Tag: fuchs

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Peter Struycken (1939)

Peter Struycken, born in The Hague in 1939, was one of the first artists in the Netherlands to incorporate computers into his artistic process around 1969. He was also among the first to create artwork on a large scale for public spaces and buildings.

Struycken’s work takes on various forms – paintings, drawings, installations, and moving images – characterized by abstract patterns and figures. These, along with color and light, play a significant role in his installations. In 1981, Struycken designed the well-known postage stamp featuring former Queen Beatrix, made up of countless tiny dots varying in size. This stands as a unique piece in Struycken’s body of work as figurative elements typically do not feature in his pieces.

Since 1987, Struycken has also designed lighting plans and theatrical sets. This is evident in his piece “Untitled” from 1993, which is a part of the colonnade beneath the archive building of Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. “Untitled” illuminates the publicly accessible colonnade – the columns – after sunset.

Every ten minutes, the colors of the columns change, controlled by a computer program that ensures the red, green, and blue lamps display a different combination of primary and mixed colors each time. This theatrical passage becomes almost like a stage, an ambiguous space neither indoors nor fully outdoors.

Struycken studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (1957-1961). From 1964 to 1976, he led a department specializing in environmental art at the art academy in Arnhem. (Group) exhibitions of Struycken’s work have taken place at institutions such as Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Galerie De Expeditie (Amsterdam), and the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

www.ftn-books.com has many titles available on Peter Struycken.

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Harm Brink (1947)

Harm Brink was born in 1947, molded by the creative inspiration of the 1960s. The unparalleled reach and influence of this decade permeated throughout the world, evoking both faith and fury. It sparked a surge of new ideologies and movements that were nothing short of revolutionary. Embedded within the context of the Cold War, which left an indelible mark on a global scale, the 1960s were characterized by the Iron Curtain physically and spiritually dividing Europe, culminating in the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Gender, race, justice, education, and morality were all redefined by this era, evident in the civil rights movement and the second wave of feminism, as well as student uprisings. The era also saw a dramatic rise in mass consumerism, leading to new strategies in marketing and advertising. A core concept of Minimalism was the belief that art should exist in its own realm, unbound by the constraints of the real world. This avant-garde movement aimed to dismantle all preconceptions about art, gaining global recognition and influencing artists such as Frank Stella, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin as prominent figures. Minimalism’s impact was further amplified by the works of Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, while Pop art emerged as a critique and celebration of popular culture. The contemporary art scene was marked by a surge of radicalism in the 1960s, and each movement had its distinct characteristics and reach, varying across different regions and countries. Spatialism originated in Italy under the guidance of Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, and was later embraced by the Zero group in Germany. In Europe, artists like Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti were strongly influenced by the ideologies of Existentialism, as seen in their depictions of the human figure.

www.ftn-books.com has the van Abbemuseum catalog now available and ……i am sorry . i could not find any portrait of the artist available.

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Ernst Fuchs (1930-2015)

The artistic aptitude of Fuchs was recognized early in his life. At the tender age of 15, he was granted admission to the esteemed Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

It was during his time there that he first encountered his fellow students, namely Anton Lehmden, Arik Brauer, Wolfgang Hutter, and Rudolf Hausner. Together, they established the revolutionary Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, a movement that would redefine the art world.

Under the guidance of Professor Albert Paris Gutersloh, Fuchs and his colleagues delved into the techniques of the Old Masters, seeking to imbue their work with a sense of clarity and intricacy. They also utilized allegory and religious symbolism to add depth to their pieces.

Inspired by the works of Austrian symbolist artist Gustav Klimt – renowned for his bold and textured paintings such as “The Kiss” – Fuchs began to develop his own distinctive style, characterized by an emphasis on texture and color.

Renowned for his revival of the traditional mixed technique, Fuchs employed egg tempera to create volume and added a glaze of oil paints mixed with resin to achieve a dazzling effect. His masterpieces can be found in the Jewish Museum in Vienna, Austria, showcasing his unparalleled talent.

In 1950, Fuchs relocated to Paris, where he resided for 12 years. During this period, he embarked on travels to Italy, Spain, England, and the United States, where he crossed paths with renowned artists like Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico, and Jean Cocteau, forming meaningful friendships.

In 1961, Fuchs returned to Vienna and began writing about the art of painting, producing several books on the subject. By the mid-1970s, he had also become a highly sought-after opera stage director and designer, taking on projects such as Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and Wagner’s “Parsifal” and “Lohengrin.”

In 1972, Fuchs purchased and renovated the dilapidated Otto Wagner villa in Hutteldorf, transforming it into the renowned Ernst Fuchs Museum. Through his remarkable talents and unwavering dedication to the world of art, Fuchs left an indelible mark on the art world, etching his name into history.

WWW.FTN-BOOKS.COM has two Ernst Fuchs titles available.

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Jörg Immendorff (1945-2007)

Jörg Immendorff

During the 1960s Jörg Immendorff studies at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. After finishing his set design studies, he went on to focus on the visual arts and is taught by Joseph Beuys. Immendorff gets involved in extra-parliamentary politics during his studies and after organising a number of provocative actions he is expelled from the academy.

From the very beginning Immendorff has been painting figurative and socially critical paintings. His contemporary historical paintings exhibit a close relationship to the Neue Wilde. In the early 1970s several German artists, including A. R. Penck, Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz and Jörg Immendorff gain attention by their expressive style of painting. The Neue Wilde express their dissatisfaction about the social structures on large canvases.

