Category: antiquarian books

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Kik Zeiler (1948)

Kick Seiler was already involved with Mokum gallery before he started painting. He lived on the top floor above the gallery. When Duque took an afternoon off, Kick would sometimes sit in the gallery, surrounded by the art that so fascinated him. He liked the atmosphere, but what impressed him most was the intensity of the art. Duque inspired him and gave Kiku his first chance. It was not surprising to him that after some time his work began to hang on the walls of Mokum. Kik has been selling well since its premiere. After that, he received many commissions for portrait painting, which is a genre of painting, and mastered it brilliantly. But Kick deals with more than just portraits. He considers it his job to paint the whole world. He can also regularly admire his still life paintings, parts of cities, and genre paintings depicting multiple figures in specific settings.

www.ftn-books.com has the Drents Museum catalog on his paintings available.

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Ernst Fuchs (1930-2015)

The artistic aptitude of Fuchs was recognized early in his life. At the tender age of 15, he was granted admission to the esteemed Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

It was during his time there that he first encountered his fellow students, namely Anton Lehmden, Arik Brauer, Wolfgang Hutter, and Rudolf Hausner. Together, they established the revolutionary Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, a movement that would redefine the art world.

Under the guidance of Professor Albert Paris Gutersloh, Fuchs and his colleagues delved into the techniques of the Old Masters, seeking to imbue their work with a sense of clarity and intricacy. They also utilized allegory and religious symbolism to add depth to their pieces.

Inspired by the works of Austrian symbolist artist Gustav Klimt – renowned for his bold and textured paintings such as “The Kiss” – Fuchs began to develop his own distinctive style, characterized by an emphasis on texture and color.

Renowned for his revival of the traditional mixed technique, Fuchs employed egg tempera to create volume and added a glaze of oil paints mixed with resin to achieve a dazzling effect. His masterpieces can be found in the Jewish Museum in Vienna, Austria, showcasing his unparalleled talent.

In 1950, Fuchs relocated to Paris, where he resided for 12 years. During this period, he embarked on travels to Italy, Spain, England, and the United States, where he crossed paths with renowned artists like Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico, and Jean Cocteau, forming meaningful friendships.

In 1961, Fuchs returned to Vienna and began writing about the art of painting, producing several books on the subject. By the mid-1970s, he had also become a highly sought-after opera stage director and designer, taking on projects such as Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and Wagner’s “Parsifal” and “Lohengrin.”

In 1972, Fuchs purchased and renovated the dilapidated Otto Wagner villa in Hutteldorf, transforming it into the renowned Ernst Fuchs Museum. Through his remarkable talents and unwavering dedication to the world of art, Fuchs left an indelible mark on the art world, etching his name into history.

WWW.FTN-BOOKS.COM has two Ernst Fuchs titles available.

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Oswald Wenckebach (1895-1962)

Ludwig Oswald Wenckebach (1895-1962), born in 1895 in Heerlen, began his apprenticeship with his uncle, the painter Willem Wenckebach, in 1910. He then continued his education at the Traditional Arts School in Haarlem. In 1914, he traveled to Vienna to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. Wenckebach was not only a painter, but also skilled in woodcuts, etchings, and lithographs. He returned to the Netherlands in 1919 and settled in Schagen. It was there that he met sculptor John Rädecker, who encouraged him to start sculpting. However, he did not completely abandon graphic art, as evidenced by his 3-cent stamp released in 1928 to commemorate the Amsterdam Olympic Games.

As a sculptor, Wenckebach was self-taught. Initially, influenced by his time in Greece, he worked in the classical Greek tradition. He created sculptures for buildings and monuments, as well as portraits in stone and bronze. In 1935, he was appointed as an extraordinary professor of modeling and sculpting at the department of Architecture at the Technical University of Delft. After World War II, Wenckebach created several war monuments (in Alphen 1949, Haarlem 1949, and Middelburg 1950). He also designed coins and medals, such as the 1950 coin featuring the portrait of Queen Juliana.

It was not until the 1950s that Wenckebach gradually developed his own figurative style, breaking away from the classicist tradition with its heroic, athletic, or archaic figures. He employed a subtle method of stylization, while still maintaining a certain strictness in his figures. Slowly, his free figurative sculptures gained their own character, featuring a sleek and stylized design with a gentle, everyday, and sometimes ironic, tone.

