PRENTWERK ART BOOKS IS NOW ON INSTAGRAM!

This is just to let you know that last Thursday saw Prentwerk's debut at Instagram, with daily selections of interesting new acquisitions.

Check us out at 'prentwerkartbooks'!

PSST, WANNA BUY A BASQUIAT?

Dear auctioneer,

Over the past months your auctions have featured prints by various artists published by 'Suc. Salerno & Hijos'. They are all prints by prominent artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Pierre Alechinsky. They all bear printed signatures,  are published in large editions (mostly 300), numbered by hand and accompanied by impressive looking COA’s, with blindstamps, publisher’s signatures and registration numbers.

Let me point out, however, that there is nothing 'authentic' about these prints. Although presented as ‘lithographs’, they are simply reproductions of existing works of art, sold quite cheaply. 'Suc. Salerno & Hijos' is a highly dubious firm. I have not been able to find a website, which is in itself a bad sign. In their descriptions, however, both the publishers and the sellers, at various auctions, try to create the impression that they are in fact selling original prints. Needless to say that this is highly misleading, if not downright criminal.

It is, of course, up to the auctioneers to decide whether they want to include such material, but if they are at all serious about the quality of their auctions, I believe they would do well to reject any such prints offered to them. Also, the general public should be informed about these practices in order to prevent them from spending their money on worthless reproductions.

Best regards,

A.R. PENCK IN AMSTERDAM

In the eighties and nineties, A.R. Penck was represented in the Netherlands by Galerie Aschenbach, Amsterdam. On October 13 and 14, 1988, The artist was present at the opening of a new exhibition for a painting & music session. Sylvia Scholten and Janine Schrijver took photographs, which were subsequently published in an exclusive box containing 18 prints, signed, in an edition of 27. 

More information

DAMIEN HIRST WANTS TO SPEND THE REST OF HIS LIFE ...

Although one might argue that, strictly speaking, Damien Hirst’s I Want To Spend The Rest Of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One To One Always, Forever, Now 1997) does not qualify as an ‘artist book’ (because the graphic design was done by Jonathan Barnbrook, not by the artist himself), it is usually described as such, even in museum collections. In any case it remains one of the most staggering art books of all time, with a sumptuous collection of pop-ups, transparencies, movable plates, fold-outs, inserts, die-cuts, stickers and a poster. It presents a virtual catalogue raisonné of his works to date.

Discriminating collectors should go for the first edition (as presented here), not for the smaller 2006 reprint published by Other Criteria.

For more information click HERE

GERHARD RICHTER RULES AGAIN

With a record sale of 41 million euros for his Abstraktes Bild from 1986, Gerhard Richter has resumed his position as the world's most expensive living artist. At the same time many people in the art world express their concern that market for contemporary art is increasingly becoming a playground for a small company of millionaires, galleries and auction houses, worlds removed from ordinary life and ordinary people.I remember Robert Hughes wondering in the nineties whether there was actually one painting in the world worth a million dollars.May he rest in peace.

The fine portrait below was taken in 1991 by Dutch photographer Peter Daalderop and printed in an edition of twelve, True, it is not a painting, but at least it's affordable.

For more information click HERE 

NOBUYOSHI ARAKI AT THE FOAM, AMSTERDAM

Just two weeks left to see Nobuyoshi Araki the the FOAM, Amsterdam!

Check out the selection of Araki books on our website. More are on the way!

TINTIN IN THE NEW WORLD

Roy Lichtenstein was an exceptionally versatile artist, who did not wish to confine his visual language to his paintings, but sought to apply it in many other ways as well. Thus he created the famous paper plates and original wallpaper for the Bert Stern's celebrated, but shortlived On 1st gallery in New York in the late sixties, made designs for ceramics, multiples and record covers.

Curiously enough, Lichtenstein made only two original book covers, both for books by his friend Frederic Tuten. The first was a portrait of Mao for The Adventures of Mao on the Long March (1971). Although there are later reprints, Tuten was not exactly a bestselling author and first edition copies have become very rare, even in the US.

The second cover was especially made for Tin Tin in the New World: a romance, published in 1993. It was based on a huge painting (205 x 167 cms, now in a private collection). On the occasion of Lichtenstein's retrospective exhibition in Brussels in 1995, an offset poster (without text) was published by the Belgian firm Plaizier in an unspecified edition. Although it appears to be out of stock there, the print is widely available on the internet, suggesting there must have other subsequent editions as well. But even so it is generally regarded as a collectors’ item, fetching anything up to $500.

Frederic Tuten, Tin Tin in the New World: a romance, 1993, first edition, with a very fine original cover design by Roy Lichtenstein, and an altenative design reproduced as frontispiece. New York, William Morrow, 1993. Boards, hardcover with mylar dustjacket, 22 x 15 cm, 239p.

Lit.: Mary Lee Corlett, The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein, a catalogue raisonnée, nrs III.16 en III.17

EUR 150.00