Tag: stedelijk

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Toon Verhoef (continued)

Born in Voorburg in 1946, Toon Verhoef is a renowned painter. Prior to the creation of each painting, Verhoef undertakes studies on paper. These studies are not literal drawings, but rather collages incorporating elements of paint, paper, packaging materials, and dried remnants of paint.

From these series of images, Verhoef distills the elements that he deems fit for his paintings. These elements often include a specific use of color or a certain composition. As Verhoef explains, “Unmatched, unsteady images that need to remain standing in the painting in some way or another. The unmatched must match.”

One could consider Verhoef’s paintings to be abstract. As a viewer, the images are not clearly derived from reality. However, Verhoef’s work has a connection to reality in the sense that it draws from the origin of the images he uses – a newspaper photo, a packaging material. Although Verhoef transforms these images and renders them unrecognizable, something of their source still lingers in the painting.

Verhoef’s paintings are characterized by strong contrasts of color, forms and lines that dance across the canvas. He alternates between organic shapes and geometric lines, transparent forms and opaque areas. His vocabulary is playful, exploratory, and dynamic. As Verhoef says, “Each painting asks the viewer – what exactly are you looking at, how are you looking, and what do you see? […] It must work immediately. It has to work. […] It’s about accuracy. That’s how it should be.”

Verhoef studied at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam (1965-1966) and pursued a degree in art history at the University of South Africa in Johannesburg (1966-1968). He continued his studies at the Ateliers (1968-1970). Verhoef’s work has been exhibited at renowned institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, De Pont (Tilburg), Kunstmuseum Bonn, and the Bonnefantenmuseum (Maastricht).

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Enzo Cucchi (continued)

We are relocating!
In the coming weeks we will be occupied with packing and moving our internet store inventory. The entire collection needs to be transferred from Leidschendam to Oegstgeest, and this will take some time.
If all goes according to plan, we will be fully operational again on November 21st, but until then, it may happen that we are unable to immediately assist you with your order. We ask for your understanding, but as soon as possible, your order will be fulfilled with the utmost speed.

Enzo Cucchi, born in 1949 in Morro d’Alba, a rural village in the central Italian province of Ancona, embarked on a journey of self-taught painting that would earn him various accolades in his early years. Despite his initial focus on poetry, Cucchi was frequently in the company of poet Mino De Angelis, who oversaw the publication “Tau.” Through “La Nuova Foglio di Macerata,” a small publishing house, Cucchi forged a connection with art critic Achille Bonito Oliva, a crucial figure in the artist’s future success.

In its catalogues, “La Nuova Foglio di Macerata” featured written works by artists such as Cucchi’s “Il veleno è stato sollevato e trasportato!” in 1976. Cucchi’s frequent trips to Rome in the mid-seventies reignited his interest in the visual arts, prompting him to temporarily abandon his poetry in order to solely focus on his craft. It was during this time that Cucchi encountered various artists, including Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, and Nicola de Maria, with whom he engaged in close collaborations and thought-provoking intellectual dialogues.

Achille Bonito Oliva was the first to recognize this emerging group of Italian artists of the seventies as a cohesive unit. As a result, the group has often held exhibitions collectively or featured individual artists in the Netherlands. The Groninger Museum and the Stedelijk Museum both held exhibitions during the eighties and nineties and acquired several works for their collections. Along with these exhibitions, some outstanding catalogues were published, a selection of which can be found at www.ftn-books.com.

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Jesus Rafael Soto (continued)

We are relocating!
In the coming weeks we will be occupied with packing and moving our internet store inventory. The entire collection needs to be transferred from Leidschendam to Oegstgeest, and this will take some time.
If all goes according to plan, we will be fully operational again on November 21st, but until then, it may happen that we are unable to immediately assist you with your order. We ask for your understanding, but as soon as possible, your order will be fulfilled with the utmost speed.

