FTN-blog

Renowned for his colossal woodcuts in the 1950s, Leonard Baskin’s artistic stint spanned the grandeur of the twentieth century, marking his eminence as a sculptor, printmaker, illustrator, and book-maker. This remarkable versatility, however, poses a challenge for the masses to grasp Baskin’s artistic eminence as a cohesive entity. Not only did he delve into a myriad of forms of art with unwavering commitment, but he also crafted self-contained cycles and series that were commonly exhibited or published.

A Macy’s demonstration on sculpting breathed new life into Baskin’s aspirations when he was a mere fourteen years old. The young boy returned home with five pounds of plasticine clay, determined to become a sculptor. Through the years, Baskin lived up to his teenage dream and garnered recognition for his sculptures. His illustrious works include sculptures commissioned for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the Holocaust Memorial in Ann Arbor, Michigan. However, his parallel success as a printmaker, typographer, and printer makes it challenging to categorize Baskin into a single, defined niche.

Each of Baskin’s creations reflects a mastermind with an extensive range of visual and literary vocabularies. His multi-faceted talents also manifest in the variety of subjects he depicts, often revisiting similar themes. Baskin’s affinity for Old Testament tales, unsurprising, given his upbringing as the son of an orthodox rabbi, is only one aspect of his diverse repertoire. Greek mythology, predatory birds, Native Americans, and personifications of death and the afterlife also feature prominently in Baskin’s extensive catalogue of works. A deep-rooted sense of social consciousness and humanity binds the seemingly disparate pieces that grace Baskin’s body of work.

www.ftn-books.com has several Baskin titles available.

Sylvia Plachy was a staff photographer at the Village Voice from 1974-2004, chronicling the New York culture and politics in the 80’s and 90’s, as well as covering national and international events such as trips to Nicaragua, Kuwait, the Romanian Revolution, and the fall of the Eastern Block. Her talents were also sought out by New York Magazine, the New Yorker, Metropolis Magazine, and other publications where she contributed photo essays and portraits. In 2005, she graced the New York Times with her column of photographs.

Born in Budapest and compelled to leave Hungary with her parents following the 1956 Revolution, she immigrated to the US at the young age of 15. Her academic endeavors led to a BFA from Pratt Institute. Armed with six published works and exhibitions at prestigious venues such as The Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Willy Brandt Haus in Berlin, she also showcased her talents in galleries in China, Tokyo, Paris, and Madrid. Her work can be found in esteemed collections such as MOMA, the Queens and Brooklyn Museums, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, and many others.

Her reputation as a distinguished photographer arose in 2010 when she was featured at Photo España. She has been honored with the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Page One Award for Journalism, and the Lucie and Dr. Erich Salomon Preis. Notably, her book “Unguided Tour” earned her an Infinity Award, while her book “Self Portrait with Cows Going Home” received the coveted Golden Light Award. In 2016, her exhibits in Romania and at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Florida garnered high praise. Currently, she is part of a New York show at the Laurence Miller Gallery, concluding on February 25th, and featured in a presentation on Demonstrations at the Bronx Documentary Center, closing on March 5th. For over a decade, she has been teaching an end-of-term editing workshop at ICP with great success.

www.ftn-books.com has now severalPlachy titles available.

Hermann Stamm was born in 1953 and completed a degree in graphic design, receiving a Diploma of Designer FH from the Hochschule Würzburg in 1978. He then went on to study Visual Communication/Photography under the renowned Prof. Floris M. Neusüss. Since 1977, he has been actively involved in the field of photography, showcasing his works through numerous exhibitions, presentations, and publications both nationally and internationally. In fact, his works can be found in various collections, including the Museum Folkwang Essen, Fotoforum Kassel, and Fotomuseum München.

In recognition of his artistic talents, Stamm received several awards, including the Otto Steinert Prize from the DGPH in 1979 and the Kodak Photo Book Prize in 1984. He was also a recipient of prestigious grants, such as from the Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin and the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation Essen. Alongside his artistic endeavors, he also shared his knowledge through teaching and delivering lectures and workshops at various universities and institutions, including FH Bielefeld, FH Würzburg, University of Essen, Salzburg College, Werkstatt für Photographie Berlin, and Europäische Kunstakademie Trier.

