his catalogues) was Constant ( Nieuwenhuijs ). From the 3 Cobra artist that i have met personally i liked him the best, because besides his Cobra period , he developed himself into a multi talented artist. His New Babylon constructions have proven to be a vision on the future and become more and more important in art history. Even his watercolors that he made at the end of his career are to be admired. Great technique and composition make these belonging to his best works from his career. Constant has always kept a special relation with the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and because of this special relation with the museum and his former director ( Hans Locher) the museum has the most important collection from all periods out of his career. Cobra, New Babylon , paintings and drawings all are present and will prove to be important in the coming centuries.

http://www.arttube.nl/videos/constant-new-babylon

Constant will probably be one of the most important dutch artists to remember and admire for his complete oeuvre.www.ftn-books.com has some nice classic and collectable publications on Constant ( Nieuwenhuijs).

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and yes….www.ftn-books.com is one of the few booksellers who can offer you the famous Constant New Babylon book by Wigley

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Posted on 17.08.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — 2 Comments

An extremely rare Gemeentemuseum catalogue from 1940

Possibly you know that i have been a bookseller for the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag for nearly 25 years. But this catalogue was totally new to me.

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https://ftn-books.com/products/gemeentemuseum-s-gravenhage-stillevens-en-bloemen-van-30-schilders-van-heden-1940

It is the catalogue for the exhibition on still lives and flowers which was held in the Gemeentemuseum during the first months of WWII. ( exactly the months the war broke out) I do not remember ever have seen this, so i was surprised and amazed to have found such a rare catalogue of which the majority must have been destroyed or became lost during the chaotic first months of the war. The catalogue is not particularly beautiful, but is has a nice woodblock print by W.J. Rozendaal on the cover. Of course with a still life of fish and flowers. A rare catalogue and for those of you who collect the Gemeentemuseum catalogues a rare opportunity to complete your collection with this rare catalogue

Posted on 28.07.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)

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If i could chose only one painting from the collections of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag….. It would be a hard choice between Egon Schiele’s / Edith or the Czardas Tänzerinnen by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. If i would go for the reseller value i surely would be stupid not to chose for the Schiele,

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but for sheer painting pleasure, strength of the composition and outright beauty it must be the Czardas Tänzerinnen Kirchner.

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A large painting and the first time you see it and study it, it does not look that special , but this one grows on you. You discover small details and every time you enter the room in the museum , where this painting is shown, it lights up his surroundings. For me this is one of the great paintings from the 20th century and one of the true portals to Modern Art as we know it in our time.

For more Kirchner publications please take a look at the inventory of www.ftn-books.com

Both paintings belong to the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Stadhouderslaan 41 , 2517 HV . Den Haag.

Posted on 29.04.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Gerd Arntz (1900-1988)

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Otto Neurath was the first, but together with Neurath, Arntz is considered to be one of the founders of Isotype. A simple word for ISOTYPE is pictogram and he made over 4000 of them. Gerd Arnyz is even in our days considered to be one of the great inventors of the pictogram. The strength is that one can immediately see the meaning of the picture/pictogram and in relation to numbers and other pictograms.

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Picture from www.gerdarntz.org

Because he opposed to the Nazi party in Germany and made some political drawings and statements against them, he fled to Den Haag in 1934, where he joined Neurath and Reidemeister. The three of them became extremely productive and it is in the Netherlands that most of his books, pictorial statistics and pictograms were published. Living and working in Den Haag, Arntz was familiar with its museum and for this reason the Haags Gemeentemuseum could acquire a large collection of his works and still on the book markets, when looking thoroughly, you can even find some nice publications, but this is getting harder and harder each year. www.ftn-books.com has some nice publications and the book ZEVEN HOOFDZONDEN in which an original woodcut by Arntz is published together with 6 other originals.

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It was about 10 years ago that STROOM had a nice exhibition on Arntz and Neurath and they made a spectacular poster for the exhibition which is also available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 15.04.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

100 years ….DE STIJL

It was 50 years ago Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles was released on the 1st of June, but 50 years before that date the DE STIJL group was founded in Leiden in 1917 with the publishing of the book de NIEUWE BEWEGING IN DE SCHILDERKUNST by Theo van Doesburg. Leiden , Utrecht ( home of the famous Rietveld huis) and Den Haag ( largest Mondrian/de Stijl collection in the world will be presenting exhibitions on DE STIJL and its influence on Modern Art. One basic thing about DE STIJL. Use of primary colors, dividing the surface in abstract elements. Mondrian and van Doesburg were originally friends and worked along these lines until van Doesburg thought his works were limited by the use of horizontal and vertical lines and wanted to use the “diagonal” too. This cooled down the friendship and van Doesburg decided to leave the group in 1924. Was it the end of the DE STIJL…no certainly not . The group stopped, but the ideas were there and were later found in BAUHAUS and constructivist modern art. To acknowledge the importance of DE STIJL is done now by these many exhibitions and certainly more than a few will be well worth visiting. Prepare yourself and look at the many DES TIJL/ Mondrian /van Doesburg publications available at www.ftn-books.com

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PS . there is a very special bank by Ko Verzuu in blue and yellow which is exclusively available at ww.ftn-books.com. This was a prestige edition by the makers of ADO.

