Posted on by — Leave a comment

Bruno Capacci (1906-1996)

Bruno Capacci was born in Venice in 1906 but spent his youth in Florence. He settled in Paris in 1930, where he became a member of the “Italians of Paris” along with De Chirico, Severini, Magni, Magnelli and Leonor Fini. The capacchi of the “Metaphysical Age” was influenced by De Chirico and the great Renaissance masters such as Uccello, della Francesca and Ghirlandaio. In 1930 he met and married the Belgian artist Suzanne Van Damme at the famous brasserie “Le Dome”. The couple were the surrealist poets Paul u00c9luard, Paul Collinet, Marcel Lecomte, Louis Soutenaire and Henri Bauchaud, Andru00e9 Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Michaud, Jean Cocteau and Louise de Villemorin. , Federico Fellini, Jean Paulin, and actor Louis Jouvet. Close others. In 1947, the “Surrealist Pope” invited Andre Breton Capacz and Van Damme to the “Surrealist International Exposition” to be held at the Margut Gallery in Paris, and invited Arp, Bellmer, Brauner, Calder, Duchamp, Ernst, Giacometti, Gorky, Lamb, Matta, Milo, Picabia, Man Ray, Tanguy, Tanning, etc. Capacchi’s paintings became more and more sophisticated and poetic. He also published surrealist poetry in the book La balustrade du Possible. His photographs reveal his boundless imagination, his delicate color palette and, above all, his extraordinary joie de vivre. His favorite themes include moonscapes and fantastic bestiary, reminiscent of Klee and Brauner.
When the couple moved to Florence in the 1950s, they built a beautiful house with stunning views of the surrounding Fiesole hills. Inspired by the great idol Andrea della Robbia, Capacchi began making a line of ceramics that he displayed throughout his home and sold to a variety of clients, including numerous wealthy Americans. Each year the couple exhibited in galleries in the United States: Chicago (Marshall Field Gallery 1959), New York (Thibault Gallery on Madison Avenue 1961), Los Angeles, Baltimore and Dallas (Calhoun Gallery 1961).

Capacci also had a taste for marble and mosaics, and produced many decorative panels inspired by ancient Etruscan and Byzantine art. A versatile artist and poet, Capacz made porcelain plates in his Havilland factory in Limoges, Christofle in Paris, and his ateliers in Rosenthal, Germany. In the 1970s Capacz and Van Damme returned to Brussels and lived in a house near Avenue Louise.
His first 1990 exhibition in the Group 2 gallery was a tribute to Suzanne Van Damme, followed by his 1991 solo exhibition of Capacci. Capacci died in Brussels in 1996, shortly after the opening of Van Damme’s Capacci exhibition at the same gallery.

www.ftn-books.com has the Group 2 catalog now available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Georges Carrey (1902-1953)

Because of a purchase of small collection of art books I first encountered the works by Georges Carrey. I saw a resemblance with Willem Hussem . Broad strokes of paint , diagonal painted making it a joy to look at.

Georges Carey was born in Paris but moved to Belgium in 1922.
Initially he was an advertising designer and illustrator, but later he mainly painted portraits, landscapes and still lifes. He experimented a lot and from 1946 he started creating abstract works. In 1947 he returned to Paris and took lessons from Andre Rothe, where he met Nicolas de Stael. He often used a knife to work on the canvas and create geometric compositions. In 1952 he became a member of the group “Art Abstract”.
A year later, he died of a heart attack at the age of 51.

www.ftn-books.com has now the Museum van Oostende catalog from 1991 available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Dorien Melis (1938-2021)

Johan Claassen describes his work as “minimal, musical visual poetry”. What can I add? Dorien Melis (1938-2021) made small paintings, primarily on canvas or panel, in which lines were drawn along somewhat larger shapes to depict memories. These memories must have something to do with the city’s reflections Like the water, the horizon at dusk, or the cold light of the morning sun streaming into the bedroom through a light curtain. Her works have titles such as Life of Water, Little Cantatas, Songs of the Night, and Between the Lines. A painting depicting how vulnerable people are protected. A minimalist, musical visual poem.

www.ftn-books.com has 2 small Melis publications available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Erwin Olaf (1959-2023)

Erwin Olaf has passed away at the age of 64, his management informed the ANP news agency. He was one of the most famous photographers in the Netherlands. Olaf has been suffering from emphysema for many years and a few weeks ago he underwent a lung transplant.
Erwin Olaf started out as a documentary photographer, but he later focused on stage photography.

