FTN-blog

The Belgian painter Constant Permeke (1886-1952) was renowned for his depictions of the working class, sailors, farmers, and miners, often situated within the backdrop of the rugged landscape. Permeke’s artistic vision emphasized the arduous reality of human existence and our innate connection to the earth. While not overtly critical of society, Permeke possessed a keen sense of capturing the magical essence of reality through his art. His figures are deliberately distorted, and his choice of warm colors adds depth and richness to his compositions.

In addition to paintings, Permeke also created monumental sculptures incorporating elements of cubism and showcasing his admiration for the works of Leger. Unlike other Expressionists, Permeke also produced large-scale drawings, displaying both precision and refinement in his composition.

www.ftn-books.com has several Permeke publications available including the scarce 1947 Stedelijk Museum caralog.

As the founder of the Rosengart Collection, Angela Rosengart’s life has been devoted to art. When she was given the choice of a long evening dress for her 17th birthday, she instead chose Paul Klee’s drawing “Ein Tier geht spazieren.” Her passion and love for art have driven her throughout her entire life.

Born in 1932, Angela Rosengart has been an art dealer since 1948. She started as an apprentice in her father’s firm and later became a partner alongside him. After her father’s passing in 1985, she took on the role of sole managing director. Throughout her career, she has specialized in Classic Modernism and has developed personal friendships with many Classic Modernist artists, including Picasso. In fact, Picasso painted Angela Rosengart five times. In recognition of her contribution to the world of art, she received an honorary doctorate from the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Zurich in 2003.

Reflecting on her experiences with Picasso, Angela Rosengart described enduring his gaze as an “incredible experience.” She felt as though he was boring into her with his eyes, almost consuming her.

In 1978, Angela Rosengart and her father presented eight masterpieces by Picasso to the City of Lucerne in honor of its 800th anniversary. This generous act laid the foundations for the Lucerne Picasso Museum, which the Rosengarts continued to support over the years. Since 2008, these works have been incorporated into the Rosengart Collection. In addition, Angela Rosengart established the Rosengart Foundation in 1992 with the goal of maintaining and making her art collection accessible to the public in Lucerne.

In the year 2000, Angela Rosengart purchased the building that was built by the Swiss National Bank in 1924. Finally, in spring 2002, the Rosengart Collection found its permanent home in this building, thanks to Angela Rosengart’s dedication and love for art.

www.ftn-art.com has teh PIcasso catalog from 1963 available, for which Picasso made a special cover.

Robert Lax was born in 1915 in Olean, New York. During his time at Columbia University, he had the opportunity to study under the guidance of Mark van Doren, forming close bonds with fellow classmate and poet Thomas Merton, and painter Ad Reinhardt. After his time at Columbia, he held various positions such as university lecturer, film critic, script writer, and editor for The New Yorker. In the 1950s, he embarked on a journey across Europe as a “roving editor” for Jubilee, a Catholic magazine, and PAX, while also making contributions to a range of anthologies and publications. In 1962, he made the decision to relocate to the beautiful Greek islands, where he resided until his passing in 2000.

www.ftn-books.com has the MORE SCALES limited edition now available. This Eschenau Summer Press publication from 1997 is numbered ( ed. 150 cps) and is in MInt condition. This publication is also in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum and the Kroller Muller Museum.

Daniele Galliano, born in Pinerolo in 1961, is a self-taught artist who burst onto the scene in the early 1990s, exhibiting in his home city of Turin. His unique “photographic realism” style garnered him attention and acclaim, leading to invitations to participate in major exhibitions around the world.

Invitations to prestigious events like the Ninth Biennale of Havana in 2006, the 53rd Biennal of Venice in 2009, and the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2016 further solidified Galliano’s place as a prominent figure in the Italian painting scene.

Throughout his career, Galliano has held solo exhibitions at renowned galleries such as Galleria Annina Nosei in New York, Galleria In Arco in Turin, and Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome. He has also been featured in group shows at prestigious institutions like the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Bologna, the XII Quadrennial in Rome, the Galleria Civica in Trento, and the Rupertinum Museum in Salzburg.

Galliano’s works are included in esteemed collections such as the Galleria Civica d’arte Moderna and Contemporanea in Turin, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, the MART in Trento and Rovereto, and the Unicredit Private Banking Collection in Milan.

While staying true to his roots as a painter, Galliano has also collaborated with various artists in other disciplines, including musicians, directors, and writers.

In 2015, a monograph on Galliano’s work was published by Skyra, solidifying his position as a renowned and multifaceted artist.

www.ftn-books.com has now the Livingstone gallery invitation available.

Peter Bömmels’ fervent love for music led him down a path towards art. As a self-taught artist and co-founder of the esteemed music magazine SPEX, he utilizes a unique range of materials, such as acrylic, polymer clay, and even human hair, in his creative process. His pieces are suspended in a surreal limbo, simultaneously existing within our world yet also transcending it. The strange dichotomy of his works, straddling between mundane reality and fantastical absurdity, is both disorienting and spellbinding.

Beyond his artistic pursuits, Bömmels has also dedicated himself to the field of education since the 1990s. He has held several prestigious professorships in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin, and Braunschweig. He even had the opportunity to impart his knowledge at the esteemed Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen back in 1996. In his most recent teaching role at the Dresden University of Fine Arts from 2004 to 2018, he shared his expertise in painting, graphics, and other forms of visual poetry.

www.ftn-books.com has now the Paul Maenz poster/invitation available.

