Tag: gemeentemuseum

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Marthe Wery ( 1930-2005)

Schermafbeelding 2016-09-04 om 10.12.21

A long time ago….in 1986….i met one of the friendliest artist I have ever encountered. Marthe Wery. She held her first exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum . Later , in 2011, there was a retrospective in the same museum, but with the 1986 one i first encountered a “minimal” artist, who i personally met and who’s work i really liked. It was not the easiest kind of work, but it was the first time i  was impressed by an installation of an artist who took an entire room in the museum and transformed it into a work of art. One was filled with standing blue panels and another one with red ones. We spoke each other about these works and she signed the catalogue i had bought . A deep green cover on one of the nicest catalogues i had sold during my time as a bookseller for the Gemeentemuseum. Fold out pages like the panels within the exhibition, excellent print quality.

Together with Walter Leblanc, Marthe Wery is one of my favorite Belgian artists. Belgium has produced so many great names in the last 5 decades. Cordier, Magritte, Delvaux, Bury, Verheyen, Peirre and personally i think you must add the name of Marthe Wery to that list. A highly original artist and a friendly lady who made very impressive art works.

 

catalogue available at www.ftn-books.com

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Günther Förg and the gallery van Krimpen edition.

The year 1988…the exhibition…the first major Günther Förg exhibition organized by the Haags Gemeentemuseum and curated by Rudi Fuchs. On show large lead paintings with constructivist patterns on them and emphasized by Günther Förg his photography of blown up architecture and portraits. Impressive exhibition and one of the first Fuchs curated for the Gemeentemuseum. In Amsterdam a little earlier in time, Wim van Krimpen,  who became director himself of the Gemeentemuseum, organized a Günther Förg show and published with this show a beautiful set of lithographs in a very small edition of 25 ( 1987). Large sized sheets of quality paper printed with 4 typical Günther Förg works. I bought the set and had it on the wall for over 10 years, removed it from the wall and forgot about it until….Wim van Krimpen became the director of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and i told him we had met before on the occasion of me buying this set in his gallery. He said i was lucky to have the complete set. I asked him why. He told me he stocked what was left after the show in his basement to “save them for a rainy day”, but unfortunately he had a leakage in his basement and all were damaged and destroyed. I asked him how many series there were left within the edition and he told me that more than half was destroyed. This would mean that only 10 copies of each print have survived.

A great loss, but still there are some to be found if you keep searching for them 😉

Günther Förg publications are of course available at www.ftn-books.com

wilfried

and….

PS. I searched years and years for a second set and finally found one ….it is now for sale.

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Bridget Riley…the Curve paintings

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An exhibition with these intriguing paintings by Bridget Riley is now held at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Large size canvasses with hypnotizing waves of color patterns. Riley is one of those artists you learn to appreciate when you see more of her works over a longer period of time. Started in the early sixties . Influenced by Vasarely she soon became one of the most important members of the op-art mouvement and had her first major overseas exhibition in the MOMA in New York in 1965. She was one of the artist of the RESPONSIVE EYE exhibition. Since, she developed her very recognizable style and moved more and more away from the typical op-art paintings and developed the Bridget Riley style as we know it now. The Gemeentemuseum Den Haag has a history with Riley. A few year ago they held a very nice exhibition for which they published a leperello which is still available at www.ftn-books.com

wilfried

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the ultimate Auke de Vries book

A week ago i found in a small bookstore a remainder of this excellent book on the works by Auke de Vries. A book i must share with you, because it not only is the largest, but also by far the best publication on Auke de Vries. In over 400 pages you will see the best of over 5 decades of this artist.

For all Auke de Vries fans, this is not to be missed and i have only 2 copies available at:

www.ftn-books.com

wilfried

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Günter Tuzina …not a minimal artist, but minimalistic art.

 

tuzina word a

The second time i met Günter Tuzina was with his exhibition in 1992 in The Haags Gemeentemuseum and noticed that he still followed his own artistic path. Making variations on his windows with crossed lines in color schemes which were very recognizable and typical for the works by Tuzina. At the time Tuzina executed a walldrawing for one of the staircases in the Gemeentmuseum which is beside the LeWitt, Toroni and Forg staircase drawings still on show. I think Tuzina is one of those artists you can see work of and immediately know it is by Tuzina. A few years ago i was impressed by a work which was for sale at Christie’s but unfortunately it was out of my budget and sold for twice+ the estimation, but one can get lucky too, because a little before that i noticed these 2 beautiful drawings on the local book market, which were made in a series of 55 for the Bebert publishing house. Both are signed and numbered and all the drawing on each of them is done by hand and all have a different background color. These are from the same edition of 55 copies but the background colors vary and therefore these are unique and…..these beauties are now for sale at

www.ftn-books.com

It is hard to find good publications on this artist but ftn-books also has some nice titles available.

wilfried

 

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Gerard Verdijk (1934-2005)

verdijk dordrecht

First of all a personal note on Gerard Verdijk. I have known Gerard and met him on several occasions because he frequently visited the Haags Gemeentemuseum and its museum shop. One day after one of his visits , in which i expressed my interest in his works, he invited me to come over at his house and look at several ones he had for sale at that moment. Problem was…. i did not have the money to buy a work, but what remained after that visit was the appreciation for his works in which he explored contrasts in shape and color. Many, many years later all fell in place with the acquisition of a very large work by Verdijk, which was part of the Stuyvesant collection and sold at AAG auction. The work titled ….Horizontaal/Verticaal was from 1992 and exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in the Verdijk exhibition so this together with the Stuyvesant collection it had an excellent provenance and had all the elements in it for which i admired Gerard’s his works. The contrast between the left and right side, the use of color. It looked so simple and yet its complexity is enormous.

