Priorities

Since September I've begun studying (partime)Art history.
This takes a lot of time.

Because of this I have set some priorities.
In the foreseeable future I will not contine this blog.

I will however continue my Dutch blog http://kunstverzamelaar.blogspot.com/ after I've updated it.
As native Dutch speaker writing Dutch cosst much less effort than writing in English and translating into Dutch.

My last buy was this picture from Erwin Olaf. It measures 60 x 80 cm.

holiday with internet

I'm really overdue to write about the other graduation exhibitions in Amsterdam and Den Bosch. The last works I purchased and even Art Amsterdam.

But I expect this week some posts from me :-)

Graduation exhibitions Utrecht

Last week I've been to three graduation exhibitions. At first I went to the exhibition in my own city Utrecht. This was divided between two buildings several kilometers apart from each other. The first day and for the first day I had an abundance of time to watch and to speak to the students.
A graduation exhibition usually lasts four days and the student artists are usually around and willing to talk about their art. The first day I talked to a few photography and illustration graduates. Two graduates peaked in my eyes. Natascha Boel made her graduation work around intensiveparenting (she has two childeren)She made beautiful drawings of childeren. You can see them on her website here. (Click on the lower part of the suitcase to see her "eindexamenproject" (graduation project))
In the section photography made her project about a less soft subject.
She photographed machines for slaughtering animals. Very clean stainless steel machines, which seem to have been used in a movie like Terminator.
You can see the pictures here

Soon I will blog about the graduation exhibiom from the Rietveld academy (Amsterdam)and AKV/St Joost (Den Bosch)




As I haven't bought yet from any graduation student this year and I usually only show pictures from works of art I own.

Below two pictures form Martine Derks I bought through an auction site. She graduated in 2008 from the Rietveld Academy.
She made an installation for the Naarden photography festival. This festival is world famous in the Netherlands. You can see yth installation on her site.

She will have her next exhibition in the Amsterdam center of photography.

Holiday

I am on holiday. So for the next week no new posts.

Next pictures are two nice skies from Francine Steegs.

Tinkebell again

I just read that the book "Dearest Tinkebell" has been sold out.
On the internet it is sold for 60 euros, the original price was 25 euros.

In a previous post I wrote I bought a copy. I actually bought more copies. Maybe I will sell one to cover my expenses. I don't know yet. One copy I want to give tot my art society in Utrecht "Kunstliefde" (Love for Art) they wil auction or sell it June 20th. Look here for more details.

I don't know yet what to do with my spare copies. I will keep one and probably give away the other ones.

My First art collection Foam

Most readers know that I'm the student in an art collector's course.
This Saturday we went to FOAM (Photography Museum Amsterdam).

In there Willem Diepraam, a well-known Photographer, photo critic and licensed assessor for photographs showea part of his collection and told us whatever he found useful to know for starting photo collectors.

I remembered and will remember two things from his "speech".
1. The photo market is a buyer's market. Don't rush. There are so many photographs you can always buy good ones. I think this applies to the complete contemporary art world. There is so much art you can choose from you will always find something you like. So don't rush, tomorrow there is art too.

2. Do your homework. He explicitly recommended to "History of Photography" books I cannot remember. I started to collect books about fashion photography. It appears that I like the autonomous works from fashion photographers. So I bought a book with an overview of Duth fashion photography.

I will buy a book from Helmut Newton. He paved the path for many photographers after him.
From one of the I bought two large pictures. These ar from the series "Anonymous"
It shows nude female models in a position like they are sturdy men and with their face covered in such way they represent an action-hero and stay anonymous.

I bought these two pictures from Liselotte Schuppers.
Without Helmut Newton, she couldn't have made what she did. But we can enjoin.

I bought these whith size 120 x 80 cm which make them real impressive.

Hall of Art (Kunsthal)

With my money spent, I need other ways to work on my art collection.
In Rotterdam exits the Kunsthall (Art Hall.) They held there the first day of June two exhibitions for the last day.

