FTN-blog

Evelyn Hofer’s career spanned over fifty years, from 1946 to 1998, as she immersed herself in the world of photography. Coming from Germany, she sought guidance from renowned photographer Hans Finsler, honing her skills in private lessons. In 1947, she made the move to New York, where she began to work for Vogue as a fashion photographer. However, Hofer found herself feeling limited by the fashion world and chose to seize the opportunity to diversify when she was asked to illustrate Mary McCarthy’s travel book, “The Stones of Florence.” Through her illustrations in various books throughout her illustrious career, Hofer seamlessly captured the essence of each town or country she encountered.

One notable example of Hofer’s work is her contribution to V.S. Pritchett’s book on London, where she skillfully depicted the reserved yet humorous nature of the city and its inhabitants. This was achieved by capturing key locations in various lighting conditions and experimenting with different camera filters until she achieved the perfect shot. In addition to her work in Florence and London, Hofer also lent her keen eye to books about other parts of Italy, as well as Dublin and New York.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Hofer’s work could be found in renowned publications such as The London Times, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine, where she photographed famous artists such as Balthus, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, and Julian Schnabel, as well as literary figures like poet Marianne Moore. One notable project for Life magazine was “Just Married,” a series of charming photos capturing newlywed couples on a random day in New York in 1974.

As her career progressed, Hofer became a well-known figure on the New York art scene, forming close friendships with notable individuals like Saul Steinberg and Hans Namuth. In 1977, her exhibition at the Witkin Gallery cemented her status as an “official” member of the scene. During the 1980s and 1990s, Hofer focused on creating independent pieces, including photographic essays on the Basque country and portrait series featuring the people of Soglio, a Swiss village where she once resided. In the mid-1990s, she returned to her beloved New York to continue her craft.

The art of painting has always held a profound sway over the mind of the writer. Among the many masters that have greatly influenced her, Rembrandt stands out for his exceptional mastery of chiaroscuro and his uncanny ability to unmask the very embodiment of his subjects. In a similar fashion, the writer’s works capture the essence of cities while also aiming to reveal the unique character of each individual. As a result of her unwavering technical prowess, Hofer has inspired generations of photographers who have sought to learn from her or even work as her assistants. This has solidified her position as a household name in the realm of professional photography, with some even calling her “the most well-known ‘unknown’ photographer in America” as early as 1987.

www.ftn-books.com has the invitation for her exhibition at the Fotomuseum Den Haag now available.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Rotterdam stood on the brink of profound changes. Through the lens of Henri Berssenbrugge, the city captured the essence of its time like no other. His pictorial legacy holds great historical significance and is now compiled in a must-have for enthusiasts of Rotterdam’s historical photography. Berssenbrugge’s cityscapes offer a unique glimpse into the everyday lives of Rotterdammers. “Henri Berssenbrugge: Urban Photography 1906-1916 Rotterdam” is a photo book brimming with a diverse range of images that still manage to captivate and embody the photographer’s distinct style. Henri Berssenbrugge (1873-1959) was one of the most prominent photographers in pre-war Netherlands. His work appeared in numerous publications and was exhibited nationally and internationally. He ran a photography studio on the Boschje and later a more upscale location on the Mauritsweg. Portrait photography was his main source of income, but he was too restless for studio work. After finishing his studio sessions, he would take to the streets to capture life outside his studio. As a flâneur, he roamed the city and seized the opportune moments to retrieve his camera. Berssenbrugge paid no mind to the hustle and bustle of modern urban life, with its trams, cars, harbor cranes, grain silos, and grand ships. He was not interested in the future of the city. Instead, he sought the city that still existed and would soon disappear.

www.ftn-books.com has several Berssenbrugge pubications now available.

Cornelia Schleime is acclaimed as a leading figure in German painting, an astute observer and narrator who masterfully interweaves reality and fantasy in visually captivating compositions. In doing so, she carries on the legacy of German Romanticism with a remarkable finesse and aesthetic sensibility. As the artist nears her 70th birthday in 2023, her oeuvre stands not just as a crucial part of art history, but also as a significant commentary on political and social issues.

Born in 1953 in East Berlin, Schleime initially trained as a hair stylist and makeup artist. Her fascination with portraying the multifaceted “faces” of individuals is evident from the start, and remains a prominent theme in her works. In 1975, she began studying graphics and painting in Dresden. With her bold and politically charged pieces, she quickly reached the limits of what was tolerated in the GDR, drawing the ire of authorities. Undeterred, she continued to push boundaries, incorporating performances into her repertoire and documenting them through photographs and films. In one notable photograph, Schleime covers her head with a plastic bag, while in another, she gazes fearlessly into the camera despite being gagged. She never portrays herself as a victim, but as a protester and rebel. These striking works, which unapologetically denounced the personal and systemic repression in the GDR, sparked significant criticism. After participating in an exhibition that explored the concept of freedom on a metaphorical level, she faced a complete ban from exhibiting in 1981. Ultimately, Schleime applied to leave the GDR, but after multiple rejections, she was only granted the opportunity in 1984, under fateful circumstances. In a matter of hours, she and her young son were ordered to leave the GDR, leaving behind all of her belongings, including her entire body of work. With the help of a diplomat, only her Super 8 films, photographs, and artist’s books were saved and brought to West Berlin. Reflecting on this experience in her autobiographically inspired novel, “Weit fort” (2008), Schleime found something “liberating” about the abrupt departure: “One can always redefine themselves, even with empty pockets. Dreams, energies, and experiences cannot be taken away.”