The family said in a statement that Wednesday morning’s death was unexpected. Although he recovered after a lung transplant, Olaf “suddenly became unwell and resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.”

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Carlo Carra ( 1911-1966)

Futurism is Carrà’s first major artistic period. His research into dynamism and colour theory resulted in his masterpieces such as The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli in 1911, Woman on the Balcony in 1912, Plastic Transcendences in 1912

In 1916, just after the end of the First World War, his meeting in Ferrara with de Chirico and De Pisis led him to abandon Futurism and approach Metaphysical poetics. It was with these two artists that he established the theoretical principles of Metaphysical painting.

After a style initially influenced by that of De Chirico, he developed a very personal language with solitary and suspended atmospheres. Perfect examples of this new language are the paintings Mother and Child (1917), The Engineer’s Lover (1921) and The Pine Tree by the Sea (1921). This change led him to approach 14th- and 15th-century art, with references to Giotto and Masaccio.

From 1918, he began writing for the magazine ‘Valori Plastici’, so it is not surprising that in 1920 he began to paint according to the strict terms of the Novecento Italiano, also taking part in the 1926 and 1929 exhibitions at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan.

Carrà continued to paint frantically until his death in 1966 in Milan following an illness.

www.ftn-books.com has several titles on Carra now available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Domenico Bianchi (1955)

Bianchi seeks the harmony of the elements by identifying the spatial dimension that emerges naturally from the combination of lines, shapes and volumes, emerging from the exaltation of material, its manipulation and essence properties that are the origin of true expression in the artist’s work. To do. From sophisticated research-driven combinations. The two monumental marble seats were originally designed in the cloister of the 17th-century Donna Regina Vecchia church to match its rich Baroque style, but are now recreated in his 18th-century Madre atrium. arranged to emphasize its typical neoclassical lines. At the same time, it proposes a new definition of space, an invitation to linger and contemplate. Beyond direct references to the art historical tradition, these two works raise questions related to the spatial and structural purpose of the work and its relationship to its surroundings, and are evocative and sensitive. It is symbolic of the way an artist works because it lives in the work in a way.

www.ftn-books.com has several Bianchi books available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Gianni Bertini (1922)

He was born in Pisa on August 31, 1922 and graduated from the city with a degree in pure mathematics. Gianni his Bertini made his debut as a painter in 1946 and chose the path of abstraction because, as he himself puts it, “I gave the events of the war a real meaning, so I am a non-representative.” It has become something of a standard.u201d Cycles, griddies used stamped letters and numbers. After a short stay in Rome, he settled in Milan in 1950, where he made contact with the MAC of Monnier, Dolfres, Munari and Soldati. During this year, he mainly produced works with a graphic aspect. It consists of the juxtaposition of contrasting elements such as positive and negative, black and white, and dotted lines, which led him to study the world of line and space, as well as the mechanical aspects of animating animation. rice field. He deepens its composition and decomposition. In 1951 he was invited to two exhibitions devoted to Italian abstract art. “Abstract and Representational Art” at the Museum of Modern Art in Rome, and “Panorama of Italian Abstract Art” at the Bonpiani Museum in Milan from 1915 to 1951. Next, he creates paintings that make extensive use of dripping. Presented in October 1951 at the Numero Gallery in Florence, these works are among his first representations of informal painting made in Italy. They later came to be called nuclear paints. At the end of 1951 he moved to Paris and in May 1952 his first solo exhibition in Paris was held at the Galerie Arnault.

www.ftn-books.com has the galerie Thorigny catalog now available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Renie Spoelstra (1974)

The intention of the huge charcoal drawings of Renie Spoelstra is to let the viewer experience an atmosphere of deliberate apathy; hours and days go by in a split second, every moment frozen in time and every moment equal to the other. Consequently, characteristics of actual observations are diminished, making the unique more common and indefinite, so that they can function as a substitute for many similar places.

