Peter Gentenaar (1946) embarked on his artistic career as a graphic artist, but his encounter with the material on which he works, paper, led him down a different path. He now creates paper pulp in his self-designed paper machine and transforms it into large, cloud-like sculptures. As the initiator of the Holland Paper Biennial, he compiles a stunning book every two years.
www.ftn-books.com has now an early lithograph from 1975 available.
Since 2003, Henri Jacobs has dedicated himself to a continuous series of drawings that have become known as the Journal Drawings. Initially a project for his students, where they were instructed to draw whatever caught their eye or impressed them on a particular day, it has now become a method for his own artistic expression. The result is an ongoing collection of drawings, each one delving into new motives and forms before abandoning them to make way for new ideas and experimentation.
Jacobs’s drawings are a masterpiece of virtuosity, with a precise yet playful technique. The images range from abstract geometric and calligraphic shapes and patterns to stylized portraits, landscapes, and architectural forms. Often, there are references to art history and renowned artists such as Matisse and Jasper Johns, highlighting Jacobs’s deep understanding and appreciation for the art world. Ultimately, the Journal Drawings represent a continual process of creation, as Jacobs continually challenges himself to redefine and reinvent his craft through each drawing.
www.ftn-books.com has the van Abbemuseum catalog now available.
For half a century, Rodney Graham meticulously weaved together the strands of cultural and intellectual history through the mediums of photography, film, music, performance, and painting. With a keen eye for wordplay and a penchant for allusions to literature and philosophy – be it the works of Lewis Carroll, Sigmund Freud, or Kurt Cobain – Graham spun cyclical stories that were peppered with his sardonic sense of humor, a nod to his roots in Vancouver’s post-punk scene of the late 1970s. In his nine-minute long piece, Vexation Island (1997), the artist assumes the role of a 17th-century sailor, discovered unconscious under a coconut tree with a visible bruise on his head. After eight and a half minutes, he awakens and shakes the tree, causing a coconut to fall and render him unconscious once again, triggering the repetition of the sequence. Graham reappears as a cowboy in How I Became a Ramblin’ Man (1999) and as both a city dandy and a country bumpkin in City Self/Country Self (2001) – fictitious characters perpetually trapped in an unending loop of actions. Drawing from his previous series of photographs featuring inverted oak trees, Graham’s fascination with dreamlike states and the ramblings of the unconscious are evident. As he puts it, “Inversion has a logic: you do not have to dig deep into modern physics to understand that the scientific perspective insists that the world is not truly what it seems. The eye sees a tree upside down before the brain rights it, just like how it appears to the glass back of my large format field camera.”
www.ftn-books.com has several scarce Graham publications available. Among them the 1989 van Abbemuseum catalog designed by Arlette Brouwers.
Jesse hailed from a Leiden family and was the son of a pharmacist in Zaltbommel. Along with his two brothers and one sister, he attended the three-year HBS from 1874 to 1877. With the ambition of becoming an architect, he moved to his grandmother’s home in Leiden to explore more opportunities. Under the tutelage of carpenter/architect W. Kok and evening classes at Mathesis Scientiarum Genitrix, a technical school, he furthered his knowledge. After three years, he joined famous architect Gerlof Salm in Amsterdam as a junior draughtsman.
In 1882, Jesse began his studies at the Delft Polytechnic School where he was taught by E.H. Gugel, Adolf le Comte, and J.A. van der Kloes. His architectural career commenced in 1884 with the construction of the Nieuwe Kerk in Katwijk at the young age of 24. In 1890, he married Anna Adriana Meerburg, daughter of a shipowner, and they had two children: Jan Jesse, born in 1891, and Hendrik Johannes Jesse, born in 1905. Their youngest son, Henk Jesse, was the first Dutchman to make a radio connection with the United States at the age of 18 in 1923. He accomplished this feat from the family home, De Keet, which the architect designed and where he lived from 1906 until his death on February 11th, 1943.
www.ftn-bowww.ftn-books.comoks.com has the Nai publication on Jesse now available.
