next purchase or dialogue

The same day I went to AFH (see previous post) I had to go on in a high pace to Amsterdam. (where else) I'd got an invite from Isolde,(no Tristan around)who made an exhibit together with nine other artists who took a course as starting curator. As a curator you must be able to make exhibitions so they created this trial as their course-project. As artists they had plenty of art available. So they could concentrate on the exhibit itself.
All these artists are young, not long time away from the academy and eager to show their own taste of creation. The result was a very pioneering, hard to grasp, out-of the box art. The exhibition was not located, like AFH, in a hallway in an industrial zone kilometers far from the city centre. It was next to heart of the city centre of Amsterdam in a house which the inhabitant had transformed into an exhibition space. It couldn't be further from AFH metaphorically speaking.
The result I bought a picture. I had only a low resolution jpeg, but I replaced it by a better one. In the picture you see a frame. I actually bought the picture framed in the same frame which is in the picture. It shows that the picture isn't disconnected from the real life. The frame in the real world frames the picture and within the picture the same frame frames a piece of the picture. This inner outer world connection is enhanced by the socket which is just in the upper right corner of the picture. Off course this socket is there on purpose. It's easier to leave the socket out of the view than to show the socket in that precise corner. This creates a down-to-eart approach: Isolde created a picture from a woman lying in a pink dress under a frame flat on the ground, but keep in my mind this picture was taken in a place where sometimes people need a light or to hoover so there is also a socket in the wall.

Art Antiques Fair Den Bosch

This Sunday I went to a fair I'd never gone before Art and Antiques Fair Den Bosch.

My conclusion: It wasn't a complete waste of time.

That is not a very positive remark. But I am not very positive. Art and Antiques Fair Den Bosch(in short AFH) is a pale shadow of a fair like Primavera. AFH is an old fair established in 1967 but its glance is fading. The antiques are now being replaced by contemporary art to attract younger visitors. As a young visitor (really 36 and still young) I skipped all Antiques, glanced a few times over the modern art and had a thorough look at the contemporary art. I actually saw four booths with nice art. None of them however had any pioneering art. No Tinkerbel here, this was art for the living room to replace the reproduction from Monet above the couch. Not boring, but not shocking either. As for the children's room of waiting room. Nice to look it, but in no way confronting or with a second layer. To see what I mean a nice picture from Willy Rojas. Very nice for a children's room who will enjoy it. But it cannot keep my mind busy for more than 10 seconds.

delivery twice

About a week ago I blogged that I bought a painting from Irina Babiouk. This painting was delivered this Thursday by courier. Happily I unpacked it. For the major part it was as I expected.
However I saw one minute black streak of paint. Really minute, but it was an eye catcher and distracted me from the essence of the painting itself. No sulking for me however I sent an e-mail to Irina and explained the problem. A day later she offered to correct the painting and yesterday she did. So within two days the problem was over. Below you see twice the painting. One time with and one time without the black streak.

just another day at the office

So what does a collector do on a quiet Wednesday. Due to circumstances I was early away from work. So I went to the inner city of Utrecht.
At first I bought the book Puur (pure) from Mery dedicated to her project of photographing Teenage mothers.
Next I bought some white gloves to handle my art more cautiously. Some works form Boukje Janssen I recently bought, require more subtlety on handling.
After that I went to Flatland gallery to see their exhibition. It was a nice exhibition in a very nice building. I'd actually never been to that gallery. They focus on photography which I like but their aim is a little bit too high for my budget. After that I went to a second hand bookshop and bought an old catalogue from Sotheby's "photographs from the Bert Hartkamp collection" It gives a nice overview for the contemporary photography.
Finally I got home and found a letter from gallery Smarius. They sent me a special guest badge for the fair Art Amsterdam, so I can enter the preview and enter during this fair whenever I like for free.

House keeping or After Sales 2

So Easter is almost over. I used some time to add labels, probably too many, to all my posts. To the right you can see them all and search posts which have the label.

Next to housekeeping of my blog I did some house keeping of my works of art too. I hung two works of Boukje Janssen. These are some out of the ordinary. So I couldn't use my usual arrangements. One is a necklace with the text "is there something we should know" in mirror image. It is very light and very vulnerable. It needs three pins to hang it on the wall. So I put it on a place out of the way of draught. And a place I could hammer three pins in the wall. One letter the "u" turned 90 degrees so I had to keep it in place by a broken off pin.

The other one is mostly black velvet with black pins pointing outwards. It's almost impossible to see the pins because of the same color. So this one I had to put on a quiet spot where now one accidentally could be hurt. After all art belongs on eye height. And eyes and pins don't mix together. I put it in place by hammering 8 black pins around it. So now a a work of art mainly consisting of black velvet and black pins is kept in place by black pins.

The battery from my mobile phone is empty so I cannot take pictures. They will come later.

Lost and found

In a previous post I was looking for the creator of a work of art from which I knew the first name. "Cathalijne"
That one was identified by Sanneke as a work from Cathalijne van Gent, which she confirmed.

Now it is more difficult. These works below I know nothing from except that I bought them on kunstveilingazie.nl. This was an online benefit auction for aiding the victims from the tsunami that struck the Asian coast in 2005.

Who recognises these? The cat is on canvas and about a square meter. The woman is about 40 x 50 centimeters.

Stop making sense

Stop making sense is the title of an exhibition I got an invite for. The exhibition is just a weekend in place. And is of course in Amsterdam. I got the invite because I am in contact with one of the artists. Isolde Woudstra is a fashion photographer with autonomous traits or the other way around: an autonomous photographer with fashion traits. (As long as the clothes do not consist of leather or fur.)
Below you see the first photo I bought from her. "My favourite sweater"



I'm sorry for the Americans who read my blog. But at school in the Netherlands we learn the UK-version of English. So it is favourite not favorite.