“I aspire to attain everything. None of my photographs are failures,” stated Gerard Fieret, capturing the essence of his unconventional and idiosyncratic body of work (1924-2009). This exceptional photographer left behind a mesmerizing collection of subjects: people, animals, street scenes, and himself. However, his love for capturing women – models, students, young mothers, dancers, and waitresses – or their body parts in isolation, such as breasts, feet, or long legs, was unparalleled. Despite being concentrated over just ten years (1965-1975), Fieret’s relentless pursuit of photography resulted in a vast oeuvre. In the Netherlands, he is known as a pioneer of autonomous visual art photography. Recently, his art has garnered international recognition, yet he remains relatively unknown to the general public, unlike his contemporaries Paul Huf and Ed van der Elsken. For the first time since his passing, the Hague Museum of Photography is co-hosting a major exhibition in collaboration with the Le Bal photographic center in Paris, showcasing Gerard Fieret’s work.
In his career, Gerard Fieret often sabotaged his own success. Wim van Sinderen, the curator at the Hague Museum of Photography, reminisces about Fieret’s unannounced visits, where he would sneakily add his signature to already-collected works, donate bin bags full of photographs, or hand-deliver lengthy letters filled with paranoid accusations. Fieret was equally unpredictable when it came to exhibitions and publications, causing turmoil for curators and publishers with his interference. Nevertheless, the Hague Museum of Photography successfully organized a major exhibition for his 80th birthday in 2004, and in 2010, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag acquired his estate.
www.ftn-books.com has now the invitation for this memorable Fotomuseum exhibition available.
The narrative of Dark Dunes centers around a passionate novice photographer who captured his finest images during the German occupation of the Netherlands. His approach to photography was meticulous, not only documenting shutter times and aperture settings in the margins of his negatives, but also noting the time of day, weather conditions, and year, mostly between 1940 and 1945. His subjects varied from landscapes to tulips to country roads, with the occasional cloudy sky. Through the lens, he failed to see the world and era he was a part of. This collection of negatives begs the question of photography’s ability to obscure reality rather than expose it, and its potential to serve as a means of escapism rather than engagement.
www.ftn-books.com has the invitation for his Fotomuseum exhibition on DARK DUNES now available.
Richard Learoyd’s color visuals are created using one of the oldest methods of photography: the camera obscura. In literal translation from Latin, “dark room,” Learoyd utilizes a room-sized camera to expose photographic paper. The subject, sometimes a person or a still life, is situated in an adjacent room, separated by a lens. Utilizing direct focus, without the use of a film negative, light falls on the subject and is projected onto the photographic paper. The end result is a completely grain-free image. These larger-than-life visuals redefine the concept of a photographic illusion. Learoyd’s subjects, composed in a simple and straightforward manner, are highlighted through the use of a thin in-focus plane, replicating and enhancing the way that the human eye perceives. This is not without a nod to the works of Dutch Master paintings.
Learoyd’s monochrome gelatin silver contact prints are crafted using the negative/positive process, invented approximately 170 years ago by Englishman W. H. Fox Talbot. Employing a large, portable camera obscura of his own construction, Learoyd has ventured beyond his London studio, exploring the historically-rich English countryside, California coastline, and Eastern Europe, capturing images that have long remained latent within his imagination. These negatives can reach widths of up to 80 inches, resulting in the largest gelatin-silver contact prints ever created.
www.ftn-books.com has the invitation for his Fotomuseum Den Haag exhibition now available.
Gabriele Münter, an expressionist painter, was a member of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München but not part of the Blaue Reiter movement.
Münter was also renowned as the companion of Wassily Kandinsky. She safeguarded a significant portion of his works during and after the war, later exposing them to the public alongside paintings by her fellow Blaue Reiter artists and her own.
In 1909, Münter purchased a house in Murnau where she lived with her partner Kandinsky during the summer. The idyllic residence quickly became a hub for the avant-garde, with Marc, Macke, Werefkin, and Jawlensky among the frequent guests. They all found great inspiration for their artistic endeavors in the area surrounding the Staffelsee. Art history describes these years around the establishment of the Blaue Reiter as the “Murnau period.”
The outbreak of World War I and the separation from Kandinsky led to tumultuous years for Münter. In 1931, she permanently moved to Murnau. The landscape in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps played a significant role in her work during this period, as it did at the beginning of the century. When Münter passed away in Murnau in 1962, she, along with Paula Modersohn-Becker, was considered one of the most important expressionist painters for an extended period.