One was dedicated to the "Prix de Rome 200 years" the most distinguished award one can get in art in the Netherlands. It used to be a certain amount of money which had to be spent to make a journey to Rome. This started 200 years ago, when the Netherlands were occupied by the French, and the French King from the Netherlands, Lodewijk Napoleon, (a brother form emperor Napoleon) created the award following a French tradition.
Nowadays the award is biannual and the artist can do whatever she likes with it.

Also in the Kunsthal was an exhibition dedicated to the former owner of Torch gallery, who recently died from cancer. He owned the gallery for 25 years. So his artists are a cross section from 25 years contemporary art. He very much liked photography, he was one of the first to bring it into the contemporary art world.

Below some pictures:


This is a photo from Elpseth Diederix. She won the first prize of the Grand Prix de Rome 2002 photography.



This photo is from Inez van Lamsweerde who was supported by Torch gallery.





This is an overview from some Torch painters in which you get an idea from the architectural style the Kunsthall is built in.



These photographs are from Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm. If you think these are just pictures upside down. Then try this: click on the picture to enlarge it and turn your monitor 180 degrees. You will be surprised.

After Rotterdam I went to Amsterdam. The Fotoacademie (Photo Academy) had her graduation exhibition. I went there to scout for new talent. I found many of them. One I wll be certainly following, because I did not understand her work at all.

She is Sanne Thunissen. Her website is here
Her Artist's statement was put in a Haiku from Onitsura.
So they blossom,
and so I look, and so,
they drop down and so.

These pictures below are form her.

Trying to escape?

This chicken belongs to the same series as in the previous post.
It's called "Trying to escape?"
More at saveachick.nl

I originally didn't buy this chick but I switched this chick for another photo with chicks. That's why this picture is later than the previous two.

budget and collecting 3

Fact my budget has been spent more or less.

In a previous post I said I was in the process of narrowing down m choices . I somehow did.

1. Carla van de Puttelaar I actually decided to buy a photograph from her and I did this Friday. It will take a lot of paperwork to conclude an I need to make space it's 208 x 78 cm but bought is bought.
2. Liselotte Schuppers. A month ago I visited her house and selected two photographs from the Anonymous series. (Superman and Gladiator) She made me a good offer. I took the offer this Friday, but delivery will take place in December 2009. I need to save some money first.
3. Nicky Onderwater: I emailed her for a price query. Prices are stiff but fair, some discount for prints already printed for an exhibition. Hard to choose for these pictures. Result: alas next year she has a better chance. Not enough budget left.
4.Boukje Janssen: she has a group exhibition "...Expectations" during ArtAnsterdam with unknown work. That was not the work I really liked but in the previous post you saw that I did buy one work.
5. Any other artists on ArtAmsterdam I might encounter. I encountered many artists saw many works and bought one from Jantien Jongsma.
I will come back at her when discussing ArtAmsterdam.
6. Janneke Sprenkels: she will be on the Art & design sale at the TAC. Unknown to her she still has a trump card. One of her works is on my want list.
Unbelievable, but that work is still on my want list. I did buy three other (cheaper) works from her.
7. Marleen v/d Heuvel and Liselotte de Groot were also on the Art & design sale at the TAC. But no trump cards here. No trump cards, but their prices were so low I couldn't resist. I bought 3 works from Marleen and 2 from Liselotte.
8. Other artists on the Art & design sale: there was actually one I brought work from. Karlijn de Groot and her sister Liselotte de Groot were sharing a booth. I bought 5 photographs from her.
9. Merel van Beukering wasn't at the sale but I contacted her about some photographs and bought one photograph as stated a few days ago.
10. I found some more options to buy art I wasn't aware a month ago. To avoid more confusion I'll leave them out for now. I also did not use them, although they're very tempting. Maybe later I use them.

