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Alexander Archipenko (1887- 1964)

Alexander Archipenko’s birthdate of May 30, 1887, located in Kiev, Russia (currently known as Kyiv, Ukraine), marks the start of a remarkable journey. Enrolling in the Kiev Art School in 1902, he delved into the world of painting and sculpture, a pursuit that lasted until 1905. During this period, the exquisite Byzantine icons, frescoes, and mosaics of Kiev left a lasting impression on him. After a brief stay in Moscow, Archipenko made the move to Paris in 1908. His time at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was short, but he continued honing his skills independently at the Musée du Louvre, which quickly sparked his interest in Egyptian, Assyrian, archaic Greek, and early Gothic sculptures. As early as 1910, his work was showcased at the Salon des Independents in Paris, and the following year debuted at the Salon d’Automne.

In 1912, Archipenko’s debut solo exhibition in Germany took place at the Museum Folkwang Hagen. That same year, he opened the first of many art schools in Paris and joined the Section d’Or group, along with fellow artists Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso. It was during this time that he created his first painted reliefs, known as the Sculpto-Peintures. A year later, in 1913, Archipenko’s work was featured in the Armory Show in New York, and he ventured into the world of printmaking, with his pieces appearing in the Italian Futurist publication Lacerba in 1914. He continued to showcase his work at the Salon des Indépendants in 1914 and the Venice Biennale in 1920. Amidst the war, Archipenko found solace in Cimiez, a suburb of Nice. When the war ended, he traveled across Europe, exhibiting in cities such as Geneva, Zurich, Paris, London, Brussels, and Athens. In 1921, the Société Anonyme in New York hosted his first solo show in the United States.

The year 1923 saw Archipenko’s move from Berlin to the US, where he went on to establish art schools in New York City, Woodstock, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Four years later, in 1924, he created his first kinetic work, the Archipentura. For the next three decades, he served as a teacher at different art schools and universities across the US, including the short-lived New Bauhaus. In 1928, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

The majority of Archipenko’s compositions housed in German museums were seized by the Nazis during their eradication of “degenerate art.” In 1947, he conceived his initial sculptures that radiate light from within. He joined his awe-inspiring exhibition of creations across Germany in the years 1955-56 and simultaneously commenced working on his book “Archipenko: Fifty Creative Years 1908-1958,” ultimately released in 1960. The luminary artist passed away on February 25, 1964, in the heart of New York City.

www.ftn-books.com has several important publications on Archipenko now available.

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Neo Rauch (1960)

When Neo Rauch was a mere five weeks old, his parents lost their lives in a train accident. Father Hanno Rauch and mother Helga Rauch were studying at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, an art academy in Leipzig, at the time. Rauch was raised by his grandparents in the provincial town of Aschersleben, which, like Leipzig, was part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). He studied at the same art academy as his parents and became a master student under the renowned painter Arno Rink. Later, he also began teaching there himself. In Rauch’s paintings, you can discern traces of his environment – influences of magical, recurring motifs such as factory chimneys and church towers, and comical figures, all converging in the artist’s personal world.

Neo Rauch’s work has been acquired by museums around the world. For instance, his art can be found in collections at the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the Goetz Collection in Munich. In 2009, Neo Rauch was previously featured at the Drents Museum. The exhibition, entitled “Realism from Leipzig,” showcased three generations of the Leipzig School, and marked the first time that Leipzig art was displayed in a museum in the Netherlands.

www.ftn-books.com has the moste important Rauch publications now available:

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Maggi Giles (1938)

Renowned English artist Maggi Giles arrived in the Netherlands in 1965. A year later, she began working at the “Bouwkeramiek” department of the renowned pottery factory “De Porceleyne Fles” in Delft.

At “De Porceleyne Fles,” Maggi Giles quickly made contact with Karel Appel, for whom she executed the grand design for the Congress Building in The Hague. It was Karel Appel who brought her work to the attention of De Wilde, director of the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum. He described it as “creating toys for grown-ups with ceramics…”

In 1970, she held her first solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum.

Four years later, Maggi Giles began working as an independent ceramist in a studio on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. The new environment inspired her to create “canal houses,” “gates,” “towers,” and “castles.” All of her work is executed in vibrant colors. To achieve this, she developed a technique that she still implements today, allowing her to place all desired colors side by side. In between the blocks, she creates small walls of clay, which later resemble the black lines of stained glass. Her lively use of color has always set her apart from other ceramists in the Netherlands.

In addition to creating autonomous pieces, Maggi Giles has also produced a significant amount of commissioned work, including wall reliefs for schools. In these works, her imaginative world serves as a rich source of inspiration, as well as her joy in using vibrant colors.

