December 8, 2013

The Hoff sings Fresh Prince theme tune with a twist

Filed under: Art,Shows by Branko Collin @ 2:25 pm

the-rip-hoff-sc-matthijs-vlotRotterdam-based video artist Matthijs Vlot created this clip of David Hasselhoff singing the theme tune to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air by splicing together clips from several shows the actor was in, including Knight Rider and Bay Watch.

I’ve seen this format before, but Vlot adds a twist. What the twist is you will have to see for yourself.

Apparently Hasselhoff tweeted “Amazing clip!” upon watching the video. More videos from Vlot can be found on his website, mattatjeoorlog.nl (a pun on ‘pattatje oorlog’, fries with peanut sauce and mayonnaise). The name of the video, The Rip-Hoff pt. 1, suggests there’s another video involving The Hoff in the making.

Illustration: screen captures of Vlot’s video.

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December 7, 2013

Leo Jordaan’s haunting World War II cartoons

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 3:57 pm

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The Fool’s Gold episode of this quarter’s Zone 5300 pointed me to the work of Leo Jordaan, Dutch film critic and political cartoonist.

His Nachtmerrie over Nederland (‘nightmare over the Netherlands’) collects the cartoons he drew during the war (underground, one assumes). They have a stylized, haunting quality that makes one wonder—if for a moment—how real the war was to Jordaan. Fool’s Gold calls the collection an “infernal after image” of the war and recommends that if you want to own this book (which was published in 1945), you should be able to find copies at second hand book stores “for the price of a crate of pilsner”.

The cartoon of the robot with the hand grenade hands shown above depicts the blitzkrieg attack on the Netherlands in May 1940 by Hitler’s armoured and motorized troops against a Dutch defence that consisted of little more than guys with guns.

If you find the price too steep, or Dutch second hand book stores too inaccessible, Geheugen van Nederland scanned the entire book for your on-line perusal

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November 29, 2013

Art experts don’t recognise Malevich’s monumental works

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 1:16 pm

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A bit in the same vein as a Dutch talent show jury not recognising an established singer-songwriter, this time a fake artist peddles copies of works by Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich in the hopes of being accepted to two possible art academies. Watch the video to find out more about why that is.

Someone actually does recognise the suprematist style of the candidate’s portfolio, with one man claiming to be ‘walking through art history’ when browsing through it. The general consensus is that the candidate’s work is ‘at the very early stages’ and not good enough to get into art school. However, these same works are worth millions of euro, some of which I believe are currently on display at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum for the Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde exhibition.

In Dutch, with English titles and subtitles, with a nice facepalm factor:

(Link: www.amsterdamadblog.com, Photo of Malevich’s works by ngEdwin, some rights reserved)

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November 27, 2013

Dutch art to be protected and kept in the country

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 11:51 am

Artworks that are considered to be of national importance will be given protected status in an effort to stop galleries from selling them to foreign or private buyers, according to rules drawn up by the Netherlands Museums Association. Dutch museums will also be given preferred buyer status for works they want to sell, and if a museum wants to sell something, they will have to wait two months to see if another domestic buyer comes forward first before selling to a party from outside the country.

Museum Gouda was criticised for selling The Schoolboys by Marlene Dumas, at Christie’s in London back in 2011 without first offering it to other Dutch museums, which highly displeased the Netherlands’ best selling contemporary artist.

Dutch museums, often at the centre of controversy, apparently own some 139 contentious artworks as well.

(Link: www.amsterdamherald.com; illustration: the Van Gogh that was ‘discovered’ in 2011)

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November 10, 2013

Tjalf Sparnaay’s hyperrealistic paintings

Filed under: Art,Food & Drink by Branko Collin @ 9:29 am

Tacky or serious craftsmanship? The hyperrealistic paintings of Tjalf Sparnaay have to be seen to be believed.

A friend of a friend bought a lithographic print of the painting shown above and hung it over her dinner table. According to the friend, Guuz Hoogaerts of the Filles Sourires blog, “you have to see it for real. The print is even on the small side. You keep looking — at least I did.”

To get an idea of the scale of the original paintings, check Mr Sparnaay’s website (linked above) where he has several photos of him next to a work in progress. Sparnaay paints still lifes containing fast food, marbles, trinkets for tourists, flowers, and so on.

Personally I’d go for something like the portion of fries shown below even though the subject may not provide the Hilversum-based artist as much of an opportunity to go wild with textures and reflections. Ketchup, though? What kind of abomination is that?

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November 6, 2013

Modern art exhibit in historical Amsterdam canal houses

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 10:44 pm

Amsterdam’s famous canal ring turned 400 this year and as part of the celebrations an art exhibit is being held in 15 historical canal houses.

