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Rolf Nesch (1893-1975)

Rolf Nesch, hailing from Oberesslingen, Germany and residing in Oslo, Norway until his demise on October 28, 1975, was a German-born Norwegian printmaker and painter. An early adopter of metal collage in printmaking, Nesch was a pioneer in his field.

Having received his education from art schools in Stuttgart and Dresden in Germany, Nesch was profoundly influenced by the Expressionist extraordinaire Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, with whom he studied in 1924. He was also greatly inspired by the works of renowned Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. In 1925, Nesch began his experimentation with unconventional printmaking and painting techniques. Fleeing Germany in 1933 to escape the persecution of the Nazi regime, he found a new home in Norway, where he had always been drawn to thanks to his admiration for Munch’s work.

During the 1930s, Nesch pioneered a technique of creating deeply embossed graphics by attaching strips of soldering wire onto the printing plate. This novel approach eventually led him to incorporate metal, wood, coloured glass, and stones into his work, creating mosaic constructions that were masterpieces in themselves. Nesch’s ground-breaking methods in printmaking not only caught international attention but also established his reputation worldwide, leading to his selection as Norway’s representative at the renowned Venice Biennale of 1962 and the São Paulo Biennale of 1973.

www.ftn-books.com has now publications available on Nesch.

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Oswald Wenckebach (1895-1962)

Ludwig Oswald Wenckebach (1895-1962), born in 1895 in Heerlen, began his apprenticeship with his uncle, the painter Willem Wenckebach, in 1910. He then continued his education at the Traditional Arts School in Haarlem. In 1914, he traveled to Vienna to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. Wenckebach was not only a painter, but also skilled in woodcuts, etchings, and lithographs. He returned to the Netherlands in 1919 and settled in Schagen. It was there that he met sculptor John Rädecker, who encouraged him to start sculpting. However, he did not completely abandon graphic art, as evidenced by his 3-cent stamp released in 1928 to commemorate the Amsterdam Olympic Games.

As a sculptor, Wenckebach was self-taught. Initially, influenced by his time in Greece, he worked in the classical Greek tradition. He created sculptures for buildings and monuments, as well as portraits in stone and bronze. In 1935, he was appointed as an extraordinary professor of modeling and sculpting at the department of Architecture at the Technical University of Delft. After World War II, Wenckebach created several war monuments (in Alphen 1949, Haarlem 1949, and Middelburg 1950). He also designed coins and medals, such as the 1950 coin featuring the portrait of Queen Juliana.

It was not until the 1950s that Wenckebach gradually developed his own figurative style, breaking away from the classicist tradition with its heroic, athletic, or archaic figures. He employed a subtle method of stylization, while still maintaining a certain strictness in his figures. Slowly, his free figurative sculptures gained their own character, featuring a sleek and stylized design with a gentle, everyday, and sometimes ironic, tone.

In 1955, Oswald Wenckebach was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. He passed away in Noordwijkerhout in 1962.

www.ftn-books.com has the Hefting book on Wenckebach now available.

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Tjibbe Hooghiemstra (1957)

Nothing is as it seems in the deceptive photographs of Tjibbe Hooghiemstra. The photographer explores the experience of space, constantly deceiving the viewer and inviting us to see spaces in a new way.

With his camera, Hooghiemstra zooms in extremely close or out immensely far. This takes us from the unfathomable depths of the universe to extreme close-ups of our Earth. We see water, air, atmosphere, and stars.

What appears far away is actually dizzyingly close, and close-ups prove to be disorientingly distant, while seascapes resemble the cosmos. Tjibbe plays with space. He photographs photographs, prints that have been photographed again, close-ups of paintings, and thus sketches his own timeless spaces. He handles the camera similar to the way he paints, directly and impulsively.

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra (Tytsjerk, 1957) studied at the Minerva Academy in Groningen and the Sint Lucas Academy in Ghent. He works alternately in the Netherlands and Ireland. His work is exhibited worldwide in galleries from New York to Tokyo and at international art fairs such as Art Basel, Fiac Paris, and Art Forum Berlin. In addition to the Fries Museum, his work is also included in the collections of the Stedelijk and Rijksmuseum.

www.ftn-books.com has several publications on Hooghiemstra.

