Tag: rotterdam

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Anuli Croon (1964)

Here is what Anuli Croon says about her work on her website.

www.ftn-books.com has currently 2 Croon titles available.

My paintings and works on paper show constructions that represent figures, interiors, and parts of cities as autonomous identities.

The figures as well as the urban fragments are composed of an assemblage of visual elements of different origins.

In a painting I always take my departure from varying viewpoints/perspectives. This way the paintings are becoming constructions that are open to several interpretations. The body shapes, noses and hands are stylized, the ambient features are made up of evenly looking planes and patterns.                                                                    

In my work I aim to combine different viewpoints in order to achieve a convincing picture. Basically everything is equally important and weighs equally heavily. I make no distinction in terms of time or style: classical, modern, folk art, fashion, textiles, architecture, art, comic strips – anything that comes to mind crystallizes out and I force it together in paintings to give it an individual identity.                                   

My influences are diverse:

Modern art, applied art, folk art; tapestries and textiles; comics and graphic novels; posters, stamps, book covers from various times and cultures.

– Artists: Giotto, Malevich, Roy Lichtenstein, Holbein, Seurat, Zurburán, Rogier van der Weijden, Philip Guston, Jean Brusselmans, Hendrik Werkman, Saul Steinberg, Eduardo Paolozzi,  Charley Harper, Patrick Caulfield, Matisse, Ikko Tanaka, Escher, Dick Bruna, Yrrah, Charles & Ray Eames, Alexander Girard.

These influences have fostered my imagery and strengthened me in my ambition to find what I was looking for.  My paintings relate to a crystallized reality, but not in the form of a story. It is rather a matter of interrupted narratives and connotations that resound in the space.  The viewers can wander among the various painted layers, or via the tangent planes where the layers converge.                                                                                   

In the paintings there is no centre; everything seems equally important. They are intangible puzzles that do not allow repetition or unambiguous explanations.  This way the paintings are becoming lucid and autonomous constructions that are open to several interpretations.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Olphaert den Otter (1955)

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-23 om 13.30.57

First time i encountered work by Olphaert den Otter , was at the galerie van Kranendonk in the mid Nineties. After this occasion i saw works by den Otter in several group exhibitions ( if i remember well one at the Haags Gemeentemuseum). In a mix of realism and surrealism , den Otter presents his paintings and always surprises. One can discover several layers in his works and they never stop to amaze. In the last 2 years some of his paintings have become on sale at the Venduehuis auction, but i was not lucky enough to win. It shows that den Otter has established himself as one of the commercial succesful artists in the Netherlands, but i will keep trying to win at auction and maybe in the future we can add a work to our collection.

Schermafbeelding 2021-08-23 om 13.45.30

Olphaert den Otter (Poortugaal, 1955) studied at the Willem de Kooning Academie (1976 – 1981). He works with egg tempera, often in large series. One of these, de Refuge Morphology series consisting of 127 works, was exhibited in 2008 in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. From time to time, Den Otter creates murals in pastel on location (Malta Contemporary Art and the KetelFactory, Schiedam) and animations. Alongside his activities as visual artist, he also sings countertenor in the Retorisch Kwartet and frequently lectures on cultural and philosophical themes.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Quirijn van Tiel (1900-1967)

van tiel a

 

Another “petit maitre” i had never heard of, but because of a catalogue find i noticed this artist. Not very well known, but his works are now emerging in the art market. Recent sales at art dealers and auction mean that this artist is getting more and more appreciated by a larger public.

I noticed this painter because of a publication from 1970 by the Boymans van Beuningen where a retrospective was held. Influenced by Campendonck and Flemish artists, but in the end a style of his own. A nice catalogue and now available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Will Alsop (1947-2018)

 

Schermafbeelding 2021-04-13 om 13.10.37

Here is the text that can be found on the pages of the agency of the late  Will Alsop. It is one of the architects from outside the Netherlands who designed several projects over the decades in the Netherlands. This is how i learned to appreciate the projects by Alsop.

Schermafbeelding 2021-04-13 om 13.09.14

The late Prof. Will Alsop OBE RA was a prominent architect, artist and educator who established aLL Design in 2011. He was awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize for Peckham Library, London and the first RIBA Worldwide Award for The Sharp Centre for Design (OCADU), Toronto, amongst numerous other prestigious accolades for a multitude of projects. His work encompassed all sectors of architecture including urban and landscape design and planning. His studio practice incorporated fine art painting, writing and modelmaking.

Will’s core values were innovation, expression and originality with an emphasis on enjoyment. He worked on a vast array of projects and in all scales; from a bandstand in London to the French Government HQ in Marseille ‘Le Grand Bleu’ via masterplanning, urban design, landscape architecture, interior and product design. He hosted numerous international workshops and lectures.

