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Marc Mulders ..Archive #1 GLASS

 

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Last weeks book market visit brought me a beautiful publication by marc Mulders. No #1 in his archive series. The book is now for sale at a very reasonable price at www.ftn-books.com, but for those that are not interested in a hard copy….Marc Mulders has made this publication available on his site in PDF. People following know of my love for the works by Mulders, but with this very nice publication he proves once more that he is one of the most intriguing modern artist in the Netherlands. Here is the link to the PDF file

http://www.marcmulders.com/public/files/documenten/mm_archives_glas_binnen_lr4.pdf

mulders archief

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Bert Frijns (1953)

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If ever there is one “glass” artist who deservees to be called original in his approach to the medium of glass, it is Bert Frijns. The first time i saw some of his glass vases presented in the Haags Gemeentemuseum in the inner garden, they were soon filled with rain water, make them appear even more fragile. But the water did not harm them, no it enhanced the capture of light, making the glass vase like a solid sculpture. The form , also highly original and it stayed one of the trademark forms of Frijns. Frijns had multiple museum and gallery exhibitions in the Netherlands, but the first one which i saw by this artist stayed with me forever.

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Great works of art and with the exhibition one of the first Gracia Lebbink designed exhibition catalogues for the Gemeentemuseum which is finally available through www.ftn-books.com. The short biography comes from www.acquestarte.com

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Born in 1953 in Ubach Worms, The Netherlands. From 1973 until 1980 he studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and, after graduation, he attended specialist courses at the Department of sculpture and glass.
Since 1991, Bert Frijns lives with his family on a farm on an island of Zeeland, the southwestern province of the Netherlands. Surrounded by the North Sea and living in contact with nature, the artist is daily inspired by the landscape of the area.

Glass, water, light and movement are the main ingredients of the works of Bert Frijns. With minimalist simplicity and a strong sense of poetry, the artist has worked with these elements for almost three decades. The interaction of sculpture, light and space surrounding are common features in all his works.
Frijns also adopts an extremely complex and specific method of working the glass. Although his finished works seem simple, they are actually the result of a lengthy and difficult technic. His works are distinguished by their sheer beauty, stripped of frills or decorations. Since the glass sculptures are also filled with water, it creates an additional visual element.To date, Frijns has exhibited his works in many  museums and galleries around the world: in the Netherlands, Germany, United States, Indonesia, Japan, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, England, Israel and Australia.

Some of his creations are part of collections of some well-known museums: the Museum Jan van der Togt, the Jewish Historical Museum, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem, the Frans Hals Museum, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, the Landesmuseum in Kassel, the Ernsting Stiftung and the Jewish Historical Museum in New York.

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Andries Dirk Copier (1901-1991)

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If there is one glas artist you will probably know the name of, or at least who’s work you encountered once in your life time, it must be A.D. Copier. After studying as an apprentice at the workshops of his father at the Leerdam Glas factory and the vakschool voor Typografie in Utrecht, he became practically the sole designer for the factory for a period of almost 40 years. In these years he made many glas related designs, but one stands out…it is the Gilde glas series which is still being made and copied all over the world.

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The glas has excellent drinking and tasting qualities holds extremely well in you hand and is one of the icons in dutch design. Since he left the Leerdam factory in  1971 he made unica and glas objects after his own designs .

Andries Dirk Copier is considered as one of the great true talented artists in the world of glas, the difference between him and for example Lino Tagliapietra is that Copier always has the usability and the aesthetics of the object in mind, where as others loose themselves in experiments. www.ftn-books.com has some nice books on Copier in its inventory.

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Daniel Buren

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For this day’s blog i thought of something more colorful. This to compensate for the rather sombre previous ones and i immediately thought about Daniel Buren, who has done some tremendous beautiful projects with light and color. The latest i have seen of him was 1,5 years ago in Strasbourg where he altered the ceiling with colored panes of glas. I have put together some examples of his projects below, so you can see yourself the impact it has on the space.

One of his projects was during the seventies in the Stedelijk Museum, on which occasion a catalogue was published titles “HIER”.

Is this minimal art?…..possibly, but it is highly recognizable and what is more ….the effect on the space where the colored stripes are applied is extremely large.So i agree with what Wikipedia says about him that he is more a conceptual artist. Many of his art can be seen in public places in France , but the largest collection of Buren’s work is still in French museums like the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Some very nice items by Buren are available at www.ftn-books.com

and yes….the one on the left are expresso cups by illy