One of her latest commissioned pieces is a sculpture for the cruise ship “De Westendam” – a large yellow dog with blue ears emerging from the sea. Animals are a recurring element in her pieces, often combined with chairs to form one cohesive object, such as the 1988 “Elephant Chair” or the more complex “William” – a cat sitting on a throne-like chair with large elephant legs. Humor is also a frequent presence in Giles’ designs, evident in facial expressions and reinforced by titles such as “Members of the Amateur Cat Choir” from 1998. The sea from Giles’ childhood also plays a role throughout her entire body of work.

www.ftn-books.com has several important publications on Maggi Giles.

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Klaus Heider (1936-2013)

Klaus Heider, born in Göppingen in 1936, embarked on his artistic career in the mid-1960s, delving into the realm of printmaking under the tutelage of Manfred Henninger at the Staatliche Akademie für bildende Künste, Stuttgart. Subsequently, he honed his skills in Printmaking under Friedrich Stabenau at the esteemed Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Berlin, from 1960 to 1963.

In 1982, Heider was bestowed with the prestigious Villa Massimo Prize, granting him the opportunity to spend a year in Rome. The following year, he received a grant from the renowned Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. Since 1983, Heider has held the esteemed position of Professor of Painting at the acclaimed Hochschule für Gestaltung, Wirtschaft und Technik in Pforzheim. He currently resides in Bad Boll.

Heider’s early works as a print-maker in the 1960s were defined by perspective lines and chiaroscuro, skillfully evoking a sense of three-dimensional structure. Drawing inspiration from photographs, he often incorporated elements of collage, décollage, and frottage in his creations. The use of light and transparency has remained a prominent aspect of Heider’s work throughout his career.

In the 1970s, Heider delved into the realm of sculpture, crafting mesmerizing glass spaces in the landscape. Preceded by preliminarily works done in print and drawing, these objects allowed for a new perspective on size, spatial relations, and the character of their surroundings. As the 1980s dawned, Heider began experimenting with incorporating colored linear elements into his work. Starting with painted lines, he later progressed to using neon tubes that extended beyond the boundaries of the picture and into the surrounding space.

Heider’s repertoire also features a fusion of words and images in multiple books and works on paper, each bearing a title of significant meaning.

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

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Luigi Snozzi (1932-2020)

Upon completing his studies from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (1952-1957), Luigi Snozzi (born 29.07.1932) sought to further his knowledge through internships with Ticino architects Peppo Brivio and Rino Tami. In 1958, he opened his own office in Locarno, marking the beginning of his career as an architect.

At the time, modern architecture was still a novelty in the canton of Ticino. Snozzi, along with his colleagues Livio Vacchini and Aurelio Galfetti, had studied the principles of modernism at ETH Zurich and aimed to incorporate them in their work. From 1962 to 1971, Snozzi collaborated on various design projects and competition proposals with Livio Vacchini. He also served as a guest lecturer for architectural design at ETH Zurich from 1973 to 1975. In addition, Snozzi maintained a second office in Zurich from 1975 to 1988, alongside his partner Bruno Jenni. Eventually, in 1985, he became a full professor at EPFL Lausanne, where he taught until 1997.

In 1986, Snozzi served as the president of the advisory design board in the city of Salzburg for two years. A decade later, in 1988, he opened a second office in Lausanne. His 1975 exhibition “Tendencies – New Architecture in Ticino” in Zurich solidified his position as a leading figure in the Ticino School of Architecture, and his influence on the younger generation of Swiss architects continues until now.

For Snozzi, modernist architects serve as a constant source of inspiration, but he is not one to blindly follow their methods. Instead, he uses history as a framework for creating something new. As he often says, “Architecture must not invent, but rather reframe.”

www.ftn-books.com has the scarce Electa p[ublication on Snozzi now available.

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Claude Viallat (1936)

Claude Viallat, born in 1936 in Nîmes, France, is a renowned artist who co-founded the Supports/Surfaces movement in the 1970s alongside Vincent Bioules and Daniel Dezeuze. Through his practice, Viallat aimed to expand the boundaries of painting beyond traditional stretched canvases.

One of his signature shapes, described by some as resembling a bone, is a rounded rectangle. This shape repeats itself across various surfaces, including industrial tarps, stitched-together fabric samples, and loose hanging sheets. Viallat’s use of nontraditional materials adds to the vibrant and dynamic nature of his paintings, which are characterized by squiggly geometric forms and kaleidoscopic patterns.

Bold and lively palettes are a hallmark of Viallat’s formal experimentation, evident in his extensive exhibitions around the world. His work has fetched six-figure sums at auction and can be found in prestigious collections such as the Centre Pompidou, the Fondation Cartier, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Kunstmuseum Basel.

