(1582-1666). The major exhibition on Frans Hals at the Rijksmuseum opens in Amsterdam in February. Drawing on works many kept in Berlin and London’s National Gallery a lavish book published by the excellent Hannibal Books in Belgium has been produced. It does not dwell on the usual crowd pleasers such as the ubiquitous Laughing Cavalier or the paintings of large groups of Dutch militias who protected cities of the new Dutch Republic after the traumatic years under Spanish occupation.
Lee Miller was, by any standards, a remarkable woman. Born on 23rd April 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York of German and Scottish descent, she was a Vogue model, photographer, artists’ muse, war correspondent, gourmet cook, wife and mother. At nineteen she was discovered in a New York street by Condé Nast and subsequently appeared on…
In December 2006 a bookstore was established for the first time in Maastricht’s 13th century Dominican Church, right in the centre of town. After the intensive restoration of the monument, architectural firm Merkx & Girod designed the interior of the bookstore with 1200m2 of retail space – in spite of the fact that there was only 850m2 of floor space available. The architects wanted to emphasize the height and space of Gothic architecture. They saw the solution for this in a monumental walk-in bookcase with multiple floors, placed asymmetrically in the church.
I don’t know about New York and Chicago but there has only been The Comedy Store in London that exceeds the longevity that Boom Chicago has enjoyed in the Dutch city. To mark and celebrate those three decades a new book has just been published, promising to tell the story of The 30 Most Important Years in Dutch History.
Travelling the world Güler took pictures both as a straightforward photo journalist and as a war reporter, visiting conflict zones in Eritrea, Sudan, Afgahnistan and Palestine. He also was a society portrait photographer, taking pictures of Brigitte Bardot, Salvador Dali, Sophia Loren and Alfred Hitchcock, to name but a few. And, surprisingly, he also had time to create art photos, producing colour collages and pictures of moving light. All these wonderful pictures are in this excellent two hundred and eight page book.
Another book from Belgium this month. Cato Beljaars’ new book Weird Things in Brussels reveals that Belgian oddness is all pervasive, evident on every street corner and down every side street of the country’s capital. Ms Beljaars has an acute sense of the absurd, and she and her camera find it in the most unexpected places. There is the notice taped to a window by someone who has lost their eggs with a phone number to contact if they are found. No reward seems to have been offered . . .
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In 2023 Belgium is celebrating The Year of Art Nouveau and to mark the event Brussels’ publisher Ludion has brought out a splendid book by Françoise Aubry entitled The Brussels of Horta. This beautiful, lavishly illustrated book, with photographs by Jacques Evrard and Christine Bastin, takes us step-by-step through the architect’s work, starting with the 1890 Matyn House
is a 220-page journey through the rich oeuvre of the leading choreographer and visual theater maker Nicole Beutler. This overview of twenty years of theater offers an insight into Beutler’s method, philosophy and idealism.
