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Enzo Maiolino (1926-2016)

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Not much information to be found on this artist. Still he is an established artist influenced by Hard Edge painting but with a much softer , subdued choice of colors he makes compositions that are typical for the Italian Sixties. These paintings are great and timeless and that is the reason why the Josef Albers Museum recognized the qualities of this lesser known artist. His works were presented in combination with the “square” paintinsg by Albers. The result /…… a feast in abstract ( minimal) art.

The Maiolino poster is availabel at www.ftn-books.com

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Zonnehof Amersfoort posters

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From the same source as the Crouwel posters of yesterdays blog comes this series of posters for the ZONNEHOF AMERSFOORT museum. Later this would become the Armando museum, but in the Sixties and Seventies they had their own small program of exhibitions. Well worth visiting and it is interesting to see that also a smaller dutch museum thought it important that design and typography of their publications was important. The main part of these series was designed by van den Brink. All are now available at www.ftn-books.com

 

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Wim Crouwel (continued)

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Followers of the blog will know of my admiration for Wim Crouwel, but what most people do not know is that Crouwel designed in the late Sixties and early Seventies for two other Amsterdam museums. Beside the Stedelijk Museum he made poster and publication designs for the AMSTERDAMS HISTORISCH MUSEUM and MUSEUM WILLET-HOLTHUYSEN. As for the posters….. FTN-books acquired a smalll collection of these pposters which is now for sale at http://www.ftn-books. Here are some pictures of the 12 posters now available.

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Sam Kaner (1924 -1990)

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Normally galerie Sothmann has the perfect “gallery eye” for new and upcoming artists. They were one of the first to recognize the importance of Jessurun de Mesquita, who taught Maurits Cornelis Escher the “trciks of the trade”.

With Sam Kaner they hit a miss. After raving reviews for the Kaner exhibition at the Guggenheim Palazza DEI LEONI in Venice they presented the works by Kaner in their Amsterdam gallery and sold, according to my information, none of the works within the exhibition from 1963.

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What rests is this colorful exhibition poster they had made. Printed recto /verso with information on Kaner and his career and works. Kaner is well worth collecting nowadays and this scarce poster is no exception. ( poster available at www.ftn-books.com)

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another combination…This time Sandberg 1949

A few weeks ago i started to persent the combination of catalogue and poster published with an exhibition. The initial blogs were on publications designed by Wim Crouwel, but to day and tomorrw i will show you 2 combinations by another great…WILLEM SANDBERG

The first is for the Andre Bauchant ehibition in 1949.

 

This is almost 1 on 1. You of color and background are the same. The fonts however are different.

Both are available at http://www.ftn-books.com

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Georg Gerstner (1928-2019)

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Georg Gerster is considered as one of the true masters of Aerial photography and the best way to prove this is to have one look at the series he made for Swissair. This is sheer brilliance and all posters feature a photograph which you must study first to understand. In many subjects there is a form of abstraction , but the reality is it is just  a compostion from a photograph taken from high above the subject. He started this way of Photography in 1963 and visited over 100 countries to make his fantastic photographs. He is considered as one of the pioneers in this metier  and will be remembered for many “classic’ aerial photographs

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Between 1971 and 1996 the swiss master of aerial photography Gerster created 60 poster for swissair, together with graphic designer Emil Schulthess, Hans Frei or Karl Gerstner.

He was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, on April 30th, 1928 and studied classical languages at his local grammar school, before reading German and English at Zurich University, where he also received his doctorate. From 1950 to 1956 he was science editor of the Zurich Weltwoche. Since 1956 he has been a freelance journalist specializing in science reporting and aerial photography. He has undertaken extensive visits to every part of the world, including Antarctica.

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By pursuing this line of reasoning, Georg Gerster has turned aerial photography into something more probing, something that, with luck, may prove a contemplative, philosophical instrument encouraging greater reflection.

His way of viewing the world has caught on and found many imitators. Georg Gerster consoles himself with the thought that imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery.

For two decades Georg Gerster’s aerial photographs for Swissair’s posters and calendars had contributed substantially to the airline’s image.

Gerster worked on a regular basis for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Washington-based National Geographic Magazine. Today he works for the Swiss online news platform Journal21. Further his works are known among Photography- and Artlovers and are part of several Art Portfolios.
Georg Gerster died 90 years old, outside Zurich on February 8th, 2019. 

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Posters by Willem Sandberg and Wim Crouwel…part 4

This week it is the set Wim Crouwel designed for the 1964 Arman exhibition. It was the first Arman show at the Stedelijk Museum and there would be some more to follow, since Willem Sanderg was a fan of Arman and his sculptures.

Both designs are executed in a blazing red color with a transformed and crushed lettering like the sculptures by ARMAN. An absolute beautiful design by Wim Crouwel.

 

but study them closely….. they look the same , but they are not…. there is a differnce in the lettering of the ARMAN name. Botht are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posters by Willem Sandberg and Wim Crouwel…part 2

Another impressive poster by Willem Sandberg for a series of 1962 exhibitions. Among these the first presentation of works by Philip Guston.

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of these the published catalogues look quite different. All publication are available at www.ftn-books.com.

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Jan van Toorn (1932-2020)

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Jan van Toorn dies last Friday at the age of 88 years.

Tragic newss this morning , but one of the greatest of all dutch designers from last century dies at the age of 88 years.

I have followed his career with all kinds of examples of his design through all decades of last half century. Many of these are also available at www.ftn-books.com

. Many of them stand out and some are also known outside our borders, since many of his designs were done for exhibitions outside the Netherlands. His style….highly recognizable and less formal than Crouwel is known for. van Toorn sits in between Sandberg and Crouwel and developed over the years a style of his own. He was one of the main designers for the van Abbemuseum and a director for the Jan van Eyck academy and beside the van Abbemuseum made design for PTT Nederland and the Cultural Foreign office. His archives are now with the Unviversity of Amsterdam.

During his life Van Toorn received two prestigious art prices for his designs. First the H.N. Werkmanprijs in 1972 and second in 1985 the BNO Piet Zwart award.

 

 

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Almir Mavignier (1925-2018)

The HOCHSCHUKLE FÜR GESTALTUNG has become over the years a legendary institution and one of its many well-known students was the Brazilian born Almir Mavignier. He attended the school in 1953 and has become part of art history since.

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Friend of Max Bill, witnessing the very early beginnings of the ZERO movement and later becoming one of the most appreciated Poster designers from the 3 decades to follow. He himself was working as a constructivist/minimal artist and that meant he was interested in all artists who were working along the guidelines of the movements. Because of this interest and the resulting friendships, he had a chance to design the posters for many of the artists he met. To name a few….Calderara, Arp, Morellet and Soto….and all of these artists I personally admire very much. This makes the book I now can offer on http://www.ftn-books.com very special for me personally too. A great publication of the Gewerbe Museum Hamburg in cooperation with the German Poster Museum. Great poster designs by Mavignier. btw. …. the site on Mavignier is well worth visiting and can be found here: https://www.mavignier.com

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