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Posted on 04.03.201712.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Marcel van Eeden (1965)

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I picked Marcel van Eeeden for todays blog because of two reasons. First of all ….arguably van Eeden is the greatest drawing artist in the Netherlands today. He publishes frequently on the internet and has exhibitions all over the world. Transforming every day scenes and news paper clippings into authentic van Eeden drawings he has made after 30 years a tremendous oeuvre. Born in Den Haag and living nowadays in Zurich, van Eeden is the latest addition to the video series of famous dutch artists. The series started some years ago and contains now over 100 contributions. Fascinating 15 minute portraits/movies on the best of dutch artists.

http://hollandsemeesters.info

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De Gemeentemuseum was one of the first museums in which the drawings by van Eeden have been presented and since this opportunity to see his intimate drawings, i became interested in his publications. The books he published feel like graphic novels , but are instantly recognizable as van Eeden publications. Some of these highly collectable books are available at www.ftn-books.com

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To show the quality of the series of HOLLANDSE MEESTERS i put the van Eeden video with this blog, but do not forget to look at the complete lists of dutch artists and look for more at the site of http://hollandsemeesters.info

Posted on 20.02.201712.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Beauty and simplicity at de RIJK Fine art

Last week i was in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and was very much impressed by the Malevich and “white” rooms with Dekkers and Schoonhoven. White and nothing but white and it reminded me of the current exhibition at de Rijk Fine Art ( Noordeinde 95 /Den Haag).

Excellent, high quality, museum worthy paintings by ao Schoonhoven , Dekkers and Leblanc… in a totally different setting which was more a cosy living room ( including the dog ;-), than a gallery. The simplicity and in the same time complexity of the works, work very well in this setting. They do not need a museum presentation to show their true qualities. This exhibition lasts until the 26th of February so i advise you to take a look at the de Rijk gallery and see for yourself the qualities of this great and important gallery exhibition.

For publications on Schoonhoven, Dekkers and Malevich visit www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 19.01.201712.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Informele Kunst exhibition / 1983

Yes ….34 years ago i was a rookie and just had walked into the museum world and there there was this exhibition which i could not understand. An exhibition on INFORMELE KUNST in Nederland en Belgie ( dutch language) in the Schamhart wing with at the entrance an extremely large painting by Jan Cremer. At the time it was painted he asked a price for it of 1 million guilders.

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At that time a ridiculous amount of money for a work of art, but time passes and if i had known what i know on art now i would have started collecting these works which were within the exhibition. names? Schoonhoven, Leblanc, Cremer, Peeters, Armando, Verheyen, Gentils, Mortier. If only……….

A pity I did not start collecting these artists, because then the time was perfect to buy at reasonable prices. Prices started to rise from that year on and the end is not in sight. What remains is the excellent catalogue which is still available at www.ftn-books.com

Informele Kunst

Posted on 07.01.201712.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jan Snoeck…world famous in DEN HAAG

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If you ask a citizen of THE HAGUE who is Jan Snoeck?…. They probably do not know who he is, but ask if they know about the ceramic statues, they do know them. These statues are spread all over THE HAGUE and trademark works by this artist. Snoeck born in 1927 is one of the great masters who grew up and stayed in THE HAGUE all of his life and has parctically known all of the artists from the POSTHOORN group. Ceramics are what he is known for although he also made some graphic works and paintings. I know Snoeck from his earliest days because at one time a bought a lithograph at Arta in the early 70’s.

And now i am selling the UNICA he has made some 30 years ago

A few months ago i was contacted by a collector who wanted to sell her collection of unique plates and i agreed to help. So these weeks special unique plates by Snoeck are sold through Catawiki and the one that is for sale now can be found here.

https://veiling.catawiki.nl/kavels/9461397

Posted on 25.11.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Hannie Bal and Verve

Hannie Bal was married to Willem Schrofer. Schrofer was one of the founding members of VERVE and together with her husband they both were VERVE members during its existence. Both Hannie Bal and Schrofer were later recognized as highly influential in the Dutch art scene ( Schrofer taught at the Koninklijke Academie) and both were important for the NIEUWE HAAGSE SCHOOL. A group of artists, all living in the The Hague area, and working close together in the 50’s and 60’s , meeting regularly in the Haagse Kunstkring and the Bodega DE POSTHOORN.

Hannie Bal was one of the few female artist in those days, but her work has nothing feminine. It was inspired by great artists like Cezanne and the later Neo Impressionists like Seurat and Signac

…..and she even had a very productive period at the end of the sixties/early seventies in which she made Constructivist paintings.

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Why this short story on Hannie Bal and Verve. Verve because there are some extremely nice early publications on Verve and its artists at www.ftn-books.com available and secondly. ….Today i started 2 auctions with work by Hannie Bal on Catawiki. Both starting at only euro 1,– which make these very nice works a possible win for all. Take a look at them and start bidding on this Black Friday weekend………

here are the links for the Hannie Bal auctions:

https://veiling.catawiki.nl/kavels/8902465-hannie-bal-schuin-vierkant

https://veiling.catawiki.nl/kavels/8932619-hannie-bal-station-met-trein-tuin