I like this title. It was published at the end of the EIghties which finally recognized the historical importance of Pop Art in art. before , in th early Sixties pop art exhibitions were held all over the world including many impotant ones exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Among them a highly important Lichtenstein exhibition, but the difference with the 1987 exhibition at the MOMA museum is that in 1967 in Amsterdam it was NEW and MODERN and in 1987 in New York is was “established” art. A difference of 20 years and now another 33 years later . The quality of the works by Roy Lichtenstein is once again underlined with this exquiste catalogue on his drawings. It shows the metaculous preparation in drawing for all larger works he would create after.
Tag: painting
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (2)
With a love story as colourful as their shared aesthetic, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo’s relationship began as a teacher-student romance. Drawn together by a common interest in communist politics, a love of painting and an utmost respect for one another’s work, the pair married in 1929. Ten years later, they divorced after it was revealed that Rivera had an affair with Kahlo’s sister, Cristina. True love never fails, though, and the dynamic duo rekindled their marriage one year later. Despite being lauded as Mexico’s greatest living artist, Rivera always viewed his wife as more talented than himself. Their relationship lasted until Kahlo’s death in 1954, an event which her partner described as the most tragic moment of his life. several titles of both artists are available at www.ftn-books.com
Katharina Duwe and Johannes Duwe (1)
Because of the publication KUNST IM LANDTAG: PAARE on Katharina and Johannes Duwe I was inspired to devote a series of blogs to famous artist couples. Here is the first one. Not so famous this couple, but at the time of the publication ( available at http://www.ftn-books.com) presented as an artist couple at the DER LANDTAG venue. Of these two i have a personal preference….of these two i like Katharina over Johannes, but both have their own qualities.
Johannes Duwe was born in 1956 and was primarily inspired by the 1970s. Conceptualism is often perceived as a response to Minimalism, and the dominant art movement of the 1970s, challenging the boundaries of art with its revolutionary features. The movements that ensued were all representative of a strong desire to progress and consolidate the art world, in response to the tensions of the previous 1960s. Process art branched out from Conceptualism, featuring some of its most essential aspects, but going further in creating mysterious and experimental artistic journeys, while Land Art brought creation to the outsides, initiating early philosophies of environmentalism. In Germany, Expressive figure painting was given a second chance for the first time since the decline of Abstract Expressionism almost two decades, the genre regained its distinction through the brushstrokes of Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer and Georg Baselitz. The cosmopolitan and refined position that New York city held in the 1960s remained just as influential in the 1970s. With multiple international renowned artists gravitating the galleries and downtown scene, the city once again strengthened its reputation as the artistic hub of the era. Across the globe, numerous movements defined the 1970s. Amongst others, feminism and the new radical philosophies it occasioned strongly influenced the visual culture. Photorealism, which had emerged in the 1960s, also received critical and commercial success. The critical, prominent artistic pillars of New York city started to embrace painters and sculptors from Latin America.
Jan Wawrzyniak (1971)
To be homnest, …..i did not know of Jan Wawrzyniak, but because of a recent auction i searched for his name, because i was very much attracted to a black/white/grey painting by this artist. It appeared that he always uses these three colors and combines these into abstract constructivist paintings. Sometinmes vague, sometimes hard edged, but always a sense of organic too. Great art and happy to have bought this.