The houses include the mayor’s residence just past the Golden Bend. The artists were selected by curator Siebe Tettero because they had some connection with Amsterdam. They include current darlings of the Dutch art scene Joep van Lieshout and Viviane Sassen.

The exhibit—called Chambres des Canaux—started this week and will run until 17 November except on Mondays. You can buy a ticket for 14 euro at the tourists offices which will give you access to all the venues.

Getting access to the former homes of rich traders sounds like a pretty unique in itself. Should you not be able to make it before 17 November, there is always the Museum Willet-Holthuysen on the Herengracht, which is the home of 19th century art collector Abraham Willet and which has been preserved in the style of its last residents.

(Link: I Amsterdam. Illustration: Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde, public domain)

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October 29, 2013

Dutch museums own some 139 contentious artworks

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 1:57 pm

According to years of research carried out by the Netherlands Museums Association on the origins of artworks, some 139 pieces of art acquired by Dutch museums between 1933 and 1945 (during the Nazi regime) are suspected of being stolen, confiscated or were sold to them by force. Some 41 museums have such artworks in their collections, many of which were owned by Jews.

The research, started in 2009, had as a goal of establishing what the extent was of the possession of contentious paintings after the end of WWII. Some 162 Dutch museums collaborated with researchers in order to help return artworks to their rightful owners and/or their heirs. A special website will go live at 4 pm has now gone live on Tuesday, 29 October (CET) for everyone to peruse and maybe even help.

The museum with the most ‘stolen’ artworks is the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (The Hague Municipal Museum), followed by Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Museum and Stedelijk Museum.

(Link: www.volkskrant.nl, www.museumvereniging.nl, (Illustration: Charing Cross Bridge by Claude Monet. Source: politie.nl)

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October 27, 2013

Théophile de Bock, the tree photographer

Filed under: Art,Photography by Branko Collin @ 3:08 pm

Théophile de Bock was a 19th century Dutch landscape painter whose current claim to fame is that his makes such a good street or school name.

He was also a landscape photographer and interestingly it appears that he was the only Dutch landscape photographer at the time. Arjan de Nooy explains:

Customers were not interested and [landscape photography] was apparently not attractive to photographers. In comparison with international nineteenth-century landscape photographers (such as Timothy O’Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, Gustave Le Gray) De Bock’s photos are more intimate and small-scale. He was, literally, close to his favourite subject, the trees and in particular his tree trunk photos are unique in nineteenth-century photography.

De Bock was only a photographer for a short time and it seems that his photos were only recently rediscovered. De Nooy believes that the success of his paintings put a stop to De Bock’s photography.

De Nooy has curated an exhibit at Walden Affairs in The Hague until 22 November. (The exhibit is open during the weekends and on appointment.)

(Link: Trendbeheer)

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October 8, 2013

Touch Van Gogh without leaving the comfort of home

Filed under: Art,Technology by Orangemaster @ 8:40 pm

Last week Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum launched the ‘Touch Van Gogh’ app, allowing people to examine paintings by Vincent van Gogh in minute detail. The app is free and lets people ‘discover the secrets of Van Gogh’s painting techniques and learn more about his working methods.’

The app shows how a painting looked before restoration, exactly where it was painted, where the paint has become discoloured, and how the composition is constructed. This English-language app is available for iOS 6 and Android, and can be downloaded from the Apple Store and Google Play.

Touch van Gogh is available in the exhibition ‘Van Gogh at work’, which will run until 12 January 2014. This anniversary exhibition features how Van Gogh developed, through ten years of working and learning, into ‘a unique artist with an astounding oeuvre’.

(Link: www.dutchdailynews.com, Photo of Van Gogh Museum poster by Elias Rovielo, some rights reserved)

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October 2, 2013

Woman walks through artwork and wrecks it

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

The Rijswijk museum in South Holland has been holding the Textile Biennial 2013, which runs until 27 October. However, last Friday a woman walked right through an artwork made up of blue and yellow sewing string and trashed the showcase piece Plexus No. 23 (watch him create it) by American artist Gabriel Dawe, saying that she was blinded by sunlight and didn’t see the installation.

Before you judge her, here’s the description of the artwork: “Gabriel Dawe captures light. He makes one-off site-specific installations of coloured threads. Clusters of threads fan out, stretching between floor and ceiling, reminiscent of captive rays of sun or a piece of the rainbow”.

Since the artwork cannot be restored, the artist will create another piece for the museum this week.

(Link: www.telegraaf.nlPhoto of Plexus No. 18 by Gabriel Dawe by ellenm1, some rights reserved)

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