Renie Spoelstra’s arduous process of drawing always begins with a journey. For close to a decade, she has travelled to coasts, lakes and forests throughout North America and Europe, looking for landscapes that evoke overwhelming existential feelings.

Spoelstra uses film footage as a starting point for her charcoal drawings. The suede like and velvety texture is achieved by the many layers of charcoal, which are skillfully positioned on top of each other to re-create an almost cinematographic scene. The balance between darkness and soft beams of light is rendered through the many shades of black and grey, creating a notion that something may be lurking below the surface.

Themes of intensity, secrecy and mystery are reoccurring in Spoelstra’s works. There is an alluring and mythical feel of a place. The series ‘Stretching Universe’ refers to the scientific fact that our universe is expanding, while here on earth it feels as though it is shrinking with the rise of xenophobia, narrow-mindedness and the continuous threats of climate change. Fleeing, or escaping to nature is not as easy as it may seem.

Renie Spoelstra studied at St. Joost, Breda and at the Academie Minerva, Groningen. She has exhibited in the Netherlands and abroad, notably at institutions like the Louvre-Lens, Albertina, Vienna, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Kunsthal Rotterdam, Museum Belvedere Heerenveen, Rijksmuseum Twenthe and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. Her work is included in renowned collections such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris, MACBA Barcelona, Collection Frac Picardie Amiens, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Amstelveen, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, the Guerlain Foundation, Paris, De Nederlandsche Bank, Bouwfonds Collection, The National Collection of the Netherlands, Teylers Museum Haarlem, The Louis Dreyfus Family Collection NY, De Ru Collectie and many other (private) collections worldwide.

www.ftn-books.com has now the DARKNESS IS A PLACE publication available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Adela Rodix / ADELA (1947)

Adela Rodix is an artist, thinker, writer. She exhibits her works of art in leading galleries in Europe and America, such as Galerie Maeght. In her artistic career she is also known as Adela, R.D. Adela and Adela R. Duflos.
She has a degree in History. Adela has also been a fashion and advertising model. From a Spanish-French family, she has been living in different countries, feeling herself as a pilgrim, a traveler. She lived for many years in Barcelona, Spain, and now she lives between Warsaw, Buenos Aires, Madrid and New York. She is also author of Light of Cultronia.
Her new book The Weary Angel. will come in september 2022.

WWW.FTN-BOOKS.COM has the Maeght edition form 1993 now available.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Antoni Clavé (1913-2005)

Antoni Clavé was born in Barcelona in 1913 and lived with his mother until 1934. In 1918 he entered elementary school, after which he entered the Hispanic American Quorum. Since 1926, he has been forced into forced labor from the age of 13, working first as a clerk in a textile store for cases. At the same time, he enrolled in the night class of a part-time art school. There he modeled in Angel Ferran’s class and painted with José Mongrel. Along the way, he meets Eduardo Serra, Jordi Casals, Ramon Martim, Grau Sala and Hermann Pico.

José Mongrel finds a job as a facade painting apprentice in Tolosa. By mastering crafts and techniques such as making plaster, plaster, and glue, and then mixing paints, young clave learn techniques such as fresco painting, lettering, and fantasy painting.
In 1928, one of his first works was a portrait of his maternal grandmother. He remained employed in Tolosa well into the 1930s to support himself and his mother, who was now paralyzed and wholly dependent on him. In addition, he continues to take evening courses at an art school, of which he is now in the regular course. There, he meets Salvador Ortiga, with whom he develops a deep friendship. Ortiga advised and influenced his disciples over the course of three years. In 1932 Clave left art school. When he won second place in a poster competition organized by Sparkasse Barcelona, he felt encouraged to quit his painting job. In 1934, Clave was already using new materials in its advertising and stage design work that were first used by the avant-garde artists of the time: collages of various materials, ropes, printed fabrics, cardboard, newspapers, etc. I was. Together with his friend Salvador Ortiga he searched for other new material and created it in Paris a few years later.

www.ftn-books.com has some interesting Clave titles now available.