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Douwe Jan Bakker (1943-1997)

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( no portrait found)

The first time i heard of Douwe Jan Bakker  was the time Hans Locher mentioned Bakker to have an exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum. I did not know the artist at that time but soon would learn that he was and is one of the leading conceptual artists. The iedea behind the work is more important than the execution of it. Because another exhibition was cancelled. The Gemeentemuseum organized, before their renovation closure, the Retrospektive exhibition which was long time due. Douwe Jan Bakker did not have many of these exhibitions but this one was  a necessary one and fortunately just in time because soon after, Douwe Jan Bakker died ( 1997). There are not many publications on Douwe Jan Bakker published, but www.ftn-books.com has two important ones for sale. The first is from the Gemeentemuseum (1996) and the second one from the Centraal Museum (1977). Artistically and from a art historian point of view important publications.

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Klaus Staudt and Konkrete Kunst

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The people who follow this blog, must know by now of my love for Konkrete Kunst and one of the people who is in the centre of this mouvement is Klaus Staudt. Born in 1931 he originally studied medicines , but after an initial study into the arts in 1957 , he started following classes at the Academy of Arts. Soon he began to experiment with forms and grids, a little like the Minimal artists in the US were doing at that time and from that moment on he began to develop his own style , using multi layers and perspex/plastics ao. as his materials to make his creations. Because of this multi layer aspect his works have a 3D quality which makes them very special and typical Staudt.

Staudt being one of the first Konkrete artists is becoming more and more important and has had some very nice retropektives in the last 2 decades. Some of his publications and multiples are availabe at www.ftn-books.com