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Henk van Putten(1936)

Henk van Putten (Amsterdam, 1936) trained at HTS and initially worked as a designer in various studios. In 1965 he founded his own consulting company. However, from his 1970s onwards, while living in Ibiza, he began to devote himself to art (although he could not help but design chairs and tables from time to time). He returned to the Netherlands in 1972, had his first solo exhibition at the Fodor Gallery in Amsterdam in 1978, and became a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1980 he founded ‘Art Stable Amsterdam’, a loose group of artists (including Constant), which occasionally publishes its own magazine containing artistic reflections. Van Putten has since exhibited in many galleries, including abroad (Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Guernsey) and had a retrospective exhibition at the Museum Commandery Van Sint Jan in Nijmegen. . Since 2001 he has lived and worked in India (Auroville) and exhibits there regularly.

www.ftn-books.com has several van Putten publications now available.

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Ni Pollok (1917-1985)

Adrian Jean Le Mayeur de Merpre was born in Brussels, Belgium. He traveled to Bali in 1932. He originally planned to stay for a few months, but he was so captivated by the people and nature of Bali that he decided to stay permanently. Inspired by light and color, he painted in the style of post-impressionism. He met nee Pollock, a 15-year-old “legon” dancer who became the model for his paintings. They married in 1935, but she continued to be his role model. In 1957, his house and works were donated to the Indonesian government as a museum. This was proposed by Indonesia’s Minister of Education and Culture, who was deeply impressed by Le Mayeur’s research. The museum still exists. The houses of Le Mayeur and Nu00ed Pollock have been preserved in their original condition ever since.

http://www.ftn-books.com has 2 different sets of memorabilia on Pollok now available.

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Ronald Medema (1956)

Ronald Medema (1956) is a Dutch painter who lives and works in Labelveld, Friesland. He completed his painting studies at the Academy of Fine Arts “Vredemann de Vries” in Leeuwarden in 1979. His interest in the meaning of icons in the Orthodox tradition, especially in the discovery of Orthodox spirituality, was already noticeable, which later led to his decision to become Orthodox. On this occasion he received the name Siluan. Medema went on study tours to Egypt, Mount Athos, Greece, and Turkey. Since 2002, Medema has focused solely on the “writing” of icons, the interpretation of the “words” of lines and colors within the Orthodox experience. She took lessons from Bernard Flinking from 2000 to 2004 and from Elena Antonova from 2010 to the present. On Orthodox Sunday, March 1, 2015, he was ordained a reader in Paris and received a blessing as an iconbearer from Job, Archbishop of Termessos, Ecumenical Patron of Constantinople. On April 21, 2018, he was ordained a deacon by His Highness Athenagoras, Metropolitan of Belgium, Governor of the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

www.ftn-books .com has the small publication on Medema written by mariette Josephus Jitta now available.

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Gustave van de Woestyne (1881-1947)

Gustave van de Woestyne was a troubled man. He didn’t make life easy for himself. And even though in his work he gives the impression that even strangers are welcome, sources prove quite the opposite. Almost no one was allowed into his house. When he saw someone approaching the house, he put on his hat and mischievously asked them to come with him as he was just taking a walk. Artist Van de Woestyne was torn between a simple and successful life (he was an outstanding portrait painter) and an unstoppable urge to achieve the unattainable spiritual enlightenment. I continued to hold her.
Van de Woestyne, 1929: “I believe that the artist must rediscover a new virginity every time he completes a painting. The memory of the previous job must be banished from his mind. Every job is a new beginning. If two pieces resemble each other, they are crafts, not art. u201d
Such expression requires an intense and tiring artistic life.
The editors, Robert Hooze and his girlfriend, Catherine Verleysen, have done an excellent job. We now know that Van de Woestyn, rather than being immediately at odds, enters into interaction with his contemporaries and his great source of inspiration, the Flemish primitives of the 15th century. We will have to wait for a new large-scale exhibition. and can carry out extensive technical and scientific research.

www.ftn-books.com has the Scheringa Museum publication on van de Woestyne and de Saedeleer now available.

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Seamus Nicolson (1971)

Here is what Nicoslson says on his site about himself.

I feel that I am still trying to paint but with another medium. The way I conceive and construct images, is more informed by art history and cinematography, than the traditions of documentary photography. The creative act can be encapsulated in the decisive moment, but it can can also occur when an event is seen, re-imagined and re-made.

I prefer to work in the directorial mode, constructing images that are drawn from my immediate surroundings, using the visual language of tableaux and Old Master painting. The characters depicted are from the locale where the images are made. My recent work explores a more abstract territory, using landscape to reflect psychological space. All my work is a celebration of the everyday, and an investigation into that paradoxical moment when our surroundings can seem familiar, and yet uncertain and mysterious. The photographic fragment and what it can suggest to the viewer is more intriguing to me than more direct and explicit means of visual communication.

Primarily, I make work for the gallery wall, but I also work commercially shooting editorial portraiture and fashion. I am interested in the potential for cross-over between the different areas of photographic practice: Fine Art, Fashion, Portraiture and Documentary. These genres mainly operate separately with distinct and different visual codes that are intended for different audiences. There needs to be more dialogue between these areas, if the medium is to evolve further and truly reflect the experience of life in an increasingly complex and inter-connected digital world.

I have exhibited extensively nationally and abroad and have works in private and public collections such as the Arts Council, the Tate and Government Art Collection. As well as the editorial portrait and fashion work, I have also created two advertising campaigns for Vivienne Westwood.”

www.ftn-books.com has the Bommel van Dam catalog available..