That for a personal note. Now it is time Gerard Verdijk is remembered as one of the greatest painters from last century and the Dordrechts Museum recognized that and will open a retrospective on Verdijk on Saturday next, the 30th of July. A well deserved retrospective in which the different periods of his works will clearly show the evolution of Verdijk into the abstract painter he eventually became.

Because i have this personal interest in Verdijk, it is no wonder that the selection of books on Verdijk is quit large. Interested in Verdijk too? look at www-ftn-books.com or mail me for information on the little drawing i have for sale.

 

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Jurgen Partenheimer

Since the beautiful WELTACHSE V blue sculpture in the inner garden of the Gemeentemuseum i have been a loyal fan of Jurgen Partenheimer and build a nice collection of books on this fascinating artist. I am not the only one, because a few years ago a managed to acquire a selection of books from another admirer and upon studying them i found some original art work on their title page. One of these books i want to share with you. It is not for sale but shows the quality of Partenheimer’s work. Of course i must make the picture complete and show you the books that are for sale and will do so tomorrow, but for now there is only this very nice small publication. Originally published in an edition of 500, but only 10 were numbered and had a beautiful little drawing on their title pages.

 

wilfried

www.ftn-books.com

part word d

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Gunter Tuzina

Why Tuzina in this blog. Tuzina is one of those artists who remained true to a certain principle in art and researched it over 40 years now. Het started with a line in one corner and developed his art from there on. Tilted rectangles, which are crossed from corner to corner in different kinds of colors is the main figure used by Tuzina and is very recognizable and one can find an excellent walldrawing with this “window” in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

The Gemeentemuseun  was one of the first who presented his works and in the eighties Pablo van Dijk commissioned Tuzina to make 55 separate drawings in different colors for his Bebert publishing house. The one depicted here is one of these 55. Signed and dated by Tuzina and in excellent mint condition. This one is available at www.ftn-books.com and soon there will be a second “green” one listed from the same series. Impressive art from an artist who can be considered as a post minimal artist.

I found an excellent biography on Art index:

Günter Tuzina studied at the Hamburg Art Academy between 1971 and 1977. He has been exploring the fundamental principles underlying painting since 1975. Günter Tuzina combines lines, squares, rectangles and Colour Fields within a frame in a fascinating and inexhaustibly rich quest for equilibrium and tension. In its stringent simplicity Tuzina’s work is based on Minimal art and the principles laid down by Theo van Doesburg and De Stijl.
Tuzina was awarded a Villa Romana Prize in Florence in 1981. A retrospective was mounted in 1985 at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, for which Tuzina executed a mural two years later that was, unfortunately, lost when the museum was restored.
From 1982 until 1999 Tuzina lived and worked in Cologne but now lives in Berlin. He has had numerous exhibitions: at the David Nolan Gallery in New York (1991), the Cologne Kunstverein (1992), the “Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus” in Munich (1993) and again at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague in 2002.

 

wilfried

www.ftn-books.com

https://ftn-books.com/products/gunter-tuzina-drawing-with-lines-on-yellow-1987-signed

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Paul Thek (1933-1988) …an artists artist

Recognized at his time by many friend and fellow artists as one of the most important young artists, Paul Thek remained practically unknown for the rest of the art world. The last few years there is a renewed interest  ( large retrospective in 2011) in this great and interesting artist. Large museums in the Netherlands acquired important works by Thek and more important, the important collectors in the world take an interest in Thek and are buying whatever comes to the market.

thek gm

In 1969 Thek was introduced to the dutch museum audience with an exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam for which Wim Crouwel designed a nowadays sought after small publication, which more can be considered as an art book than a catalogue. Beside this collectable publication a much larger publication was published in collaboration with Edwin Klein. This book is now considered as the most important Thek publication. Title is “A DOCUMENT BY PAUL THEK and EDWIN KLEIN”. This is an extremely rare publication published by the Stedelijk Museum and the Moderna Museet /Stockholm. Only a few art book dealers offered this publication in the last 5 years. This title is now for sale at www.ftn-books.com

Folio sized and an extremely rare Stedelijk Museum catalogue is sought by many. This is an artist book by Thek who is nowadays described as an artistst artist, but who becomes more known and appreciated by art lovers from all over the world as one of the leading Modern art artists from the 20th century. This book is not only extremely rare, but also of excellent quality. The bookblock is MINT-, the cover is of Near Mint- quality with 3 small tears on the right edge ( see picture).

So if you are interest in both Thek publications visit www.ftn-books.com and search for Thek and you will find both excellent titles available ( only 1 of each available).

wilfried

for more info see also wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Thek

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