These were the original 10, but I found out some more works to buy.
11. I bought a photo through the photoq.nl auction see this post. and I've bid on two more which will end in a month or so. These weren't expected.
12. I bought two installations from Roos van der Heiden which wasn't the intention beforehand.
13. Amanda Besl is back in the picture her Gallery Aeroplastics made a smart move, they offered a payment in installments. Maybe they're reading this blog. :-)

I do have the inclination to buy the high end art and so more expensive work.
I actually did buy 1,2, 4, 5 with high end expensive work, but all with payment in installments or with a late delivery. In the lower end I bought a lot of works but most under 100 euros with a few exceptions. So I still can afford collecting art.
These installments will have effect on my budget for next year, but I thought the same thing last year and I still cope with it easily.

I bought three pictures from Janneke Sprenkels as I stated in #6, from these I publish two pictures with some humor in it:
First: A Game of Chess:


Second: Making eggs.

purchase #40 Boukje Janssen

Sometimes coincidence needs a little help. This Friday I went to the atelier from Boukje Janssen to have a look at the installation Ensemble. I had seen it on her website and was seriously interested to buy it.

However the installation was too vulnerable for my taste. Considering I have a cat lingering in my house who likes strings to play with and likes to explore new places to lie in. The only thing I could have done was buy it and immediately stock it. Therefore buying wasn't a real option. I buy art to watch it not to stock it.

However next to the installation Boukje had hung a just finished painting. It had a similar theme and even a similar figure like "Ensemble".
Yesterday I bought it. Delivery will of course be later, that's quite common in Art.
One surprise is still left. The painting hasn't got a name yet... Yes it was that fresh.

Below a picture:


and a detail:


---
general remark about my blog:
The close watcher will have seen that I skipped a lot of numbers of my purchases.
The even more close watchers will have seen that about five artists moved from "watch list" to "in collection". I reveal later what I bought from whom.
And yes I will discuss ArtAmsterdam later.

Dearest Tinkebell,

TINKEBELL. has a different view on the world than most of us. She wants to explore why our society is made like it is. Usually she is focused on our behaviour against animals. Why is it illegal to import cat's or dog's fur into the EU but breed thousands of minks in the Netherlands to make fur coats out of them?

In my blog I use her name often to distinguish between fairs which just show the easy art for above the couch(Primavera, Eindhoven) and fairs which also show more controversial art. (ArtAmsterdam , ArtRotterdam)

This is not without a reason in stead of just questioning she acts. Probably her most controversial project was killing her own cat and making a purse out of it.

An other one was saving 61 male-chickens out of the bio-industry, however threatening to put them into a shredder if the chickens weren't bought from her. about 10 were bought...
A third one was making a cat/dog from the fur of a cat and a dog. Inside out the dog became a cat and the other way around.


Mostly because of the first performance she got hate mail. About 100000 hate mails did she get. So what does a artist like TINKEBELL. with 100000 hate mails?
She makes a book out of them. Together with Coralie Vogelaar she took about thousand
of these mails and went looking for information about the ones who sent the on the Internet. Coralie described it as searching in "the armpit of the Internet"

The result is a 700 page book full of hate mail and pictures and texts from the ones who sent those e-mails which were picked from the Internet.
The question rises whether it's illegal to create a book with copyrighted hate mails, Internet based texts and photo's. Yes it probably is. No one mentioned in the book however tried to get the book out of the market by a court decision.

So you can still buy your own copy. Therefore look here.

And what was my action? I bought the book the first day it was published. I wasn't the only one. They were for sale in the booth at ArtAmsterdam from the Gallery representing her. It was sold out the same day. The following days people kept asking for the book both at the booth but also at the information desk of the fair.

Some remarks afterwards: Her cat she killed was maltreated by the previous owners and was behaving at least strange. Most people would have taken the cat to the vet to have it killed. TINKEBELL. isn't most people.
The male chickens' destination was the shredder before they were "rescued" by TINKEBELL. This happens all the time in the Netherlands.

Finally a link to a youtube movie about the Popple (the dog/cat). (In Dutch but pictures speak for themselves.)
A link to an English article from a Dutch paper.

budget purchase #23 Merel van Beukering

Sometimes I collect according to plan. Coincidence or plain chance usually have the most influence in what I buy. This one was different. In the begin of this year I placed Merel van Beukering on my watch list. A few weeks ago I contacted her about her works. She mentioned what was for sale en for which price.