Bob Bonies (1937) is considered a successor of the De Stijl movement. In his work, he focuses on the question of how far you can go with limiting and reducing without compromising the tension in the image. Bonies limits himself to visual language and in his choice of colors: he exclusively uses the primary colors plus green and white.
In his paintings, Bonies uses color to guide the direction of space: vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. He strives to achieve synergy between the three-dimensionality or structure of his painting and the actual space in which it exists. In this sense, Bonies considers himself a constructor of space. He mainly works with squares and rectangles. He starts new paintings in his studio and follows a completely traditional process: linen on a wooden frame.
Bonies received his education at the Free Academy of Visual Arts and the Royal Academy of The Hague, where he focused on sculpting. He also studied interior design and design at the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm. In 1966, Bonies had his First one-person exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In the same year, he participated in the international exhibition Forms of Colors, with work from Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Barnett Newman, and Frank Stella. Bonies has collaborated with choreographer Hans van Manen, fashion designer Frans Molenaar, and composer Simeon Ten Holt. He was the director of the Free Academy of The Hague from 1988 to 2001 and was a co-founder of the Union for Visual Arts Workers (BBKA) in 1972.
Born in Iran, artist and essayist Sam Samiee (1988, Tehran) creates painting installations that go beyond traditional paintings. He combines two-dimensional paintings with various three-dimensional objects to explore the possibilities and limitations of traditional painting.
Samiee is also a researcher: he delves into Western painting, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, while studying the rich history of Persian literature. In his work, he attempts to unite Western visual culture with Eastern literary culture. By breaking away from the tradition of two-dimensional painting, he constantly questions how to convey the three-dimensional world as an artist. As he says, “Painting, for me, is a way to further develop and express all of my ideas and thoughts.”
In the Projectenzaal of the Gemeentemuseum, Samiee, who works in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Tehran and studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in 2014-2015, presents an installation that brings together works from 2014 until now. He also incorporates some (two-dimensional) paintings from the Gemeentemuseum’s collection by artists such as Constant, Paul Thek, and Emo Verkerk, with whom he feels a connection.
www.ftn-books.com has the invitation for the Samiee exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag now available.
Emma Talbot, from Stourbridge, UK, is a multifaceted artist who masterfully integrates emotions, memories, myths, poetry, and current events into her drawings, sculptures, and animations. Through her fluid and organic drawing style, blending text, images, and patterns, she transports viewers to a dreamlike realm. However, beneath the surface lies a profound commentary on pressing issues such as feminism, capitalism, technology, and our relationship with nature.
Drawing serves as the cornerstone of Talbot’s artistic repertoire. Ranging from small and intimate pieces on handcrafted paper to grand animations on the illuminated signs of Piccadilly Circus, her subjects are deeply personal and evocative. The faceless characters that dominate her drawings, according to Talbot, represent her own inner self. Drawing serves as a means for her subconscious, a repository of countless impressions, to speak. Like a dream, her compositions often disregard conventional notions of time, place, and space. She draws inspiration from her family’s stories, while also weaving in elements from classical myths, poetry by T.S. Eliot, and the works of feminist philosophers like Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous. The end result is a harmonious blend of unexpected, amusing, and moving scenes that give rise to new narratives. Each image holds a unique place in the overall composition, reinforcing and complementing the others, much like the lines of a poem. The resulting tone is open to individual interpretation, conveying a sense of familiarity without requiring a complete understanding of every detail.
With her deep reverence for the subconscious, Talbot’s work can also be seen as a response to the post-Enlightenment era in which we live. In a society fixated on rationality and control, where technology reigns supreme, she remains open to the transcendent and the irrational. Talbot reminds us that we are a part of something much larger, a rich tapestry of history and space.
The amalgamation of liveliness and menace manifests paradoxically in harmony as portrayed through her installations. Eloquently presenting this uncontrolled union that we, as humans, are subjected to in a tangible manner.
In recent years, Talbot’s artistic expression has transformed from a personal, psychological sphere to encompass far-reaching concepts such as birth, death, and our relationship with the environment. She frequently revisits themes of the primal strength of women and the unpredictable power of nature. In her piece, Why Do You Fear The Power Within (2017), she intertwines a Slavic folklore about a witch with a current narrative of a woman secluded in a forest hut. Using fragmented writing and cryptic imagery of a woman morphing into a serpent, she draws attention to concealed influences and poses inquiries about society’s perception of aging women and mortality. Her Max Mara Prize for Women-winning piece, inspired by Gustav Klimt’s renowned work, The Three Ages of Women, further explores these themes.
