Dear visitor.

Welcome to the site of Galerie de Vries.

During the last twenty years, the owner of the company, Mr. Martijn de Vries has been dealing in Art Deco and Design objects and other rare and unusual objects.

He started the company when he was just twentyfour years old, by obtaining unusual objects without realizing their Art Deco provenance, because at that time Art Deco wasn’t very popular and certainly less well known than it is now. Martijn de Vries just took his truck and travelled to France, bought items, painted them black, added some chrome and sold them. During that period the Art Deco market required that sort of object.

After an extended period of studying these objects, photographing them and reading specialized literature, Martijn de Vries realized that there was a much better way to go about it. From that time he started to restore the items to a state close to the original condition and transformed them to a condition almost like new.

After decades of study and working with these Art Deco objects originating from all European countries, Mr de Vries can safely state that he knows his way around in that field. In production objects he realizes that manufacturers in various countries all had their specific processes, techniques and used specific materials.

Over the years Martijn de Vries found out that he had a personal preference and great love for Art Deco made in France. Therefore many of the objects you will find on this website have originated in France.

You will not only find items made by well-known architects, and items designed by lesser names, but also some by unknown designers. It is true however that all items have been designed by men and women who had the love, quality and expert knowledge for making designs the finest items in existence, either hand made or industrially produced.

All the objects you will find at our website are guaranteed by us as original objects and are not modern copies.

You will find items both in restored and un-restored condition at our site. The reason for putting items in un-restored condition on this web-site are the following

• So clients can see that we are dealing in only original items from the Art Deco period;

• So clients can see what they look like before and after our restoration;

• So clients can choose there own fabric;

• So clients have influence on the restoration process, for example, by adding a new mirror or not, and the choice whether a brass parts must be re-nickeled or re-chromed - or not;

• So other dealers or interior decorators can buy original items in un-restored condition if they prefer their own restorers.

We hope that you after reading our history know about more of the way we are working, our company and that we are very dedicated and addicted to work of the lovely period from Art Deco.

When you have any questions or if you want to know something about Galerie de Vries or Art Deco or else feel free to ask.

Galerie de Vries

Maastrichtersteenweg 213

3770 Vroenhoven

Belgium

Tel:    0032 12 44 14 30

Mob:  0031 6 54 27 15 75

Info@GaleriedeVries.com

www.GaleriedeVries.com

Art Fairs

You can find us at the following fairs – also having objects on the stands of other traders ;

Nationale Art Deco Beurs Den Haag  http://www.aadf.nl/

AFA Rosmale                                      http://www.artfairautotron.nl/

With Galerie Eufrazie http://www.eufrazie.nl/

Eurantica Brussels       http://www.artexis.com/euranticabrussels/en/index.htm

Antica Namur               http://www.artexis.com/namur/fr/home.html

La Reserve Knokke

Art and Antik Antwerpen

With Kunsthandel Wim de Boer (no web-site)

Wim de Boer

Costerstraat 24

1824 DH Alkmaar

Only by appointment

Pan Amsterdam      http://www.pan-amsterdam.nl/

TEFAF Maastricht   http://www.tefaf.com
Art fair Den Bosch    http://www.artfairdenbosch.nl/

Private expositions

Restoration

All items will be restored on request.

Restoration techniques for :

Furniture,

• Taking the object apart.

• Remove all the old varnish

• Restore the missing parts of veneer

• Lacquer it with special furnish lacquer several times so that all the wood is properly sealed

• Hand polish it to a finish

• Fix the locks and produce missing keys

• Chrome / nickel parts

• Polish the brass parts

• Other small jobs.

Clubchairs and stools

• Taking the object apart.

• Check the connections and if necessary glue them again.

• Remove the old varnish

• Restore the missing parts of veneer

• Lacquer it with special furnish lacquer several times so that all the wood is sealed

• Hand polish to a finish

• Upholster it with new leaves, copper springs.

• Filling it with horsehair of seagrass

• Upholster it with the finest fabrics or leather available

• The pillows will be filled with down.

Lighting

All the lighting sections will be newly wired.

Transport

We ship all items around the world.

Our preferred shipper is:

Embelco B.V.B.A.

Lambroekstraat 5

1930 Zaventem

Belgium

Phone +32 272 509 69

Fax +32  272 154 35

E-mail  embelco@embelco.be

Buy and Selling

Buying

Galerie de Vries is always looking out to buy good items originating from the Art Deco period.

It does not matter in which condition the items are, as we have our on workshop where we restore all items.

If you have anything to offer or you just want to have some information, please send us a good clear picture and we will respond as soon as possible.

You can send the information either by post to

Galerie de Vries

Maastrichtersteenweg 213

3770 Vroenhoven

Belgium

Or by by E-mail

Info@GaleriedeVries.com

Of course all information which you will send is strictly confidential.

