Last month…. on the bookmarket…. i found a series of beautiful and typical late Sixties designs by Jurriaan Schrofer. Schrofer is together with Wim Crouwel the other favorit dutch designer from the Sixtie.
A Pop Art like style he developed over the decade and used this for his projects and the series he made for Museum Journaal is one of the most impressing from that decade. The series is now for sale in separate volumes at www.ftn-books.com, nbut for the collector that desires them all please contact me at wilfriedvandenelshout@gmail. com for a special offer of all volumes available.
Excellent piece on Schrofer written in French at this site:
Another artist i had no memory of. I had heard the name before, but coould not place his works in any context. I must have seen his work at some time, but no recollection at all.
So why this blog on Jan Meijer. The artist is perhaps the least interesting in this blog. Still Meijer’s lyrical abstract works are well worth looking at and deserve much more recognition.
But…..the true reason i write this blog is the Jan Meijer catalogue which was published in 1957 for the Galerie Dina Vierny exhibition. A typical 50’s publication with a colored cover, BUT, what makes it stand out ……..it is designed by Jurriaan Schrofer and photographs by Ed van der Elsken. It is one of those rare occasions that these great Fifties artists come together. Perhaps they needed to make some money, perhaps they were friends and have known each other from their Paris time. I do not know, but ik know that this is an extremely scarce publication, well worth collecting and to dream away and try imagining how life must have been in Paris in the mid Fifties.
For many years this was the last time a dutch group of artists presented diutch art at the Sao Paulo Bienal exhibition. For several reasons the Bienal was boycotted and only in the late Eighties dutch art was presented once again at the Sao Paulo Bienal.
But the reason for this blog is not the presence of dutch art in SAo Paulo….no….. the reason is that this 1965 catalogue for the dutch pavillion was designed by Jurriaan Schrofer, who made this catalogue a very special one. The idea came from a leporello in which each fold contains a small catalogue. The artists present are for the official contribution: Co Westerik adnPeter Vos and for the special room: Melle, Carel Willink, Charles Roelofsz and Pyke Koch.
Schrofer managed to include all these artist in a very special way in this catalogue in which all the artists received their own small book. Cover design is special too in which the title spirals away….I really am a great fan of this catalogie which is now available at www.ftn-books.com.
Hannie Bal was married to Willem Schrofer. Schrofer was one of the founding members of VERVE and together with her husband they both were VERVE members during its existence. Both Hannie Bal and Schrofer were later recognized as highly influential in the Dutch art scene ( Schrofer taught at the Koninklijke Academie) and both were important for the NIEUWE HAAGSE SCHOOL. A group of artists, all living in the The Hague area, and working close together in the 50’s and 60’s , meeting regularly in the Haagse Kunstkring and the Bodega DE POSTHOORN.
Hannie Bal was one of the few female artist in those days, but her work has nothing feminine. It was inspired by great artists like Cezanne and the later Neo Impressionists like Seurat and Signac
…..and she even had a very productive period at the end of the sixties/early seventies in which she made Constructivist paintings.
Why this short story on Hannie Bal and Verve. Verve because there are some extremely nice early publications on Verve and its artists at www.ftn-books.com available and secondly. ….Today i started 2 auctions with work by Hannie Bal on Catawiki. Both starting at only euro 1,– which make these very nice works a possible win for all. Take a look at them and start bidding on this Black Friday weekend………
Yesterday we ate with our good friend Annemarie Schrofer and because of the beautiful paintings by her father on the walls, i remembered another member of the Schrofer family ……Jurriaan Schrofer.
Born in 1926 and also a child of Annemarie’s father Willem Schrofer he would become one of the leading typography and graphic designers in the Netherlands. His works can be considered as “avant garde” design, thinking “out of the box” and soon he would develop his very own style . He originally wanted to become a film director, but ended being the assistant to Dick Elffers. This was the starting point of a splendid career as a graphic designer. For a few years in the seventies he was a member of Total Design, but soon followed again his own path. Highly original and recognizable are his designs. He was commissioned by many dutch important institutions and was appreciated for the designs he made for them, but his true recognition as one of the leading graphic designers from last century is only 25 years old. His works would become internationally known and appreciated. There now is a high interest in his works from leading British Graphic design schools and recently the same interest comes from the US.
Jurriaan Schrofer books can still be picked up at reasonable prices and for those interested in dutch graphic design, the designs by Schrofer are an absolute and quintessential part in the history of Graphic design and not to be missed in any collection. www.ftn-books.com
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