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Anke Roder (1964)

Anke Roeder (1964) studied at the Academies in Maastricht and ‘s-Hertogenbosch. After setting up studios in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, on the river Heerewaarden and in Rotterdam, he has been living and working in Sandewehr, North Groningen since 2009. The Wadden Sea environment, the impression of light and travel, and the colors of the large artist’s garden around her home resonate in her abstract landscapes. In addition to oil and encaustic paintings, she also creates works on paper. She has exhibited at numerous national and international trade fairs including PAN Amsterdam, Kunstrei, Art Rotterdam, Art The Hague, Art Ghent, List Berlin, FIAC Paris, and the London Art Fair. Her work has been exhibited in Denmark at the Ribe Museum, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Belvedere Heerenveen Museum, Van Bommel van Dam Venlo Museum, Isselstein Museum, Kranenburg-Bergen Museum, and Ketelfactory Schiedam. Masu. Her works are collected all over the world. Since 2015 she has been regularly writing articles about contemporary art.

Recently www.ftn-books.com acquired a small collection of books on Anke Roder.

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Fred Pollack (1943)

Fred Pollack’s paintings are generally the result of an intuitive painting process of formation and destruction. He incorporates geometric and anthropomorphic forms as well as abstract and figurative elements into compositions that subordinate the colors black, gray, and white. The edges of shapes and surfaces are often cut off, giving the impression that his works are part of a larger cosmic system. Pollack’s paintings find visual meaning in jarring combinations of unequal size, sometimes appearing abstract and sometimes suggesting representation. Although formally associated with postwar abstract art and neo-figurative art, his work appears to draw on the Surrealist tradition in its strange play with darkness and dreams. Pollack rarely gives titles to his paintings so as not to influence the viewer. u201cI want the viewer to feel the same freedom when exploring composition as I do when I paint,u201d he explains.

www.ftn-books.com has the Willy Schoots publication now available.

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Ma Hui

Ma Hui is a Chinese-born artist living in Amsterdam, known for his knowledge and expression using ink on paper. As a first-generation immigrant, Mahoi feels a strong connection to her homeland. She expresses her emotions through her ink strokes, drawing inspiration from her memories of her childhood and her personal connection with her hometown.

Ma Hui was born in Chengde, Hebei Province in 1958 into a family of high-ranking party officials. Her wide range of works embodies her two very different cultural identities in different ways. Her love for ink (ink and water on paper) stems from her childhood, spent on the banks of the Yellow River in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Ma Hui studied at the School of Fine Arts at Xi’an University, after which she painted the cultural life of ethnic minorities in Tibet. In 1987 she moved to Europe and continued her art studies in Switzerland and the Netherlands.
During her stay in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the symbiosis of yellow earth and flowing water evoked lasting emotions in her that literally shaped her artistic career, which spanned four decades on two continents. Both cultures resonate in ink, an ancient Chinese figurative art form that Ma Hui brilliantly transforms, resulting in giant jets of ink and water on rice paper. Ma Hui’s work is considered a pioneer of abstract ink and is part of a new advancement in modern Chinese culture. In 2006, she received the prestigious Emstel Prize from the Cobra Museum in the Netherlands for a wall-sized ink installation on canvas titled “Yellow River.” function.

www.ftn-books.com has the Dancing in 3D book by Ma Hui now available.

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Jan Ros (1961)

Architecture and the urban environment are recurring themes in Jan Roth’s art. The most important objects in his paintings are houses, villas, interiors, office buildings and highways. Ross paints images of gray houses and somewhat dilapidated gas stations on highways in a way that invites the viewer to look at these everyday objects and situations anew. It has a high affinity with photographers whose subjects are modern urban landscapes. The picture looks like a still image. But Ross’ job is about more than just capturing a scene. In Jan Roth’s paintings, speed and stillness seem to blend effortlessly.

www.ftn-books.com has the CONTEMPO catalog now available.

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Tony Scherman (1950)

Scherman’s upbringing was diverse, as he was born in Toronto in 1950 but spent his formative years in Paris, Europe, and later in London starting from 1955. It is worth noting that his father, Paul, pursued a successful career as a conductor and violinist across Canada, Europe, and England. After earning his MA from the Royal College of Art in London in 1974, Scherman decided to return to Toronto in 1976. Throughout his career, he has showcased his artwork in over 100 individual exhibitions, spanning across Canada, the United States, Europe, Beijing, and Hong Kong. In fact, his 2001-2002 solo exhibition, titled Chasing Napoleon, was displayed in several American university museums. Accompanying this exhibition was a book published by Cameron & Hollis in the UK in 1999, which was globally distributed by D.A.P. in North America and Thames and Hudson elsewhere. Additionally, Scherman’s artistic talent has been recognized through his participation in various group exhibitions worldwide. One notable example includes his involvement in The Human Clay, an exhibition curated by artist R.B. Kitaj at London’s Hayward Gallery in 1976. Kitaj’s selections for this groundbreaking exhibition showcased works by renowned artists such as Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Leon Kossoff. The exhibition successfully toured public galleries in the UK and Belgium. In 2012, Scherman’s painting titled Macbeth Witch #1 was chosen to represent the year 1994 in the Spotlight on 40 exhibition, held in Ottawa to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Canada Council Art Bank.

www.ftn-books.com has currently the Barbara Farber publication available.