Two names triggered me to look a little closer at the works of Pieter Stoop. The fact that the book now available at http://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.
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.
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.
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.
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 http://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.
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.
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……..
We love to travel and taste wine in the Alsace region in France. Only a 6 hour drive to bring you in a totally different surroundings and on the way up to our favorite place ( Auberge Frankenbourg) you will pass 2 famous French cities. There is Metz with the new dependance of the Pompidou museum and the Musee des Beaux Arts on the Place Stanislas in Nancy. The Stanislas square is arguably one of the most impressive and beautiful squares in Europe. A Unesco heritage site and at the edge of the square you can find the Musee des Beaux Arts with its impressive Daum glass collection.
Both museum are well worth visiting and for those wanting to go to the auberge Frankenbourg, make a reservation well in advance to secure you a room or table. As for the wine, discover the wines from this region , most are of excellent quality with some outstanding ones . Most producers will welcome you and let you taste their excellent products. Last sentence is about a book from 1981 i recently added to my inventory which shows part of the Daum collection at the museum.
Personally this is one of my all time favorite publications by the van Abbemuseum. Designed by Arlette Brouwers, this publication has everything.
Great cover. In all its simplicity it makes in one glance clear that these are the important acquisitions of the van Abbemuseum. In the background one of the main exhibition rooms of the museum and inside, a very transparent lay out, in which the acquisitions are described. This is a true connaisseurs publication and deserves to be collected.
for this and other Arlette Brouwers designed publications please visit my store at http://www.ftn-books.com
Until the 10th of May there will be a Penck exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag.
8 days ago i visited the combined opening of 3 exhibitions. I came for the Verdijk exhibition to see part of the gift which the Kunstmuseum received and exhibited in a very small room. But because i was early i had the pleasure to look atat the great art by Penck. I met Penck in 1988 when he drummed on the opening of his own exhibition at the Haags Gemeentemuseum ( curated by Rudi Fuchs), so this was my second retrospective, with one great difference.
This show includes the oversized paintings. For the first 15 minutes after the rooms were opened i was almost on my own , because the guest stayed with the Lucassen exhibition which was openend too.
This is a great exhibition which shows that Penck is and will be very important to modern art and i really appreciated that the museum had made an extra effort to show the extreme sized paintings. This is a show you must see…modern art at its best and if i must compare the inmpact that the show had on me i must go back in time to the Basquiat exhibition at the Beyeler. The size and impact of these paintings is overwhelming. A must see.
It has been 2 months ago that i acquired a collection of invitations from the Nineties and among them there were several Hamish Fulton ones. I remember Hamish as being one of the friendliest artists i have met at the Gemeentemuseum. He was willing to sign 20 copies of the book which we published by us.
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Since i have followed his career and exhibitions and now i have added 4 special invitations to the collection of http://www.ftn-books.com which are now for sale. The ones i like most are the Graeme Murray gallery and Marian Goodman gallery ( signed and dedicated for Rudi) ones and there is of course the time/indoor/outdoor with japanese text. This is the one i can not find any information on so if you know who organized this one let me know. Your help would be appreciated.
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
