FTN-blog

David Tremlett (b. 1945, UK) is a Swiss/English sculptor, installation artist, and photographer. He is renowned for his large mural drawings featuring formal abstract and geometric designs made with an array of colored pastels. The artist often delves into the study of color, texture, and form, creating a rhythmic dance within the frame or installation. These abstract shapes, inspired by his travels around the world, are a translation of music, architecture, and culture into a visual language that shares his memories with the audience. Tremlett’s unique site-specific wall drawings evoke movement and energy, transforming the environment in which they are placed, whether through bold and direct strokes or subtle chromatic juxtapositions within architectural details.

Tremlett honed his skills at the Birmingham College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London during the 1960s. He belongs to a generation of artists who pushed the boundaries of traditional sculpture, exploring new process-oriented and performance-based approaches, and incorporating everyday materials that challenged the prevailing art practices of the time.

In addition to his mesmerizing murals, Tremlett’s drawings and collages on paper also explore the interplay of color and geometry, reduced to a two-dimensional surface. His works and permanent installations can be found in prestigious art institutions worldwide, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Britain in London, and galleries around the globe.

I admire Tremlett a lot and every time i encountered a publication i have bought it. Now i am offering some double copies that i have available in my store at www.ftn-books.com

Gaida addresses topics that often stem from fringe areas of attention: Seemingly casual elements are brought into focus, artistically explored in series of images, categorized, archived or cataloged. Language, in the art of Gaida, is always a constitutive element, whether as a concretizing legend integrated into the image, which often surprises with its twists on the usual perceptions, or as the subject of playfully designed language research, reflected in series of images (“The Means of Painting”, “Diplomatic Letters”, “Removing Words”) or in “Word-Archives” dedicated solely to auditory impressions. Terms such as “Mettafusiek”, “Reedewenndunk”, “Anntikwaar” or “Ferrschtannning” appear, borrowed from literary works – as seen here, from Arno Schmidt’s “KAFF also Mare Crisium”.

www.ftn-books.com has the limited edition of PORTRAITS now available.

Dan Asher (American artist), hailing from Cleveland, OH in 1947, was a resident of New York until his passing in 2010.

Excelling in various mediums such as photography, painting, sculpture, music, and video, Dan Asher had a prolific career. However, it is his introspective works on paper, created in the early 1980s, that remain his crowning achievement. These pieces are characterized by expressive, mask-like portraits, defined by dynamic and vibrant strokes of graphite, oil, and tempera. They delve into the connections and gaps between the psychological and corporeal, the personal and public, and the absurd and austere.

Asher’s works can be found in the permanent collections of renowned institutions such as MoMA in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Museum Ludwig in Germany, and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland.

Notable exhibitions featuring Asher’s work include “An Anthropologist on Mars” at Martos Gallery in New York, NY (2018), “White Room: Dan Asher at White Columns” in New York, NY (2008), a solo show at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York, NY (2005), “Red Aurora” at Galerie de Expeditie in Amsterdam, Netherlands (2004), “Dan Asher: Gastarbeither on the Planet” at Aurel Scheibler in Cologne, Germany (1998), “Dan Asher” at Kunsthaus Murz in Murzzuschlag, Austria (2003), and “Dan Asher: Recent Photographs” at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, NY (2001).

www.ftn-books.com has the SALON VERLAG artist book by Asher now available.

Since the end of the ’60s, Hamish Fulton has rooted his art in strolls that he embarks on as a “pedestrian artist.” Walking, the sensation of movement and the bond with nature lie at the core of his creative praxis. In contrast to the approach of Land Art, which physically intervenes in the landscape or employs found objects to create pieces, Fulton strives to leave minimal traces. He does not aim to alter the landscapes he encounters during his walks, instead highlighting the experience as the foundation of his craft.

In addition to taking solitary or accompanied walks, Fulton also participates in guided summit hikes and, since the ’90s, has initiated “public walks” in urban areas, inviting interested individuals to join. Walking becomes a crucial element of the group dynamic, with participants following only a few conceptual instructions from the artist during a set time frame.

Fulton’s displayed works – photographs, drawings, murals, or wooden pieces – are conceptualized representations of his walking experiences, initially serving as markers of absence: they bear witness to past encounters that have now become memories. The pieces evoke completed “art walks” in a condensed form, creating spaces for viewers to associate and imagine. Language holds a fundamental role in Fulton’s art; since the 1970s, each piece includes a “walk text,” succinctly outlining the walk often with distinct typography. Fulton also publishes his work in a multitude of artist books.

www.ftn-books.com has several important Fulton publications available.

Werner Mantz (1901–1983) is widely recognized as one of the foremost photographers belonging to the Neues Bauen movement, a prominent modernist architectural style prevalent in Cologne during the 1920s. Raised in and inspired by Cologne, he established a photo studio in 1921 and initially focused on capturing the portraits of influential intellectuals, artists, and politicians. In 1926, he began receiving commissions as an architectural photographer for renowned figures such as Wilhelm Riphahn, Peter Franz Nöcker, and Caspar Maria Grod, who were instrumental in implementing Konrad Adenauer’s vision for modern housing in Cologne. His work was frequently featured in prestigious architectural magazines such as Bauwelt, Die Form, and Bauwarte. Mantz’s signature style, characterized by its objective and minimalist black-and-white compositions, lends a monumental quality to the abandoned buildings and streets depicted in his photographs, effectively capturing the essence of the modern era. It was through his striking images that Cologne’s modernist architecture gained international recognition, surpassing geographical boundaries.