In 1955, Oswald Wenckebach was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. He passed away in Noordwijkerhout in 1962.

www.ftn-books.com has the Hefting book on Wenckebach now available.

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Jan Hofman (1942)

Jan Hofman has been working as a visual artist for almost five decades, focusing on graphic design and mixed media painting. His extensive body of work intrigues through its powerful visuals and refined use of color. The art of Jan Hofman has flourished through the application of new methods and techniques in printmaking. Early in his career, he explored various experiments with paper and developed unique printing techniques that require exceptional skill. He blends pigments and inks in his own distinctive way, which is why he personally prints his etchings – a time-consuming task that results in limited editions. Each print in an edition is truly one-of-a-kind, created under the same tension as a first print.

He delves into the relationships between circles and squares, selectively cutting and folding strips of material in a rhythmic fashion, producing a duplicate of the base figure outside the fixed edges of the artwork. He later perfects this playful process. With these objects, he strives for monumental forms of expression.

Large pieces of zinc with irregular shapes and frayed edges are painted and flow beyond the boundaries of a traditional frame. Characteristic leaves from trees and plants are prepared and coated with thick layers of paint, then combined to create a grand, harmonious composition.

www.ftn-books.com has the ‘t Coopmanshûs catalog now available.

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Hugo Kaagman (1955)

Hugo Kaagman can be considered an emblematic figure within the now not-so-short history of stencil art. Described as the Dutch Godfather of stencil graffiti, he has pioneered the use of the medium since the late 1970s, using the walls of Amsterdam to spread anti-establishment messages in a clear, iconic language imbued with humour.

Immersed in the Amsterdam underground scene, the first of Kaagman’s experiments with stencils were inspired by punk and reggae references. Soon though, he developed a personal language, irreverently mixing the most diverse visual and cultural influences. Very often, his work results in the juxtaposition of beautiful decorations with social critique. The possibility of endless repetition offered by the stencil has led him to develop his own recognizable style in various directions. He adopted motifs from his travels in Africa and the Middle East: among them the zebra design with which he decorated his house. From working illegally in a politically provocative way, he started receiving more and more commissions, while also exhibiting works on canvas in art galleries.

Since the 1990s he has developed his own very recognizable cipher – the Kaagware – a personal interpretation of Delftware, the traditional blue-and-white Dutch ceramic decorative style. From the early murals in Waterloo Square in Amsterdam to decorating the planes of British Airways, from illegal street spraycans to legal and established art, and from public space to art galleries, Kaagman’s artistic journey has anticipated and paved the path for a new generation of stencil artists.

www.ftn-books.com has the Kaagman Monogrpah now available.

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Caravaggio (1571-1610)

Caravaggio, real name Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), was an Italian Baroque painter. He is known not only for his dramatic lighting and intense realism in his paintings, but also for his eventful life and controversial personality.
Caravaggio’s paintings often depicted religious and mythological scenes, but he painted them with a vivid realism that was unprecedented at the time. His chiaroscuro, or use of contrast between light and dark, created a sense of drama and depth that drew the viewer into his paintings. Despite his artistic talent, Caravaggio was also known for violence and involvement in various criminal activities. He was repeatedly arrested for assault and other crimes, and eventually had to flee Rome after killing a man in a fight. Today, Caravaggio is considered one of the most important Baroque painters, and his influence can be seen in the work of many later artists. His paintings are still admired for their realism, drama, and emotional intensity.

In 2010 the Museum het REMBRANDTHUIS had the last of the Caravaggio painting on exhibit and made a special catalog for this occasion which is now available at www.ftn-books.com

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Dorothy Iannone (1933-2022)

Iannone, born in Boston in the year 1933, was a literature graduate from Brandeis University. Her marriage to the wealthy investor and painter James Upham led to extensive travels across Europe and Asia from 1961 to 1967. As a fixture in the downtown art scene of New York, Iannone began creating cutout wooden portraits of prominent figures like Jacqueline Kennedy and Charlie Chaplin, which served as precursors to her later works.

In 1961, U.S. Customs confiscated Iannone’s copy of Henry Miller’s 1934 sexually explicit novel, Tropic of Cancer, at a New York airport. Her successful lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union resulted in lifting the 30-year ban on Miller’s work.