Jan Wawrzyniak lives in Berlin
Solo Exhibitions
Forms of Aporia. Kajetan Berlin
2018
Drawn by the other. Galerie m Bochum
2017
last day … of may. M6 Annette Tietenberg Braunschweig
2016
Niche. Galerie m Bochum
2015
Unfinished. Curated by Erich Franz. Kunstverein Lippstadt
2014
Broken and Lost | Drawing. Curated by Alexander Klar. Museum Wiesbaden
Continued Drawing. Galerie m Bochum
2012
Zeichnerische Aporien. Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
2010
New pictorial spaces. Galerie m Bochum
2009
Jan Wawrzyniak. Lippische Gesellschaft für Kunst Detmold
Gezeichnete Bilder. Kunstmuseum Ahlen
2008
Gezeichnete Bilder. Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
Zeichnerische Aporien. Curated by Carmen Schliebe. Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus
2007
Gezeichnete Bilder. Curated by Kai Uwe Schierz. Kunsthalle Erfurt
2006
Fragil. Galerie m Bochum
2002
Stille Räume. Morat-Institut für Kunst und Kulturwissenschaft Freiburg
Stille Räume. Brühler Kunstverein
2000
Ebenen + Pfade. Kunstraum MI Posselt Bonn
Group Exhibitions
2019
Galerie m 3. Mai 1969 – 3. Mai 2019. Galerie m Bochum
2018
Form follows Fiction. Kajetan Berlin
No More Books! Intersexualitat Textual. Curated by Vicente da Palma. Art i Pensament Contemporani L’Hospitalet Barcelona
Ansichtssache. Curated by Eveline Weber. Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle Freiburg
Kunst und Kohle: Schwarz. Curated by Friederike Wappler. Kunstsammlungen der Ruhr-Univeristät – Museum unter Tage Bochum
2017
The Flying Field. Autowerkstatt Wilhelmsaue Berlin
2015
Weltsichten. 400 Jahre Landschaft in der Kunst. Kunsthalle Rostock
Land in Sicht. Weserburg | Museum für moderne Kunst Bremen
2014
Blank_Space. Galerie m Bochum
Entgrenzung. Positionen zur Zeichnung. Curated by Kornelia Röder. Künstlerhaus Schloss Plüschow
Weltsichten. Het landschap verbeeld in zees eeuwen kunst. Bonnenfantenmuseum Maastricht
2013
We fragment, collect and narrate. Curated by Sayoko Nakahara. Cultuurcentrum Mechelen
Noch nie gesehen. Neue Schenkungen und Ankäufe für die grafische Sammlung. Kunstmuseum Bonn
2012
Weltsichten. Landschaft in der Kunst seit dem 17. Jahrhundert. Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus
Weltsichten. Landschaft in der Kunst seit dem 17. Jahrhundert. Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
Aufbruch. Malerei und realer Raum. Kunsthalle Rostock
Aufbruch. Malerei und realer Raum. Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg
Aufbruch. Malerei und realer Raum. Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
Aufbruch. Malerei und realer Raum. Akademie der Künste Berlin
Junge Akademie. Akademie der Künste Berlin
2011
Aufbruch. Malerei und realer Raum. Stiftung Situation Kunst Bochum
Saxonia Paper. Kunsthalle Leipzig
Shelter: Art Against Trafficking Women and Sexual Exploitation. Peter Freeman Inc. New York
Shelter: Art Against Trafficking Women and Sexual Exploitation. Galerie Urs Meile Luzern
Shelter: Art Against Trafficking Women and Sexual Exploitation. Künstlerhaus Schloss Plüschow
Weltsichten. Landschaft in der Kunst seit dem 17. Jahrhundert. Museum Wiesbaden
Weltsichten. Landschaft in der Kunst seit dem 17. Jahrhundert. Kunsthalle Kiel
2010
Weltsichten. Landschaft in der Kunst seit dem 17. Jahrhundert. Stiftung Situation Kunst Bochum
2009
Blattgold. Zeitgenössische Grafik. Ausstellung des Kunstfonds im Sächsischen Staatsministerium der Finanzen. Dresden
2008
Nur der Schein trügt nicht. Das Sehen als interaktiver Prozess. Stiftung Situation Kunst Bochum
2004
Bochum sammelt II: Landschaftsbilder. Museum Bochum
1996
Von Schlachten – vom Schlachten. Kunstsammlung der Städtischen Museen Jena
1993
Goethe-Institut Tel Aviv
1992
Frontiera. Forum junger Kunst in Europa. Curated by Matthias Flügge. Bolzano
Public Collections
Kunstmuseum Ahlen
Lindenau-Museum Altenburg
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (nbk)
Stiftung Situation Kunst Bochum
Kunstmuseum Bonn
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
Kolumba Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln
Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen
Muzeum Sztuki Lodz
Kunstsammlung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt Magdeburg
Westfälisches Landesmuseum Münster
Kunstsammlungen Neubrandenburg
Museum Wiesbaden
Ahmad Baldin (1954)
An example of an artist who makes decorative art. This is not the art I like, but I can imagine that some people are attracted to this kind of art. It is the same like Ton Schulten makes his art ( Ton Schulten Museum is in Ootmarsum).