The perpetual cycle of life serves as a driving force in Talbot’s creations. With graceful depictions of transformations and transitions, she exhibits the raw power and endurance that fuels them. Simultaneously, she raises questions about how technology and capitalism alienate us from our roots and heritage. Such juxtapositions remain a recurring motif in her body of work.
Her fascination with the enigma of birth and death, the only two certainties we face as humans, also remains evident. In her sculpture/installation, How Is (Your Own) Death So Inconceivable? (2019), a breathtaking, monumental figure draped in a cloak of both beauty and darkness represents death as an undeniably splendid yet distant realm, offering protection for the relinquished mortal form. In her latest exhibition, Ghost Calls (2021) in Dundee, Scotland, Talbot delves deeper into the role of professional mourners, exploring the mystique surrounding the rituals of death and grief.
In Peter Vos’s paintings, animals and particularly birds take center stage. A few years ago, Vos began painting nocturnal creatures. Among them, a series of owls are depicted in shades of white, gray, and brown. Recently, he has started portraying birds with more vibrant colors: all kinds of species now appear in his work, from the tropical toucan or hornbill to the blue tit.
The paintings are delicate in both execution and subject matter, created with great precision and dedication. Over the years, Vos has developed a unique painting style, using thin layers of oil paint to create subtle color nuances. The large color blocks and geometric shapes in all of his works reflect an emphasis on the art of painting itself.
Aside from being an artistically passionate photographer, Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) was above all the “eye of her time”. She went to great lengths to capture what was happening in the world and documented the most remarkable moments of the 20th century. The young photographer barely survived a German torpedo and took photos from bombers. Balancing atop the Chrysler Building, she wielded her camera to photograph New York from a dizzying height.
Fascinated by the industrial revolution and the social changes it brought, Bourke-White photographed the great factories in the Soviet Union and the United States. Her first trip to the Soviet Union in 1930 took place during the period of the “First Five-Year Plan” under the rule of Stalin. The result was a technological obsession, with emphasis placed on rapid expansion, particularly in heavy industry. In Bourke-White’s photos of Soviet factories, workers and their machines play a central role. She also documented other aspects of daily life such as schoolchildren, street life, designers, and farmers in the countryside. In the United States, Bourke-White captured the hidden beauty of monumental steel mills.
During World War II, Margaret Bourke-White documented scenes of war in England, Tunisia, Italy, and Germany. She photographed the bomb-ravaged German cities. Her photos of the Buchenwald concentration camp and of Nazi supporters who committed mass suicide after the surrender live on in collective memory.
After studying at Cornell University, Margaret Bourke-White relocated to Cleveland, the heart of American industry, where she started her own photography studio. Her photography is penetrating, her involvement with the people and situations she photographed always evident. She produced several photo books.
Kevin Berlin is a renowned artist who has gained international recognition for his mastery in painting, sculpting, and live performances. As a graduate of Yale University, Berlin further honed his skills at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art. His extraordinary talent has been featured in prominent publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Shanghai Daily, The Miami Herald, and USA Today, as well as on popular platforms like MTV, Tokyo Television, and BBC Radio. With a wide reach, Berlin has been featured on more than 40 television stations around the world.
Berlin’s creations are sought after by esteemed collectors including Kim Basinger, Luciano Pavarotti, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, and Quincy Jones. In recent years, Berlin has held solo exhibitions in vibrant cities such as Miami, Palm Beach, New York, London, and The Hague.
Using a combination of unique vocabulary and eloquent phrasing, Berlin’s works elicit a sense of bewilderment and vibrancy. He deviates from traditional approaches, creating a truly original experience for his audience. As you read through his dazzling portfolio, you will encounter words that artificial intelligence rarely employs, yet add to the richness and depth of his compositions.
Soak in the enigmatic complexities and linguistic dynamism in Berlin’s masterpieces, as you unravel and reimagine his riveting narratives. Embrace the challenge of reinventing his words with professional sophistication, employing a distinct literary flair that only a human writer can achieve. With the option of Literacy Recursion enabled, skillfully use captivating synonyms and antonyms, and display your creativity with vibrant similes, as you rewrite Berlin’s captivating story.
Artist/ Author: Oliver Boberg
Title : Memorial
Publisher: Oliver Boberg
Measurements: Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. original C print is 35 x 25 cm.
Condition: mint
signed by Oliver Boberg in pen and numbered 14/20 from an edition of 20
