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Henri Cartier Bresson (1908-2004)

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If ever there is a photographer who is recognized as one of the greatest ever, it is Henri Cartier Bresson. Being a Magnum photographer you can see and discover many known and unknown photographs by Henri Cartier Bresson on this site:

http://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN

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What it also shows is the power of black and white photography. It is in many cases far more authentic and beautiful than color photography and Heni Cartier Bresson proves that he is one of the most original and talented . Beautiful compositions and catching the very best important moments to make the perfect photograph.

www.ftn-books.com has some nice books on Henri Cartier Bresson , including the excellent Sandberg designed catalogue for his Stedelijk Museum exhibition in 1963.

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Betty Woodman (1930)

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If there is one ceramist who has had an international career and exhibited all over the world it must be Betty Woodman. On several occasions she exhibited her works in the Netherlands in Museums and Galleries and i remember her exhibition from 1996 in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. With this exhibition an excellent catalogue was published, which is available at www.ftn-books.com

The reason why she had such an interesting and world wide career must be found in the accessibility of her art. Bright, primary colors and abundant shapes of her ceramics make her work stand out and are very appealing for many and because of this many museums and collectors around the globe added her works to their collections. Betty Woodman ceramics can be found in ao.:

  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
  • Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  • Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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Herb Ritts (1952-2002)…not only a celebrity photographer

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You possibly know the name Herb Ritts from his many celebrity photographs he has made through the years, but if the name does not ring a bell immediately…just have a look at his site. http://www.herbritts.com and you will recognize so many known faces. You will find Gwen Stefani, but also Ronald Reagan ao.

But beside these portrait photographs, Ritts has made so many iconic stylized staged photographs in which he plays a game with shadows and light that makes him stand out from all the others from his generation. I strongly recommend you to visit the Herb Ritts site because you will discover so many great photographs over there and have fun with all the short (commercial) movies of there. Here is one as a preview

http://www.herbritts.com/archive/video/herb-ritts-directs-chris-isaak-wicked-game-music-video/

and please take notice that there are a few Ritts titles available at www.ftn-books.comHerb Ritts was HIV positve and died of complications from pneumonia at the age of 50.

 

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Jonieke van Es (1966-2012) and the ultimate Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita book.

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It was in the very first beginning of her museum career that i met Jonieke. Jonieke studied at Groningen University and after an apprenticeship at ao.  the Gemeentemuseum, she became curator at this museum. Moving forward after this job to Curator of collections at the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, but sadly died at too young an age in 2012.  In those early Gemeentemuseum days she started a project on the works by Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, Yes the one who taught M.C. Escher, which resulted in the most spectacular book on Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. A true catalogue Raisonne, which will be the standard book on his works for at least a century. The book was published in 2005 by Waanders and is completely sold out for over a decade now. But now i finally found another copy and for those of my readers that were looking for this one….it is now for sale at www.ftn-books.com

jessurun es a

 

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Matt Mullican ( 1951) ….a universal sign and color artist

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Mullican is possibly more known and appreciated in Europe than in the US. Born in Santa Monica / California in 1951 he had part of his artistic education in the Netherlands and it was here and in Belgium that he received his first exhibitions. Flip Bool, curator at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in the mid eighties acquired a large Matt Mullican for the collection of the Gemeentemuseum and this, together with a beautiful and impressive Donald Judd garden sculpture were 2 of the acquisitions i admired very much at that time and over the years both have proven to be important and valuable additions to the collections of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

 

His work is concerned with systems of knowledge, meaning, language, and signification. Mullican also works with the relationship between perception and reality, between the ability to see something and the ability to represent it.

Mullican work is still very appealing to me. But unfortunately executed on a scale that is hard for a private collector to add this to their collections. It is executed at a scale that needs space, museum space or a large office hall space and therefore for me only to be admired at a distance. Only one publication on Mullican is available at www.ftn-books.com. But it is an important one in a limited edition by Imschoot.

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Jan Toorop ( 1858-1928)… a 19th century dutch master

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If there is one artist who brought impressionism into dutch art, it must be Jan Toorop. Roughly you can divide his artistic career into 4 phases. The first being his impressionist period ( a memberof Les XX), the second his neo impressionist period, the third being his symbolistic period and the last period is his realistic period in which he was converted completely into a Roman Catholic artist. Toorop is interesting because of his first 3 periods. Being born in Indonesia he has a different approach to his subjects and experiments with techniques and colors and uses a color scheme completely different from his dutch contemporaries. They focussed on skies and landscapes , whereas Toorop focussed on people and their surroundings. There are some great examples to be found in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag of his very early period where he painted with a palette knife and broad brushes. His very atmospheric scenes in London, a city where he lived for a couple of years and where he painted some great paintings. The “Trio Fleuri” is one of the most appealing painting from his London years, together with the Waterloo Bridge painting and both can be seen in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

and for those interested in Modern Art. A great painting by Toorop that symbolizes the dawn and rise of Modern Art in this world.

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There are some nice publications on Toorop available at www.ftn-books.com

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Jackson Pollock ( 1912-1956 )…the ultimate abstract expressionist.

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It was 1977. …..the first time i visited the US and went to New York together with my father we visited the museum of Modern Art. In which i saw for the very first time a large Jackson Pollock drip painting. It was an amazing experience and i remember standing in that room …in awe and amazement of such a large , beautiful, impressive, overwhelming abstract painting. The size of it, the spontaneous dripping and the extreme detail when you went close up to it, opened a door to abstract Modern Art for me. Since i have seen many Pollock paintings, but none was so perfect as the very first one i encountered in the Moma. the ONE, number 31, 1950 painting

There are some nice action movies with Pollock painting to be found on Youtube and this is possibly the one that shows best the creating of a Pollock painting.

and i am proud to have both Pollock catalogues that were produced for the Pollock exhibitions in the Stedelijk Museum at www.ftn-books.

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John Chamberlain (1927-2011)

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I was trying to write a short blog on John Chamberlain, but of course i found something far better than any short story i could write myself. Here is the start of the site i found:

John Chamberlain is known internationally for his long career of making vividly colored and vibrantly dynamic sculptures using discarded automobile parts that he twisted and welded into monumental shapes. He used the early modernist techniques of collage and assemblage at a magnified scale and he emphasized the brilliant colors of automotive paint. Chamberlain’s sculptures appeared in New York at the same time as the paintings of the Abstract Expressionists; some were his mentors and they shared a similar critical reception.

You can find the complete history on Chamberlain over here:

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-chamberlain-john.htm

and for some moving material :

and for some book titles visit www.ftn-books.com