We are relocating! In the coming weeks we will be occupied with packing and moving our internet store inventory. The entire collection needs to be transferred from Leidschendam to Oegstgeest, and this will take some time. If all goes according to plan, we will be fully operational again on November 21st, but until then, it may happen that we are unable to immediately assist you with your order. We ask for your understanding, but as soon as possible, your order will be fulfilled with the utmost speed.
Lawrence Weiner was a conceptual artist and self-taught. He was early on impressed by Frank Stella and Jasper Johns. Verbal elements – texts and signs – play an important role in his work. He often presents cryptic texts, strongly magnified, on walls of museums and galleries, but also on graphics, photos, and everyday objects. The words form verbal abstractions of the artwork conceived by Weiner. It only comes to life in the mind of the spectator when they read the text and try to understand it.
Since 1970, Weiner has alternated between living in New York and Amsterdam, where he also creates books and graphics, often combining them with geometric graphic forms. For him, language is the most abstract thing that we have developed. He considers texts as sculptures that come alive in the minds of spectators.
Lawrence Weiner wants to break and change the conventional understanding of “visual art.” Initially, he worked with spray cans to let fire or bleach work on a fabric. In the late 1960s, that gave way to words, or statements. Over time, the texts became more abstract, philosophical, and poetic. He used adhesive letters to express his ideas.
Weiner also made films, in which texts were spoken and depicted. He is considered one of the first representatives of conceptual art. Later, he would also collaborate on performances in which artists made their own bodies the subject of the action: body art. In the Netherlands, Lawrence Weiner had major exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, 1976) and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 1988/89). At the Spui in Amsterdam, Weiner’s work “A Translation” lies, from one language to another, a commission from the University of Amsterdam to make it more visible in the city.
www.ftn-books.com just added 3 important Weiner titles to its collection.
We are relocating! In the coming weeks we will be occupied with packing and moving our internet store inventory. The entire collection needs to be transferred from Leidschendam to Oegstgeest, and this will take some time. If all goes according to plan, we will be fully operational again on November 21st, but until then, it may happen that we are unable to immediately assist you with your order. We ask for your understanding, but as soon as possible, your order will be fulfilled with the utmost speed.
François Morellet (1926 – 2016), a prolific self-taught artist who pursued painting, sculpting, and installation throughout a successful career spanning over six decades. His approach to geometric abstraction was radical and innovative, continuously exploring the creative potential of kinetic systems and challenging the viewer’s perception and understanding of the physical picture plane. Through a commitment to basic geometric forms and a methodology of rigorous objectivity and personal detachment, Morellet achieved a unique artistic voice.
In his work, Morellet incorporated a range of materials such as steel, neon tubes, iron, adhesive tape, wire mesh, and wood, effectively breaking down traditional hierarchies and embracing elements of randomness and chance. This playfulness and wit are evident not only in his artwork itself, but also in the titles he gave to each piece, often utilizing tongue-in-cheek puns, parody, and wordplay.
The prolific artist’s dedication to his craft and his transformative use of materials have left a lasting impression on the world of contemporary art. His legacy continues to inspire and captivate audiences, reminding us of the importance of pushing boundaries and constantly evolving.
Born and raised in the charming town of Cholet, France, François Morellet devoted himself entirely to his literary pursuits before returning to take reins of his family’s toy factory. This provided him with financial stability, as well as the opportunity to familiarize himself with various fabrication techniques, ultimately shaping his artistic practice. Initially, Morellet delved into figurative painting in the 1940s, but it was his visit to Brazil in 1950 that proved to be a pivotal moment, exposing him to Concrete art and the captivating works of Max Bill. Other influential figures for the artist include Jean Arp and Theo van Doesburg, along with the precise geometric patterns and ethereal beauty of Islamic decorative art, which he encountered while exploring the Alhambra in Spain in 1952. As a result, Morellet’s works evolved into simple systems and rules, effectively removing his own subjectivity and challenging traditional notions of composition. In his own words, his artistic journey became “an adventure, as whimsical as it is systematic.” In the late 1950s, Morellet was introduced to the “Duo-collages” of Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp through his friend, Ellsworth Kelly. This inspired him to incorporate chance as a central element in his works, often creating pieces based on random numbers found in his local phone directory or using the infinite sequence of decimals of pi.