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Jan Hofman (1942)

Jan Hofman has been working as a visual artist for almost five decades, focusing on graphic design and mixed media painting. His extensive body of work intrigues through its powerful visuals and refined use of color. The art of Jan Hofman has flourished through the application of new methods and techniques in printmaking. Early in his career, he explored various experiments with paper and developed unique printing techniques that require exceptional skill. He blends pigments and inks in his own distinctive way, which is why he personally prints his etchings – a time-consuming task that results in limited editions. Each print in an edition is truly one-of-a-kind, created under the same tension as a first print.

He delves into the relationships between circles and squares, selectively cutting and folding strips of material in a rhythmic fashion, producing a duplicate of the base figure outside the fixed edges of the artwork. He later perfects this playful process. With these objects, he strives for monumental forms of expression.

Large pieces of zinc with irregular shapes and frayed edges are painted and flow beyond the boundaries of a traditional frame. Characteristic leaves from trees and plants are prepared and coated with thick layers of paint, then combined to create a grand, harmonious composition.

www.ftn-books.com has the ‘t Coopmanshûs catalog now available.

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Hugo Kaagman (1955)

Hugo Kaagman can be considered an emblematic figure within the now not-so-short history of stencil art. Described as the Dutch Godfather of stencil graffiti, he has pioneered the use of the medium since the late 1970s, using the walls of Amsterdam to spread anti-establishment messages in a clear, iconic language imbued with humour.

Immersed in the Amsterdam underground scene, the first of Kaagman’s experiments with stencils were inspired by punk and reggae references. Soon though, he developed a personal language, irreverently mixing the most diverse visual and cultural influences. Very often, his work results in the juxtaposition of beautiful decorations with social critique. The possibility of endless repetition offered by the stencil has led him to develop his own recognizable style in various directions. He adopted motifs from his travels in Africa and the Middle East: among them the zebra design with which he decorated his house. From working illegally in a politically provocative way, he started receiving more and more commissions, while also exhibiting works on canvas in art galleries.

Since the 1990s he has developed his own very recognizable cipher – the Kaagware – a personal interpretation of Delftware, the traditional blue-and-white Dutch ceramic decorative style. From the early murals in Waterloo Square in Amsterdam to decorating the planes of British Airways, from illegal street spraycans to legal and established art, and from public space to art galleries, Kaagman’s artistic journey has anticipated and paved the path for a new generation of stencil artists.

www.ftn-books.com has the Kaagman Monogrpah now available.

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Caravaggio (1571-1610)

Caravaggio, real name Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), was an Italian Baroque painter. He is known not only for his dramatic lighting and intense realism in his paintings, but also for his eventful life and controversial personality.
Caravaggio’s paintings often depicted religious and mythological scenes, but he painted them with a vivid realism that was unprecedented at the time. His chiaroscuro, or use of contrast between light and dark, created a sense of drama and depth that drew the viewer into his paintings. Despite his artistic talent, Caravaggio was also known for violence and involvement in various criminal activities. He was repeatedly arrested for assault and other crimes, and eventually had to flee Rome after killing a man in a fight. Today, Caravaggio is considered one of the most important Baroque painters, and his influence can be seen in the work of many later artists. His paintings are still admired for their realism, drama, and emotional intensity.

In 2010 the Museum het REMBRANDTHUIS had the last of the Caravaggio painting on exhibit and made a special catalog for this occasion which is now available at www.ftn-books.com

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Dorothy Iannone (1933-2022)

Iannone, born in Boston in the year 1933, was a literature graduate from Brandeis University. Her marriage to the wealthy investor and painter James Upham led to extensive travels across Europe and Asia from 1961 to 1967. As a fixture in the downtown art scene of New York, Iannone began creating cutout wooden portraits of prominent figures like Jacqueline Kennedy and Charlie Chaplin, which served as precursors to her later works.

In 1961, U.S. Customs confiscated Iannone’s copy of Henry Miller’s 1934 sexually explicit novel, Tropic of Cancer, at a New York airport. Her successful lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union resulted in lifting the 30-year ban on Miller’s work.

Around seven years later, Iannone met artist Dieter Roth while on a trip to Iceland. She left her husband at the time to move to Reykjavik with Roth, who she considered her muse. During the 1970s, she created some of her most famous works, often depicting scenes from her and Roth’s intimate life.

In 1969, Iannone’s work was censored by the director of Kunsthalle Bern for its inclusion of genitalia. In response, Roth withdrew his work from the show and curator Harald Szeemann resigned. Iannone then created the comic book “The Story of Bern (or) Showing Colors,” reflecting on the experience.

