Category: artists studios

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IN & OUT of Amsterdam/ Conceptual art

Arguably the best book on Conceptual art from the Netherlands.

Book published with the exhibition and examines approximately seventy-five works by artists of different nationalities relating to travel and the city of Amsterdam, which was the nexus of intense art activities in the 1960s and 1970s, when artists converged there from all over the world. Hanne Darboven, Gilbert & George, Sol LeWitt, Charlotte Posenenske, Allen Ruppersberg, and Lawrence Weiner, among others, spent considerable amounts of time in Amsterdam and often produced works in direct relation to the city. The Suriname-born Stanley Brouwn came to Amsterdam as a young adult in the mid-1950s, where he developed work that plays with the idea of dimensions and distances and prefigures a number of conceptual-based art practices. Reciprocally, some of the most influential Dutch artists traveled abroad extensively before establishing themselves in Amsterdam: Jan Dibbets studied in London, while Ger van Elk and Bas Jan Ader trained in Los Angeles. Because cross-influences between Dutch and American art scenes were so abundant, it is impossible to understand the historical significance of these artists without acknowledging their new mobility. In addition to drawings, installations, wall drawings, and films, the exhibition includes a large number of posters and ephemera.

One of the most outstanding books on the complex world of Conceptual Art in recent years is undoubtedly “IN & OUT of AMSTERDAM/ Travels in Conceptual Art 1960-1976.” This book holds a special place in my heart as it is a veritable treasure trove of ideas and exceptional publications that can still be found on the market. Published by MoMa, the same institution that held the exhibition of the same name in 2009, “In & Out of Amsterdam” showcases the most significant and arguably best works of the following artists: Bas Jan Ader, Stanley Brouwn, Hanne Darboven, Jan Dibbets, Ger van Elk, Gilbert & George, Sol LeWitt, Charlotte Posenenske, Allen Ruppersberg, and Lawrence Weiner. These exceptional artists were all featured in the Bulletins series published by Art & Project, and their publications have now become highly sought-after collector’s items. As these publications have been scarce since their initial release and have now been around for over 40 years, I highly recommend starting a collection of them while they are still accessible. Check out www.ftn-books.com for more information.

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Jannis Kounellis (continued)

Jannis Kounellis, a painter and sculptor hailing from Greece and Italy, emerged as one of the pioneering figures of the Arte Povera movement. He passed away in Rome on the 16th of February, 2017.

Born in Piraeus, Greece in 1936, Kounellis experienced the devastation of the Second World War and the Greek Civil War before relocating to Rome in 1956 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts.

His artistic repertoire flourished exponentially throughout the 1960s, with Kounellis primarily exhibiting paintings from 1960 to 1966. He infused found objects, such as street signs, into his work, utilizing stenciled symbols that reflected the contemporary society he lived in – numbers, letters, and words. Moreover, he even incorporated his artworks into performances, often wearing them as garments. This fusion of painting, sculpture, and performance marked Kounellis’ departure from traditional art and solidified his significance in the development of Arte Povera.

In 1967, Kounellis showcased his work in the ‘Arte Povera – e IM Spazio’ exhibition at the La Bertesca Gallery in Genoa, curated by Germano Celant. This event cemented Kounellis’ association with Arte Povera, a movement that rejected conventional flat surfaces in favor of installations and performances. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Kounellis participated in numerous influential Arte Povera exhibitions, constantly introducing “found” materials – like bed frames, doorways, windows, and raw materials like wool and rope – into his art.

Kounellis devotedly continued to create and exhibit his work throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, with his pieces frequently showcased in prominent events like Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982), the Venice Biennale (1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1998, 1993, and 2011), Tate Modern Gallery in London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. To this day, countless retrospectives have been held to celebrate Kounellis’ extensive body of work.

www.ftn-books.com has several Kounellis books now available.

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Antonio Calderara ( continued)

Antonio Calderara, born in 1903 in Abbiategrasso, Italy, continued to create until his passing in 1978. Living a solitary existence in Northern Italy, he found inspiration in the luminosity of the nearby landscapes, particularly Lake Orta. Calderara possessed an enigmatic complexity that defied any strict categorization in the art world. Despite meeting numerous Italian and foreign artists during his lifetime, he maintained his personal freedom and individuality in his expression.

A self-taught artist from a young age, Calderara later received guidance from Lucio Fontana. His earliest influences included the figuration and manipulation of light by Piero della Francesca, Seurat, and Milanese Novecento painters. In 1925, after abandoning his engineering studies at university, he dedicated himself fully to experimenting with color and form. Through his depictions of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes, he captured the essence of his homeland, suffused with a delicate, ethereal light inspired by the atmospheric glow of Lake Orta in Vacciago. This served as his home base since 1934, when he moved there with his wife Carmela, and where he continued to work for the majority of his life.

