surrealism – Page 2

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 17.05.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Joel Peter Witkin (1939) and Erwin Olaf (1959)

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1983, well before the fame and celebrity status of Erwin Olaf, there was this photographer who was presented in an exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum…Joel Peter Witkin was his name and his photographs balanced between absurd realism and surrealism. The same kind of photographs Erwin Olaf made in one of his first series CHESSMAN (1988). This series must have been strongly inspired by Witkin, since it depicts the same kind of absurd subjects, props and even the tone/color and atmosphere in the photographs are the same.

This series by Olaf was the first to make his work known among collectors and since, he has developed a style of his own, with completely staged photographs with a typical sixties/seventies atmosphere, but if you think his first series CHESS MEN was original and typically Erwin Olaf, than first have a look at Joel Peter Witkin and than judge again. Both mentioned publications and others on Witkin and Olaf are available at www.ftn-books.com.

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Posted on 11.05.201711.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Wols (1913-1951)

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Wols is the pseudonym of Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze. Wols is not very well known by many, but if you ask among curators…. who is the the best Lyrical Abstract painter in the world?….. There is over 50% chance they will mention WOLS as being the most important one. Not only a painter , but also a very gifted photographer, Wols is possibly the artist which i learned to appreciate the most over the past 4 decades. In the beginning i did not understand his art at all, but when you see more of his art in relation to what others did at that time you notce that his art was “new” and intuitive and his photographs had a surreal quality in them. Wols is an artist you will discover in the coming years , because worldwide several shows with his art are planned . Wols is an artist to be discovered, his art is in many ways fascinating and even rooted in religious art. And because i myself am a Wols admirer i managed to collect a nice inventory with Wols publications There are some nice Wols publications which are available at www.ftn-books.com . You may find an excellent article on Wols at http://glasstire.com/2013/12/06/wols-a-misinterpretation/

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Posted on 29.10.201612.02.2018 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Salvador Dali – ” Fille de Quinze ans “

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I have been a long time admirer of Salvador Dali and from the 70’s on ( The Boymans van Beuningen exhibition ) i have been visiting museums with Dali’s in their collections. The Boymans in the Netherland has the largest collection of Dali’s in the Netherlands, but everywhere in the world works can be found. In my youth i had one desire…owning an original Dali. It did not happen until i purchased an etching by the artist and together with an original lithograph, these are still the only works i was able to collect from Dali. The good thing is … i still like them and both are hanging on my walls. The etching FILLE DE QUINZE ANS comes from a series of etchings and was published in an edition of only 150 / signed copies. The paintings by Dali can only be purchased by a few people in the world , but the graphic works are still reasonably cheap to buy, so pick them up whenever you have a chance, but be careful…. there are many counterfeits on the market!

There are some nice books on Dali in my shop at www.ftn-books.com