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Piet Stockmans (1940)

We were only 3 in Den Haag who offered the small studio ceramics by Piet Stockmans and now only one is left ( Toegepaste Kunst/ Valkenbosplein, Den Haag). The shop in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Toegepaste Kunst and Studio 40 sold these little ceramic art objects. White or pale blue they made an everlasting impression when you first see them. Stockmans started his career at Koninklijke Mosa in Maastricht where he worked from 1966 until 1989. After that period he worked for himself and his studio became world famous among ceramic art collectors all over the world and many of them visited his studio in Genk. Stockmans has become a very successful ceramic artist who’s works are sold all over the world, which makes him not only as an artist successful, but also commercially his products are a huge success. One aspect of his designs deserve special attention. He has designed and made porcelain for many of the great chefs in Europe.

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Of course www.ftn-books.com has some nice examples of his publications . Browse through them and you will notice that beside his commercial porcelain there are some very nice and breath taken ceramic unique works.

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Miguel Berrocal ( 1933-2006)

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Berrocal and Dali

100% Spanish and an artist who was in the middle of all in the sixties /seventies. The first time i encountered work by Miguel Berrocal must have been somewhere in 1970. One of the furniture design shops ( Studio 40) had  a little statue with the interlocking pieces which fitted together perfectly and acted like a multi pieces puzzle. I was impressed, but never associated this with art. It more was a gimmick to me. Later i saw the artistic qualities of Berrocal and now for me Berrocal is one of the sculptors who deserves to be recognized as one of the great sculptors from Spain.

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If it was this statue i do not remember….., but these small statues consisting of several pieces were Berrocal’s trademark. People admired him in those days, but one decade later practically all had forgotten him. I always admired these little, beautiful pieces of art, but never had a chance to acquire one for our collection. However what i did find and added to the inventory of www.ftn-books.com were several rare and highly collectable publications including a Jan van Toorn designed poster. These books are as much collectable as his statues , because the edition size is small and because of the exceptional way these are published they are well worth collecting.