In the mid-1950s, Calderara began to depart from representational painting and embraced a more geometric approach. This shift dramatically reduced both the size and elements in his compositions. Despite this, his essential vocabulary of clean lines and squares, refined color palette, and precise measurements aligned him with other minimalist painters of the time, such as Piet Mondrian and Josef Albers, whom the artist greatly admired. In explaining his sudden transition to abstraction, Calderara wrote, “In 1958…I drew my last curved line.”

It is his abstract period that Calderara is most renowned for. His abstract paintings from the late 1950s and 1960s fuse geometric abstraction with a hazy finish, creating a misty quality through subtle, almost imperceptible variations in color.

www.ftn-books.com has some beautiful titles on Calderara now available.

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Agnes Martin (continued)

Born on a farm in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, Agnes Martin emigrated to the United States in 1932 with aspirations of becoming an educator. Once she obtained a degree in art education, she relocated to the desert plains of Taos, New Mexico, where she crafted abstract paintings infused with natural forms. These creations caught the eye of renowned New York gallerist Betty Parsons, who convinced Martin to join her roster and move to the bustling city in 1957. Settling on Coenties Slip, a street in Lower Manhattan, she found herself among a community of fellow artists, including Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, and Jack Youngerman. Drawn to the area’s low rents, spacious lofts, and convenient proximity to the East River, Martin flourished.

One of her earliest New York pieces, Harbor Number 1 (1957), effectively merges her earlier Taos style of geometric abstraction with the new inspiration she found in the coastal landscape, as showcased by her use of a blue-gray palette.

Over the next decade, Martin honed her signature format: six by six foot painted canvases, meticulously adorned with penciled grids and finished with a delicate layer of gesso. While she often displayed her works alongside other New York abstract artists, her concentrated vision carved out a unique niche that diverged from the sweeping gestures of Abstract Expressionism and the repetitive systems of Minimalism. Instead, her art was deeply connected to spirituality, drawing inspiration from a blend of Zen Buddhist and American Transcendentalist ideas. For her, painting was “a world without physical objects, devoid of obstructions…a field of vision to be entered, much like a solitary stroll along an empty beach to gaze out at the vast ocean.” 1

By 1967, at the pinnacle of her artistic career, Martin was confronted with the loss of her home to development, the unexpected passing of her friend Ad Reinhardt, and the increasing weight of a mental illness. Thus, she left New York and returned to Taos, where she abandoned painting in favor of writing and meditation.

www.ftn-books.com has some highly collectable Martin titles available.

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Charlotte Mutsaers (1942)

Born in 1942 in Utrecht, Charlotte Mutsaers was the daughter of art historian Barend Mutsaers. She studied Dutch Language and Literature and later worked as a Dutch language teacher. In the evenings, she pursued a degree in visual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, where she eventually became a painting instructor after graduating.

In 1983, she made her debut with “The Circus of the Mind,” a collection of modern emblems. This marked the start of a diverse body of work, consisting of poetry, essays, visual stories, and novels. In 2010, she received the P.C. Hooft Prize for her narrative prose. The jury described her work as “a delight for readers who want to let their minds wander” and praised her oeuvre for “the coherence in work that seems so capricious at first glance.”

www.ftn-books.com has some special publications by Mutsaers now available.

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Suzy Embo (1936)

Behind the pseudonym Suzy Embo (BE, °1936) lies a privileged witness of the post-war Belgian avant-garde movement. From abstracted imagery to cameraless experiments, Embo’s early works seamlessly aligned with Otto Steinert’s “Subjektive Fotografie”. However, in the 1960s, her artistic vision took a new direction and she found herself balancing between being an “artist photographer” and a “photographer of artists”. Her friendship with Cobra artist Pierre Alechinsky and marriage to sculptor Reinhoud d’Haese brought her closer to the international art scene. As a result, her lens shifted towards capturing informal and intimate portraits of renowned artists such as Christian Dotremont and Jean Messagier during their creative processes.

www.ftn-books.com has the Embo made photograph of Loyise Nevelson now available

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Mark Brusse (continued)

Mark Brusse (1937), a renowned sculptor, ceramicist, painter, and graphic artist, has resided in Paris since 1961. His father was the acclaimed writer and journalist Marie Joseph Brusse (1873-1941), and among his six brothers, Jan and Peter Brusse (correspondents), filmmaker Ytzen Brusse, architect Henk Brusse, and actor Kees Brusse are well known. He spent his youth in Bergen (NH) and after his father’s death, in Nijmegen where his stepfather’s house burned down during the bombing in 1944. Brusse enrolled in the academy in Arnhem in 1958 (residing at Parkstraat 20). During his studies, he developed a friendship with Klaas Gubbels, Rik van Bentem, Ted Felen, and co-founded NADA, a collective with the aim of breaking into Amsterdam’s art scene. He succeeded and received a grant from the Maison Descartes to live and work in Paris for eight months. In Paris, he encountered the Nouveaux Réalistes (led by Pierre Restany), which included Jean Tinguely and Yves Klein.