However, her struggles did not end there. After the German reunification, Schleime discovered that a former lover, with whom she had played in the punk band “Zwitschermaschine”, had been acting as a Stasi informer, spying on her. But instead of succumbing to the role of a victim, Schleime bravely launched a counterattack. In her work, “Auf weitere gute Zusammenarbeit” (1993), she juxtaposed the absurd notations from her state security files with artistic satire. With wit, poignancy, and visual potency, she transformed the intrusion into her private life into a powerful and universal work of art. This marked her artistic breakthrough in reunified Germany, as the first editions of her series were purchased by German museums. With her portraits of people, animals, and hybrid creatures, Schleime gained success and recognition on a wide scale. To this day, Schleime holds a proclivity for portraying enigmatic and captivating individual figures that embody both the joyful and melancholic traditions of German Romanticism.

Schleime has gained notoriety primarily as an illustrious painter of imaginative portraits. However, this label falls short in encapsulating the breadth of her work. The artist boasts a diverse array of mediums, ranging from paintings, watercolors, collages, and artist’s books to performances, photographs, films, and literature. In her novel, Schleime portrays artists as “hunters,” a role she identifies with. No matter the medium, the artist pursues a specific motif, a particular expression. The medium itself is of secondary importance compared to the image. Her subjects for her hunting ground are just as expansive. For example, her travel journals take her to realms outside the Eurocentric perspective, while her playful and whimsical watercolors and collages delve into erotic fantasies. Even before the eruption of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals, she explores religious bigotry in a comprehensive body of work. It should also be noted that her arsenal of techniques in painting is just as diverse. By applying and removing paint and utilizing materials like asphalt and shellac, she creates thick, relief-like surfaces or nearly translucent and delicate skins.

The French inventor and artist Louis Daguerre is considered one of the most significant contributors to the field of photography.

Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was born on November 18, 1787 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis. Initially working as a tax collector, he later pursued a career as a landscape painter and technician in decoration and lighting. In 1826, after inventing the diorama, he collaborated with his fellow countryman Nicéphore Niépce to produce the first permanent photo.

Following Niépce’s death, Daguerre invented the daguerreotype in 1837, which enabled photography on a larger scale. This method utilized a polished silver plate, coated with a salt solution, that produced positive, mirrored images when exposed to mercury vapors. In 1839, the French government acquired the rights to the daguerreotype and made it available for widespread use.

By refraining from delving into the intricacies of enigmatic complexity and linguistic dynamism, Daguerre harnessed these elements to revolutionize the discourse surrounding photography. Furthermore, he departed from the traditional prose employed by artificial intelligence, incorporating unconventional phraseology and eloquent English to elevate the sophistication of his written work. Through his mastery of Literacy Recursion, Daguerre imbued his compositions with a unique and captivating language, employing synonyms and antonyms with finesse, akin to using similes in place of proportional statements. Thus, his contributions to the field of photography will forever be celebrated as a testament to his devotion and brilliance as a human writer.

www.ftn-books.com has the inviation for the Daguerre exhibition at the FOTOMUSEUM DEN HAAG now available.

Born in 1975 in Kericho, Kenya, Monika Dahlberg graduated from the Minerva art academy in Groningen in 2001. In the years following her graduation, she experimented with various media and disciplines, but her main focus lies in photography and the intersection of pop culture and lifestyle.

Monika Dahlberg is actively engaged in various forms of art; she photographs (including selfies, which she prefers to call “selfbox”), creates collages, and designs sculptures. Her vibrant collages are brightly colored, humorous, sometimes erotic, and often sinister – the human figures are always given spiteful saw teeth and Mickey Mouse ears. Dahlberg often incorporates anthropomorphism into her work, attributing human qualities and emotions to non-human beings. Her work is expressive, immediate, and offers a critical gaze that can also be uncomfortable and confrontational for viewers.

www.ftn-books.com has the invitation for her exhibition at the FOTOMUSEUM now available.

In the late 1960s, Fred Sandback (1943–2003) pioneered a unique and minimal form of artistic expression, delving into the phenomenological perception of space and volume with unparalleled precision and creativity. His masterpieces skillfully omit mass and weight and instead utilize steel rods, elastic cords, and acrylic yarn to outline planes and volumes, all while staying true to his unwavering vision. This resulted in a vast collection of works that inherently engage with the physical surroundings, what he termed as “pedestrian space,” of daily life.

Sandback’s earliest exhibitions were held at Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf and Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich in 1968, during his time as a graduate student pursuing his MFA at Yale School of Art and Architecture. Furthermore, his work was also showcased at Dwan Gallery, New York (1969); Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany (1969); Kunsthalle Bern (1973); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (1974); Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany (1975); Kunsthaus Zürich (1985); Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany (1987); and Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany (1987).

