FTN-blog

The Parisian nightclub, Le Chat Noir was an absolute hotbed for the fin-de-siècle literary and artistic avant-garde, including many printmakers. In particular, the shadow theatre performed there inspired their quest for a modern style.

The club also commissioned illustrations from printmakers for its in-house magazine, Le Chat Noir, which included picture stories and sheet music, as well as articles and the schedule of upcoming performances.

In 1881, Rodolphe Salis opened the club in Montmartre, together with a group of progressive writers, as a reaction to the populist and censored café-concerts. Entry was considerably more expensive, and the tone of the songs and performances was intellectual and provocative.Le Chat Noir did not represent any specific political or artistic movement, and was described by one of its regulars as ‘ironic, cynical, mystical, religious, revolutionary and reactionary: everything, in other words, but boring.. A few years ago the van Gogh Museum held an exebition on Le Chat Noir and his artists, but the best way to make yourself acquainted with the artists is the book which is now on offer at www.ftn-books.com

An important blog, not because Buchsbaum has become important for dutch art, but for me personally he was the man who introduced me into Modern Art. He was the founder of ARTA (1947)and stayed with Arta until 1979. After this period he travelled and moved to France. During his ARTA years i became a regular customer and because of him i acquired some beautiful photographs and etchings. Some of these purchases were financially succesfull and some not, but at the time all seemed relevant and interesting and even almost 50 years later some have proven to be excellent purchases (Lucien Clerque). I know that Buchsbaum was a gifted photographer himself but rarely encountered books, but now i finally have found one which is now for sale at www.ftn-books.com

Georges de Feure (real name Georges Joseph van Sluijters, 6 September 1868 – 26 November 1943) was a French painter, theatrical designer, and industrial art designer in the symbolism and Art Nouveau styles.

De Feure was born in Paris. His father was an affluent Dutch architect, and his mother was Belgian. De Feure had two sons, Jean Corneille and Pierre Louis, in the early 1890s with his mistress Pauline Domec and a daughter with his first wife Marguerite Guibert (married 7 July 1897).

In 1886, de Feure was one of the eleven students admitted at the Rijkscademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, which he did however leave very quickly for Paris since he felt that formal academic training had nothing to offer him. Being of very independent nature, de Feure never again took up formal artistic studies, and forged his own independent path. He was however influenced by Jules Chéret in his posters for the café concert but most likely was never his pupil and became the key designer of Siegfried Bing for L’Art Nouveau.

He showed work in the Exposition Universelle de Paris exhibition in 1900. He designed furniture, worked for newspapers, created theater designs for Le Chat Noir cabaret and posters. In August 1901, de Feure was nominated Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur for his contribution to the decorative arts. He died in poverty at the age of 75 years in Paris. www.ftn-books.com has the Van Gogh MUseum on this artist available.

Until one year ago i had not heard of MUGO, but a recent auction appearance triggered my interest in this artist. Truly original and hardly known outside Gent in Belgium. But this artist has kept his childhood alive and uses it for his drawings and paintings. Perhaps a little childish but certainly recognisable and a style which you will not forget. It looks a bit like the early british prints from the beginning of the Twentieth Century but transferred in time to make these by subject and appearance more 21th century.

I love these works by MUGO and that is the reason i recently bought a seceond copy of the Mugoland book. Published i a Mugo tin making this a truly remarkable object and a great collectible. The tin+ book is now available at www.ftn-books.com

Snoecks 2004, Snoecks is a yearly published book on all cultural subjects that were held or are being held in the Low Countries. It is originally published by the printer /publisher Snoeck Ducaju from Gent and the reaason why i write this blog is that 18 years ago the most important of all Snoecks was published. Here is the list of photographers that participated in that year: Erwin Olaf, Anton Corbijn and Peter Lindbergh. There will never be a more important SNOECKS than the 2004 edition and it is now for sale at www.ftn-books.com

THis must have been one of my first art purchases ever. It was bought at galerie ARTA, run by Norbert Buchsbaum, who recommended Alechinsky. I have admired Alechinsky for a very long time, but think his art has become for too expensive for me to collect, therefore i have decided to sell this very special limited edition. It is illustrated by Alechinsky and published by Yves Riviere editeur in 1974. Text by Roger Caillois. Numbered 305/450

I dceided not to part from it without documenting this wonderful publication and i very much would like to share the result. Here is the full edition of this magnificent Alechinsky item.

