stedelijk – Page 24

Posted on 27.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Eugene Brands (1913-2002)…there are forgeries on the market.

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In 1946 he participated in the exhibition JONGE SCHILDERS in the Stedelijk Museum and joined the experimental group of young painters in the Netherlands which would later become the COBRA mouvement. From there on he developed a very recognizable style with light bright colors, using many shades of red and yellow. Almost every large museum in the Netherlands has works by Brands in their collections and paintings and drawings are frequently offered for sale at auction or on auction sites. But beware !….. at one time i was visiting a viewing day ( many many years ago) by Sothebys on their Nes location when Brands walked in with the Amsterdam director of Sotheby’s. At that time there were about 10 works by Brands for sale. Brands walked around, glasses and furcoat still on (inside a heated room) , made a quick tour in the viewing hall, pointed out and marked at least 5 works that were forgeries, since that occasion and knowing that there are many fake Brands paintings, i stayed away from them. Of course you can buy them at the gallery Nouvelles Images and Galerie de Rijk. It will be a safe buy, because all works sold by them are genuine, guaranteed and mostly registered pieces from the Brands studio, but from other sources …..BEWARE. Eugene Brands publications are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 26.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Johannes Gachnang (1939-2005)…quality publications

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The first time i met Gachnang was during an exibition at the Haags Gemeentemuseum when he visited his friend Rudi Fuchs , who was at that time the director of the Gemeentemuseum. I remembered an unpleasant person, but Rudi wanted the publications by Gachnang to be sold at the shop of the Gemeentemuseum and i was critical about them. It was not that i was not convinced of the art within these publications, but the art by Gachnang was so personal and i thought “strange” that i did not see any selling possibilities for them. Years later, i started to encounter his works in museums and found them far more accessible than i first had thought they were. ALL Gachnang publication have a certain quality and belong to the best publications on art in the last 3 decades of the 20th century and some of them are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 25.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

It is just a painting by …Kandinsky

…..and there are many more far more important Kandinsky paintings than the one recently sold at a record price.

Source is Blouin art info. This is what i read this morning and shows exactly what i was talking about yesterday.

Sotheby’s has smashed the auction record for Wassily Kandinsky not just once but twice during its Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London.

“Murnau – Landschaft mit grünem Haus” 1909 was the first to break the artist’s previous auction record of $23.3 million when it sold for £21 million / $26.4 million.

Six lots later “Bild mit weissen Linien” 1913 broke the record for the second time, selling for a monumental £33 million / $41.6 million.

The sale also achieved a new auction record for Joan Miro in sterling with the artist’s “Femme et oiseaux” 1940 selling for £24,571,250.

Sotheby’s, Actual Size and Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sales achieved a combined total of £148.9 Million / $187.7 Million / €169.5 Million, with the three top sales marking the first time that three works have sold for over £20 million in a London auction.

Helena Newman, Global Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department & Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “To have three landmarks in the development of 20th Century art by Kandinsky, Miró and Giacometti come to the market in a single sale tonight was momentous.”

“Collectors were out in force, participating from a record number of locations around the globe, with the level of Asian buyers as numerous as those from the US, underscoring the enduring importance of London as a key driver of the global art market,” she added.

Art has become an investment and something to break records with. Accessible to the “Happy Few”, but art is more than just a record at an auction sale. Art is a very personal experience. In which it moves you, reaches out to you and eventually stays with you the rest of your life. There are some Kandinsky books available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 24.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

David Salle (1952)

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David Salle…..still one of te great names in Modern Art and still very famous in the US, but his works tend to be forgotten a little bit in Europe after he had had many important shows here in the eighties and nineties. Painter, graphic artist, cinema director and photographer Salle is a multi disciplined artist who was one of the first living artist who reached star status in the art world after his works were soled for over a million dollar at auction. Personally i do not think any painting is worth so much money, because i think art is to be consumed and admired and not bought or sold as an investment. An artist who’s works are bought after he/she died is an exception. The works have proven themselves and it is important for museum to show the works of an artist in relation to other works of art, but….for living artists like Salle, Hirst and Koons ART has become a way of making money ( and a lot if it). The idea behind the work is less important than the interest t should create with buyers and investors. So my advice …buy what you personally think is worth to look at, admire and collect it and if it is more expensive … pay a little more for it because you will enjoy the work every day you look at it.

Books on Salle are available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 23.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jan van der Vaart and the Wim Crouwel catalogue ( and of course Eva Besnyo).

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The picture by Eva Besnyo above, i encountered in a Museum Bulletin from 1999 in which Marjan Boot wrote an article on Potst and sculptures. Van der Vaart is a highly original ceramic artist who’s quality is the shapes he created his ceramics in. Forms and shapes which were never before used as a ceramic form, but van der Vaart invented them and made them into real ceramic objects.