Immendorff is also known for his sixteen-part series, Café Deutschland. In this series Immendorff critiques the Berlin Wall and the capitalist and communist ideologies that led to the separation of East and West Germany.

www.ftn-books.com has the following books on Immendorff available

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Pieter Stoop (1946)

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Two names triggered me to look a little closer at the works of Pieter Stoop. The fact that the book now available at www.ftn-books.com comes from the personal colelction of Henk Peeters and….. Rudi Fuchs, who was responsible for showing Stoop his works at the van Abbemuseum. Stoop was influenced by Soutine,de Kooning and van Velde and it shows, but what becomes clear after studying more works from him is that he deswtilled a style of his own from these influences.

the book below is now available at www.ftn-books.com

pieter stoop

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Martin Gerwers (1963)

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I know the works by Martin Gerwers for some 10 years now. The first time i encountered them was at an exhibition at galerie de Rijk and since i have been following with great interest this German artist. His abstraction leans towards the de Stijl movement , but is so much more fragile and delicate. Thin lines and much “space” make his paintings more like minimal art paintings than DE STIJL. One thing they have in common. It is use of bright colors  for the compositions. Gerwers his works are now financially out of reach for me , but i still admire his works and hopefully one day i encounter a nice small painting at auction. If the price is right i do not hesitate and buy it for my personal collection.

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Martin Gerwers, emerged with monumental geometric abstract paintings. He has recently extended his dicipline with 3-dimensional painted objects. Made out of triangular forms from wood they take the shape of dynamic pyramids, which define the surrounding space. His work is in the tradition of Mondrian and the American colourfield painting. Gerwers’ paintings and objects evoke space through big contrasts in light and dark, thin lines and broad planes of color and subtle differences in tone.

Martin Gerwers is born in 1963 in Velen (DE). He lives and works in Düsseldorf. After the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied with Jan Dibbets, he exhibited regularly at Konrad Fischer Galerie in Düsseldorf and Galerie Tschudi in Glarus in Switserland. Since 1999 he has been exhibiting at Slewe Gallery. His work has been collected by several private and public institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

gerwers

 

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Milco Onrust (1961-2015)

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It took me some years to realize that the dutch gallery owner Milco Onrust was one of the driving forces in the gallery and art world. NOt only in the Netherlands his gallery became famous, but abroad his gallery became famous because of the independent choices his owner made during its existence.

Starting at a young age, during his art studies he already collected Modern art, he soon would become one of the most important young gallery owners in the Netherlands, presenting artists like LeWitt, Partenheimer, Gunn , Knobel and Swarte.

 

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I did not visit his small gallery many times, but i remember it to be nearby Wim van Krimpen his gallery in Amsterdam.. What strikes me most now, after so many years follwing his gallery and buying his publications, is that the Onrust pubications are all from a small edition and in most cases look and feel like true artists books.  They are little gems among the other gallery publications. This i realized when i dove into my own art book collection and found some precious ones on Partenheimer which have some original drawings inside.

www.ftn-books.com has some of these ONRUST publications available

 

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Richard Paul Lohse….2 silkscreened posters

 

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It must have been around 1989 that i first appreciated the works by Richard Paul Lohse. The Haags Gemeentemuseum showed a magnificent painting by Lohse , which has since been on permanent display in the Museum. Responsible was Rudi Fuchs ,who had an admiration for Lohse too. When he was a director at the van Abbemuseum he showed the works by Lohse frequently. Among these times a retropective  in 1971 for which a silkscreened poster was printed ( available at www.ftn-books.com). Now i have added the “sister” poster which was made for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1971. Two equal collectable posters and a rare commbination to be offered at one place for sale.

 

 

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Gracia Lebbink (1963)

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This blog is long time overdue. I met Gracia for the first time when she was designing the artist book LA STANZA VEDE by Kounellis for the Haags Gemeentemuseum in 1990. She was introduced to the Haags Gemeentemuseum by Rudi Fuchs who was the director at that time and because trusted her skills after being introduced to Rudi by  Walter Nikkels some time before.

Since, she designed for the Gemeentemuseum many publications and posters and build a prestigious agency on the way, “designing” for many cultural institutions and museums. Always recognizable, simple , beautiful designs and with a typography that invites reading the texts.

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I mentioned Nikkels and Lebbink in the same sentence and that is not without a reason … I consider both to be the very best from the generations to follow Sandberg and Crouwel and because I have known Gracia professionally, she is placed on the no. 1 spot, followed at some distance by Walter Nikkels. It proves Rudi Fuchs had a nose to pick not only the best artists, but also the right choice in commissioning a designer with a project. Gracia had to stop her professional career in 2003, leaving us some very beautiful and appealing designs.

Because of my personal interest in her works I have collected many of Gracia’s designs for FTN-books. Many are available at www.ftn-books.com…..just search for Lebbink and you will encounter over 30 Gracia Lebbink designed publications available.

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the Stedelijk Museum Bulletins

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Art & Project was not the only art gallery who published a regular bulletin in the Netherlands. In 3 consecutive decades, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam published their Bulletin series on a regular basis. Their Bulletins were more informative and less a small piece of art. I thought they were less interesting, but now some 15 years later I have become to appreciate these Bulletin publications. Great design, very informative and always “up to date”. Over the decades some very important and highly collectable Bulletins have been published. The series consists over 400 bulletin publications among which are some true classics which are available at ww.ftn-books.com. My thought about the Bulletin series has changed over the years and I think these publications are from an art point of view important. They show the exhibitions which were held over the years and include some of the best art ever. For me the following Bulletins can not be missed in any serious art book collection: Ben, Memphis, Keith Haring on the Velum, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt on his drawings. This is to name just a few……..