Peter Gentenaar (1946) embarked on his artistic career as a graphic artist, but his encounter with the material on which he works, paper, led him down a different path. He now creates paper pulp in his self-designed paper machine and transforms it into large, cloud-like sculptures. As the initiator of the Holland Paper Biennial, he compiles a stunning book every two years.
www.ftn-books.com has now an early lithograph from 1975 available.
For those working in the printing business, these Proost Prikkels are possible known publications. for the others ….most people do not know them. Proost Prikkels are the publicity prestigious prints by Proost & Brandt paper. There are over 400 of these publications. They appeared irregularly ( between 1936 and the mid eighties), but were always of the highest quality and in most cases related to paper, design and typography. www.ftn-books.com has acquired over 100 numbers of these prestigious publications. Most of them were published between 1960 and 1980. Please mail me the numbers you are looking for and perhaps i have it available among the numbers i acquired. Here are some examples of these Proost Prikkels. the no. 251 is a jubilee publication ( no. 250 was skipped) and contains notecards of 79 dutch designers.
Chosen as artist of the year in 2017 , Marc Mulders has proven to be among the best in the dutch art scene . A multi talent to whom i devoted a blog over a year ago in which i showed the complete set of a TRAVEL TO ROME I
https://wordpressstrato-pacfwc5kp0.live-website.com/2016/07/28/marc-mulders-a-travel-to-rome-part-i/
But Marc Mulders is much more than the complete artists he is. Glas, paint, paper all these materials that he uses do not have any secrets anymore for the multi talented artist he is. He always surprises with his works of art. Some times his work is raw and bloody and at other times it is outright sweet and lovely.
He seeks contrasts within his work but there is one constant given in his works and that is his religion. Mulders is a Catholic and a faithful believer and the respect he has for nature and his religion shows in his works. There is one other artist that i admire and who has the same attitude towards his religion in relation to his art and that is Janpeter Muilwijk ….( see blog tomorrow).
And of course when you admire an artist you collect a nice collection of his publications. These are ao available at www.ftn-books.com
Sandberg as a curator admired Matisse as an artist and Sandberg as an artist must have been inspired by Matisse, when he made his famous paper cuttings because of his illness. Matisse himself called it “painting with scissors”. Could this have been the inspiration for Sandberg to use modelled torn papers for his book designs? Because these torn pieces of paper together with the lay-outs made the Sandberg publications highly personal and iconic. There is of course a difference, but the period in which these works of art existed is the same so it is not unlikely that his paper torn pieces were inspired by Matisse. The designs by Sandberg are now in, what are considered, classic publications and now used worldwide as examples of great design .
Printed on paper, they easily survived 50 years or longer, however it is totally different with the Matisse cut-outs. These have to be restored now to conserve them for future generations and i know of two projects which have taken place in the last 10 years. There is of course the large cut out composition LA PERRUCHE ET LA SIRENE 1952/53 from the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam collection which was totally restored and made future proof for the decades to come and there was a project in the Beyeler in which one could follow the progress of the restoration /conservation of a large canvas titled ACANTHES, 1953.
Both works are on show again in all their splendor and show exactly why Matisse is possibly the greatest artist from last century. Great art in great museums and for those that want to read on both artists…visit www.ftn-books.com for some nice publications.
