Art by mail

An exhibition in which stamps played a central role, from design to stamp sheetlet. The emphasis was on post-World War II designs and artists who worked for PTT (Dutch postal services), later TPG and now TNT. M.C. Escher designed an aviation fund stamp for PTT in 1935. In 1949 he was commissioned to design the Jubilee stamps for the Universal Postal Union. Two stamps were made of the same design. It was made in two colours, the 10-cent stamp in brown-red and the 20-cent stamp in dark blue. It is not entirely coincidental that his then client exhibited his own art collection in 2006. The stamps of TPG Post are, just like the work of M.C. Escher, graphic artworks. In addition to Escher’s prints, work by Fons Haagmans, Marte Röling and Peter Struycken was on display. Designs by these and other artists were shown, as well as sketches of stamps, proofs and postage stamps. This work was combined with works of art by the same artists from the TPG Post art collection. At the opening of the exhibition, Karel Appel’s latest design was shown: his stamp design for The Weeks of the Card, an annual TNT Post initiative to promote postal traffic.