Category Archives: ARMLEDER, JOHN M



JOHN M ARMLEDER, Cercle et Carré, 1987 [light sculpture]

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JOHN M ARMLEDER, Cercle et Carré, 1987
ca 130 x 30 x 20 cm
handmade pedestal; wood, paint, lamp, perforated metal plate, electricity wire
signed, numbered on certificate with instructions
edition 18, here 12/18
published by Galerie Anselm Dreher, Berlin, Germany
condition: excellent, although painted pedestal with original patine has minor paint chips.
€ 4.600,- plus transport costs
inv.JMA 1046-47

Sometimes an edition is loaded with information about the artist’s mindset while its appearance suggests the opposite, for a part due to its self-evidence. Such a piece is ‘Cercle et Carré’ with its geometrical forms, the aesthetics of simplicity, the functionality of formal design, the ambition of the avant-garde and humour; it is all there.
John Armleder is renowned for re-introducing abstract art in a dominating one-way art market in the early eighties of the previous century, for referring to predecessors in art history (hence the title ‘Cercle et Carré’) and for ‘making art that is comparable to making a B-film’ as he describes it. In this sense this edition is as banal as that. ‘Cercle et Carré’ has the look of a modernist Italian design, yet all three parts have been composed and put together by the artist, as if it is an installation. He put together lamp, pedestal and a piece of metal, then switched on the light. KvG

 

inv.JMA 1045
 

JOHN M ARMLEDER, Furniture Sculpture 267, 1991 [tubes]

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Furniture Sculpture 267, 1991
ca 278 x 104 x 110 cm
flexible aluminum tubes in handmade wooden box
edition 30, 3 versions
signed, numbered, dated on certificate
GALERIE VAN GELDER EDITIONS
1 tube   € 5.200,-  edition 10
2 tubes € 6.600,- edition 10
3 tubes € 12.800,- edition 10

When John Armleder made this multiple in 1991 he was quite intrigued by the transportability of this foldable and compact multiple. He considers this sculptural edition as an ultimate example of a multiple that is a true three dimensional work, and yet can very easily be carried around to any place on the world.

JOHN M ARMLEDER, Furniture Sculpture 191, 1988 [cat-bed]

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Furniture Sculpture 191, 1988
ca 48 x 38 x 12 cm
synthetic fur cat-bed
edition of 30
signed, numbered, dated
GALERIE VAN GELDER EDITIONS
€ 4.200,- plus € 32,- Track & Trace registered mail

 

For preparing his first solo exhibition in The Netherlands John Armleder asked me to drive him around to all kinds of shops and places. In the Makro – a supermarket for shopkeepers in the outskirts of Amsterdam – he was attracted by beds for pets. Amongst other things one large grey blue dog bed was picked out by him and taken to the gallery. Later on he remembered to have seen a huge pile of smaller brown coloured cat beds. Of these he could make a multiple, he said. The next day thirty cat beds were bought at Dutch building material supermarket Gamma and a GALERIE VAN GELDER EDITION was made.

John M Armleder: ”Arrivé dans la galerie, je sus immédiatement que j’avais commis l’erreur de ne pas m’en être procuré une grande provision afin de faire un multiple, mais Kees van Gelder corrigea cette bévue et nous eûmes bientôt trente petits lits (un stock de taille: où dormiront les petits chiens de la région ?) que je m’appliquai à signer et numéroter.”

JOHN M ARMLEDER, Associated Publishers, 1992 [card]

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JOHN M ARMLEDER, Associated Publishers card, 1992
14.7 x 10.5 cm
copy shop print
hand out designed by John Armleder
mint
€ 45,- plus € 8,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.JMA 987

In 1992 John M Armleder initiated a plan to bring publishers of art editions together in a booth at Art Basel Edition. For that he coined the name Associated Publishers in order to come up with a convincing proposal to the art fair committee. His idea was that after the fair the publishers involved would open their own spaces for showing jointly their published editions. With this in mind he made an AP design that also exists as a small edition of enamel. For the first time this black and white plaque was shown in Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam in The Netherlands in 1993. Until today an AP sign is hung next to the entrance of the gallery.

JOHN M ARMLEDER, Sphinx d’Or Awards, 1973 [cards]

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JOHN M ARMLEDER, Sphinx d’Or Awards, 1973
8,3 x 11 cm
6 different cards with embossed blind plate, 6 printed envelopes
published by Ecart, Geneva, Switzerland
excellent condition
extremely rare

 

The cards read the following texts:
The Sphinx D’Or Award 1973, Count Fanzini
Best Glossy Zine for 1973, File/Ifel General Idea, Toronto”
Best Camouflage for 1973, Dr.Brute, “Spots in Front of Your Eyes”
Best Major Work, Flakey Rose Hip, “Great Wall of 1984”
Best New Talent for 1973, Gilbert and George
Best Contribution to Art Deco in 1984, ms. Rhonda

JOHN M ARMLEDER, White Plate, 2020 [dinner plate]

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JOHN M ARMLEDER, White Plate, 2020
2 x 27 x 27 cm
porcelain
signed and dated in glaze
limited amount of solely saucer-and-cup out of an edition of 500
condition: mint
p.o.r.

 

John M Armleder is one of the most well known Swiss artists of today. In the eighties he was called the Neo-Geo Pope after he initiated a group exhibition “Art Abstrait” that created a rouse for being reactionary. Armleder is known for leaving paintings and objects as they come. He makes these works without hardly any interaction. With “White Plate” he leaves the porcelain design of a plate undecorated asking attention for the void and its power of nothingness. The work is ‘already made’ as Marcel Duchamp originally called his first readymades.