FTN-blog

Posted on 4 April 201922 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Elvira Bach (1951)

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Is another colorful figure from the early days of NEUE WILDE painting. She was famous for her female figures in her paintings. Bold, proud woman that always looked very much like herself. In many cases she used self portraits in her paintings.

Now for a personal opinion….. At the time i first saw an Elvira BAch painting i was very much impressed . Colorful , proud woman, large size . all the elements i like in a painting, but where Rainer Fetting ( Yesterday’s blog) aroused my interest agin in the Neu Wilde, Elvira BAch i find much much less interesting after 35 years. I can not predict what this will mean for the future for the value of her art, but for me Elvira Bach is not so high anymore on my wish list.

There are some catalogues on Elvira BAch available at www.ftn-books.com

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Posted on 3 April 201920 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Rainer Fetting (1949)

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Rainer Fetting was one of my favorit artists in the Eighties, but i almost had forgotten him until half a year ago a beautiful and impressive painting by Fetting was auctioned at the Venduehuis. A large painting which belonged to the Hans Sonnenberg collection. A famous gallery owner who was always charmed by artists who focussed on male figures and nudes. Fetting was certaimly one of them. Fetting was considered to be part of the NEUE WILDE mouvement from the early eighties and had developed a very recognizable style of his own. Bright colors , loose in composition and technique his paintings shine after they are finished and the one from the Venduehuis is an excellent example.

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His paintings are starting to appear at auctions and i am very curious what the future will bring. My personal guess is that Fetting is such an artist who is forgotten for the last 2 decades , but in a few years will be one of the great artists from the eighties. www.ftn-books.com has some excellent catalogues on this great germna artist.

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Posted on 2 April 201919 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Peter Struycken ..a leporello of 212 inches

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It is certainly the longest of all leporello items i have in my inventory and perhaps it is one of the longest ever published.

Splash was published on the occasion of the Sikkens price which was presented to Peter Struycken in 1974. On this price winning occasions, Sikkens provides for the funds to have a special publication published on the artist and Struycken made/designed this special Leporello. The leporello is available at www.ftn-books.com

Artist/ Author: Peter Struycken

Title : Splash / Plons 1972 / 1974

Publisher: Sikkens, 1974

Number of pages: 96 pages plus cover + leperello of 212 inches !!!!

Text / Language: dutch and englsih

Measurements: 8.2 x 8.2 inches

Condition: nm+ for the leperello and nm for the sleeve

extra information on this item:
Rare , important and collectible . This Sikkens publication is one of the most important Struycken publications. a true artist book and highly recommended

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Posted on 1 April 201919 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jo Baer (1929)

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There is a firm relationship between the Netherland and Jo Baer, because since the early years of her career she has had her exhibitions in Amsterdam. She is considered to be a Minimal artist, but personally i am not so certain about this. In her early days she was more related to the Hard Edge mouvement, but in later paintings a great emptiness fills the canvasses only enhanced by a painted frame or a simple scarce geometrical object making these paintings as typical Minimal paintings and in the last 2 decades she turns again completely and produces lyrical abstract expressionist paintings. When you look at these 3 stages of her career you can destinguish 3 completely different styles and approaches to painting, but with one constant…the artist Jo Baer

www.ftn-books has some of the dutch Jo Baer publications available

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Posted on 31 March 201919 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Marien Schouten (1956)

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Two things i remember about Marien Schouten. First that i read an article on the artist ( Metropolis M??) and soon after that i visited the old Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht. The exhibition by Schouten i visited solely to see this work for myself and not a little picture in a book. I remember that these paintings were altered and reshaped with pieces of metal and i was very much impressed.

After this special exhibition i have encountered his works on several occasion, but none of these events had the same effect on me as the first Bonnefanten exhibition. At the time of the Bonnefantenmuseum i feld the urge to add, at one time , a work to my collection, but somehow over the years i lost this feeling. But who knows, ….perhaps a nice early painting by Schouten will appear at auction and i feel i must bid on it, because these early works are special and in my opinion belong to the very best art in the Netherlands from the Eighties.

http://www.ftn-books.com has some Marien Schouten catalogues available.