Schermafbeelding 2021-04-13 om 13.03.09

His interaction with and involvement of people both within and outside the arts led to design that challenges architectural norms. His practice, aLL Design, was founded principally to ‘make life better’ – the philosophy extends from the design of individual buildings to embrace broader principles of urbanism and city development and uses painting, writing, consultation and workshops to further understanding of design.

Will sat on the architectural advisory boards for Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea Councils. He was Professor of TU Vienna and Professor of Architecture at Canterbury School of Architecture, UCA.

His involvement with the Royal Academy of Arts included inclusive education programmes and his model of ‘Heliport Heights’ won the Turkish Ceramics Grand Award for Architecture in the RA Summer Exhibition, 2016 for the ‘most outstanding work of architecture.’ The judges were Ece Ceylan Baba; Kate Goodwin; Vicky Richardson and Ian Ritchie.

Will specialised in large-scale masterplans and regeneration projects for boroughs and districts in Almere, Rotterdam, Groningen, Berlin, Manchester, London, Middlesbrough, and Barnsley, for which he won the 2003 Architects’ Journal Award for Architecture. Latterly he designed part of the regeneration of Kew Gate district for the London Borough of Hounslow; developing schemes for Vauxhall’s regeneration and worked internationally in China, Canada and Europe.

Prior to his death in May 2018, Will was also designing a bandstand for a London Park and working with a Gloucestershire farmer to create an urban farm in South East London. Many of Alsop’s designs, such as the Glenwood Power Plant in Yonkers, New York; OCADU, Toronto, Gao Yang International Cruise Terminal, Shanghai and the HQ of the French government in Marseilles have become icons for their cities, encouraging and increasing tourism and establishing Will as a visionary in the field of architecture.

www.ftn-books.com has some publications on Alsop available at this moment

alsop

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Mirjam Hagoort (1961)

Schermafbeelding 2021-03-23 om 16.41.12

I have in my FTN-books collection an CBK Rotterdam catalogue on Mirjam Hagoort, published in the early Nineties it shows the works by Hagoort as a young artist . Big almost geometrical paintings with words and sayings, a bit like Ed Ruscha, but while preparing this blog on Hagoort i noticed a change in her work. Nowadays her drawings are much like Marcel van Eeden his daily drawings. They have the same look and feel.

Schermafbeelding 2021-03-23 om 16.30.11

The paintings however are different. Here she shines with a kind of abstraction that make her early paintings from the Nineties such appealing works of art. With the recent paintings she combines abstraction and architecture into great works of art.

hagoort a

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Frans de Wit (1942-2004)/ Vierkant eiland in de plas

Schermafbeelding 2021-03-15 om 14.19.16.png

Frans de Wit deserves to be known better. Not only for his land art , but his sculptures were well ahead of their time. de Wit was well known in Rotterdam and surroundings , but hardly known outside Rotterdam. He deservedly was commissioned the VIERKANT EILAND IN DE PLAS , which wasd executed on the lowest spot in the Netherland well below sea level. A large project and just recently i learned of its existence. For those living in the neighborhood or visiting Rotterdam. The location is 1.5 kilometers east of the Kralingseplas. realized in a Nineties development and commissioned by CBK Rotterdam.

Schermafbeelding 2021-03-15 om 14.15.34

I think it is an important art work and certainly one of the most important works Frans de Wit realized. The special publication on Vierkant eiland inde plas is available at www.ftn-books.com

frans de wit

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Wyn Geleynse (1947)

Schermafbeelding 2020-04-10 om 12.03.04

What better way to introduce a video artist with a video i found on the internet. Just a short video of 3 minutes introduces this Rotterdam born artist, but living almost his entire life in Canada.

 

Wyn Geleynse is a multimedia artist living and working in London, Ontario. Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1947, Geleynse moved to Canada as a child and was raised in London, Ontario. Since 1969, he has exhibited extensively both in Canada and Europe. Considered one of Canada’s pioneer film and video projection artists, Geleynse’s career spans a period of nearly 40 years. His work raises questions about self and identity, commenting on the human condition with a subtle blend of irony and humanity. Interested in the notion of film projection as a metaphor for projecting one’s thoughts and desires, Geleynse worked primarily with installation-based projections in the past. In 2009, he produced an outdoor DVD projection work titled “Wyn Geleynse: The Peel Projection” for the site that will become the Art Gallery of Peel in Brampton, Ontario.

www.ftnbooks.com has 2 titles on Geleynse available:

 

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Billy Apple ( Barrie Bates – 1935 )

Schermafbeelding 2020-07-23 om 16.16.36

Billy Apple is considered to be a Pop Art artist, although he side stepped at some occasions his main works are related to the Pop Art movement. Coming from New Zealand but working and living in the US he made a career for himself knowing many of his great contemporaries personally.