An other part of the plan was to contact Nicky Onderwater for her photography. Also she sent met pictures and her price. I liked her work, but won't buy it this year. To understand her work I want to buy two pictures, but that doesn't fit into my budget. They go on my want-list. I do not show her pictures because I usually just show what I bought.
But an other link is here.

I did buy one picture from Merel van Beukering. But also placed one of her works on my want list for next year.

The one I bought you can see below.

spare flies and bees

I skip Art Amsterdam for now, but will come back later.

At my Art Club in Utrecht (kunstliefde) there is an exhibition from "Belofte 4" i.e. Promising 4.

In there was some amazing work from Roos van der Heiden. She makes installations with insects in them. They are mostly called "Worst case scenario #." I actually never saw an installation made around insects.

I bought "Worst case scenario 4" and #5. After e-mailing her she promised she would deliver some spare parts in the form of dead bees and flies.


The artists statement:
Bird's parch in backdoor gardens.
The driver searches for a spot to park his car.
A chicken wonders where her leg has gone.
Wood stacks in front of the house.

I buy a loaf of bread and pick up the parched bird
I watch the driver and the empty parking spot.
The chicken lays her last egg en I take my soldering iron.
Wood is in the wheelbarrow and will hang from the ceiling later on.

What would be the faith of a pigeon in a cage whose owner has died a few weeks ago?
Why are there so many recreational facilities and are we bored to death?
I would like to lure a mouse with a piece of chewing gum.

What I make has a trail of events from which I do not question the purpose or aimlessness.
In my thoughts I stroll from memory to experience and from materialisation to frustration.

And pictures:

purchase #19 Anouk Kruithof

To avoid titles as "again another purchases" I started to number them.
This photo is my 19th purchase this year. I bought it from the auction website from photoq.nl.
The Artist is Anouk Kruithof, an ambitious and talented artist who goes from residency to residency. Nowadays she resides in Prague.
The photo I bought however is in Berlin. So I t will take some time before it will be delivered.
Below you can see it. It's called "There is ..." It's more in installation she made a photo of than a plain photo. Anouk usually makes installations and photographs.


You can view more work at www.anoukkruithof.nl -> works

Art Amsterdam

I've been now twice to ArtAmsterdam this week. And I wil go Sunday as well.

Here are some pictures:

I took an option on this painting:
"Oeteldonk"(the name during Carnaval for the city 's Hertogenbosch") from Jantien Jongsma Gallery Smarius.


Erik Sep in the booth from Gist


In the front the South Terrace in the back the painting from Ayako Rokkaku (Gallery Delaive) she made during the first days of ArtAmsterdam.


Galerie 10 with Joris Kuipers


The huge paintings (3 meters high) from Annemarie Busschers in the booth from Gallery Mokum

Pigeon Exhibition in Oslo

Sanneke Duijf has her MA graduation exhibtion in Oslo within a few weeks. This takes place from the June 4th to June 7th.

For the exhibition look here

Below you see Sanneke Duijf's artist's statement for her graduation work.
This site is related to the work.

Keep the change:
Visual Social Interaction in the Age of Digital Communication

Our fast society might need a different pace to engage oneself and another. People get more inventive when they are challenged and placed in unknown situations. Designed interventions in our daily life, could bring a pause & reflect.

What is happening now in the Design World, is that business is being exposed to art expressions and art is being commercialised; this creates new situations, interpretations and interfaces. I have chosen to use this occasion to design forms of social engagement.
I can’t change people and I can’t change behaviour. However, I can create places in space, and I can create exercises that convey learning moments, stimulate reflection and activate awareness. All of these, I hope will bring about positive behaviour and empowerment to the individual.

In times like these, when a worldwide economical crisis has suddenly emerged, it is an opportunity for us to open our eyes and genuinely see what is there; it is a chance to
reform, rather than hastily attempting to take control by way of old patterns. There is a reason why things accumulate – it is time for change.