Colourful and highly pleasing “abstractions of reality’ make these works accessible for many. And this accessibility is the problem for me. There is nothing to be discovered. Just some pleasing colours put together in a way the great expressionist did, does not make these paintings great art, but for those who admire Baudin, know that http://www.ftn-books.com has the Baldin book on his 25 years jubilee as an artist available.
Ad de Keijzer (1923-1997)
Ad De Keijzer was a creative visual artist. Ad De Keijzer was born in 1923. Also born in 1923 and of this same generation are John Balmain, Guy Fouquet, Paul Jenkins, José Maria Ascunce, and Nicole Fonlladosa.
Born in 1923, Ad De Keijzer grew up during the 1950s and was inspired by the artistic atmosphere of the time. Abstract Expressionism prevailed in the 1950s as a chief method of painting, and explored ideas concerning the sublime and spirituality. Artists endeavoured to focus on painting’s formal properties, and Action Painting took inspiration from the political freedoms of the United States, in opposition to the limitations of the Soviet bloc. Significant artists of this period included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Frank Kline, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still and Adolph Gottlieb. In later revisions, the contributions and efforts of female artists such as Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and Louise Bourgeois have been celebrated, amongst many other female creatives.
http://www.ftn-books.com has one Ad de Keijzer available.
Władysław Strzemiński (1893-1952)
I had almost forgotten this great artist until recently I discovered a great monograph on him at the local bookmarket (sold). Just quickly leafing through it i noticed the resemblance with some of the greatest Piet Zwart designs and even, after searching on the internet I discovered his influence in some recent Japanese designs. His art is truly avant-garde. When you look at Minimal Art from the Sixties and Seventies and the hard edge paintings from the Sixties you can only draw one conclusion. All the great artists from these decades must have known, Władysław Strzemiński and drawn inspiration from his art.
An excellent biography on the artist can be found here:
https://culture.pl/en/artist/wladyslaw-strzeminski
Władysław Strzemiński (Belarusian: Уладыслаў Страмінскі; 21 November 1893, Minsk – 26 December 1952, Łódź) was a Polish avant-garde painter of international renown.
In 1920 he married Katarzyna Kobro.
In 1922 he moved to Wilno (now Vilnius), and in the following year supported Vytautas Kairiūkštis in creating the first avant-garde art exhibition in what is now the territory of Lithuania (then under Polish rule).
In November 1923 he moved to Warsaw, where with Henryk Berlewi he founded the constructivist group Blok.
During the 1920s he formulated his theory of Unism (Unizm in Polish). His Unistic paintings inspired the unistic musical compositions of the Polish composer Zygmunt Krauze. He is an author of a revolutionary book titled “The theory of vision.” He was co creator of unique avant-garde art collection in Łódź gathered thanks to the enthusiasm of members of the “a.r.” group as Katarzyna Kobro, Henryk Stażewski (the artists) and Julian Przyboś and Jan Brzękowski (the poets).
In postwar Łódź he was an instructor at the Higher School of Plastic Arts and Design .Neoplastic Room in Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź. where one of his students was Halina Ołomucki, survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. His Neoplastic Room was installed in the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź in 1948 but was removed in 1950 as it failed to fit in with the socialist realism aesthetic imposed by Włodzimierz Sokorski, the minister of culture of the Polish United Workers’ Party.
His works have been exhibited in such museums around the world as Centre Pompidou, Museo Reina Sofia Moderna Museet Malmö and Whitechapel Gallery
The following Strzeminski publications are available at http://www.ftn-books.com
KRH Sonderborg (1923-2008)
A Danish born artist where KRH stands for Kurt Rudolf Hoffmann and the Sonderborg stands for his birth town and he started to call himself KRH Sonderborg since 1951.