In 1990, Stamm was honored to be inducted into the Deutsche Fotografische Akademie. For over two decades, from 1993 to 2020, he served as a professor of Visual Communication and Photography at the prestigious Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. He currently resides and continues to create in his hometown of Hammelburg, located in the region of Franken.

www.ftn-books.com has currently 1 title on Stamm available.

Louis Pons was born in 1927 in Marseille. Enduring poverty and battling tuberculosis, at the young age of 21, Pons entered a sanatorium where he remained for over a year. Afterwards, he relocated to the countryside.

Due to his inability to hold a job for an extended period of time, Pons turned to art. Initially, he focused on newspaper caricatures, opting for this medium for its cost-effectiveness and mobility. Though he didn’t receive any formal training, he regarded Hercules Seghers, Rodolphe Bresdin, Louis Soutter, and Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) as his artistic mentors.

In the 1960s, Pons was afflicted with severe eye problems and migraines which hindered his ability to draw, an art form that required intense concentration and strained his eyes. As a result, Pons’ drawings were reduced to the intricate images he adorned on envelopes or letters, often narrating the adventures of a beloved bird or rat, “Snop.”

This motivated Pons to shift his focus to assemblages. Perhaps, it was in his chaotic studio, established when he achieved financial stability, where the idea of assembling objects was born. In his studio, items sat together in a muddled yet harmonious mix and it was the artist’s intervention that facilitated their unlikely union.

In 1972, Pons’ longtime companion passed away. The following year, he relocated to Paris, where he continued to hone his craft of assemblage.

www.ftn-books.com has 1 Pons title available.

Peter Bonde graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Art (1976-82). He served as a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts’s painting school from 1996 to 2005 and represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 1999 (with Jason Rhoades). Throughout the past four decades, Bonde has displayed his artistry through bold experimentation and collaboration, participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Denmark and abroad. His works can be found among the noteworthy collections of Danish art institutions, such as The Danish National Gallery, ARoS, the art museum Trapholt, and Esbjerg Art Museum. He is also extensively collected by Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany, as well as the private collections of Elgiz Collection in Turkey and Axa Northern Stern in Cologne.

Bonde’s artistic innovation and dynamic exploration of painting techniques over the past 30 years have encompassed a wide range of mediums and materials, from perishable items and collages to painting on pre-printed photographs and incorporating video screens onto canvases.

In his latest collection, Bonde’s mastery of oil painting takes center stage, yet his experimental approach to expanding the boundaries of painting remains a central aspect. Instead of using a traditional canvas, Bonde has chosen to work with a specialized, ultra-reflective mirror foil. This unexpected element adds depth and dimension to his vibrant strokes, creating a constant interplay between the artwork, its surroundings, and the observer. The foil, while mirroring the room, also has a transient and intangible quality, allowing the painted motif to float weightlessly in the space, appearing as pulsating and luminous strokes.

www.ftn-books.com has one Bonde title available.

Henri Olivier resides in Contes near Nice. Holding a D.N.S.E.P. (Diploma of Higher Studies in Plastic Expression) from the E.NA.D (National School of Decorative Arts) in Nice in 1980, he has simultaneously developed an experience in gardening and landscaping alongside his artistic practice. From 1994 to 2001, he taught at the Mediterranean School of Gardens and Landscaping in Grasse, serving as a pedagogical coordinator.

His work harmoniously combines three components: sculpture and elaborated objects, which make up his installations – burnt wood elements, neon lights, water mirrors, containers…- the context, taking into account the architecture of the sites as well as their history, meaning, or contemporary purpose – and the individuals who are inscribed in these spaces, exploring the relationships they have with their environment. All sites hold value in our experience, both the “white cube” of the gallery or museum, which are rarely insignificant or impersonal, and interior or exterior spaces that belong to a different history, a different place, sometimes distant from the art world but close to our daily lives.

www.ftn-books.com has one Olivier title available.

In 1965, the American art critic Lucy Lippard wrote about one of Richard Tuttle’s (1941-) wall mounted objects, saying that they were “hovering between two and three dimensions,” and had “an air of indecision that is difficult to separate from their modesty.”

Bodil Nielsen’s paintings possess the generous quality of giving more space than they take, both physically and mentally, against all logic.