Born in Venezuela, Jesús Rafael Soto was a renowned sculptor and painter whose career began as a helper in painting movie advertisements. He later received formal training at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Artes Aplicadas in Caracas, alongside contemporaries Carlos Cruz-Diez and Alejandro Otero. He also spent three years teaching at a small art academy in Venezuela.

Soto gained recognition for his contributions to the development of op-art and kinetic art – forms of art that incorporate movement. In 1950, he moved to Paris, where he became acquainted with the Atelier d’Art Abstrait through fellow artists and exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. A year later, he visited the Netherlands with a group of friends and was inspired by the works of Piet Mondrian at the Kröller-Müller Museum and Stedelijk Museum.

It was in Paris that Soto’s career as a kinetic artist took off. His open, interactive sculptures and installations, often consisting of thin hanging tubes that viewers can walk through, constantly transform and challenge the concept of reality as a collection of individual objects.

From 1970 to the early 1990s, Soto’s works were featured in prestigious museums in Paris, New York, and Amsterdam. In 1973, a museum solely dedicated to his works was opened in his hometown of Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela.

Jesús Rafael Soto passed away in Paris in 2005, leaving behind a legacy of artwork that continues to captivate and inspire.

wwww.ftn-books.com has the catalog from the Stedelijk Museum with the Kinetic cover now available.

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David Robilliard (continued)

Born in Guernsey (GB), passed away in London (GB).

David Robilliard skillfully traversed the line between art and comedy. The self-taught, Guernsey-born artist relocated to London in the late 1970s and forged his own brand of visual poetry, intertwining clever phrases, stylized figures, poignant contemplations on sexuality, companionship, and the urban experience onto blank canvases.

Robilliard was a prominent figure during a pivotal time in both London’s art culture and the emergence of the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Gilbert & George praised their protege and assistant as “the new master of the Modern individual. Observing, pondering, sensing, perceiving, sarcastically commenting – he brilliantly captures the “Existers” ethos of our era.” However, he never took himself too seriously.

David Robilliard contracted AIDS, ultimately leading to his passing at the young age of 36.

www.ftn-books.com has the most important publications now available.

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Edward Kienholz – The beanery (1927-1994)

Crafted by a mortal, Edward Kienholz (1927–1994), The Beanery, a 1965 enigma of art, holds its roots in Kienholz’s regular waterhole, The Original Beanery on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. It took the visionary artist six months to manifest his local bar’s essence in this masterpiece. The installation’s execution is characterized by its life-size components, from the figures, modeled after Kienholz’s acquaintances and comrades, to the bar, beer and liquor bottles, ashtrays, cash register, telephone book, and jukebox. Even the photographs adorning the walls are replicas of those at The Original Beanery.

A surprising detail in the artwork is Kienholz’s decision to represent each patron of the bar with a clock for a face, a nod to his fascination with time. The only exception is the bartender, a replica of Barney, the original bar-owner, who retains a human face. Sound, scent, and sight come together seamlessly, creating a sensory experience that visitors are invited to immerse themselves into. The unmistakable aroma of a typical bar is yet another signature of Kienholz’s genius work. To attain the desired scent, the artist concocted a special recipe, blending beer, rancid fat, urine, mothballs, and cigarette ash. The restoration team at the Stedelijk Museum recreated this scent paste multiple times, using ammoniac instead of urine. To reinforce the essence of mortality and transience, the installation is coated with a synthetic resin, enhanced by the brown color scheme signifying aging and decay.

As a time capsule, The Beanery encapsulates the attitudes and events of the era. The sign at the entrance, “faggots stay out,” exemplifies the bigotry present in American society at the time. Meanwhile, the newspaper dispenser by the door displays a headline from 1964, reflecting the United States’ impending war with Vietnam. The inspiration for The Beanery struck Kienholz in 1958, but he only began work on August 28, 1964, after reading the headline “Children Kill Children in Vietnam Riots” during a visit to the real bar. The jarring juxtaposition between the “real time” represented by the newspaper and the “surreal time” of the bar’s atmosphere is a powerful commentary on the passing of time in relation to societal issues.

www.ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum publication on Kienholz available.