Born Isidore Goldstein, Isidore Isou was born in Botosani, Romania on January 29, 1925. After the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation, he moved to the city on August 23, 1945. He soon met fellow Jewish refugee Gabriel Pomerand and together they founded “Lettrism,” a new artistic movement. The first public event of the movement took place on January 8, 1946 at the Sociétés Savantes, where Issou recited his poems. One year later, Gallimard published his “Introduction à une Nouvelle Poésie et une Nouvelle Musique,” which included his “Manifeste de la poésie lettriste.” In total, he would go on to publish more than two hundred books, featuring his “hypergraphic” texts, “metagraphic” images, plays, theoretical texts, polemics, posters, and more. In 1950, the Lettrism group also included Maurice Lemaître, Jean-Louis Brau, Gil J Wolman, and François Dufrêne. Guy Debord joined in 1951. Despite the formation of the new “L’Internationale Lettriste” in 1952, Isou’s group remained active throughout the rest of the decade. He passed away in Paris on July 28, 2007.

www.ftn-books.com has the Blois small portfolio now vailable.

Cooke moved to the US as a teenager and studied Art History at Harvard University. He moved to Ireland in 1954 and had his first solo exhibition in Dublin the following year. Though he has been based in Ireland ever since, he is widely travelled and his richly expressionist, semi-abstract paintings have been strongly influenced by time spent in such far-flung places as Lapland, New Zealand, Borneo and Malaya. Nature in its infinite variety and irresistible flux is his chosen environment and subject matter, and in this new body of work Cooke turns his attention once more to Ireland to address, on this occasion, the interaction of sun and cloud and it’s dramatic impact on the local landscape.

Cooke has also, however, painted a number of nudes, as refracted through what Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney has referred to as his ‘aqueous vision’. He has collaborated with a number of prominent poets including Heaney and the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, both of whom share his fascination with the elemental. Though primarily a painter, he has also produced a series of ‘bone boxes’ in Perspex during the 1970’s. These and other major works from the last 40 years will be on view in a major retrospective exhibition of Cooke’s work at the RHA, Gallagher Gallery 11 September – 26 October, 2003.

Cooke has exhibited widely throughout Europe, the US and Canada. Major retrospectives include shows in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1986, the Haags Gemeentemuseum in 1992, and LAC, Perpignan, France in 1995. His work is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Holland and in many other public and private collections worldwide.

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

Otto Dressler, a noteworthy post-war artist, hailed from Braubach/Rhein (DE) and was born in 1930.

In 1970, Dressler’s debut exhibition, titled Bild – Graphik, was held at Nassauischer Kunstverein in Wiesbaden. His most recent exhibition, Good Vibrations: Sommer in der Pop-Art, took place at Wilhelm Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen in 2020. While Germany remains the primary location for his exhibitions, Dressler has also showcased his works in Austria, Poland, and other countries. Over the span of 50 years, he has had 3 solo exhibitions and participated in 25 group shows (for more information, see exhibitions). Additionally, Dressler has been featured in one art fair and one biennial. Among his notable exhibitions is Otto Dressler – vom erbe der väter zum wahnsinn der enkel, which was held at Künstlerhaus Wien in Vienna in 2010. Other noteworthy displays of his work include those at Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin and Museum Kunstpalast in Dusseldorf. Along with fellow artists Michael Schoenholtz and Eugen Gomringer, Otto Dressler has been showcased in numerous exhibitions.

www.ftn-books.com has now the NIjmegen poster from 1979 available.

Elation lies in the yearning for recurrence. Advertising for tobacco was already prohibited in France at the time. In order to circumvent this, Gitanes turned to Alain Weill, the director of the poster museum in Paris. He came up with the following scheme: a tribute to Marcel Jacno, the designer of the Gitanes logo. Paintings, photographs, and posters were featured. Through this, Gitanes was still able to advertise in Le Monde. Interestingly, my poster was the only one rejected, due to the depiction of lungs. The phrase “Happiness is the longing for repetition” (a line from Kundera) conveyed addiction.

The GITANES poster is scarce and now available at www.ftn-books.com together with other rare Beek posters.

Theo Wolvecamp (Hengelo 1925 – Amsterdam 1992) is often characterized as an enigmatic artist, intentionally residing on the fringes. Unlike his Cobra comrades, he operated in the shadows and remained true to his own trajectory, far from the tumult of public attention. Nonetheless, he served as a driving force within the movement. Wolvecamp devoted himself wholeheartedly to one of Cobra’s central tenets: the pursuit of unconfined, impromptu painting, with a paramount emphasis on improvisation and experimentation. His pieces always conveyed a genuine sentiment, devoid of superficialities, and found their vitality in the intuition and spontaneity that undergirded them.

What sets Wolvecamp apart is the fusion of the mythological and the tangible. He perceived paint not just as a medium, but as a living substance through which he breathed life into his inner world. He held in high regard artists like Asger Jorn, who, in his eyes, impeccably captured this equilibrium between substance and form. Miró and Alechinsky also served as great wells of inspiration, yet Wolvecamp’s oeuvre unmistakably carries his distinct voice: raw, unplanned, and emotive.

www.ftn-books.com has several Wolvecamp publications now available.