The Wood-polyester chair by Friso Kramer
Not many of Friso Kramer’s Wood-polyester chairs are in circulation. Even though the chair is part of the design collection of the Stedelijk Museum, little information can be found about it. A conversation with Netty Kramer, spouse and secretary of the designer, sheds light on this rare designer chair.
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The influence of the Glass School in Leerdam
The Glass School in Leerdam was more than this name would suggest. Perhaps, the creative school can be considered as the Design Academy of the 1940s.
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Jan Eisenloeffel: From sober utensil to unique luxury product
Jan Eisenloeffel (1876 – 1957) was a leading artist within the field of the applied arts. He is considered one of the most prominent Dutch designers of the early 20th century. Together with H.P. Berlage, Chris Lebeau and Jac. van den Bosch, he has been characteristic for the ‘constructivist direction’ within the Nieuwe Kunst, the Dutch version of Art Nouveau. But his influence was not limited to The Netherlands, his works were also exhibited and admired abroad.
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The sexy sixties of Marja de Boer Lichtveld
We dive into the turbulent 1960s of the young, just graduated artist Marja de Boer Lichtveld. Freedom, love and the female body are central to her work. She makes cheerful and colourful art without shying away from showing breasts and genitalia. A number of these early works – which are all on show at the gallery of Kunstconsult – are rediscovered after 50 years and form a true period piece of the sexual revolution of the late 1960s.
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The versatility of Cris Agterberg: Art and Craft
Although he received praise for his many qualities as a decorative artist, Cris Agterberg (1883-1948) saw himself primarily as a sculptor. In the sculptural bronze clocks which he designed in the mid-1920s, all his skills come together.
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Glass workshop De Nieuwe Honsel: ‘Like in a fairytale’
Marthe Kes conducted research on the customers of glass workshop De Nieuwe Honsel and creates an image of the luxurious atmosphere the lamps must have given to exclusive Dutch places of entertainment.
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The Gerrit Rietveld Academie: Post-War Ceramists – part 3
The Gerrit Rietveld Academie was an important cultural centre in the second half of the twentieth century. Many leading ceramists were active at the ceramics department. They have had a great influence on the development of Dutch ceramics. In our sales exhibition ‘Post-War Ceramists: Ceramics as an art form’ many different works of ceramists who have studied or taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy are on display.
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The Experimental Department of De Porceleyne Fles: Post-War Ceramists – part 2
In the 1950s, a generation of ceramists stood up that redefined ceramics as an autonomous art form. The sales exhibition ‘Post-War Ceramists: Ceramics as an art form’ at Kunstconsult provides an overview of this movement within Dutch ceramic art in the second half of the twentieth century. The earthenware factory De Porceleyne Fles in Delft, especially the Experimental Department, played an important role in this development.
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The J.W.N. van Achterbergh collection: Post-war Ceramists – part 1
J.W.N. van Achterbergh was an important collector, expert and patron of post-war ceramics. With his extensive collection, he had a great influence on Dutch studio ceramics. A number of works from his prominent collection are on show in the sales exhibition Post-War Ceramists at Kunstconsult.
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Hildo Krop: Sculptors of the Amsterdam School – part 4
Originally trained as a pastry chef and destined to take over his father's bakery, Hildo Krop decided to become an artist anyway. He attended drawing and painting classes at the Heatherly's of Fine Art in London and Académie Julian in Paris and went on to study sculpture at the Rijksacademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam at the age of 24. Hereafter, Krop became one of the most important sculptors of the Amsterdam School.
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Else Berg and Mommie Schwarz: Colourful artist couple
In 1925, at the famous Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, Mommie Schwarz received a gold medal and a beautiful 'diploma' in the category 'Art de la Rue'. He liked to draw market vendors, construction workers, the loading and unloading on harbour quays, passengers and sailors on boats and clochards under bridges. These drawings hung in the ‘Hollandsch’ pavilion, built by architect Staal, furnished by Wijdeveld and provided with sculptures by Hildo Krop. Schwarz illustrated a report of the construction in the De Amsterdammer (the weekly of Amsterdam).
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Chris Lanooy: Long live the experiment
A self-willed man, a soloist, who worked for nearly all successful Dutch pottery bakeries around 1900. His unstoppable urge to experiment however, he could only really set free in his own studio. In the early twentieth century, Chris Lanooy turned into an innovator in both ceramics and glass art.
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Rietveld's rare high chair: Executed by Gerard van de Groenekan
Around 1920 Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888 – 1964) designed several kinds of furniture for architect H.G.J. Schelling, including two types of high chairs. The earliest high chair (1918) was the first design in which Rietveld used his distinctive and inventive application of the dowel connection, which made it possible to lay slats next to each other. It was also Rietvelds first design published in magazine De Stijl, but it still missed the harmony and balance of his later works.
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RAM-ceramics of Theo Colenbrander
Why did idealistic and artistic people invest a quarter of a million guilders in an earthenware factory from Arnhem to realise the designs of an eighty-two-year-old artist? This question fascinates Arno Weltens, biographer of decorative artist Theo Colenbrander. At least the artistic result was worth their investment: RAM-ceramics are still valuable after almost one century.
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Museum Pieces
In 25 years, Kunstconsult came across many exceptional art treasures. Wiljan Versteeg and Belinda Visser proudly look back on a special collection of 'museum pieces': gems from the Kunstconsult sales collection that are now part of the collection of both national and international museums. From a long-hidden bronze owl by Joseph Mendes da Costa to a rare diadem by Jan Eisenloeffel, for this blog Kunstconsult-owners Wiljan Versteeg and Belinda Visser selected some of their most treasured museum pieces.
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Jazz Age: George Gershwin on Broadway
The purchase of a set of Art Deco designs is the start of a fascinating quest for its origin. We become immersed in the Jazz Age; New York, 1925. The successes of George Gershwin, his underrated Broadway masterpiece, and the posthumous appreciation for him three-quarters of a century later. It suddenly all feels very close…
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Dansk Stil Møbel: Made in Holland
The chairs of Hilversum furniture manufacturer Van den Bovenkamp do not seem typically Dutch. And this is actually the case: The success models from the sixties, which are now popular again, were designed by the Danish designer duo Madsen & Schubell. Little is known about Van den Bovenkamp. Reason for retrowatcher Arno Weltens to dive into the archives.
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From Art Nouveau to Modernism: The second Golden Age of Delft
From 1880 to 1940, Delft, as a small provincial town, grew into one of the most important centers of applied art in the Netherlands. The success of the art from Delft was due to a unique interaction between art, education and industry: the ‘miracle of Delft'. Museum Prinsenhof Delft presents the works of important artists – like Jan Toorop and Bart van der Leck – to show this flourishing period of Delft art. From Art Nouveau to Modernism. Due to success, the exhibition has been extended till the 9th of September.
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Dutch Art Nouveau by Theo Molkenboer: Power in Simplicity
This rare batik mirror frame by Theo Molkenboer was one of the highlights of the exhibition New Art 1900 in Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in the 1960s. It was one of the few times that this mirror was available to the public eye; during the last century, it belonged to two important private art collections.
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Andries Copier: Seventy Years of Glass Innovations
Already at a young age, the design talent of Andries Dirk Copier was recognized. When he had just turned 24, in 1925, he received a silver medal for his beautifully styled glassware Smeerwortel (English: Comfrey Root). In this period, he also designed his first unique glass objects. With his innovative ideas pertaining to glass art, Copier, whose career stretched out over seventy years, proved time and time again to be way beyond his time.
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