The pictures tell a far better story than i can, but there are some remarks to be be made about this blog and the life and exhibitions by van der Vaart. First there is this great photograph of van der Vaart working which was made by Eva Besnyo and secondly one of the most beautiful catalogues Wim Crouwel ever designed was the van der Vaart catalogue from 1975.

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There are of course some other books available at www.ftn-books.com

, but this catalogue is very very impressive and in perfect condition.

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Posted on 21.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Fernand Leger (1881-1955)

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I am still in doubt for myself if i must consider Leger as one of the great artists from last century…or does he uses a ‘Trick” to compose and impress with his paintings. If one sees an extremely large sized work …it is almost in every case impressive, but as soon as it is a smaller one, the attraction is gone. I will show this with to examples. The first painting is roughly 3 x 4 meters and in the collection of the Fondation Maeght. The send is Trois Camarades in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The first has typical figures by Leger with an abstract pattern painred over them….. a beautiful and impressive Leger. The second one, is for me far less appealing and a “flat” painting.

Make up your mind yourself on Leger , but know that there are some excellent publications available at www.ftn-books.com including a famous Sandberg designed catalogue

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Posted on 05.06.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Andy Warhol in Stockholm (1968)

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The sixties were the time that Pop Art was introduced in Europe and one of the venues where a large exhibition was held was the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Of course the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has had its Pop Art and Warhol exhibitions in those days, but what makes the Stockholm exhibition stand out, was the catalogue which was published with the Andy Warhol exhibition in 1968. Not a small booklet , designed by Wim Crouwel of 40+ pages, but a large catalogue containing approx. 500 pages filled with art and photography. . A true documentary publication with the most important works by Warhol and over 300 photographs with documentary photographs on Warhol and his circle of friends. the Factory photography was done by Billy Name. Spontaneous and random photography, giving great insight in the world of Warhol and his Friends in the surroundings of the Factory. This is one of the most important Andy Warhol catalogues ever published and now available at www.ftn-books.com

Posted on 28.05.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Roger Bissière, a lyrical abstract painter (1866-1964) in a Wim Crouwel catalogue

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A lyrical abstract artist and related to other abstract French painters like Manessier and Bazaine, Admired by Willem Sandberg , Bissiere received his first Stedelijk Museum exhibition in 1958 and in the early sixties another followed , this time with a spectacular catalogue designed by Wim Crouwel and for me this catalogue is the reason to write this blog, because i find this catalogie one of the very best Wim Crouwel ever made.

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Clean, bright with some highly original details, the early smaller size and great typography makes this a Crouwel classic and the art…..well not bad either!

books available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 27.05.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Pieter Ouborg, Painter of the unknown (1893-1956)

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Outside the Netherlands Pieter Ouborg is hardly know, but compare this artists to his contemporaries he stand out with a “language” which is original and imaginative. Strange, sometimes surreal and even cildlike ( Yes, he befriended Appel and other Cobra artist). STill he did not become the great name people who admired him hoped for. Still he was admired by his fellow artists and during his life he received some very nice retrospectives in the Stedelijk Museum and the Haags Gemeentemuseum. It si hard to describe his art, but if i must make a comparison it must be Wols ( i wrote a short blog on Wols some weeks ago). For those visiting in the near future , here is the list of collections that has Ouborg works in them: ( and of course the books on www.ftn-books.com)

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Dordrechts Museum in Dordrecht
Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam
Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven
Groninger Museum in Groningen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam
Stedelijk Museum Schiedam in Schiedam
Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam

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Posted on 24.05.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

La Grande Parade / Stedelijk Museum 1984

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Yesterday i stumbled upon a short note included in one of the catalogues that i have in my collection that the former owner wanted to see the exhibition La GRANDE PARADE in the Stedelijk Museum. I remembered visiting that exhibition and now almost 3 decades ago i realized that this was one of the first blockbuster exhibitions held in the Stedelijk . A great overview of Modern Art from the 20th century curated by Edy de Wilde who showed his special qualities as a collector with this exhibition and said goodbye to this collection as the director of the SM . It has probably the nicest Leger ever made in it and….Willem de Kooning….many many Willem de Kooning paintings ,who is still one of the key artists within te collection of the Stedelijk. Leafing through the catalogue one can only be amazed that so many great art was once in one place. There are not many of these exhibitions any more, because these are far too expensive to organize , but if there is one….go stand in line for a couple of hours and remember in 30 years the exhibition you visited. If it is as good as LE GRANDE PARADE it was well worth the wait. For the catalogues please visit www.ftn-books.com