Ina van Zyl, born and raised in Ceres, South Africa, matriculated from Charlie Hofmeyr high school before studying art at the University of Stellenbosch from 1990 to 1994. During her time there, she became a regular contributor to Bitterkomix, an infamous Afrikaans comic magazine created by fellow students Joe Dog and Conrad Botes. Graduating with a BA in Fine Arts, with a focus on Drawing, she merged her studies in Graphic Design and Fine Arts.
Van Zyl’s journey to Amsterdam began in 1995 as a guest of the Thami Mnyele Foundation for a four-month residency. This led to her participation in the prestigious De Ateliers postgraduate program from 1996 to 1998, ultimately leading her to settle in the Netherlands. Van Zyl currently resides and works in Amsterdam.
Although her career began with comics, the foundation of her paintings today still centers around the same themes – feelings of claustrophobia, shame and humiliation, eroticism and sexuality, and the complexity of human connection, or lack thereof.
In her Amsterdam studio, van Zyl spends a majority of her time focusing on oil painting, which remains her primary medium. In addition to this, she also creates drawings, comics, watercolors, and occasionally ventures into printmaking.
In the Netherlands, van Zyl has been honored with various awards for her paintings and has had numerous exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Three monographs have been published, showcasing her artwork. One of these, Fly on the Wall, features all of her comics from 1992 to 2000, accompanied by an introduction written by Dominic van den Boogerd.
www.ftn-books.com has the SHAME _ PIECES publication now available.
Herman Hertzberger is renowned as one of the most influential figures in international architecture over the past fifty years. He champions a contemporary, humane style of architecture that remains rooted in place and history, while also embracing innovative forms. Hertzberger is widely recognized as the foremost designer of schools, a genre for which his designs have single-handedly redefined. His groundbreaking designs for offices and workspaces often serve as the most compelling modern reinterpretation of this genre.
In this monograph, acclaimed architecture critic Robert McCarter delves into Hertzberger’s most significant works through a detailed analysis of the design process and underlying principles, particularly where they reflect Hertzberger’s integration of modern tradition, architectural history, and urban space experience.
Robert McCarter is an experienced architect, writer, and professor of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. His monographs on Louis I. Kahn and Frank Lloyd Wright were both shortlisted for the 2006 International Book Awards of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
WWW.FTN-BOOKS.COM HAS NOW THE NAI PUBLICATION ” NOTATIONS” AVAILABLE.
In the beginning, Marijke van Warmerdam crafted sculptures encompassing a wide array of mediums: wood, plaster, metal, glass, textiles, and rubber. However, her artistic pursuits have since expanded to a diverse repertoire, incorporating video, photography, audiotape, silkscreen, and even wrapping paper and stickers. Through her commissions and installations, she delves into the realm of intangibility, boldly experimenting with concepts such as time and movement. This is most apparent in her 16-mm films, where she chooses and captures moments from life, setting them into fluid motion.
For instance, in “Handstand” (1992) a girl can be seen repeatedly performing a handstand, while in “Douche” (1995) a man stands under a shower, the actions playing out ad infinitum. The films are presented in a continuous loop, with no discernible beginning or end, seamlessly connecting the two. The duration between the return of the exact image is intentionally ambiguous, creating a mesmerizing rhythm that draws the viewer into the enthralling world of repetition. Observation turns into fixation, as the repetition conjures a sense of enchantment while simultaneously diminishing the significance of the actions being shown. Time simultaneously moves forward and stands still, as there is no overarching narrative to follow. The focus is on the process, not the storytelling.
Despite their close resemblance to reality, these short films exist in the realm of art, specifically in the museum setting. They are projected onto a white wall or screen within the exhibition space, rather than a typical movie theater. The projector is always visible, emphasizing the artifice of the medium. As a viewer, you physically move through the projections, further blurring the line between the art and reality. It’s as though you’re entering a liminal space, but never fully immersing yourself.
www.ftn-books.com has several van Warmerdam titles now available.
