FTN BLOG for ftn-books.com

Nancy Rubins carves her legacy not from vanity, but from the skeletal remains of our industrial exhaustion. An alumna of the Maryland Institute College of Art and the University of California, she initially eschewed the permanence of the kiln. Her early forays—labyrinthine, igloo-shaped dwellings forged from damp earth, concrete, and straw—existed as ephemeral whispers. Much like a tide erasing sketches in the sand, these pieces surrendered their form as the moisture evaporated, defiant against the static stagnation of traditional ceramic art. Her creative trajectory pivoted radically. She began to exhume the carcasses of consumerist excess: discarded television sets, derelict campers, and the haunting aluminum ribs of grounded aircraft. These behemoths were not merely stacked; they were coaxed into blooming, explosive geometries that defy gravity as if tethered by some unseen, muscular magnetism. Public reception proved a volatile crucible. Her 1980 commission, *Big Bil-Bored*, stood as a monolith of urban detritus in the heart of Chicago. While the local vox populi skewered it as … Read more

A pivotal figure in the international art scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Juan Muñoz (1953–2001) established a reputation for highly creative works that bridged the gap between viewer, installation, and the surrounding architecture. His portfolio evolved from singular architectural motifs hinting at humanity to expansive, immersive installations featuring groups of figures. His career, cut … Read more

The transformative contributions Ellsworth Kelly made between the late 1940s and early 1950s fundamentally altered the landscape of abstract art for generations. By pioneering monochrome canvases, multi-panel compositions, and a commitment to seriality and aleatory methods, Kelly played a pivotal role in liberating painting from the conventions of expressionism during the 1960s. Yet, his path … Read more

Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): When Less Became Everything Walk into a room with one white canvas, a stack of metal boxes, and a single fluorescent tube leaning against a wall, and you might wonder what there is to see. That question — and the surprising range of answers artists gave to it — is the … Read more

In the rubble and restlessness of the Netherlands after the Second World War, a generation of artists decided the old forms no longer fit. Out of that mood came two parallel movements: CoBrA, the painters’ revolt that Eugène Brands helped launch, and De Vijftigers (“The Fiftiers”), the poets who tore up Dutch verse at almost … Read more

During thethe 1960s and 70s, curator Celia Ascher orchestrated a singular endeavor under the aegis of magnate Meshulam Riklis, the sovereign of the Rapid-American Corporation. Across a span of fifteen years, they meticulously curated an assembly of fine art within the rigid architecture of a retail conglomerate—a collection that eventually burgeoned into a phalanx of one thousand works. It was not the sheer magnitude of the hoard that stirred the art world’s pulse, but rather its intellectual rigor. While contemporary corporate archives often resembled eclectic galleries of wall-dressing, Ascher and Riklis championed a austere, monochromatic thesis centered on Constructivism, Minimalist austerity, and the geometric sublime. Their vision traced a scholarly arc, spanning from the nascent tremors of the Russian avant-garde to the disciplined precision of postwar geometric abstraction. Before this repository found its final sanctuary, a curated procession of these masterworks embarked on an … Read more

The artistic practice of Ram Katzir—a Tel Aviv native currently situated in Amsterdam—is defined by an investigation into the dichotomies of the public versus the private, the remembrance of history versus physical location, and the tension between intimacy and detachment. His creative output serves as a continuous pursuit of a sense of rootedness, encompassing both … Read more

More than a simple craftsman, Paul Van Hoeydonck operated as a mapper of the firmament, moving far beyond the ordinary. On the stark, expansive terrain of the Sea of Imbrium rests *Fallen Astronaut*, his greatest achievement—a lonely aluminum figure that stands as a miniature testament to human fragility within the lunar silence. Left behind by … Read more

“Jaja de oerknal hoor ik mezelf zeggen. Hoe is het mogelijk dat dit in mijn mond past? Het ontstaan een klont op mijn tong.” Thus commence the opening stanzas of *Jaja de oerknal*, the titular odyssey by Maria Barnas (born 1973, Hoorn). Barnas operates at the precipice of dual aesthetics, weaving her craft as both a practitioner of the plastic arts and an architect of prose. Her creative inquiry interrogates the malleability of existence—how descriptions and ocular portrayals perpetually distort the bedrock of reality. Does language possess the requisite elasticity to colonize the seen? And in … Read more

Dark Matter (White Cube, Hoxton Square, 7 July – 9 September 2006), curated by Annushka Shani A tightly conceived group show built around a deceptively simple premise: black, or the idea of darkness, as a starting point for radically different art-making practices. Its title nodded to the astronomical term for the invisible matter between points … Read more

Born in Milan in 1925, Giancarlo Sangregorio first explored his affinity for sculpture as a youth, working with stone in the Val d’Ossola quarries near Lago Maggiore. Following his classical secondary education, he honed his craft at Milan’s Brera Academy under the tutelage of Marino Marini. By 1952, he had launched his debut solo exhibition, … Read more

Kloosterboer operates as a visual alchemist, perpetually erecting bridges between the ethereal realm of abstraction and the visceral theater of kinetics. His oeuvre functions less as a stagnant reflection of intellect and more as a kinetic mandate—a raw, pulsatile enactment where the canvas becomes a sacrificial altar for techniques involving tectonic shearing, cascading pigment, and the structural suturing of fabric. He interrogates the very marrow of painterly existence, dissecting the foundational elements of the medium alongside the performative modalities of its presentation. To engage with his work is to find oneself tethered to the crucible of creation; the spectator is not merely an observer, but a witness to a forensic exploration of the act itself. His repertoire is a kaleidoscope of material rebellion. One moment, a gargantuan, hand-stitched linen effigy dominates the spatial void; the next, a squadron of chromatic containers demands attention. Or perhaps, a celluloid capture reveals the surreal choreography of twin monoliths being dragged across an asphalt artery, viewed through the distorted lens of an automotive rear window. Kloosterboer’s output defies the gravitational pull of convention; it remains a lucid, mercurial, and defiantly idiosyncratic manifesto of the unvarnished creative impulse. www.ftn-books.com has … Read more