If you're wondering about the title: Duijf means pigeon.

ethnic art and Liesje Reijskens

My collector's class (MFAC) went a week ago into the old part of Amsterdam "De Jordaan". In that neighbourhood are dozens of galleries. Hidden behind dirty windows and a closed door is Gallery "native art". we were there to try to broaden our horizon in art. The gallery is loaded with hundreds to thousands pieces of ethnic art. They mostly come from Africa and Indonesia. As in all art works also in ethnic art the focus is on what is considered important. Felix de Rooy broke it down in three concepts. Rejuvenation often shown as a snake or lizard because these animals can renew there skin. Second: female fertility shown as women with large breasts, bellies, thighs and very clear vagina's. Third: male fertility usually shown as large penises.
We, the students, got the assignment to look for an object we liked most and then try to explain what we liked about it.
In the picture below Rob Aussen (the old man) is holding a ceremonial scepter I liked that object most because of the simple forms and the similarity. Really ethnic art is not my cup of tea.
The man with the cap is Felix de Roy. I am standing in the back wearing a red shirt.

There were also more extreme works of art like the bird/man in the following picture. That is too much ethnic art for me. It was chosen by Anita Frank who took the pictures.


After this we went to Gallery 23, which is in an open clean and spacey location. Completely the opposite. gallery 23 is focused on modern African art. This looked more like western art although the African influences were visible.
For example a chair form Mozambique completely built out of parts of Kalashnikov rifles. After the civil war there was an abundance of these.
An other artist used pieces of enamel form broken down commercial pictures. It somehow looked with a twist. That twist is Africa.

After this visit we had lunch and everyone went his or her way. I went back to the Jordaan to visit some galleries.
There I saw the in the Ververs gallery the exhibition from Liesje Reijskens. The works are orginal and good. But they somehow didn't end up on my want list.But maybe they will later. Liesje is a 24 year old Belgium photographer. She takes pictures from girls her own age and makes surrealistic or fairy tale like photo's.
Below a surrealistic one. Those are the ones I liked most.

narrowing down

In the first post of my blog I wrote I wanted to find out what makes me collect? How do I make my collection. How do I want to get form a bunch of works of art to a collection.

My huge problem is, there is so much art. So I need guide lines for myself to restrict that amount I choose from.

In a previous post I mentioned my abcde list:
All the artists I have work from or a I am interested in are on one of these lists.

A stands for: I will buy every year
E stands for: You're on my list most probably because I once bought a piece of art from you. But it's unlikely it will happen again.
You can think out the other lists for yourself.

Who is on which list I keep for myself, although two artists will be revealed in this post if you read carefully.
The amount of artists on my lists are as follows
A: 2 & 0
B: 6 & 1
C: 9 & 0
D:15 & 5 undecided 1
E: 7 & 9

Sum 39 & 15 & 1

I made a simple split up in male and female artists. The female are on the left, the makes on the right. It's easy to see that I prefer the women.
Why do I prefer female artists? I don't know. It doesn't really matter.

5 minutes ago I made a decision.

I decided from now on I only collect female artists. For the current collection and the old artists on my watch list it doesn't really matter. Most of them were women. For seeking new artists it makes live much easier. 50% of the artists I can walk past without needing to remember them or to look for their website or make queries about them.

In the previous post about my decision time. In Category 10 there were 4 photographs from a male artist. They're not any more.

As for now I keep one exception. Matijs van de Kerkhof stays on my watch list. As I make the rules I can break them whenever I like :-)

The undecided artist is a duo. They also stay on my list. Check out their website. They create their own views on the world of today.
http://www.exactitudes.com/

budget and collecting 2

Fact: in May I will spend the rest of my budget.