Selling

All items you wish to buy can be discussed by phone and are confirmed by e-mail.

We will transport them to our preferred shipper or to your home.

Education.

There are many people who ask me questions about the precise distinction between Art Nouveau and Jugendstil and about the early phase of the Art Deco period.

Answers to all of those questions we have found at a web-site http://home.tiscali.be/d.side/home.htm

From this site we have copied text parts about terminology of Art Deco and about ‘De Stijl‘ and about the Bauhaus period. We would to thank that site for their permission to use their information. If you want to find out more, we recommend their website.

Galerie de Vries

The Nul (=Zero) Movement in The Netherlands

The Nul-movement in the Netherlands was founded in 1960 by Jan Schoonhoven, Armando, Jan Henderikse and Henk Peeters. The group existed until 1965. The works of the group are especially 'anti-painterly'. Traditional artists’ materials such as paint and stone were often replaced by various industrial materials.

In general Nul works are characterised by:

·        Monochrome: works with multicoloured work is replaced by the use of a few colours, often black and red (Armando) and white (Jan Schoonhoven and Henk Peeters).

·        Repetition: Nul was fond of rhythm and regularity. The repetition of similar shapes within a depiction is typical. Think of the repeating shapes in reliefs by Schoonhoven and Jan Henderikse’s corks and pennies reliefs.

·        Serial: Nul declared that the authentic work of art was dead. On the other hand, modern times and industrial materials were embraced. The reproduction of ‘art products’ by machine was typically Nul. With the exception of Jan Schoonhoven, all members created multiples (products in series).

·        Directness of material: A Nul-work had to be an 'objectively-neutral’ rendering of reality, according to Jan Schoonhoven. The artist’s handwriting then had to be avoided as much as possible. This effect was achieved, amongst others, by 'unmediated presentation': materials, often objects, were presented without change or without any addition as an ‘art product’.

Nul may be seen as a continuation of Informal art from the 1950s; where no plan is to be followed and no ideal of beauty is aimed at. From 1958 to 1960, before the creation of the group, its four members were part of the Netherlands Informal Group together with Kees van Bohemen.

Within an international context, Nul originated with the German ‘Zero’ (Otto Piene, Heinz Mack, Gunther Uecker), Azimuth in Italy (Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani, Augustino Bonalumi) and Nouveau Realisme in France (including Yves Klein, Arman and Jean Tinguely).

ZERO

Zero is an art movement that belongs to modern and contemporary art in the period from 1958 - 1966.

In 1958 German artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene founded Zero in Düsseldorf, Germany. It was an European version of Colorfield Painting. However, Zero artists usually worked in monochrome, often with white.  They strove for a new harmony in the relationship between man and nature and avoided individual handwriting, the artist’s own tracks in their art. The name Zero was supposed to be reminiscent of countdown when launching a rocket.

The Zero-group maintained countless international contacts, including the Italian Lucio Fontana, Frenchman Yves Klein (who underlined the importance of pure colour perception) and the Swiss Jean Tinguely (kinetic art with rotating objects). In The Netherlands the Dutch Nul movement is the Zero’s counterpart. The Zero group disbanded in 1966.

Characteristics

Zero characteristics are light, movement, and monochrome painting. In order to be able to play with light and shadow, the artists often made use of nails, relief and corrugated surfaces. There was no longer a borderline between painting and sculpture. They also strove towards a symbiosis between nature, art and technology, an immaterial effect and an expansion in space.

Important Zero artists

The most important Zero artists are:

         •        Otto Piene

         •        Heinz Mack

         •        Oskar Holweck

         •        Günther Uecker

         •        Jef Verheyen

ART DECO

Art Deco decorative style received its name in 1925, at the Paris Exposition, 'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes’. This style is characterised by simple geometrical patterns, strict vertical lines and bright colours. Art Deco is rooted in several older styles: the art of cubist painters, Egyptian and Indian art, modern machine design and airplane design. The coloured ‘Deco district ' in Miami Beach is the most famous example of this style.

ART NOUVEAU

Art Nouveau is a style characterized by ornamental fluent lines; it blossomed in France and other countries in Western Europe at the end of the 19th century. The source of inspiration was often in nature, with topics such as flowers, foliage, birds and insects. These organic forms were generally dreamy and asymmetrical. Female characters with long dresses and long waving hair are also typical at this style. Examples are found in the painter Toulouse Lautrec, the jeweller René Lalique, the architects Charles R. Macintosh and Victor Horta, and glass stylist Louis C. Tiffany. See also: Jugendstil.

