Recently I added two scarce publications from the early Seventies by Herman de Vries.
One published in Italy the other in Germany, but both on the same subject of Chance-fields/ Variations. Fascinating artist books which are now available at www.ftn-books.com
One of the most significant photographers in nineteenth-century New Zealand is Alfred Burton. He is particularly renowned for his collection of photos depicting the Māori people in the Whanganui and King Country regions. These photos, titled “Through the King Country with a camera: a photographers diary,” were published in 1885 as a supplement to his catalogue, “The Māori at Home,” in the Otago Daily Times.
Alfred Henry Burton (1834–1914) and Walter John Burton (1836–1880) were born in Leicester, England. Their father, John Burton, was a well-known photographer in the area. His company, John Burton and Sons, had the privilege of working with Queen Victoria and other members of the Royal Family.
In 1866, Walter Burton moved to Dunedin and successfully established his own photography studio. However, with the time-consuming nature of photography in the 1860s, Walter had more work than he could handle. As a result, in 1868, he convinced his older brother, Alfred, to join him, and they became partners in the Grand Photographic Saloon and Gallery on Princes Street, Dunedin.
While Walter focused on portrait photography, Alfred embarked on extensive travels, frequently venturing to Fiordland, the Southern Lakes, and South Westland. His collection of photographs, titled “Views of Fiordland,” played a crucial role in advocating for the area to be designated as a national park.
Nevertheless, the challenges of scenic photography in the 1860s were significant. Poor roads and river crossings on horseback posed risks to the cumbersome photographic equipment. In response, the Burton Brothers commissioned the construction of a photographic van in 1869. This mobile darkroom featured a collapsible roof for travel, eliminating the need to set up a dark tent and saving valuable time for developing photos.
In 1873, the Burton Brothers unveiled their first panoramas of Dunedin, including a breathtaking shot taken from Bedford House atop Bell Hill. This elevated perspective created an effect reminiscent of an aerial photograph.
Around the same time, the Burtons devised an innovative photo montage to promote their business, resembling a photographic CV. This masterpiece consisted of 780 portraits and earned recognition as one of the most ambitious commercial collages of its time. Among the notable personalities showcased were James Cook, Queen Victoria, and Julius Vogel.
Unfortunately, the partnership between Alfred and Walter ended on a bitter note in 1877.
http://www.ftn-books.com has the Volkenkunde book from 1987 now available.
Born in El Cerro, Havana in 1912. He began painting at an early age and entered the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 14. He was too temperamental to adapt to this training, so he left the institution and began working independently. His work was exhibited for the first time at the Havana Art Salon. In 1939 Porto Calero became a professor at the Institute of Free Painting and Sculpture under the guidance of Eduardo Abella. The artist traveled to Haiti, Europe and the United States, and in 1945 had an exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. He also created numerous murals and ceramics.
Porto Carrero’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Su00e3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York and San Francisco. At the National Gallery of Canada. At the Bellas Artes in Caracas. Milwaukee Art Center, Pan American Union in Washington. Contemporary art in Paris. Houston Museum of Art. Museum of Art, Indianapolis. Bellas Artes, Montevideo. Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires. Contemporary Art Institute, Lima, Peru. It is also at the National Museum in Havana.
He painted vigorously from childhood, but never planned his own works. In his spontaneity, he had no idea what he was going to do until his brush hit the canvas. The artist died in Havana on April 7, 1985.
www.ftn-books.com has now the Henschel Verlag book available.
Bruno Capacci was born in Venice in 1906 but spent his youth in Florence. He settled in Paris in 1930, where he became a member of the “Italians of Paris” along with De Chirico, Severini, Magni, Magnelli and Leonor Fini. The capacchi of the “Metaphysical Age” was influenced by De Chirico and the great Renaissance masters such as Uccello, della Francesca and Ghirlandaio. In 1930 he met and married the Belgian artist Suzanne Van Damme at the famous brasserie “Le Dome”. The couple were the surrealist poets Paul u00c9luard, Paul Collinet, Marcel Lecomte, Louis Soutenaire and Henri Bauchaud, Andru00e9 Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Michaud, Jean Cocteau and Louise de Villemorin. , Federico Fellini, Jean Paulin, and actor Louis Jouvet. Close others. In 1947, the “Surrealist Pope” invited Andre Breton Capacz and Van Damme to the “Surrealist International Exposition” to be held at the Margut Gallery in Paris, and invited Arp, Bellmer, Brauner, Calder, Duchamp, Ernst, Giacometti, Gorky, Lamb, Matta, Milo, Picabia, Man Ray, Tanguy, Tanning, etc. Capacchi’s paintings became more and more sophisticated and poetic. He also published surrealist poetry in the book La balustrade du Possible. His photographs reveal his boundless imagination, his delicate color palette and, above all, his extraordinary joie de vivre. His favorite themes include moonscapes and fantastic bestiary, reminiscent of Klee and Brauner.
When the couple moved to Florence in the 1950s, they built a beautiful house with stunning views of the surrounding Fiesole hills. Inspired by the great idol Andrea della Robbia, Capacchi began making a line of ceramics that he displayed throughout his home and sold to a variety of clients, including numerous wealthy Americans. Each year the couple exhibited in galleries in the United States: Chicago (Marshall Field Gallery 1959), New York (Thibault Gallery on Madison Avenue 1961), Los Angeles, Baltimore and Dallas (Calhoun Gallery 1961).
