FTN-blog

Walter Leblanc (born 1932 in Antwerp – deceased in 1986 in Silly, Belgium) had a deep fascination with the concept of motion, exploring both the illusion of movement and its physicality. Upon graduation from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Leblanc began incorporating torsion into his artworks, initially on canvas and later in sculpture, utilizing unconventional materials such as vinyl, cotton thread, and latex. By stretching threads over the canvas and then painting them, he created ray-like structures that convey a sense of dynamic movement. His monochrome and refined creations, referred to as “Twisted Strings,” delve into the play of light on distorted cotton threads and the resulting shadows. His extensive studies on Torsion, which also manifest in his steel sculptures (lacquered or oxidized), undoubtedly align him with the realms of Kinetic Art and Op Art.

In 1962, Leblanc curated the influential exhibition Anti-Peinture (Anti-Painting) in his hometown of Antwerp, and subsequently joined the international group known as Nouvelle Tendance, exhibiting alongside the ZERO Group. From 1975 onwards, he expanded his artistic vocabulary and delved into constructing 3D sculptural “Archetypes,” layering primary geometric shapes such as triangles, quadrangles, and circles.

In 1961, Leblanc had his first solo exhibition at the prestigious Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In 1970, he participated in the 35th Venice Biennale and in 1974, was honored with the title of Knight of the Order of Leopold II. In 1977, he was appointed as a lecturer at the Nationaal Hoger Instituut voor bouwkunst in Stedebouw (NHIBS) in Antwerp.

Leblanc’s works have been widely featured in major ZERO exhibitions, including the renowned ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2014.

www.ftn-books.com has several Leblanc publications available. Among them these 2 new ones:

He lives up to his name, Willy Fleur: practically all the flowers from the flower shop Meijer on Reinkenstraat in The Hague have been painted by this ‘perfectionist’, according to the monograph ‘A Colorful Hague Painter with an Eastern Heart’ (2004). His still lifes boast a wide array of flower species, from lilacs to snowballs and daisies, from anemones to chrysanthemums and gloxinias, from cactuses, lilies, and dahlias to azaleas and geraniums. Many households in The Hague have brought in a never-ending blooming houseplant or bouquet with a one-time purchase. But Johan Willem (Willy) Fleur has also painted tropical birds such as parrots, cockatoos, and parakeets, exotic fish, and Asian bazaars. In addition to these genres inspired by the Far East, he also painted landscapes, winter scenes, harbors (including Scheveningen and Katwijk), and girls wearing Hungarian or traditional Dutch clothing, usually in oil on canvas, sometimes with watercolor or pastel chalk on paper. His vibrant use of colors is often employed by painters from the Far East, as stated in the aforementioned monograph. What is the artist’s connection to the Far East? Both his father and grandfather were administrators in the former Dutch East Indies, and although Willy was born in Markelo (Overijssel), his family background has clearly left a mark on him. He often incorporates Asian elements into his still lifes, such as Japanese imari pots and Chinese dolls, teapots, and jugs. He lived in The Hague from 1912 until his death. He received his education at the Rotterdam Academy of Art and Design, with Huib Luns as his teacher, and subsequently at the Hague Academy. He has been an active member of the Dutch Art Circle in the city since its establishment in 1917 and regularly exhibits there. He has also had exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, at the Royal Kleykamp Art Gallery, and, quite frequently, at Panorama Mesdag in The Hague.Fleur is known for his consistent quality. His versatility is evident from the fact that he was a not unmeritorious pianist, but also built radios and had a great love for Egyptian literature and was able to decipher hieroglyphs.

www.ftn-books.com has a Willy Fleur publication now available.

Born in Yorkshire, England in the year 1935, the remarkable individual delved into the intricacies of mathematics at the prestigious Cambridge University. His expertise as a visual artist took him to Istanbul, Vienna, and London before he finally settled in the picturesque Aran Islands alongside his beloved partner, Máiréad, in the year 1972. It was here that he embarked on a meticulous exploration of the West of Ireland, capturing its essence through the mediums of cartography and writing.