Schermafbeelding 2020-07-23 om 16.27.42

Billy Apple (ONZM) is an artist whose work is associated with the New York and British schools of Pop Art in the 1960s and with the Conceptual Art movement in the 1970s. He collaborated with the likes of Andy Warhol and other pop artists. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (New Zealand), Auckland Art Gallery / Toi o Tamaki (New Zealand), the Christchurch Art Gallery / Te Puna o Waiwhetu (New Zealand), The University of Auckland (New Zealand) and the SMAK/Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent, Belgium).

Barrie Bates was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1935. He left secondary school with no qualifications and took a job as an assistant to a paint manufacturer in 1951. Bates attended evening classes at Elam School of Fine Arts, where he met Robert Ellis, a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London.

In 1959 he left New Zealand on a National Art Gallery scholarship. He studied at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1959 until 1962. During his time at the Royal College of Art, Bates met several other artists who went on to become a new generation of pop artists; including David Hockney, Derek Boshier Frank Bowling and Pauline Boty. He exhibited frequently during his time at the College in the Young Contemporaries and Young Commonwealth Artists exhibitions along with Frank Bowling, Jonathan Kingdon, Bill Culbert, Jan Bensemann and Jerry Pethick.

In 1962 Bates conceived Billy Apple: he bleached his hair and eyebrows with Lady Clairol Instant Creme Whip and changed his name to Billy Apple. Apple had his first solo show in 1963 – Apple Sees Red: Live Stills – in London at Victor Musgrave’s Gallery One.

Apple moved to New York in 1964: he progressed his artistic career and also found work in various advertising agencies.

A pivotal event was the 1964 exhibit “The American Supermarket”, a show held in Paul Bianchini’s Upper East Side gallery. The show was presented as a typical small supermarket environment, except that everything in it — the produce, canned goods, meat, posters on the wall, etc. — was created by six prominent pop artists of the time, including Billy Apple, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Jasper Johns and others.

Apple was one of the artists who pioneered the use of neon in art works (Apples to Xerox and Neon Rainbows). Other exhibitions and series include Art for Sale, The Given as an Art Political Statement, Transactions, Golden Rectangle, The Art Circuit etc.

In 2008 Apple was the subject of a feature length documentary called “Being Billy Apple”.

http://www.ftn-books.com has acquired the important UNION JACK poster by Billy Apple he made for his 2009 Witte de With exhibition. Now available at www.ftn-books.com

union witte apple a

Posted on by — Leave a comment

George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923)…continued

Schermafbeelding 2020-07-06 om 15.10.29

Over 3 years ago I wrote a short blog on Breitner in which i wrote about his models and his Japanese Kimono painting. This blog is on another aspect of his artist life.

Breitner is known to have been one of the very first artists who used photography as a means for composing his paintings. The photographs he made were for him like sketches he made in the streets. These early days of photography everything was different…ni camera phones but large camera’s with sensitive plates, but the result was not only historically of importance but showed great artistry.

Schermafbeelding 2020-07-06 om 15.12.07

This quality is now recognized of one of the very important aspects of his artist life and many of his photographs are now in public collections being a part of the heritage of the complete artist George Hendrik Breitner was. He was one of the very first street photographers in the world.

www.ftn-books.com has some Breitner photography books available.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Hugh Weiss (1927-2007)

Schermafbeelding 2020-03-09 om 16.38.07

The first time i encountered some actual painting by Hugh Weiss, was at the timne the Venduhuis held an auction with works from the estate of Hans Sonnenberg, the former owner of the Delta Gallery in Rotterdam. Sonnenberg had a very personal way of collecting and was not affraid to present young artists like Haring and Basquiat in the Eighties and Schjolte and van Geest in the Eighties/Nineties. In the Sixties he liked a different kind of art and beside some POP ART he presenetd there was this American born artist who he liked very much…..Hugh Weiss

Hugh Weiss was born in Philidelphia in 1925, but practically lived his entire working life in Paris /France. Here he has made a name for himself and from France  a contact with Sonnenberg was established, The result exhibitions at galerie Delta of which one catalogue is available at www.ftn-books.com. It is the 1965 catalogue

weiss delta

The works intrigue, but not so musch as that at timne of the auction i wanted to add one to my collection. I focussed instead on the Arie van Geest paintings and i was successful. Now that i look at them again in the catalogue i think it is a pity that i did not bid, but wh knows perhaps in the future there is another chance.

Schermafbeelding 2020-03-09 om 16.50.40