ARTS-and-CRAFTS

Arts-and-crafts also named ‘Mission’. This style lasted of late 19th century up to 1920 and was characterised by pure, simple lines, rectangular and often block-shaped forms, and visible structural connections. In promoting honest construction, Arts-and-Crafts was the first style, which united the technology of the machine and old-fashioned handicrafts. The works of major names from this style - Stickley, Roycroft, Limbert and Frank Lloyd Wright - have become collector’s items, fetching high prices, but there are still affordable examples around.

BAUHAUS

From 1920 up to 1930 this German design school has laid the foundation for everything later labelled ‘modern’ or ‘modernism’. On the premise ‘form follows function’, the forms of the Bauhaus are simple and lightweight, and have no decorative additions.

Popular material are tubular steel, steam bent wood, leather and plastic; the colour scheme has been generally restricted to black, white, brown and grey. Well-known designers from this period are Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames, Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen. The origins of mid-20^th century modern style are in the Bauhaus.

K. J. Juncker (Germany)

Bauhaus is the modern name for 'Bauhütten', or builder’s lodges. Bauhütten were the work sheds sheltering the joint artisans who built the medieval cathedrals. The ‘Staatliche Bauhaus' was both the name and mission statement of a new art school and institution in Weimar, Germany. Later this movement, which particularly inspired architecture and applied art which was considered to have started by the ideas behind this school and was considered so important that Bauhaus was later seen as a movement in art.

The school was first established in the German city of Weimar (1919 - 1930) and then Berlin (1930 - 1933). The school was closed down in 1933 when the Nazi’s came to power.

Bauhaus arose from a fusion of an academy for fine arts and a school for applied arts. The school then added a department for architecture. Thus they combined all disciplines of the arts under one roof. Bauhaus strove to train architects, painters, sculptors and workers in all applied arts (from stage set builders to furniture makers) to graduate as independent artists or competent artisans.

Moreover the school strove to let the artists and artisans work from a common ground of training and similar ideals, to create a constructive art which radiated in every respect: design - decoration - interior, a similar spirit and vision.

Wilhelm WAGENFELD (1900-1990, Germany)

In contrast to the traditional art academy all Bauhaus students, irrespective of their prior training, had pass through a year of basic training. It consisted of half a year of education in formal image design aspects and their common laws. Then followed another half a year of more coherent elementary courses such as nature studies, and training in understanding materials and tooling, and theory of space, colour and composition. Afterwards one could one specialise oneself and qualify in a profession, for example wood (furniture maker) and metal (silversmith). Finally there was a fourth year for the architects and architectural engineers.

Exceptionally this 'art education' took place in separate workshops, which were under joint control of an artist and a craftsman.

The students came not only to Bauhaus to follow lesson, but they lived there also (a sort of campus idea), resulting in increased contacts and exchanges between the various disciplines were.

Beside creating form and contents of a really new art school it was even a greater merit of Walter Gropius, the first director, to have gathered the group of then still unknown but later most important young progressive artists to his school. Wassilly Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oscar Schlemmer, Johannes Itten, M. Nagy, A. Albers were teachers. Guest lectures were given by Piet Mondriaan, Theo van Doesburg, J. Oud, Robert Delaunay and others who spread their ideas in books named 'Bauhausbücher'. Thus the latest developments and newest ideas in the field of the arts found their synthesis and their apotheosis in the Bauhaus.

MARCEL BREUER

 Bauhaus was particularly innovative in two areas:

·        Construction art.

One felt that the form of a building had to follow its function. In other words the aesthetically justified form had be adapted and had to be in agreement had be with the practical use. This principle as point of departure for architecture was later known as functionalism.

·        Applied art.

While training students into exemplary specialists and artisans Walter Gropius realized that machines would provide mass-produced products to the modern society.

It was therefore important to pre-arrange the shapes of the machine-made product. This is the concept of Industrial design, creating products, which are functional, useful, practical and aesthetic. When ‘Bauhaus' had to close down in 1933, its ideals were nevertheless continued, initially in America by refugee artists and after the Second World War again in Europe.

JUGENDSTIL

Jugendstil is an art movement emerging in the years 1895-1905, especially active in the field of applied art. The name was taken from its propaganda platform, the illustrated magazine ‘Die Jugend’ which appeared in 1895 in Munich. The movement was a response to the many dominating historical styles in the 19th century, and particularly rebelled against the use of ornament. Botanical shapes became the bases for the new, abstract forms used; their decorative character was applied flat and without shadow, therefore without spatial design and illusion of space. A purely linear art form was its consequence. In architecture the Jugendstil has been applied as well, especially in Vienna and for this reason named ‘Wiener-stil’. It is known in France as Art Nouveau.