I'm in the process of narrowing down the opportunities:

1. Carla van de Puttelaar I actually decided to buy a photograph from her but as long as I haven't all options are open.
2. Liselotte Schuppers. This Monday I visited her house and selected two photographs from the Anonimous series. (Superman and Gladiator) She made me a good offer.
3. Nicky Onderwater: I emailed her for a price query. Prices are stiff but fair, some discount for prints already printed for an exhibition. Hard to choose for these pictures.
4.Boukje Janssen: she has a group exhibition "...Expectations" during ArtAnsterdam with unknown work.
5. Any other artists on ArtAmsterdam I might encounter
6. Janneke Sprenkels: she will be on the Art & design sale at the TAC. Unknown to her she has a trump card. One of her works is on my want list.
7. Marleen v/d Heuvel and Liselotte de Groot will also be on the Art & design sale at the TAC. But no trump cards here.
8. Other artists on the Art & design sale.
9. Merel van Beukering will not be at the sale but I contacted her about some photographs.
10. This Friday I found some more options I wasn't aware about Thursday. To avoid more confusion I'll leave them out for now.

Still a lot of narrowing down to do...

To make it more interesting a puzzle here.

For each artist I give the price-range for a work I like. All prices are in Euros. The order below is not rally random. With a little knowledge you can crack the code to match the letters with the numbers.

a 2250 to 4950 (want to buy one)
b 850 to 1500 (want to buy two)
c 550 to 975 (want to buy two)
d estimate 300 to 4000 (want to buy at least one)
e estimate 200 to 100000 (want to buy at least one)
f 55 to 425 (want to buy at least one)
g 100 to 200 (estimate)(want to buy at least one)
h more unknown usually under 100 (want to buy at least one)
i estimate 750 (want to buy two)
j 85 to 495 (want to buy two)

The sum is about 16000 euros. (I took some liberty to eliminate the more unlikely buys to create a realistic sum.)
From that amount I can postpone the payment of about 6000 euros to later years. (I know I can make some arrangements with galleries) So that leaves 10000 euros for this year. In my budget is just 3000 euros left...

How Am I gonna choose: First I will go to ArtAmsterdam to Tac and to the exhibition Expectations. There I will decide.

I do have the inclination to buy the high end art and so more expensive work. (i.e. #1,2,4) But that will come a the cost of many lower end and way cheaper works.

The outcome is still unknown.

I'll end the post with the first photograph I bought from Marije Arends in 2005. In the previous post I showed the last three works I bought from her.

fast purchase and delivery Marije Arends

The last few weeks I've been busy to decide how to spend my last euros of budget. My challenge is that on one hand I like to chase for new artists and new art. On the other hand I want to keep a close eye to a few artists I've been collecting for one to more years. So while I was hunting for new works I decided instantly to buy some work which had been on my want list for at least a year. Because If I wouldn't I would.

I sent the e-mail Sunday night. This tuesday she brought the pictures. Must be a record.

The artist is Marije Arends. Anyone called "From the Eagle" (= Arends translated) should have an eagle's eye while creating art. Below you see the works I bought. They're part of a documentary series. She followed closely friends and family and took photographs from a very different perspective.
But see for yourselves.

budget and collecting

Collecting is choosing. Every budget is limited, so is mine. May is the month I usually spend the most money on art. This has two main reasons. The second is ArtAmsterdam, that is the biggest art fair in the Netherlands. It's mainly Dutch but it has a sturdy international component. Quality is high, some art is within my budget. The last two times I bought art and I never intended too when I went.

The first reason is the art and design sale in the Tac in Eindhoven. That's the place I started to buy art in such quantities I started collecting. Since the first time year it's kept I go and buy. This year won't be different.
Janneke Sprenkels will be there and probably Marleen v/d Heuvel or Matthijs v/d Kerkhof. Merel van Beukering and Liselotte de Groot (both on my watch list) might be there as well.
Tac is short for Temporary Art Centre. It's situated in an old Philips building. (For the Football fans: the Philips stadium, home base for PSV,is right across the street. Philips was founded in Eindhoven.) Tac is meant for creating art. There are dozens of ateliers in the building and a small dozen of multi purpose spaces. Exhibitions parties, workshops and the Art and design sale are held here. Many artists from my buy or watch list will be there so I will leave Eindhoven with a trunk full of art and ann empty wallet.