Around seven years later, Iannone met artist Dieter Roth while on a trip to Iceland. She left her husband at the time to move to Reykjavik with Roth, who she considered her muse. During the 1970s, she created some of her most famous works, often depicting scenes from her and Roth’s intimate life.

In 1969, Iannone’s work was censored by the director of Kunsthalle Bern for its inclusion of genitalia. In response, Roth withdrew his work from the show and curator Harald Szeemann resigned. Iannone then created the comic book “The Story of Bern (or) Showing Colors,” reflecting on the experience.

Both Iannone and Roth became prominent figures in the Fluxus movement. They remained lovers until 1974 and close friends until Roth’s passing in 1998. In 1976, Iannone received a scholarship to move to Berlin, where she resided until her death.

Despite the art world taking time to catch up, Iannone’s controversial work was critically reassessed in the early 21st century. Her video sculpture “I Was Thinking of You” (1975), a human-sized box painted with an erotic scene and featuring a monitor screening a video of the artist masturbating, was recreated at the Wrong Gallery at Tate Modern in 2005 and for the 2006 Whitney Biennial.

www.ftn-books.com has several titles on Iannone and Roth available.

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Jörg Madlener (1939)

Jörg Madlener was born in Germany in 1939, and later spent 35 years residing in Belgium before ultimately settling in the United States. His art has received widespread recognition across Europe and the United States, including the Venice Biennial and São Paulo Biennial. Solo exhibitions have been held at esteemed events such as FIAC in Paris, Art Basel, ARCO Madrid, and Art Fairs in Chicago and Los Angeles. Notable museums such as the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, le Museum of Modern Art in Brussels, and the Albertina in Vienna have collected his work. Madlener has also shared his knowledge and expertise, teaching at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany and various academies in Brussels. Passionate for all forms of art, he has also contributed his talent to designing sets for theater and opera productions around the world.

In 1989, a retrospective exhibition was held to commemorate thirty years of Madlener’s paintings. A decade later in April 1999, another retrospective was dedicated to ten years of his exquisite varen églomisé paintings. This prestigious event was held at the Brussels City Hall, Grand-Place, with an esteemed committee chaired by an important figure showing their honor and support for Madlener’s creations.

www.ftn-books.com has the 1982 Bruxelles catalog available.

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Mary Bauermeister (1934-2023)

Mary Bauermeister was born in 1934 in Frankfurt am Main. After studying at the art academies of Ulm and Saarbrücken, she moved to Cologne in 1956. Her studio at Lintgasse 28 in Cologne was an important meeting place for avant-garde artists and musicians around 1960. Performers, composers, and Fluxus artists such as Nam June Paik, John Cage, Karl Heinz Stockhausen, David Tudor, Wolf Vostell, Christo, and Benjamin Petterson gathered here to organize the latest music performances, events, and happenings. Paik performed his legendary action Etude for Pianoforte (1959-1960), where after playing a piece by Chopin, he cut Cage’s tie and squeezed a bottle of shampoo on the heads of Tudor and Cage.

Mary Bauermeister’s oeuvre includes sculptures, assemblages, drawings, performances, and music. When Bauermeister participated in one of the “international summer courses for new music” in Darmstadt in 1961 under the direction of Stockhausen, she developed her Malerische Konzeption, a model for applying serial compositional techniques to the visual arts.
Black and white photo of Mary Bauermeister in front of her work ‘Wabenbild’
Mary Bauermeister in front of ‘Wabenbild’. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.

Her reliefs and sculptures, incorporating drawings, texts, found objects, natural materials, and fabrics, reference various concepts: from natural phenomena and astronomy to mathematics and language, as well as her own “spiritual-metaphysical experiences.” Karl Heinz Stockhausen wrote about her work: “It is typical that she does not strive for a personal style recognizable by motifs, techniques, routines, and material explorations, but instead considers every material or object (found or artificially made), every technique, every stylistic provision as material.”

www. ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum and galerie Schüppenhauer both available.

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Patrick Fleury (1951)

Space-time and the interplay between the visible and the invisible are the two primary axes that define the essence of Patrick Fleury’s achievements. The dialogue between nature and the artworks that present themselves to it, plays with the rules of perspective and its illusions. The sun creates shadows that vanish into darkness, embodying the duality of day and night. These works exist both within the flow of time and outside of it.

www.ftn-books.com has a photo press set on a Fleury exhibition ow available.