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

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Mary Shields ( 1948)

Mari Shields, an American sculptor who has been living and working in the Netherlands since 1972, is a master at unraveling complexities and infusing language with life. She studied painting at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and sculpture at Tulane University. In the Netherlands, she also pursued a course in goldsmithing.

Her works are featured in prominent public collections in Amsterdam and the province of Utrecht. In addition to her impressive sculptures, Shields is a sought-after freelance editor and translator for major museums, prestigious schools, and renowned galleries, using her mastery over language to communicate the nuances of contemporary art.

Trees in the urban landscape are a constant source of fascination for Shields, with their ability to mark the changing seasons, anchor a place, and carry with them the weight of history. These tall and ancient giants often fall prey to disease or are cut down for other reasons, becoming the artist’s raw materials since 1988. The immediate trigger for this was the cutting down of ten beech trees near her studio. In a triumph against nature’s destructive forces, Shields transformed these doomed trees into a captivating installation.

The space that houses a piece of art or an installation is integral to its impact and significance. Shields sees indoor and outdoor spaces as extensions of her medium, using them to heighten the viewer’s appreciation for nature’s delicate beauty and its endless variety of shapes and materials.

“Ode to Tinguely”, a striking installation created in 1985 using found objects such as wheels, chains, and twisted iron, is a perfect example of the artist’s method. Her work often involves the juxtaposition of elements with diverse properties and meanings, be it in terms of clean lines versus unruly forms, man-made versus natural, or decay versus grace.

www.ftn-books.com has the beeld leporello now available.

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Rik Meijers (1963)

Unlike most painters of his generation, Meijers plays with the boundaries of fiction. When one sees his canvases, one does not think of photography or art history, as with most contemporary painters. Instead, one is transported to the culture from which such a painting could have originated, contemplating the backgrounds and motivations of the creator – which, in turn, are completely different from what one might initially assume based on their appearance. Once this is understood, one realizes that Meijers cleverly challenges the viewer’s ingrained habits of looking.

www.ftn-books.com has the Irma Boom designed book on Meijers now available.

Het beste in mij is goed genoeg voor jou.

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Ellert Haitjema (1958)

In his endeavor, Ellert Haitjema delves into a robust vernacular of forms, derived not from aesthetic norms, but from a primal inclination towards survival, from which it draws its exquisite allure.

Haitjema is thoroughly intrigued by the resourceful ingenuity displayed by individuals when faced with scarce resources. For years, he has been documenting, lens-in-hand, their impermanent dwellings, improvised fixes, and enigmatic objects repurposed to meet distinct needs. This exploration often occurs during his expeditions to far-flung destinations, or it may simply occur while taking a stroll around his local neighborhood.

Initially, the photographs served as personal reference points, serving as models and sources of inspiration for his sculptures. However, in Haphazard, these photographs are brought together with his own creations, participating in a dialogue full of brazen visual rhyming and playful wordplay, free from any hierarchy or indication of whether the image is a creation of his own or a photographed object. This differentiation is blurred in the photo-interventions. Haitjema delves into the visual elements suggested by the photographs themselves, subjecting them to various treatments. By creasing the photographs, immersing them in water, or encasing them in glass, he transitions them into three-dimensional entities, which he then captures through his camera lens once again. The outcome is a two-dimensional representation that challenges superficial observation with its idiosyncrasies.
‘Keen observation’ and ‘reckless thinking’ lie at the core of Haitjema’s artistic endeavors.

www.ftn-books.com has the THE BIG SHIFT publication now available.

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Georges Mathieu (1921-2012)

Georges Mathieu was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, in 1921. An autodidactic artist and theorist, he embarked on his creative journey in 1942. He traversed the globe, creating masterpieces in Japan, the USA, Brazil, Argentina, and the Middle East, but predominantly lived and produced his opuses in the Parisian region of France, where he passed away in 2012.

Credited with spearheading the Lyrical Abstraction movement and the larger trend of Informalism in post-World War II Paris, Georges Mathieu pioneered a style of gestural abstraction that verged on performance art. A renowned provocateur, he dazzled audiences with his energetic approach, prioritizing speed, rejecting references, and entering a state of ecstasy while creating. Often working in front of cameras, his pieces were exhibited around the world, with his large-scale compositions achieved through the use of long brushes and direct application of paint from tubes onto the canvas. The immediacy and rapid execution of these techniques empowered him to freely express his vision. He brought a newfound liberty to the creative act and gave rise to a fresh style, a unique blend of esoteric symbols, calligraphy, and raw vigor. The titles of his pieces, infused with historical, musical, and geographical allusions, add a sophisticated yet unconventional poetic quality.

Mathieu’s work has been the subject of numerous retrospectives and can be found in over eighty museums and permanent public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Kunstmuseum Basel; Kunsthaus Zürich; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Tate, London.

www.ftn-books.com has several Mathieu titles now available.