DE STIJL

An art movement advocating pure abstraction and simplicity -- form reduced to the rectangle and other geometric shapes, and color to the primary colors, along with black and white. Piet Mondrian (Netherlandish, 1872-1944) was the group's leading figure. He published a manifesto titled Neo-Plasticism in 1920 Another, member, painter Theo van Doesberg (Netherlandish, 1883-1931) had started a journal named the style in 1917, which continued publication until 1928, spreading the theories or the group, which also included the painter George Vantongerloo (Belgian, 1886-1965), along with the architect J.J.P. old (1890-1963) and Gerrit cane-plantation (Netherlandish, 1888-1965). Their work exerted tremendous influence on the Bauhaus and the international Style. The journal not only featured the latest developments in vanguard Dutch art and design but also the work or the Russian Constructivists, the Dadaists and the Italian futurists. The publication called for a purification or art and design through the adoption or a universal language or abstracted cubism or, ash piet Mondrian described it, Neo-Plasticism. The style members believed that the search for honesty and beauty would ultimately bring harmony and enlightenment to humanity. Theo van Doesburg, WHO was editor-in-chief or the magazine, tirelessly promoted the the style message on his numerous trips to Belgium, France, Italy and Germany. In 1921, he, established contact with staff ate the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar, and a year later gave a the style course or lectures in Weimar. Theo van Doesburg also developed left with Constructivists, such ash ell Lissitzky and László Moholy-Nagy. The the style movement not only influenced developments in the fine doctor, its members also designed extremely influential furniture, interiors, textiles, graphics and architecture. Gerrit Rietveld's revolutionary save/Blue chair or 1918 -- 1823, which in its design encapsulated the philosophy or the the style Movement, were exhibited ate the Staatliche Bauhaus in 1923 and, inspired Marcel Breuer's late tubular metal B3 Wassily chair or 1925 -- 1927th Like Rietveld's save/Blue chair, the style architecture and interior designs were characterized by the use or strong geometric forms and coloured block-like element that delineated space. Partitions were used to divide internal areas, while utilitarian furnishings were kept to an absolute minimum. The strong lines incorporated in these interiors produced a dynamism, while a sense or lightness was achieved through the purging or ornament. This dematerialist approach to design were highly influential to the development or the modern Movement, ash were the Stijl's use or geometric formalism. Although the the style group was never formally organized, its output were highly distinctive and shared a common visual language -- that or geometric abstraction. The application or this new vocabulary or form and colour blurred the traditional distinctions between the fine and decorative doctor, but sadly the group's intention or bringing a greater universality to the doctor was never fully realized. The the style movement's vision or Utopia was inspired by the vitality or the modern city, while its utilitarian approach to the design or object for use was influenced by Dutch Puritanism. Though sharing many or the ideas propounded by Russian Constructivism, such ash spatial dynamism, the style are generally acknowledged ash the first modern design movement, because it heralded a new aesthetic purity. The the style magazine was published until Theo van Doesburg's death in 1931, after which the movement gradually discharge its focus and were unable to maintain its former momentum.

WIENER WERSTATTE

Wiener Werkstatte was the Austrian version of the art nouveau. The movement arose in 1897, then a group artists and designers separated (ceded, in a cesession) from the Viennese art academy. They used natural images and bent forms, but the designs were more geometrical than those of the French or Belgian art nouveau.

A cooperative group workshops emerged in 1903, as the Viennese Sezession group. Active up to 1932 this group, which included artists, stylists and artisans, became a centre of progressive design. Although initially geometrical in design, the group later developed later a more curvilinear, eclectic style.

Wanted

Aplic’s

Coffee tables

Console

Sideboards

Night tables

Desks

Hanging lamps

Wall lamps

Standing lamps

Clocks

Armoires

Cabinets

Bars

Commodes

Dressing tables

Game tables

Dinning tables

Conference tables

Entrance tables

Hanging mirrors

Standing mirrors

Chandeliers

Sconces

Torchiers

Floor lamps

Table lamps

Key words to find Art Deco on the net are

Galerie

Gallerie

Gallery

Furniture

Design

Art-Deco

Deco

Artdeko

20eme

20iger Jahre

30iger Jahre

twenties

1920

1930

XXth century

Belle epoque

Fine les siecles

XXem

French art deco furniture

French Art Nouveau furniture

20th Century French furniture

Modernist furniture

French Modernist

Twentieth century decorative arts

20th Century Decorative Arts.

European Decorative Arts

Art Decoratif

Names of popular designers

André Arbus, Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jacques Adnet, Jules Leleu,  Dominique, D.I.M., Pascaud, Prou, Dupre-Lafon, Subes, Maxime Old, Maurice Dufrene, Majorelle, Porteneuve, Quinet, Djo-Bourgeois, Follot, Arbus, Hector Guimard, Jansen, Leleu, Rene Prou, Raymond Subes, Otto Wagner, Edgar Brandt, Pierre Chareau, Jean Dunand, Paul Follot, Jean-Michel Frank, Eileen Gray, Andre Groult, Rene Herbst.