maurer – FTN-blog

Last weeks i presented the GEDRUKT IN JAPAN catalogue from the Stedelijk Museum as one of the best from the sixties by Wim Crouwel.

hongaarse

Now there is another one which is far less known, extremely rare and a typical Wim Crouwel design. Year of publications is 1977. A publication year in which Wim Crouwel was part of the Total Design agency and worked ao. together with Daphne Duyvelshof. The catalogue was commissioned by an institution that wanted to present contemporary Hungarian art in The Netherlands. From the names presented only a few have become popular in Modern Art. Among them Dora Maurer who had her exhibitions all over Europe since, but most of them stayed rather obscure names in art.

maurer signed a

The catalogue however has become important because of the design. A very nice “construction ” of horizantal and vertical letter. The colors used are from the Hungarian national flag, making it immediately clear what the subject is about. The catalogue and Maurer print areavailable at www.ftn-books.com

It is not that long that i admire the works by Dora Maurer. It took me 20 years to appreciate minimal art and not much less to appreciate constructivist works, but the instant i encountered works by Maurer i became fascinated.

Dora Maurer (born 1937 in Budapest) is a Hungarian artist whose work has spanned a 50-year career. With an emphasis on photography, film, graphic design, amongst other things, Maurer has made herself a household name in the art world. Principally achieving recognition in the 1970s with avant-garde work, Maurer has developed her art career from works with contemporary and modern influences that have been shown worldwide. All of her art is based on mathematical and complex system processes. Most of Maurer’s work follows the theme of showing options to the viewer and what the viewer can do with those options. Many of her works break down simple actions so the viewer can really view the piece as movement, not a photograph of movement. Dora Maurer has in addition been a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Budapest and a curator.

In 1998 she was given a nice retrospective at the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop for which occasion she made a wonderful and original silkscreen print for her exhibition. The Josef Albers museum had, beside the small edition for publicity purposes, about 15 copies signed by Dora Maurer and http://www.ftn-books.com has 3 available of these rare signed silkscreen prints.

maurer signed a