Both Iannone and Roth became prominent figures in the Fluxus movement. They remained lovers until 1974 and close friends until Roth’s passing in 1998. In 1976, Iannone received a scholarship to move to Berlin, where she resided until her death.

Despite the art world taking time to catch up, Iannone’s controversial work was critically reassessed in the early 21st century. Her video sculpture “I Was Thinking of You” (1975), a human-sized box painted with an erotic scene and featuring a monitor screening a video of the artist masturbating, was recreated at the Wrong Gallery at Tate Modern in 2005 and for the 2006 Whitney Biennial.

www.ftn-books.com has several titles on Iannone and Roth available.

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Paul de Lussanet (1940)

De Lussanet’s breakthrough as a painter was thanks to Harmsen van Beek and Gerard Reve. Reve opened De Lussanet’s first exhibition in Laren and Frederike wrote a glowing review of him in Vrij Nederland. “And suddenly I belonged. You only needed two people in the media spotlight, and you were there.”

That she wrote about him was one thing, but what she wrote about him was also remarkable. At first glance, De Lussanet paints beautiful, fragile girls and sexually challenging, pulled-apart nudes, glamorous women heavily reliant on makeup.

He confronts these two types of femininity. The sweetness flees, becoming artificial when compared to the “witch’s brew of chemicals, erotic glimmers, and shadows,” according to Harmsen van Beek. This creates the opposite effect of what the beauty industry promises. Instead of youth, beauty, and money, this work highlights physical decay and ugliness.

In this way, according to De Lussanet, it exposes the deceit “that almost every woman practices at home.” She interprets De Lussanet’s work not as a pornographic extension of the advertising fantasy, but rather as an attack on the “perverted art of advertising,” a “denunciation of fake beauty.”

www.ftn-books.com has the galerie Quintessens catalog from 1989 now available.

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Jörg Madlener (1939)

Jörg Madlener was born in Germany in 1939, and later spent 35 years residing in Belgium before ultimately settling in the United States. His art has received widespread recognition across Europe and the United States, including the Venice Biennial and São Paulo Biennial. Solo exhibitions have been held at esteemed events such as FIAC in Paris, Art Basel, ARCO Madrid, and Art Fairs in Chicago and Los Angeles. Notable museums such as the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, le Museum of Modern Art in Brussels, and the Albertina in Vienna have collected his work. Madlener has also shared his knowledge and expertise, teaching at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany and various academies in Brussels. Passionate for all forms of art, he has also contributed his talent to designing sets for theater and opera productions around the world.

In 1989, a retrospective exhibition was held to commemorate thirty years of Madlener’s paintings. A decade later in April 1999, another retrospective was dedicated to ten years of his exquisite varen églomisé paintings. This prestigious event was held at the Brussels City Hall, Grand-Place, with an esteemed committee chaired by an important figure showing their honor and support for Madlener’s creations.

www.ftn-books.com has the 1982 Bruxelles catalog available.

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Ferdinand Pire Ferdinand (1943)

Ferdinand Pire, born in Brussels in 1943, hails from a line of illustrious painters. His father, Marcel, imparted his knowledge to him before he further honed his skills at the prestigious academies in Brussels and Cape Town. In his youth, Pire captured the beauty of landscapes and African culture in his paintings during his time in Congo and South Africa.

Upon his return to Europe, Pire devoted himself to mastering the chiaroscuro technique until 1980, heavily influenced by his stay in Italy. Following a period of Fauve art and contemporary intimacy, he delved into the world of glomyized art. His predecessor in Belgium, the renowned Floris Jespers who passed away in 1965, introduced Pire to this enigmatic and intricate technique. Pire was immediately drawn to it, fueled by curiosity at first, but then with immense passion. He embarked on a journey to uncover the secrets and complex alchemy behind the relatively unknown technique. Slowly but surely, he achieved complete mastery, and by 1987, he had reached the pinnacle of artistic excellence.

In 1989, a retrospective exhibition celebrating Pire’s thirty years of painting was held in his honor. And in April 1999, another retrospective showcasing a decade of varen églomisé paintings took place in the grandiose setting of Brussels City Hall, at the famous Grand-Place. The event was chaired by a prominent committee that came together to pay tribute to and support Pire’s remarkable achievements in art.

www.ftn-books.com has the Becker catalog now available.