That's the easy part. There are however artists who are high on my watch list, but I'm sure I won't meet on ArtAmsterdam or in the Tac. So I'm helping faith a little bit. I e-mailed Liselotte Schuppers for a price query on the photography and I will go tomorrow to an exhibition from Liesje Reijskens in Amsterdam. Next to this I received lists from gallery Aeroplastics for Amanda Besl and Shadi Ghadirian.

The problem gets obvious far too many artists and works and not enough budget. To make things worse I've already decided to buy one large work from Carla van de Puttelaar. My biggest buy ever considering size (205 x 78 cm) and price (twice the amount from my second largest buy.) Although I will pay this in 36 months it still creates a gap in my budget.

I alomst forgot the works from Boukje Janssen which came back from New York but are stuck now at customs.

So this month it's decision time.

The least likely to buy this year is the work from Amanda Besl.
She makes paintings on small panels depicting adolescent girls.
To compensate here her picture "a beautiful moustache"



Artist's Statement of Amanda Besl:

In my recent work I try to evoke an open-ended fiction while speaking of the documentary quality of photography, the language of fashion photography, the viscosity of oil paint, and the transient nature of memory. My paintings emerge from a cultural feminine perspective, exploring the complexities of an aesthetic that fetishizes youth. The images are a string of metaphors that build series of events. The paintings are small in size in order to allow a more intimate viewing experience and to recall their history as photographic images. They pop from the wall off beveled edges to create a staccato rhythm of frozen suggestive moments. My pieces are cinematic in nature. I link seemingly unrelated sensory images which inform each other as narrative moments. The subject matter balances on the fine line between the mundane and the obscure. To view these paintings is to partake in a visual eavesdropping on the secretive world that engulfs today's girl.

I focus upon metaphors of the transient nature of adolescence. Horses act as a suggestive counterpart in paintings which are mostly devoid of human males. The fetishistic quality of these pocket-sized worlds emphasizes the idea of obsessive crushes. I am interested in heroic transformations of ordinary events which exist both as dark psychological secrets and as adult fairy tales supplanting their predecessors. These paintings are not nostalgic, except as personal nostalgia. They are not apologetic or hedonistic and have any number of possible endings or possibly no ending—just a pause, a breath.

More housekeeping.

Yesterday I installed my last piece of art I bought at ArtRotterdam. It's very fragile and really 3-d. So I had to find a spot. Where know one comes I don't know about, my cat cannot come, where there is no wind or draught.
So I placed it in my bedroom on eye level.
It consists of two small mirrors in an angle of 90 degrees and in between a transparent sheet with the text from a sermon on it, with as a subject: when does one actually exist.
The object is between two photographs, one from Isolde Woudstra on the left and one from Mery on the right.

Art Brussels 2009

This Friday I went to ArtBrussels. I should have been we but my Mfac co-student was confused by the wrong house number and never reached my house.
Artbrussels is held in the Expo next to the Atomium. It is divided into two halls. I took the backdoor because of the parking lot I'd put my car for the incredible amount of 4 euros. (I expected 10.)

I walked in and the first thing I grabbed was the floor plan. ArtBrussels is large. 172 galleries are represented. (425 wanted in) I think 3 to 4 football matches could take place in this space now dedicated to art. The next thing I did was grabbing a lunch and looking at the plan looking for familiar galleries.

Off course I should go to Ronmandos the gallery I had the invite from. I actually saw their booth just 5 hours later. I started in Hall 3 and had my first good surprise within 15 minutes. Aeroplasctics Contemporary sold paintings from Amanda Besl. Her paintings are on the first picture. They're all small, very realistic made in high detail and all from young women. I own two from her paintings. I bought them at ArtAmsterdam two years ago, my first buy from a gallery.