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Willem Sandberg (continued)

People following this blog know of my admiration for Willem Sandberg. The iconic director of the STEDELIJK MUSEUM AMSTERDAM who brought the greatest of contemporary art to Amsterdam in the Fifties and early sixties.

9 years after WWII and after the initial opening years from 1945, the Stedelijk presented an overview of the most important art they had acquired during these years. With the exhibition a catalog was published with Sandberg graphic design on te cover. Few people know that beside the red version another version was published with a yellow cover. The yellow version was published in only a few hundred copies and both are now available at www.ftn-books.com

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Coba Ritsema (1876-1961)

Coba Ritsema -Jacoba Johanna Ritsema was een 19e eeuwse portretschilder uit de Noordelijke Nederlanden.
Jacoba, of Coba, werd in 1876 geboren als dochter van de boekdrukker Coenraad Ritsema en zijn vrouw Jeanette (Jannetje) Moulijn in een artistiek gezin met een zus en twee broers. In haar familie waren al enkele bekende kunstenaars: haar grootvader Jacob Ritsema was amateurschilder, haar vader was lithograaf en de schilder en etser Simon Moulijn was een neef van haar moeder.
Zij was in haar opleiding leerling van August Allebé, George Hendrik Breitner, Carel Lodewijk Dake, Fredrik Theodorus Grabijn, Jacob Ritsema (haar broer), Thérèse Schwartze en Nicolaas van der Waay.

Na een korte verhuizing naar Haarlem verhuisde Coba in 1899 naar een huis aan de Jan Luykenstraat 23 in Amsterdam, terwijl ze haar atelier had op de vierde verdieping van Singel 512. Ze richtte zich op de stillevenstijl en werd afgewezen door een aantal beroemde kunstenaars die ze als docent in gedachten had – ze dachten dat ze de begeleiding van Ritsema niet nodig hadden. Ze was lid van de Lucasvereniging en Arti et Amicitiae (waar ze een van de eerste vrouwelijke stemgerechtigde leden was), verenigingen rond haar voorbeeld Thérèse Schwartze. Erkenning zou echter volgen: in 1910 won ze de bronzen medaille op de Expositie Universelle et Internationale in Brussel, in 1912 en in 1923 won ze een zilveren medaille van de stad Amsterdam, en in 1918 won ze een Koninklijke medaille die haar door koningin Wilhelmina was gegeven. In 1912 noemde de criticus Albert Plasschaert de vriendenkring waarvan Ritsema deel uitmaakte de Amsterdamsche Joffers – een groep jonge rijke vrouwelijke kunstenaars die veel samenwerkten en een gezamenlijke visie op kunst hadden. Ze werd docent van de studenten Grada Jacoba Wilhelmina Boks, Lize Duyvis, Jan den Hengst, Tine Honig, Coba Surie, Hillegonga Henriëtte Tellekamp, Victoire Wirix en Gonda Wulfse. Ze werd niet beschouwd als een expliciete feministe, maar tegelijkertijd als een voorbeeld van een onafhankelijke vrouw.

While focusing on still lifes and portraits, Ritsema’s works were described in 1947 by critic Johan van Eikeren as if they could have been created by a man – a compliment in those years. Though his work was usually well-sold, she was not such a master that she could afford to refuse compromises. In her portraits, there is a clear difference between those of her relatives and direct connections, which are rather realistically painted, and those of models – which are usually more impressionistic.
Coba was close with her brother Jacob, and when he suddenly died in 1943, she took it hard – Jacob was also a painter, and she consulted him frequently about her work. In 1957, she won the Rembrandt Award, a prize awarded once every five years by the city of Amsterdam. In her later years, she remained active, though her studio was not easily accessible for a woman of her age, as it was on the fourth floor – she had placed chairs on each floor to rest while climbing. In her final years, she lived in Pro Sinecure on Amsterdam’s Vondelstraat, where she died from her weak heart in 1961.
She was a member of the Pulchri Studio in The Hague and the Drawing Society Pictura. Works by Ritsema can be seen in the Teylers Museum and Mesdag van Calcar, but she also had a solo exhibition at the Frans Hals Museum.

www.ftn-books.com has several publicatiosn on Ritsema now available. Among them the 1946 Stedelijk Museum catalog.