Sonderborg went to school in Hamburg, Germany and completed a merchant’s apprenticeship in 1939. He became a private student of the painter Ewald Becker-Carus in Hamburg in 1946. From 1947 to 1949 he studied painting, graphic art and textile design at the State Art School in Hamburg under Willem Grimm and Maria May.
Starting in 1953, he became a member of the group “Zen 49” and he went to Paris the same year where he learned engraving from Stanley William Hayter in the Atelier 17. Paris is also the place where he first encountered Tachism. In the years following the artist continued his travel and worked for some time in London, Cornwall, New York, Ascona, Rome and Paris again. While in New York, Sonderborg came into contact with Action Painting and Abstract Expressionism.
His own style is became more abstract, painting using swift, gestural strokes that reveal the painting process, with spontaneous colour application. Black and white contrasts are an important feature, later he added colours such as cadmium red.
K.R.H. Sonderborg exhibited in the 1958 Biennale in Venice. He was awarded the Prize for Graphic Art at the Biennale in Tokyo in 1960 as well as the Great International Prize for Drawing at the 1963 Biennale in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
From 1965 to 1990 Sonderborg held a post as professor of painting at the Stuttgart Art Academy. In 1969/70 he was a guest lecturer at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1986.
the following Sonderborg publications are available at www.ftn-books.com
Erik Ortvad (1917-2008)
One of the founding cities of the COBRA movement is Copenhagen and one of the true Danish COBRA members was Erik Ortvad.
Ortvad was born on the 6th of June, 1917 in Copenhagen. He was a painter and a graphic artist, who was known to be an autodidact. He has been painting since 1935 from a very young age. In this period his paintings were influenced by the surrealistic and abstract style of Ejler Bille (1910-2004), Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen (1909-1957) and the artists group called Linien (The Line) (1934-1949). During 1941 and 1942 Ortvad was, just like many other Danish artists and contemporaries, in search of more spontaneity in the course of his creative process. He began to paint with a more spontaneous-abstract style, at which he would use small brushstrokes to purvey his canvases on numerous occasions with the colours grey, pink, yellow and blue.
Ortvad joined the Danish pre-war experimental artists association Høst (1942-1949) in 1945 as the youngest member. Through Høst he came in contact with members of CoBrA (1948-1951), an international post-war avant-garde movement that believed that art must originate from artistic freedom, fantasy and spontaneity. Ortvad’s artworks were shown in 1948 at the Van Lier gallery in Amsterdam. His artworks were also shown in 1949 and 1951 at the renowned CoBrA exhibitions in Amsterdam and Liège. Ortvad decided a year after the abolishing of CoBrA to put his paintworks aside and focus on his desire to draw cartoons. He did this under the pseudonym ‘Enrico’. After the year 1960 he directed his focus on his spontaneous painting style once again. In contrast with his earlier works, his later works are defined by a powerful characterization existing of fiercely, saturated colours, strong lines and visible brush strokes.
It took al very long time for me personally until I discovered Ortvad, but now that I have encountered his works I believe I like him better than most of his dutch fellow COBRA members. The below publication is available at http://www.ftn-books.com
Henk van Vessem (1939)
For me van Vessem is a typical dutch abstract painter. Bright colors and a kind of abstraction that is common among dutch painters and perhaps the way these paintings feel familiar makes me less of a fan. It is a kind of art which is much appreciated by those who seek a decoration on the wall and decide for a brightly colored abstract painting. Perhaps this is a too negative approach to his painting, but since this is a personal blog i am allowed to express my opinion on an artist and his works. I read somewhere that there are works by van Vessem to be found in the collection of the Royal House of Orange, but this does not automatically mean that one have to admire his art.
Still http://www.ftn-books.com has a nice publication available which included an original lithograph and i can understand why others like the colorful paintings by van Vessem.