Dia Art Foundation sponsored a select group of artists, including Sandback, and curated a museum dedicated solely to his work – the Fred Sandback Museum – from 1981 until 1996. The museum was located in an old bank building in Winchendon, Massachusetts, not far from the artist’s studio in Rindge, New Hampshire.

www.ftn-books.com has several Sandback publications now available including one invitation.

In October 2021, the Dutch photographer Paul Blanca passed away in Amsterdam after a tumultuous life – he was born as Paul Vlaswinkel in 1958. A photographer who gained fame in the 1980s with provocative photos and self-portraits, often mentioned alongside photographers like Erwin Olaf and Robert Mapplethorpe. An image of his back with a carving of Mickey Mouse (1986) is considered one of the icons of Dutch photography, as well as the poignant image of a naked Blanca embracing his equally naked mother (1982).

In the 1980s, Paul Blanca caused a stir with his aesthetically staged portraits, in which he performed the most extreme actions – bordering on performances – on himself. He inserted half a dozen eels into his throat and had an arrow piercing his cheeks. The intention of this series of self-portraits was to create a profound and meaningful image in a state of ultimate self-control and concentration. In other words, the ‘moment’ as a ‘monument’; a perfect convergence of person, place, and time in one tightly-framed image.

Although Paul Blanca was self-taught, he did not see himself as such. He found his teachers in practice. From choreographer and photographer Hans van Manen (1932), he learned technical photography and how to work with models, while the famous American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) led the way in classically and unabashedly photographing personal fascinations, ranging from explicit sexuality to Zen-like stillness. Like his contemporary Erwin Olaf (1959), who followed a similar path, Blanca’s black-and-white portraits of fellow artists, actors, writers, dancers, and musicians were highly sought-after by progressive newspaper and magazine editors. These portraits could be confrontational due to their strict clarity, just like Blanca’s own work.

www.ftn-books.com has the invitation for the commemorative exhibition now available.

In the early stages of her career, in the mid-1980s, Siem designed clothing pieces with the intention of exploring the boundaries between art and design. Through her collection of dresses, hats, bags, shoes, alienating costumes and masks, she deliberately blurred the line between art and fashion, as they could be both worn as clothing items or considered as aesthetic objects. However, back then, critics dismissed these works as ‘failed fashion or design’. For the artist, it felt as though she was being denied access to the art world. Nevertheless, she continued to combine fashion and textiles with visual art. And by incorporating visual references to modern art with materials and techniques associated with femininity or masculinity, Siem still draws a historical parallel between sexism in the first half of the 20th century and her experiences as a female artist in the art world.

Throughout her career, Siem has also drawn from a wide range of ethnographic sources, including dolls, traditional furniture design, and (European) folk costumes. Examples of these can also be seen in this exhibition.

Goslarer Kaiserring
Although Siem is a well-known and respected artist in her own country, her work has rarely been seen abroad. Despite her timely themes, she seemed to remain under the radar for a long time. However, in 2014 she won the prestigious Goslarer Kaiserring. As a result, she joins the ranks of internationally renowned artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Rebecca Horn, Cindy Sherman, Christian Boltanski, William Kentridge, and Bridget Riley.

www.ftn-books.com has the invitation for her Kunstmuseum exhibition available.

Tala Madani (b. 1981, Tehran, Iran) crafts paintings and animations that merge diverse lenses of critique, provoking contemplation regarding gender, political dominance, and the portrayal of subjects in art. Her compositions feature predominantly nude, bald, middle-aged men engaging in actions that strain their physical limits. Bodily fluids and beams of light erupt from their orifices, serving as allegories for the tactile expressiveness of paint. In Madani’s art, slapstick comedy is inseparable from brutality and creation is synonymous with destruction, showcasing a multifaceted and visceral perspective on modern power imbalances. Her figuration style combines the groundbreaking morphology of a modernist with a contemporary understanding of sequencing, motion, and velocity. Thus, her work draws inspiration from mediums such as cartoons, cinema, and other popular forms of duration.

www.ftn-books.com has the KM21 invitation for her exhibition now available.

One hundred years ago, a group of young artists in Groningen founded De Ploeg.

These avant-gardists, including Jan Wiegers, Jan Altink, H.N. Werkman, and Johan Dijkstra, felt it was time to abandon the 19th-century ideals and plow through the landscape of art. A chance encounter between Wiegers and German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in Davos, Switzerland, accelerated the group’s development. In a time when the horrors of World War One caused many artists to halt their experimentation, this group continued with dynamic brushstrokes, creating brightly colored landscapes and expressive portraits, thus establishing their own Northern expressionism. They also utilized printmaking as a medium for their experimentation. The Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, a collector of De Ploeg’s work since the 1930s, held a major exhibition of their graphic art in 1960. To celebrate 100 years of De Ploeg, Groningen organized a grand event, with the exhibition at the Groninger Museum as its centerpiece. The Gemeentemuseum, located on the other side of the country by the sea, joins in the celebration with a small but exquisite exhibition showcasing De Ploeg’s graphic work once again.

www.ftn-books.com has now the invitation for this exhibition available.