UN MANNEQUIN SUR LE TROTTOIR, signed and numbered 305/450, 1974

This scarce publication is now available at www.ftn-books.com

It was Gerrit Jan de Rook who invited Foppe to participate in the 1985 /50 years Haags Gemeentemuseum celebration with a special edition. Among the other artists were Carl Andre, Pat Andrea . Foppe choose to make a “black book in a black box” in an edition of one hundred copies. All the editions for this festive occasion were sold out within a few weeks. At that time Foppe already had a history with the Haags Gemeentemuseum. He had designed books, posters and some folders for the museum. This beautiful box was the crown on his designs for the museum. It contained 9 silkscreened prints. Signed and numbered boxes in an edition of 100 copies. After 36 years i now have finally one box available for sale at www.ftn-books.com

.The year is 1949 and Tajiri went to Paris to execute his one day sculptures on the banks of the Seine river. These events/sculptures were photographed by Sabine Weiss and because of the importance of this, after over 60 years de Valkhof finally made an exhibition on these “one day sculptures “by Tajiri. The catalogie with this exhibition is now available at www.ftn-books.com

After a Chemigrafen -Teaching Moegle studied for three years at the School of Applied Arts Stuttgart, broke his studies, though. Since 1922 he has been producing photographic documentation for the State Office for Monument Preservation in Stuttgart. In the following decades, too, numerous commissioned projects in the areas of exterior and interior design were to be created. In 1927 he was able to open his own photo studio in Stuttgart. It was bombed out in 1944. Until 1950 he and his half-brother Arthur Ohler , also a photographer, maintained a studio community in Stuttgart. In 1950 Moegle succeeded in founding a new studio in Leinfelden-Echterdingen .

From 1945 onwards , Moegel’s most famous photographs were taken for the companies Bauknecht , Arzberg , Schönwald , Zwiesel and Jenaer Glas , and later also for CH Pott . His work is characterized by a matter-of-fact, sober style that puts the industrial products shown at the center of the work. Moegle preferred to photograph the designs of representatives of Guten Form such as Hermann Gretsch , Heinrich Löffelhardt and Wilhelm Wagenfeld . The most important MOegle publication is available at www.ftn-books.com

Franco Fontana is an Italian photographer born in Modena, on December, 9th, 1933. He is best known for his abstract colour landscapes. Fontana’s photos have been used as album cover art for records produced by the ECM jazz label. He is known as the inventor of the photographic line referred to as concept of line.
Franco Fontana is above all interested in the interplay of colours and he had based his own vibrant and original language on that. The later critics had labeled it as Photographic Trans-avantgarde. He explored different subjects: urban landscape, portraiture, fashion, still-life and the nude. He worked with 35 mm cameras, mostly on location claiming that his studio was the world.
He began working as an amateur photographer in 1961. His first personal exhibitions took place in 1963 in Vienna, in 1965 in Turin and in 1968 in Modena. Since then he has participated in more than 400 exhibitions – collective and personal – and his work is in approximately 60 museum collections all over the world. He has signed numerous advertising campaigns for different brands as Fiat, Volkswagen, Ferrovie dello Stato (National Italian Railways), Snam, Sony, Volvo, Versace, Canon, Kodak, Robe di Kappa, Swissair. He works with magazines as Time, Life, Vogue (USA and France), Venerdì di Repubblica, Panorama, and with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and New York Times newspapers.
His works have been published in more than 40 books in various editions and languages and are displayed in many private and public collections all over the world. HIs first book Skyline was published in 1978 in France by Contrejour and in Italy by Punto e Virgola with a text of Helmut Gernsheim.To name a few: MoMA, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo; National Gallery, Beijing; Australian National Gallery, Melbourne; GAM, Turin.

Currently he is the art director of the Toscana Fotofestival. Famous international photographers are invited.

He’s got numerous awards, as the 1989 Tokyo Photographer Society of Japan – The 150 Years of Photography – Photographer Award.

The following book is available at www.ftn-books.com