They had more work, I liked Shadi Ghadirian as well. But I think her fame Will make her very fast too expensive for my taste. Good for her though.
I saw a wonderful video from Antoine Roegier and missed an other one. I strolled from booth to booth saw very nice works from artists who are very well known but I had never known them. Endless my stroll was, after two hours I was just halfway hall 1 and still had one and a half hall left.
My conclusion half way therefore was. ArtAmsterdam and ArtRotterdam may be nice, but this is a different cup of tea. The quality of the art is the same, but the quantity is way larger. Luckily there was also a bar which sold good an cold Belgian beer. In total I visited them twice in my 5,5 hours walking amongst art, to drench my thirst and to rest my feet. I saw some nice works from Marina Abramovic. I thought she just made performances jeopardizing her own life. But she also makes pictures from Chinese children sleeping with M-16's.

Guided tours were held twice a day, and I joined one of the. Together with just two other people. While being guided I found out that I thought I'd covered now three quearters of the exhibition. Bu it really makes a difference which way you go through an aisle. The aisles I'd covered form left to right we now went through from right to left and while walking that way I saw completely different art.
So I'd missed a lot.
The tour was very nice. It mentioned the sculpture from picture two below. Is seems to abstract but if you look well enough a face can be seen.

After the tour I scooted through the last aisles, vsited RonMandos, and started to collect the prices and other information I wanted from the artists I really liked an were probably within my budget. The Austrian artist Marc Aschenbrenner shown by gallery Olaf Stueber (Berlin) , is one of them.
I collected my data, didn't buy a thing and went home. Dead tired but content after a 5,5 hour walk between international works of art I headed for my car.

Final cononclusion: best art fair I ever visisted, from the point of quality and quantity
Below some more overview pictures:

collecting and connecting

As a single and more living inside my head than outside it is often a lonely job being an art collector. My colleagues and friends are at least bewildered when they find out I pay as much as an inclusive two-week Holiday to Turkey for a few works of art I bought at ArtRotterdam and considered cheap.

I don;t have the budget to go with the crowd when buying, so I chase my own taste. I have no spouse or children who are dependent on me. So all the money I have left I can put in my art-budget and no one complains about it.

So I do have some urge to connect with fellow collectors who understand my problems like will I buy three photographs from Marije Arends or one from Hellen van Meene?

As an IT-consultant, to keep the headhunters away I will not specify my specialty, I have a profile on linkedin. I'm already connected to three different art groups.
The problem is however is that those artgroups are spammed by professionals in the art scene who want to sell their services, their own art work, or the art work they represent.

Somehow I was delighted when I was made aware of www.independent-collectors.com A networking site for collectors only. It's Germany based so most collectors are European. And for me an important German area as the Ruhr area is about a two hour drive by car. So very close.

The site is just starting so to start up they asked Tommi Brem to start a blog about starting collecting art. So he did here.
He is a really new not in collecting, he collected SF-books and records before this, but he is in art.

Although he is confronted with the same problems as I am. Many impressions, small budget, what to buy, why to buy. There also huge differences. He has a wife, who must be devoted to him and sometimes in complete denial of his actions. (She picked up a piece of art at German customs containing a drawing with a swastika, which is illegal in Germany.) So he cannot exceed his budget without getting up in a row with his wife. I can decide to enlarge my budget whenever I feel like it.
The other one and more important one is that I started to paddle in the sea of art by buying a painting somewhere in 1999 at a local second hand bookshop in Middelburg.
A picture of it, I show in this post. He really plunged in the deep. He has been to Art Basel with side shows and Art Basel Miami, these are fairs I've never been to.
He decided to collect. I somehow found out two years ago that I was collecting art when I had been buying for 8 years and collecting for two years.

The similarities are, we both blog and both collect and enjoy it.

Tomorrow I will go to my first foreign ArtFair. Art Brussels is just abroad, someone from my MFAC students will join me to the always surprising Belgians. Let's see what happens.

again housekeeping, with pictures

In a previous post about housekeeping I promised pictures from the almost 3d-objects from Boukje Janssen.

Here they are. You really need to enlarge the to see the needles in the eye and the needle which keeps the "u" in place from. "Is there anything we..."
The last picture is the photograph on a standardized spot in my living room. usually the works of art which are hanging here are larger.