Marten Toonder (1912-2005) was first introduced to comics at the young age of six, when his father, a sea captain, brought back some American newspapers. After graduating in 1931, Toonder traveled by boat to South America. In Buenos Aires, he discovered the work of cartoonist Dante Quinterno. This former employee of Walt Disney published a written drawing course; it was from him that Toonder learned the foundations of animation and comic anatomy, inspiring him to become a comic artist.
Upon his return to the Netherlands, Toonder became an illustrator for a printing and publishing company in Leiden. After several attempts at creating comics for newspapers, he got his first break in 1941 when he was asked to supply a daily comic to De Telegraaf. The editor at the time wanted captions with the drawings (instead of balloons, which would encourage laziness in reading), and Toonder provided illustrations and texts for his new comic, Tom Poes. Toonder stopped in 1944 but continued the story in the Volkskrant and later NRC Handelsblad. He continued to create new episodes until 1986, with a total of 177 stories covering 11,768 daily installments. The comic became one of the longest-running comics by a single author.
The success of Tom Poes paved the way for various other productions, including plays, ballets, compositions, films, and a wide range of commercial articles. To bring these to fruition, Toonder continued to run the studio he established during the war. In the post-war years, this studio grew to become one of Europe’s largest drawing studios. However, with increasing business activities encroaching upon his creative work, Toonder made the decision to move to Ireland in 1965 to devote himself to his comic strip. In addition to Tom Poes, he also designed other comic strips, wrote poetry, autobiographies, and created illustrations for various purposes. He even produced short experimental films using different techniques.
www.ftn-books.com has several Toonder titles available. among them the much acclaimed biography on Toonder.
Harm Brink was born in 1947, molded by the creative inspiration of the 1960s. The unparalleled reach and influence of this decade permeated throughout the world, evoking both faith and fury. It sparked a surge of new ideologies and movements that were nothing short of revolutionary. Embedded within the context of the Cold War, which left an indelible mark on a global scale, the 1960s were characterized by the Iron Curtain physically and spiritually dividing Europe, culminating in the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Gender, race, justice, education, and morality were all redefined by this era, evident in the civil rights movement and the second wave of feminism, as well as student uprisings. The era also saw a dramatic rise in mass consumerism, leading to new strategies in marketing and advertising. A core concept of Minimalism was the belief that art should exist in its own realm, unbound by the constraints of the real world. This avant-garde movement aimed to dismantle all preconceptions about art, gaining global recognition and influencing artists such as Frank Stella, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin as prominent figures. Minimalism’s impact was further amplified by the works of Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley, while Pop art emerged as a critique and celebration of popular culture. The contemporary art scene was marked by a surge of radicalism in the 1960s, and each movement had its distinct characteristics and reach, varying across different regions and countries. Spatialism originated in Italy under the guidance of Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, and was later embraced by the Zero group in Germany. In Europe, artists like Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti were strongly influenced by the ideologies of Existentialism, as seen in their depictions of the human figure.
www.ftn-books.com has the van Abbemuseum catalog now available and ……i am sorry . i could not find any portrait of the artist available.
Job Koelewijn is an abstract artisan, whose creations often evoke intense sensations. Though his art takes on various forms – spanning from dominating installations and site-specific installations to videos, photography, and sculptures – they all share the purpose of altering reality to enhance a sense of place and time, heightening consciousness and sharpening the mind. To achieve this, Koelewijn’s pieces appeal to multiple senses simultaneously, making the observer cognizant of the influence of their senses.
In addition to visual elements, language is also a critical component of Koelewijn’s creative repertoire, manifesting in the forms of poetry, literature, and philosophy. Since 2006, Koelewijn has dedicated 45 minutes a day to reading aloud as part of his Ongoing Reading Project (since February 1st, 2006), viewing reading as a mental exercise.
www.ftn-books.com has several titles available on Job Koelewijn.