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Roberto Burl Marx ( 1909-1994)

Located west of Rio de Janeiro, the site exemplifies a successful project developed over 40 years by landscape architect and artist Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) to create a “living artwork” and a “landscape laboratory,” utilizing native plants and drawing inspiration from modernist ideas. Initiated in 1949, the garden possesses the key characteristics that came to define Burle Marx’s landscape gardens and greatly influenced the development of modern gardens worldwide. Its features include sinuous shapes, exuberant mass plantings, carefully arranged architectural plants, dramatic color contrasts, the use of tropical flora, and the incorporation of elements from traditional folk culture. By the late 1960s, the site housed the most comprehensive collection of Brazilian plants, alongside other rare tropical species. The site now cultivates 3,500 species of tropical and subtropical flora in harmony with the native vegetation of the region, including mangrove swamps, restinga (a distinct type of tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest), and the Atlantic Forest. Sítio Roberto Burle Marx embodies an ecological concept of form as a process, emphasizing social collaboration as the basis for the preservation of environment and culture. It is the first modern tropical garden to be included in the World Heritage List.

www.ftn-books.com has the SM 161 / Stedelijk Museum on Burle Marx now available. Published in 1956 and designed by Sandberg makes this small and scarce publication one of the first on Landscape architecture and Burle Marx.

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Alexander Lichtveld ( 1953)

Alexander Lichtveld is a Dutch multidisciplinary artist. Lichtveld’s creations exude a stillness that belies the underlying tension of dialectic polarities: obverse and depth, continuity and interruption, masses enclosed yet demarcated by the given space. One might even liken it to a bunker, or a safe, or a fortress, where floor, ceiling, and walls meld into the anonymous guise of its disguise.

Like his compatriots, Lichtveld studied at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He promptly embraced a constructivist approach, eschewing any inclinations towards expressionism derived from nature. His oeuvre not only embodies the proud legacy of the Dutch avant-garde movement; it also reimagines it with an evident touch. This may elucidate why important institutions throughout his nation have already added him to their esteemed collections.

www.ftn-books.com has now several Lichtveld publications available.

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Kees Marinus (1952)

Kees Marinus was born in 1952 and was predominantly inspired creatively by the 1970s growing up. Conceptualism is often perceived as a reaction to Minimalism, and the dominant art movement of the 1970s, challenging the boundaries of art with its revolutionary features. The movements that succeeded were all characteristic of a strong desire to evolve and consolidate the art world, in response to the tensions of the previous decade. Process art branched out from Conceptualism, including some of its most crucial aspects, but going further in creating mysterious and experimental artistic journeys, while Land Art brought creation to the outdoors, initiating early ideas of environmentalism. In Germany, Expressive figure painting was given a second chance for the first time since the decline of Abstract Expressionism almost two decades, the genre regained its distinction through the brushstrokes of Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer and Georg Baselitz. The majority of the critically acclaimed artists from the 1960s, who had gained success and fame, kept their status in the 1970s. Andy Warhol was a prominent figure of those two decades, and in the 1970s started to experiment with film and magazine publishing, thus engaging in a cross-platform activity that no other visual artist of such standard had previously undertaken. By doing so, he secured his status as a celebrity. Street art started to emerge as a true and recognized form of art towards the end of the 1970s. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring were pioneers in demonstrating that their artworks could subsist at the same time in art galleries and on city walls. Fuelled by graffiti art, street art from its earliest days showed that it could endure in a unceasing flux of self-transformation, endlessly shifting the boundaries of modern art, becoming a truly ground-breaking artistic genre.

www.ftn-books.com has now the 1990 Stedelijk Museum publication available.