This groundbreaking endeavor, the Folding Landscapes mapping project, was bestowed with the honor of being Ireland’s winning entry for the esteemed Ford European Conservation Awards in 1987. In the year 1996, he was duly elected to Aosdána, an esteemed organization promoting the arts in Ireland, followed by a prestigious invitation to join the Royal Irish Academy in 2011. The culmination of his esteemed career, he was also bestowed with the Parnell Visiting Fellowship at the illustrious Magdalen College, Cambridge, in the same year. Further adding to his accolades, he was appointed as the Visiting Artist at the renowned Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in 2012.

His talent transcends from visual arts to the realm of writing, with his prolific works gaining recognition through their display in joint and solo exhibitions at esteemed institutions such as Camden Art Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art, and the Hugh Lane Gallery. Notably, he has been honored with two Irish Book Awards for his literary contributions on Ireland. In collaboration with Liam Mac An Iomaire, he successfully translated Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s famous work, Cré na Cille, which was then published by Yale University Press in 2015, subsequently winning the esteemed MLA Translation Prize in 2018.

Among his notable literary works include the critically acclaimed Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage and Labyrinth, the Connemara trilogy encompassing Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom, Connemara: Listening to the Wind, and Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness, along with a collection of thought-provoking essays titled My Time in Space.

This formidable individual is the subject of the poignant documentary film, Tim Robinson: Connemara, directed by the esteemed Pat Collins. Through this medium, his remarkable journey and contributions to the world of art and literature are revealed to inspire future generations.

www.ftn-books.com has THE BURREN map now available.

Rob Birza was born in Geldrop, Netherlands and pursued studies at de Ateliers in Amsterdam. His artistic creations have been extensively showcased in numerous solo exhibitions, as well as in both national and international group exhibitions. His works have been acquired by both private and public collections, and he currently resides and creates in Amsterdam.

Birza’s career has been nothing short of impressive, with two solo exhibitions at the renowned Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in his twenties, and a continuous stream of exhibitions throughout Europe over the past four decades. He has also been commissioned for numerous public art pieces all across the Netherlands.

At first glance, Birza’s body of work may seem perplexing; playful twists on Stella’s shaped canvases and Schwitters-esque abstract compositions are interspersed with vibrant still lifes of flowers and grand depictions of the Afghan war. As curator and director Ann Demeester of the Frans Hals museum pointed out when introducing Birza’s 2016 series titled “Shifting Circles,” there is always one constant throughout his oeuvre: the delicate balance between the abstract and the figurative. This balance is prominently displayed in the “Shifting Circles” series through a clever interplay between background and foreground, and a structured system in which the colorful circles seem to adhere.

In his most recent series, “Drifting Circles” (2017), Birza has chosen to break away from symmetry and take a more relaxed approach to his circle system. The artist fearlessly embraces a laid-back and mischievous attitude in order to subvert his own system, as well as the larger artistic tradition. This rebellion opens up new possibilities and opportunities, and it is precisely this type of anarchy that played a defining role in the development of abstract art.

www.ftn-books.com has several Birza items now available.

For Omar Koubãa, painting is a journey, both visually and mentally. In a light trance, he creates images on the canvas that evoke landscapes, but never reveal a concrete location. Each time you think you recognize a horizon, house, or tree, the composition dissolves into paint once again. As a result, the viewer’s eye continues to wander across the canvas, searching for points of entry. The refined balance between shapes and color combinations pulls and pushes you endlessly forward.

www.ftn-books.com has the SIEGER WHITE AWARD book / Working with dark soil now available.