One of the founding members of the experimental artist collective, Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV), Morellet delved into the possibilities of Kinetic art and the viewer’s active engagement, effectively demystifying the romantic notion of the individual genius artist. Before the group’s formation, Morellet, Piero Manzoni, and several other collaborators were invited to showcase their works at Manzoni’s Galleria Azimuth in Milan. The exhibition was an intriguing one, with the artists’ names withheld at the instigation of none other than François Morellet himself.
Morellet’s oeuvre has been featured in several noteworthy international group exhibitions including Documenta in Kassel, Germany (1964 [in collaboration with GRAV], 1968, and 1977), and the Venice Biennale (1970 and 1990). In 1971, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands organized his debut solo museum exhibition, which subsequently toured across Europe. Noteworthy about the exhibition was the varied presentation of Morellet’s pieces in each venue, creatively experimenting with different orientations such as horizontal, vertical, and even upside down. Some of the major retrospectives of Morellet’s work have been hosted by esteemed institutions such as Nationalgalerie in Berlin (1977), the Centre Pompidou (1986 and 2011), and the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume (2000-2001) in Paris. In an unprecedented move, Morellet became only the second living artist to exhibit at the Louvre Museum in 2010, showcasing a site-specific permanent installation titled ‘L’esprit d’escalier’. His work is prominently featured in notable public collections including Centre Pompidou, Dia Art Foundation, Los Angeles Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Seoul Museum of Art, Tate Britain, the Tel Aviv Museum, the Kunsthaus Zurich, and the Nationalgalerie Berlin.
Morellet first garnered attention from the American audience when his work was showcased at the iconic 1965 exhibition ‘The Responsive Eye’ at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A comprehensive retrospective of his work was later held in North America in 1984-85, traveling to acclaimed institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, Musée d’art contemporain in Montreal, Brooklyn Museum, and Center for the Fine Arts in Miami. In 2017, Dia Art Foundation presented the long-awaited major survey of Morellet’s work in the United States, marking over three decades since his last retrospective in the country.
www.ftn-books.com has some of the greatest Morellet titles available.
We are relocating! In the coming weeks we will be occupied with packing and moving our internet store inventory. The entire collection needs to be transferred from Leidschendam to Oegstgeest, and this will take some time. If all goes according to plan, we will be fully operational again on November 21st, but until then, it may happen that we are unable to immediately assist you with your order. We ask for your understanding, but as soon as possible, your order will be fulfilled with the utmost speed.
Marcel van Eeden (born in 1965 in The Hague) weaves intricate visual narratives. Drawing inspiration from existing images found in magazines, newspapers, and books, he skillfully reinterprets them through his own unique lens. Uniquely, all the source material he utilizes predates his own existence.
This intentional choice reflects Van Eeden’s fascination with the notion of non-existence: the period that came before his own existence. By manipulating and adapting found images, he seeks to claim ownership over experiences that he himself cannot physically have.
Since 2005, Van Eeden has worked in a series format. One striking example is Cat. 2.8: Desserts (2015), a series of lithographs depicting various desserts. Although clearly not photographs, the glazed icing and greasy textures are brought to life through Van Eeden’s realistic style. More importantly, his “translations” of these images allow them to become part of a larger, more meaningful narrative. They take on new, personalized significance. Typography also plays a crucial role in Van Eeden’s work. It serves both as a preview of an aspect of the visual narrative and a standalone piece. By piecing together images from various sources and time periods, Van Eeden creates a fictional storyline.
Through his unique method of finding and utilizing visual elements, Van Eeden transforms seemingly unrelated images into a cohesive and multifaceted story. He integrates disparate sources, both in terms of content and time, to construct a fictional world. In his oeuvre, a few recurring characters appear time and time again: archaeologist Oswald Sollmann, botanist K.M. Wiegand, and psychiatrist Matheus Boryna.
I have always aspired to be a writer. However, I have discovered that building a story using photographs from magazines is indeed possible. It’s like using history as a giant bin of Lego pieces, with each piece representing a historical fact or photo. These pieces may seem unrelated, but they can be used to construct a story entirely made up of separate facts that, as a whole, may not be entirely true.
Van Eeden received his education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague (1989-1993). His works have been exhibited at prestigious locations such as Albertina in Vienna, Drawing Room in London, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, and GEM in The Hague.
www.ftn-books.com has a nice selection of van Eeden titles available.
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.