In 1932, Mantz embarked on a new venture and opened a second studio in Maastricht. Eventually, he relocated to the Netherlands in 1938, where he returned to his roots in portrait photography and gained specialization in capturing the innocence and purity of children.

www.ftn-books.com has now the 1990 Rosbeel publication on Mantz available.

Frans Baake (born in Stad Delden in 1958) received his education at the AKI in Enschede and Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Since the 1980s, he has focused primarily on creating artists’ books, combining linocuts and woodcuts with texts, photos, and drawings, all hand-bound by himself. Islands serve as a rich source of inspiration for him. In 1983, he made his first visit to the Faroe Islands, a treeless and windy archipelago located between Scotland and Iceland. Someone had told him beforehand: “There’s nothing to see there!” This observation and question have since stayed with him, becoming a recurring theme in his work. The concept of “nothing” takes on many forms for him. Over the years, he has visited places such as the Falkland Islands, the Aleutian Islands, St. Pierre & Miquelon, and Greenland. Thanks to a grant from the Mondriaan Fund, in 2017 he was able to reach a number of isolated islands in the southern Atlantic waters, including the remote Tristan da Cunha – a boyhood dream come true. After a long sea journey, he finally set foot on the distant island, a “destination of the mind.” Impressions of this trip were captured in the book “No where – now here,” a substantial tome that allows him to explore his fascinations with dreams and actions, (in)finitude and distance in time and space. In 2003, he spent a short period of time in New York, seeking peace in the bustling metropolis. This led him to City Island, an oasis in the Bronx. Last year, he was able to add Island City to his list – not even a physical island, but a place in Oregon. He was curious to experience what it would be like to be in a location with only the concept of an island in its name. As a result of both visits, two fold-out brochures were recently published, filled with his findings.

www.ftn-books.com has just added a new book to its inventory of Baake artist books.

Luciano Fabro, a prominent figure of the Arte Povera movement, actively contributed to redefining the boundaries of the canvas. He conceived the canvas as a concrete space. Initially trained as a painter, Fabro encountered the spatialist movement of Lucio Fontana at the 1958 Venice Biennale. His work, centered around the notions of time and space, led him to abandon painting in favor of creating physical objects that integrate into a real and tangible space.

In 1963, Fabro wrote a manifesto (La mia certezza : il mio senso per la mia azione (pseudo-Bacone)) in which he expounded on his interest in the question of perception and the existence of an outer reality intrinsically linked to an inner reality. He also defended the idea that works of art serve as tools for understanding the world.

www.ftn-books.com has some nice Fabro titles available.

Kasper Andreasen (1979) is a Danish visual artist. For quite some time, he has been creating artist books, drawings, and writings with a focus on “mapping” and the concept of “location.” Currently, his attention is drawn to the intersections between painting, drawing, and writing. Recently, he has produced a number of artist books, including the drawing atlas Writing Over (Roma Publications) and Off the Map (Motto Books). He resides and works in Brussels and teaches at the School of Arts (KASK) in Ghent and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

www.ftn-books.com has the Johan Deumen publication by Andreasen & Melzer ” INVENTORY” now available.

Five centuries prior to the birth of Christ, Greek cosmological thinkers were already aware of a fundamental truth: the world is not as it appears to be. They were the pioneers of demythologizing the world, breaking down the complexity of its phenomena to archè (the Greek word for ‘beginning’). By starting with a list of elemental building blocks and primal forces like love-hate, they opened up endless possibilities. Today, after two and a half millennia, this field is far from being fully explored, but occasionally humanity proves itself remarkably fresh and creative in thought.

In 1975, American philosopher Paul Feyerabend shook the intellectual world with his book Against Method. Despite initial ridicule, it exploded like a bombshell, challenging the established scientific method. Feyerabend asserted that if eight out of every ten rockets to the moon failed, it’s worth questioning what scientific methods were being used. He concluded that, in this case, ‘Anything goes!’ – any method can be utilized in order to achieve practical scientific progress.

Voebe de Gruyter approaches her artwork in a similarly anarchic manner. For her, epistemological questions serve as a means, not an end in themselves. As a visual artist, she effortlessly incorporates scientific knowledge into her thinking, picking and choosing what serves her purpose. Her work ‘Knowing water’ consists of seven drawings depicting water droplets storing reflections on a molecular level. As the water evaporates, the images fragment, only to reappear in rainclouds, swimming pools, dishwater, sweat, or a cup of tea. In ‘Mist Walks’ (1996), visitors can sign up for a guided stroll through the mist, where the artist reveals what she sees hidden behind the fog.

For Voebe de Gruyter, the pursuit of truth is not the main concern. She strives to make the vitality of observation visible, both through language and images.

www.ftn-books.com has the THE CABLE THEORY publication of de Gruyter now available.

Anouk Kruithof, a revered artist, is captivated by dance as a form of self-expression and empowerment. Her exploration delves into how dance has evolved throughout history as a pivotal component of our global media culture, and how it manifests itself online through social media platforms. Alongside a team of 52 researchers from around the world, Anouk meticulously gathered over 8,800 dance videos from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Each researcher entered identical search terms, and their geographical diversity resulted in varying search results – from the abakúa of Cuba and the Argentine tango to Zimbabwean sungura and the German zwiefacher.

In total, Anouk and her team discovered 1,000 dance styles in 196 countries and handpicked around 250 hours of dance videos. Through her video installation Universal Tongue, Kruithof masterfully showcases dance as a universal language, spoken by diverse subcultures, spreading virally and transcending cultural barriers.

“When you look past all cultural differences, you see that everyone genuinely derives so much energy from dancing with their bodies. It is a unifying force for humanity, and I find it truly beautiful.” – Anouk Kruithof

www.ftn-books.com has the THE DAILY EXHAUSTION publication now available.