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Posted on 31 March 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Piet Dirkx weekly

Here is a lesser known part of the art by Piet Dirkx. Every item that was on show is documented on the object itself by Piet Dirkx. Here is an example of the first object i ever bought at galerie ‘t Venster. These 3 cigarboxes are numbered and described how they must be placed on the lath.

Posted on 31 March 20196 March 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jan Gregoor (1914-1982)

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Jan Gregoor, became “famous” in the Netherlands for his crayon works, but for me it is not his art that makes the artist attractive. It is typical for the decades he lived and worked in, but what struck me most about Gregoor was the EXCELLENT exhibition poster that was made by the van Abbemuseum for an exhibition on the artist and designed by Cornet. It has the simplicity of the greatest of 60’s designs and for me personally i think this is absolutely one of the most splendid of all van Abbemuseum posters ( available at http://www.ftn-books.com).

gregoor a gregoor d

I just told that i am not that fond of Gregoor, but still he has made some excellent prints., which are worthwile to search for.

gregoor shop

Posted on 30 March 201919 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Hamish Fulton- 10 Views of Brockmans Mount

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The full length title of this Hamish Fulton artist book is

10 Views of Brockmans Mount A Naturally Formed Hill near Hythe Kent ENGELAND.

The rare artist book was published in 1973 by the Stdelijk Museum with publication number 542, to accompany the Hamish Fulton exhibition which was held from the 24th of March until the 6th of May.

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Why a blog on this small and excellent publication by Hamish Fulton?….. there is just a simple reason for it. This small gem of a publication is one of the rarest of all Stedelijk Museum publications. I learned that originally only 500 copies were made of which were some 100 handed out during the opening of this exhibtion and that a few years later most of the remaining copies ( some 300 ) were destroyed because no one was interested in these books. So this sweet little book filled with black and white photographs by Hamish Fulton has become one of the hardest to find publications by the Stedelijk Museum and FTN books has been on the look out for these books for over a decade now and has collected in these years only 3 copies of this book. The book is available at www.ftn-books.com and for those who order one of the 2 available copies a discount code can be used which gives a nice discount of 10% on the Fulton artist book. Just use

HFulton10 for a 10% discount

Posted on 29 March 201919 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Jean-Gabriel Domergue (1889-1962)

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France has had its share of society painters and i f ever there was one who came after the flood of great names who build a career in making portraits of wealthy women, it must have been Domergue. He started his career in 1911 after he had finished his art studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Onwards he specialized in makeing portraits of Parisian women. Some people even say that this is how the French Pin Up was invented. His technique is something between impressionism and the style of Matisse.

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His portraits are highly recognizable and the artistic appreciation and also the value of his works are starting to grow. This making him an artist for the future. The importance of Domergue is not only his figure studies , but also the works he has done as a fashion designer. The clothes he designed for Paul Poiret are considered as true classics. http://www.ftn-books.com has some nice vintage 60’s cataloges of the artist available.

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Posted on 28 March 201918 February 2019 by ftnbooks — Leave a comment

Alfred Kubin (1877-1955)

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Alfred Kubin was a Bohemian printmaker and illustrator who became an important figure of both the Symbolist and Expressionist movements. His inventive black-and-white drawings often featured fantastical or morbid elements, and depicted supernatural creatures and sexual violence. Born on April 10, 1877 in Leitmeritz, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), Kubin had an emotionally unstable childhood, attempting suicide and suffering a nervous breakdown before the age of 20. Upon moving to Munich in 1899, he was introduced to the works of Francisco de Goya and Max Klinger, the latter having a particularly profound impact on Kubin. He began producing nightmarish ink-and-wash drawings, and briefly became affiliated with the Russian artist émigré group, the Der Blaue Reiter, which included Wassily Kandinsky and Marianne Werefkin. Kubin was perhaps best known for illustrating the German editions of books by Edgar Allan Poe and Fyodor Dostoevsky. During rise of Nazism in Germany, his work was considered degenerate; he retreated into solitude and lived in a castle in Zwickledt, Upper Austria. He was awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Visual Arts in 1950, and died at his home on August 20, 1959.

http://www.ftn-books.com has Kubin titles available