Renowned artist Ad Snijders (1929-2010) of Eindhoven is a self-taught individual. Though he draws inspiration from nature in his versatile oeuvre, the content of his work is predominantly determined by the potency of color, composition, and surface texture. After a period of creating exclusively drawings, Snijders produces his first oil paintings in 1955, characterized by dark outlined, hermetic blocks of color against a white background. He utilizes hardboard as his canvas, sometimes adding coal dust, sawdust, and glue to create an irregular surface. During this time, his interest lies in the works of Cobra painters such as Karel Appel and Asger Jorn, though he claims his work has little to do with theirs. In 1956, the formal severity gives way to a looser brushwork. Colors blend together and swirling brushstrokes lend a dynamic quality to his compositions. His work bears resemblance to that of École de Paris artists like Bazaine, Bissière, and Manessier, whom Snijders encounters at the Van Abbemuseum. His spontaneous and erratic technique also evokes the American Abstract Expressionism movement, though he only becomes familiar with it at the end of the 1950s.

Starting from 1957, he is given regular opportunities to present his work at the Van Abbemuseum, including in the exhibition series Artists in Brabant. The period that follows is marked by rapid and successive changes in his work. Initially, his color palette and material usage become increasingly subdued, until a nearly black painting surface remains. He then creates a series of almost monochrome, white paintings. In the early 1960s, Snijders stays in France for a while thanks to a scholarship. In the mid-1960s, he swaps painting for assemblages, a technique that aligns with the American Pop Art movement and the French Nouveau Réalisme, where everyday objects are brought together to form a relief. In line with the prevailing conceptualist trend at the time, they openly question the purpose and meaning of painting. The title of the exhibition where Snijders’ assemblages are shown in 1963, SAS (which stands for Schijt aan Schilderkunst or “Screw Painting”), speaks volumes in this regard. From the 1970s onwards, Snijders returns to painting. Initially, he creates figurative, erotic compositions, followed by abstract chalk drawings, gouaches, and mixed media works in the 1980s. In terms of color usage and composition, these later works are reminiscent of his oil paintings from the late 1950s. Together, they are considered to be among the highlights of his body of work.

www.ftn-books.com has several Snijders titles now available.

Popova was born on April 24, 1889, on the fringes of Moscow, to a well-off Russian family. In 1907, she began studying painting under the tutelage of Polish-Russian Impressionist Stanislav Zhukovsky. The following year, she continued her artistic education with painters Konstantin Yuon and Ivan Dudin. During her travels across Europe, she visited Kiev in the fall of 1909, followed by trips to Italy in 1910 and 1914. She also explored Pskov, Veliky Novgorod, and Yaroslavl within Russia. It was during these excursions that Popova became familiar with the craft of 15th- and 16th-century Italian masters, as well as that of Symbolist painter Mikhail Vrubel and traditional icon painters from Russia.

Upon her return to Moscow in 1912, she joined Vladimir Tatlin’s co-operative studio, known as the Tower. It was here that she first encountered the paintings of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and other French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in Sergei Shchukin’s private collection. Popova’s work during this period predominantly consisted of still lifes, landscapes, and nudes characterized by bold outlines, simplified forms, and vibrant hues reminiscent of the style of Paul Cézanne. She shared this artistic vision with close colleagues Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov.

The apex of Popova’s artistic development occurred during her trip to Paris in the fall of 1912, where she studied at the renowned Académie de la Palette. In the words of her dear friend and fellow traveler Nadezdha Udal’tsova, “Our intention had been to study under Matisse, but his school was already closed…someone then told us about La Palette, the studio of Le Fauconnier. We went there and immediately knew that it was where we belonged.”

In her debut in 1914, Popova joined the leading Russian avant-garde group Jack of Diamonds, showcasing the influence of both Cubism and Futurism in two paintings. The following year, she participated in two notable exhibitions in Petrograd: Tramway V: The First Futurist Exhibition of Paintings and The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings: 0.10. These exhibitions also featured Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist paintings and Tatlin’s Counter-Reliefs. It was during this exhibition that Popova presented her initial abstract Painterly Architectonics, featuring triangular and rectangular forms, along with superimposed lines, creating a plethora of dynamic and multidimensional designs.