Capacci also had a taste for marble and mosaics, and produced many decorative panels inspired by ancient Etruscan and Byzantine art. A versatile artist and poet, Capacz made porcelain plates in his Havilland factory in Limoges, Christofle in Paris, and his ateliers in Rosenthal, Germany. In the 1970s Capacz and Van Damme returned to Brussels and lived in a house near Avenue Louise.
His first 1990 exhibition in the Group 2 gallery was a tribute to Suzanne Van Damme, followed by his 1991 solo exhibition of Capacci. Capacci died in Brussels in 1996, shortly after the opening of Van Damme’s Capacci exhibition at the same gallery.
www.ftn-books.com has the Group 2 catalog now available.
Because of a purchase of small collection of art books I first encountered the works by Georges Carrey. I saw a resemblance with Willem Hussem . Broad strokes of paint , diagonal painted making it a joy to look at.
Georges Carey was born in Paris but moved to Belgium in 1922.
Initially he was an advertising designer and illustrator, but later he mainly painted portraits, landscapes and still lifes. He experimented a lot and from 1946 he started creating abstract works. In 1947 he returned to Paris and took lessons from Andre Rothe, where he met Nicolas de Stael. He often used a knife to work on the canvas and create geometric compositions. In 1952 he became a member of the group “Art Abstract”.
A year later, he died of a heart attack at the age of 51.
http://www.ftn-books.com has now the Museum van Oostende catalog from 1991 available.
Johan Claassen describes his work as “minimal, musical visual poetry”. What can I add? Dorien Melis (1938-2021) made small paintings, primarily on canvas or panel, in which lines were drawn along somewhat larger shapes to depict memories. These memories must have something to do with the city’s reflections Like the water, the horizon at dusk, or the cold light of the morning sun streaming into the bedroom through a light curtain. Her works have titles such as Life of Water, Little Cantatas, Songs of the Night, and Between the Lines. A painting depicting how vulnerable people are protected. A minimalist, musical visual poem.
http://www.ftn-books.com has 2 small Melis publications available.
Erwin Olaf has passed away at the age of 64, his management informed the ANP news agency. He was one of the most famous photographers in the Netherlands. Olaf has been suffering from emphysema for many years and a few weeks ago he underwent a lung transplant.
Erwin Olaf started out as a documentary photographer, but he later focused on stage photography.
The family said in a statement that Wednesday morning’s death was unexpected. Although he recovered after a lung transplant, Olaf “suddenly became unwell and resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.”
Futurism is Carrà’s first major artistic period. His research into dynamism and colour theory resulted in his masterpieces such as The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli in 1911, Woman on the Balcony in 1912, Plastic Transcendences in 1912
In 1916, just after the end of the First World War, his meeting in Ferrara with de Chirico and De Pisis led him to abandon Futurism and approach Metaphysical poetics. It was with these two artists that he established the theoretical principles of Metaphysical painting.
After a style initially influenced by that of De Chirico, he developed a very personal language with solitary and suspended atmospheres. Perfect examples of this new language are the paintings Mother and Child (1917), The Engineer’s Lover (1921) and The Pine Tree by the Sea (1921). This change led him to approach 14th- and 15th-century art, with references to Giotto and Masaccio.
From 1918, he began writing for the magazine ‘Valori Plastici’, so it is not surprising that in 1920 he began to paint according to the strict terms of the Novecento Italiano, also taking part in the 1926 and 1929 exhibitions at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan.
Carrà continued to paint frantically until his death in 1966 in Milan following an illness.
www.ftn-books.com has several titles on Carra now available.
Bianchi seeks the harmony of the elements by identifying the spatial dimension that emerges naturally from the combination of lines, shapes and volumes, emerging from the exaltation of material, its manipulation and essence properties that are the origin of true expression in the artist’s work. To do. From sophisticated research-driven combinations. The two monumental marble seats were originally designed in the cloister of the 17th-century Donna Regina Vecchia church to match its rich Baroque style, but are now recreated in his 18th-century Madre atrium. arranged to emphasize its typical neoclassical lines. At the same time, it proposes a new definition of space, an invitation to linger and contemplate. Beyond direct references to the art historical tradition, these two works raise questions related to the spatial and structural purpose of the work and its relationship to its surroundings, and are evocative and sensitive. It is symbolic of the way an artist works because it lives in the work in a way.
www.ftn-books.com has several Bianchi books available.
He was born in Pisa on August 31, 1922 and graduated from the city with a degree in pure mathematics. Gianni his Bertini made his debut as a painter in 1946 and chose the path of abstraction because, as he himself puts it, “I gave the events of the war a real meaning, so I am a non-representative.” It has become something of a standard.u201d Cycles, griddies used stamped letters and numbers. After a short stay in Rome, he settled in Milan in 1950, where he made contact with the MAC of Monnier, Dolfres, Munari and Soldati. During this year, he mainly produced works with a graphic aspect. It consists of the juxtaposition of contrasting elements such as positive and negative, black and white, and dotted lines, which led him to study the world of line and space, as well as the mechanical aspects of animating animation. rice field. He deepens its composition and decomposition. In 1951 he was invited to two exhibitions devoted to Italian abstract art. “Abstract and Representational Art” at the Museum of Modern Art in Rome, and “Panorama of Italian Abstract Art” at the Bonpiani Museum in Milan from 1915 to 1951. Next, he creates paintings that make extensive use of dripping. Presented in October 1951 at the Numero Gallery in Florence, these works are among his first representations of informal painting made in Italy. They later came to be called nuclear paints. At the end of 1951 he moved to Paris and in May 1952 his first solo exhibition in Paris was held at the Galerie Arnault.
http://www.ftn-books.com has the galerie Thorigny catalog now available.