The layers of meaning found in her works are calibrated with such gentleness that the viewer finds a weight and peace in lingering over them. But nothing is still about them. On the contrary, there is a continuous vibrating sensuality in her works, fueled by the fact that there is no central perspective in Nielsen’s universe. Everything is always relational and, as Lippard suggests, ambiguous.

Her boundary-defining work with the “open” nature of painting offers innovative interpretations of the medium’s ability to embrace scale, the indefinable, and a multi-sensory perception.

The American artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004), along with Richard Tuttle, serve as references for me in encountering art that embodies these qualities. Like Bodil Nielsen in this exhibition, they moved between painting, paper, and textile work. Martin lived and worked in isolation in the desert of New Mexico, and she painted her works in a state of, in her own words, “not thinking.”

In Nielsen’s case, the intellect is similarly set aside in favor of an intuitive clarity that generates a unique state of presence and closeness when the viewer allows associative thought streams to flow in encountering her works. For over 30 years, Bodil Nielsen has consciously and deeply listened to – and processed – the boundaries of painting. Color and form, in particular, have been explored in fluctuating open and “temporary” situations and relationships.

www.ftn-books.com has 1 Nielsen book available.

Belgian sculptor and graphic artist, Dominique Stroobant (born 1947 in Antwerp) currently resides and works in Carrara, Italy. He co-founded the Floating Stones Group in 1972 with Kenneth Davis and Philippe Toussaint. In 1977, Stroobant delved into the world of heliographs, using a pinhole camera to capture the ethereal movements of the sun. With numerous solo exhibitions in both domestic and foreign settings, as well as participation in group exhibitions and symposia centered on stone sculpture, Stroobant has stayed at the forefront of the art world.

In his formative years, Stroobant honed his craft by sculpting stones and experimenting with lithophones. In collaboration with painter Jef Verheyen, he crafted exquisite marble pieces in the 70s that he continues to create to this day. His interest in film blossomed in the 70s, inspiring him to create unique cameras and recorders of various shapes and sizes.

www.ftn-books.com has a few Stroobant titles available.

Jean René Bazaine was born on December 21, 1904, in Paris. Bazaine pursued studies in philosophy and literature at the Sorbonne, and briefly attended the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. He also later visited the Académie Julian, where he studied sculpture.

In 1930, his paintings were first exhibited in a group exhibition in Paris. Two years later, at his first solo exhibition at Galerie Van Leer, he met Pierre Bonnard. This renowned artist provided him with valuable advice and encouragement to continue painting.

Bazaine’s abstract paintings reveal a profound connection with nature. In addition to paintings, Jean Bazaine also designed numerous stained-glass windows for churches in France. The Saint-Séverin in Paris and the church of Assy are prime examples. He spent five years creating the seven stained-glass windows along the ambulatory of the Saint-Séverin.

In 1958, Bazaine gained fame for creating mosaics for the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris. He also designed decorations for the Cluny-La Sorbonne metro station in Paris, incorporating the signatures of hundreds of writers and philosophers into the design. Jean Bazaine also published several books on art and wrote about his work.

The work of Jean Bazaine was showcased at numerous foreign exhibitions. His work was first seen in 1946 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. It was also displayed multiple times at the Venice Biennale, and he was invited three times to participate in Documenta exhibitions in Kassel. Bazaine was awarded the Grand Prix national des Arts in 1964, and in 1980, he was named Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

www.ftn-books.com has several Bazaine titles available.

Sorry no portrait photo this time!

He was trained as a ceramic painter, but Frans van Katwijk (1893-1952), resident of Gouda, developed into an artistic director at the Plateelbakkerij Schoonhoven. In 1927-1928, he made his breakthrough with the development of art glazes. Presumably, first on hand-turned terracotta, mainly with a matte green glaze, later he excelled with a sparkling color palette that was extremely exuberant for the time of the crisis. Further research reveals that in the first half of 1928, Van Katwijk was a visiting student at the Institute for Applied Arts in Amsterdam, studying ceramics under Bert Nienhuis. In the early 1930s, it appears that he was influenced in terms of design by Fons Decker, a designer at Plateelbakkerij Zuid-Holland.

www.ftn-books.com has some lieterature available on van Katwijk and the plateelbakkerij Schoonhoven and van Katwijk