In the following years, he spent months abroad regularly, such as in New York (1965) where he met Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and others, on the recommendation of Cees Nooteboom, Berlin (1970), Japan (1983), Korea (1983), and Benin in Africa.

Death, decay, and their handling in non-Western cultures play a significant role in Brusse’s work, often described as poetic. The Japanese culture, in particular, has had a lasting influence on his art. He works extensively in ceramics and stone, creating wooden assemblages. Additionally, he employs various graphic techniques and creates large paintings.

One of Brusse’s most recognized works is “Hommage a Piet Mondriaan” from 1965, which is housed in the Stedelijk Museum.

www.ftn-books.com has some very early Brusse publications available.

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Klaus Staudt ( 1932)

Renowned German artist Klaus Staudt stands as a prominent figure in Germany’s sphere of constructive-concrete art. Credited as the originator of autonomous reliefs, his creations never fail to evoke new sensations upon revisiting. With adept manipulation of light and shadow, surface and space, as well as form and color, Staudt challenges the conventional modes of perception. The use of Plexiglass proves to be a fitting medium for bringing his ideas to life, owing to its translucent and unobstructed nature. Through the use of strategically placed, simple wooden elements painted in crisp white, Staudt deftly creates a sense of rhythm and structure within the pictorial space. An inquisitive eye and contemplative mind are crucial for fully grasping the depth and complexity of Staudt’s artistic expression.

www.ftn-books.com has some very nice Staudt material now available.

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Daniel Buren (1938)

Daniel Buren is a representative, yet also a critic of “institutional critique,” a branch of conceptual art that emerged in the late 1960s. His work is distinguished by the recognizable stripe motif: bands, always 8.7 cm wide, which the artist has referred to as his “visual tool” since 1965. This “visual tool” is not only integrated in places where art is exhibited, but also in the urban landscape, for example on buildings, shop windows, buses, and billboards. Purposefully, he blurs the lines between studio, gallery, museum, and the outside world. As an “institutionally critical” artist, Buren persistently opposes the codes, norms, and values of the art world.

www.ftn-books.com has a nice selection of Buren titles available.

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Günther Uecker (continued)

Günther Uecker, a prominent figure in Düsseldorf’s postwar Group Zero, has dedicated six decades to perfecting his reliefs that feature dynamic arrangements of nails. Born in 1930 in Wendorf, Germany, Uecker pursued his education at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee and Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where he currently resides and creates. Drawing inspiration from Eastern philosophy and Gregorian chants, Uecker began a ritual of hammering nails in the 1950s. To the artist, these materials symbolize protection and the act of creation; he vividly recalls nailing planks over his home’s windows after the Second World War to deter Soviet troops.

By 1957, Uecker had advanced to hammering nails onto canvas, achieving a captivating “sundial” optical effect that played with light and shadow in ever-changing patterns. As his artistic vision evolved, he incorporated lightboxes, rotating discs, television sets, and even furniture – as seen in his notable nail sculpture, “Stuhl” (1963). In 1961, Uecker teamed up with Heinz Mack and Otto Piene to form the anti-expressionist movement Group Zero, which sought to push the boundaries of traditional canvas dimensions and explore the realms of kinetic, serial, and participatory art. Even after the group dissolved in 1966, Uecker continued to push artistic boundaries, incorporating elements of conceptual and land art into his work and designing stage sets for operas. Notable public works include “From Darkness to Light” at the United Nations in Geneva (1978) and a Reflection and Prayer Room for the Reichstag in Berlin (2000). In 2020, he embarked on his latest series, “Lichtbogen,” featuring minimalist paintings with radiant blue and white arcs.

Uecker’s impressive body of work has been featured in solo exhibitions at prestigious museums worldwide. His work has been the subject of retrospectives at the Central House of Artists in Moscow (1988) and the Kunsthalle München (1993), and he has participated in Documenta (1964, 1968, 1977) and the 1970 Venice Biennale. His art is prominently displayed in collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art in New York, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and Museum Ludwig in Cologne.

www.ftn-books.com has many titles related to ZERO and Uecker available.

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