Throughout the early 1920s, Popova closely collaborated with the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK) and the Higher State Art-Technical Studios (VKhUTEMAS) – a research-based organization led by Vasily Kandinsky. She taught color and design classes at VKhUTEMAS. During this time, Popova, along with other members of INKhUK, advocated for the abandonment of easel painting, stating, “Our new goal is the organization of the material environment, specifically contemporary industrial production, and all active artistic creativity must support this.”

In her last series of easel paintings, “Spatial-force Constructions,” Popova showcased a collection of densely intersecting painted lines on plywood, covered in wood dust, emphasizing the materiality of the surface. She described her work as “an array of initial experiments leading to tangible material constructions,” aligning herself closely with the Constructivist language and practical art forms of the new Soviet state.

www.ftn-books.com has a slide series on Popova now available.

At the core of Claudia Sola’s body of work lies the recurring appearance of archetype narrative, and her focus on the interplay between us and the world. Drawing inspiration from personal experiences, her creative output spans various mediums, including painting, drawing, video, installation, photography, and sculpture.

Sola’s imagination leads her to delve into diverse subjects, ranging from historical events to natural phenomena, from stories found on the internet to ones discovered in archives and libraries worldwide. This often results in pieces that carry a strong political message or explore deeply personal themes, both of which reflect our existence as egocentric beings caught within the web of society.

Internationally recognized, Claudia Sola has held both solo and group exhibitions, earning awards and nominations for her distinct and thought-provoking creations. Her work has been acquired by prestigious European art collections, both public and private, such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Musée Français de la Photographie in Paris.

www.ftn-books.com has the West publication by Sola now vailable.

An overarching theme in Ulay’s body of work is the vulnerability of the human body, specifically the fragility of human flesh. The initial rooms of the exhibition showcase dozens of polaroids, almost all self-portraits, in which the artist pushes the boundaries of his physical form through cross-dressing or self-mutilation. In the 1973 Dunes series, we see him frolicking through the dunes in garter belts and heavy makeup, playing with a feather boa and eagerly chased by a dog. In the same space hangs Diamond Plane (1973), where he pins a diamond brooch in the shape of an airplane directly onto – or rather, into – his skin. A drop of blood runs down his chest.

In his later works, Ulay addresses the limits of the body in a more subtle manner than in his initial polaroids and the bombastic performances with Abramovic. For example, Berlin Afterimages (1994-1995) is a mysterious photo series of color negatives, born out of a fascination with the “afterimages” that a bright light leaves on the retina. The series depicts the city of Berlin which, after the fall of the Wall, was hastily restored with materials that were not part of the original neoclassical architecture – the contrasts of the color negative highlight the damages and restorations as afterimages of the city’s history. The work included here has the subtitle “Eagles Shall Hunt Dogs,” a nod to Ulay’s homeland’s contentious relationship with eagle symbolism. In the image, a German shepherd can be seen, the same breed that the artist chased in Dunes. While in his earlier works, Ulay used his own skin as an aesthetic border between inside and outside, here he employs the image of the city as a metaphorical body that can be inhabited, damaged, and admired.

www.ftn-books.com has several Ulay publications available.

Pavel Büchler, a resident of Manchester, United Kingdom since 1952, is known for his contemplative artistic approach, centered on the concept of ‘nothingness’. In his diverse body of work, including installations, videos, sculptures, and works on paper, Büchler displays sharp wit and conceptual rigor, challenging the viewer’s mind. Utilizing a minimalistic yet sophisticated approach, he reimagines discarded objects like broken pencils, ashtrays, and paint chips, as well as obsolete technology such as slide projectors and tape recorders, employing them in visual metaphors. His thought-provoking pieces offer novel perspectives on the world around us, encompassing themes of nature, culture, art, and everyday life.