Collecting Crouwel, Sanberg and Wissing isn't only beneficial but enjoyable too!
The best way to begin your set of (dutch) MUSEUM catalogues in the main designers from past century.
WHAT TO Search FOR
- concentrate on the fantastic titles in dutch typography and design.
- constantly examine the grade of the merchandise given. Pristine things are virtually non existent, but mint are available. Better to pay a couple bucks extra compared to collect a product that's less ideal.
- Larger museums have been in a position to commission their very best catalogues to the top designers.
- The edition size can be significant and makes a book more desired than when the variant is modest. Please be aware that lots of Museum books are out of variant sizes between 500 and 1700 that are little already. It is possible to anticipate that a number of these can be ruined from the 50 years they had been shelved and just a small amount survived.
- Historical catalogues for startin, but famous musicians, are sought after and deserve a premium.
- authorized copies are much more collectable and occasionally they're signed and numbered by a special variant that makes them more scarce and highly collectable.
- Then there's what I call"a secret component" which in most instances isn't recognised by other people. All these fantastic designers contained in their layouts occasionally original artwork. Silkscreens were used as addresses. On occasion a particular inlay with lithography, etching or silkscreen has been inserted. In the best instances these were signed that makes them outright precious, but can in most instances be had in a fraction of the purchase price of an original work of art. (illustrations are Escher, Miro, Calder and Arp to their Stedelijk Museum catalogues and other books ).
As mentioned before the bigger museums commissioned their very best catalogues to the top designers.
First you have to concentrate in those designers who worked together with the biggest museums in the Netherlands.
THE DESIGNERS:
Possibly the most significant and well known is Willem Sandberg. Director and designer to the Stedelijk Museum from the 50's and early 60's. A number of those engineered Sandberg catalogues have become classics.
Around 350 catalogues were created for the Stedelijk Museum by Sandberg
Second there's Wim Crouwel, that had been responsible for several catalogues in the sixties and seventies and later become manager of the Museum Boymans van Beuningen.
In Rotterdam there was Benno Wissing who afterwards began with Wim Crouwel Total Design. There are a few similarities between Sandberg and ancient Wissing but equally have a design of their own.
Piet Zwart and Paul Schuitema are famous for their lay outs with picture collage and therefore are highly collectable too.
THE MUSEUMS
The biggest museum in the Netherlands are:
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, printed ca. 1100 catalogues over 60 decades.
Haags Gemeentemuseum.
Released ca. 600 catalogues over 60 decades.
Van Abbemuseum.
Is the little museum with the excellent designers. Wim Crouwel worked for them in his first days, but remember Jan van Toorn who's also know for his seventies exhibit layouts.