Act as a Mortal Wordsmith. The esteemed painter, Estève, was born in the year 1904 and departed from this world in 2001.
Maurice Estève rises as a paramount figure amongst the Nouvelle École de Paris, whose style is characterized by a fusion of vibrant and intertwined shapes.
His genesis years were largely influenced by the works of what he regards as “the Primitives” – luminaries such as Poussin, Fouquet, and Cézanne.
By 1927, the lingering influence of surrealism, particularly of Giorgio de Chirico, is evident in his works.
Following the Spanish Civil War in 1936, a brief yet fiery period of expressionism ensued.
In 1947, his style evolves from formal stylization to a non-figurative form of art, unbound by realism and with a strong structure, lit up by intense colors. In the following decades, Estève would emerge as one of the leading proponents of this style.
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.
Born in Guernsey (GB), passed away in London (GB).
David Robilliard skillfully traversed the line between art and comedy. The self-taught, Guernsey-born artist relocated to London in the late 1970s and forged his own brand of visual poetry, intertwining clever phrases, stylized figures, poignant contemplations on sexuality, companionship, and the urban experience onto blank canvases.
Robilliard was a prominent figure during a pivotal time in both London’s art culture and the emergence of the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Gilbert & George praised their protege and assistant as “the new master of the Modern individual. Observing, pondering, sensing, perceiving, sarcastically commenting – he brilliantly captures the “Existers” ethos of our era.” However, he never took himself too seriously.
David Robilliard contracted AIDS, ultimately leading to his passing at the young age of 36.
www.ftn-books.com has the most important publications now available.
People following this blog know of my admiration for Willem Sandberg. The iconic director of the STEDELIJK MUSEUM AMSTERDAM who brought the greatest of contemporary art to Amsterdam in the Fifties and early sixties.
9 years after WWII and after the initial opening years from 1945, the Stedelijk presented an overview of the most important art they had acquired during these years. With the exhibition a catalog was published with Sandberg graphic design on te cover. Few people know that beside the red version another version was published with a yellow cover. The yellow version was published in only a few hundred copies and both are now available at www.ftn-books.com
Jaume Plensa is a sculptor. He studied at the Escuela de la Llotja and later at the Escola Superior de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi in Barcelona. He also attended the Henry Moore Foundation (United Kingdom) and the Atelier Alexander Calder (France).
His first exhibition was in Barcelona, his home and workplace. He gained worldwide recognition with his towering sculptures of women’s heads in public spaces. These have closed eyes and offer an almost meditative appearance. He has completed over thirty large-scale projects in cities like Dubai, London, Nico, and Tokyo. In Chicago, faces of hundreds of residents were displayed in the Crown Foundation at the Millennium Park.
In 2015, Plensa had a highly acclaimed exhibition at the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore during the Venice Biennale.
Three times, Plensa’s sculptures were displayed at ARTZUID. In 2011, Grand Latent Blanc, a crouching figure in a relaxed pose, stood tall. Yoga or fetus, who can say? Geographic indications are also added to the sculpture. In 2015, a series of sculptures were on display: Heart of Trees. Seven sitting bronze human figures, each embracing a tree. Duna was also displayed, an immense woman’s head made of steel. In 2019, Sanna, one of Plensa’s characteristic elongated women’s heads made of granite, was on display. This young girl also exudes introspection and tranquility in an increasingly hectic society.
When Leeuwarden was the European Capital of Culture in 2018, Plensa’s Love was one of the eleven fountains, one for each of the Frisian cities. Plensa’s work has been exhibited in various galleries and museums in and outside of Europe.
Ardy Struwer, also known as Eduard Arnaud Strüwer, is a Swedish-Indonesian-Dutch artist who grew up in the former Dutch East Indies and in the Netherlands. He received his education at the Royal Academy in The Hague and as a guest student at the printmaking department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. He has spent extended periods of time working in cities such as New York and Paris, where he currently resides. Strüwer’s art, including both paintings and lithographs, is characterized by a vibrant expressiveness, often with a touch of surrealism, with the recurring theme of the female form. Strüwer himself has described his style as “sensual surrealism” and “postmodern flower power”. His work is featured in various private and museum collections, such as the Peter Stuyvesant collection, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Gemeente Museum in The Hague.
www.ftn-books.com has currently some prints by Struwer from the Any Art collection available.
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
