FTN-blog

Renowned as Captain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet was an American musician, sculptor, and painter. Hailing from Glendale, CA, he was considered a prodigy in sculpture by his instructors, yet his parents discouraged him from pursuing art. In his youth, he met Frank Zappa, a gifted peer who nurtured his musical abilities. As the leader of the band Captain Beefheart, Van Vliet released a string of albums, most notably the groundbreaking Trout Mask Replica (1969). However, his passion for visual art led him to eventually leave music in the late 70s and focus on creating bold paintings that have been likened to Expressionism, Primitivism, and outsider art. His career was launched when Julian Schnabel acquired one of his pieces, and Mary Boone hosted his debut solo exhibition at her renowned New York gallery. Van Vliet’s works have been favorably compared to those of influential artists such as Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock. Notable solo exhibitions at prestigious galleries, including Anton Kern and Michael Werner in New York, have solidified his place in the art world. Sadly, Van Vliet passed away on December 17, 2010 in Arcata, CA, as a result of complications from multiple sclerosis.

www.ftn-books.com has some rare van Vliet items available.

Carla Klein portrays spaces and areas without humans. In her often large oil paintings, she explores and distorts our perception of reality. In Close Distance, KM21 presents new and recent work by Carla Klein in her first solo exhibition in a Dutch museum.

As a starting point for her canvases, Carla Klein uses photos she takes during her travels. While she previously based her work on unique analog photos, her new paintings depart from easily reproducible prints. It is not the image itself, but the actual print that forms the basis of the final work. Stains, fading ink, or unsuitable print paper – all of these technical traces are incorporated by Klein in her manual translation to paint. Thus, the mechanical and the human come together in each painting.

Klein always searches for a certain emptiness, an anonymous and timeless space that cannot be specifically traced. She is drawn to the abstraction of a landscape. From vague in-between spaces like airports and empty highways to desolate desert areas. She is intrigued by the way a place can seem both flat and deep at the same time. When everyday life came to a standstill in recent years, Klein also turned her attention to the quiet environment around her home and studio. This blurs the line between the outside and inside world.

From reality to photo to painting: the layered landscapes are not immediately comprehensible. Yet they manage to completely envelop the viewer. Balancing between the tangibility of paint and the illusion of the image, Carla Klein plays with representing reality.

www.ftn-books.com has several publications on Carla Klein

Paul Sochacki’s paintings defy categorization, leaving one in a state of uncertainty. His insistence on adhering to traditional mediums is juxtaposed with a delicate delivery that feels almost sardonic in its portrayal of the tired battle cry that painting is “not dead.” This sentiment, of course, goes without saying and is a cliché that Sochacki seems to take great pleasure in. Similarly, his blending of mundane visual humor – complete with psychoanalytical cues – with a novice-like eagerness to please, and then subsequently reject, hints at his ultimate goal of rendering himself impenetrable and impervious to criticism.

In his debut exhibition at Galerie Dorothea Schlueter, aptly titled “Le Monde diplomatique,” Sochacki not only displayed his own paintings but also invited fellow artist Elke Marhöfer to screen her films in conjunction with them – further highlighting their playful irreverence. Sochacki’s approach forces the viewer to relinquish control and surrender to his whims.

This is evident in his small painting “Das Gespenst der Freiheit” (The Ghost of Freedom, 2010). A diminutive ghost, glowing and bashfully hovering in a sea of monochrome darkness, grasps a palette of primary colors in its left hand and a red-dipped brush in its right, tracing a clumsy line where its neck should be. The clever paradox of this pictorial suicide by a disembodied canvas-white entity is presented in a style that seems tailor-made for a refined nursery in an upper-class household. While the work may appear to mock painting and its self-imposed demise, any trace of ambitiousness is cleverly thwarted by Sochacki’s elusive humor.

The work of Hazenberg revolves around the tensions, the fads, and the hysteria evident in today’s society. Due to her tinnitus, Pien’s studio is constantly buzzing with the radio, constantly reminding her of current events and their overwhelming presence in her work. This oeuvre forms a vibrant visual reflection of recent events and phenomena.

“My work is nothing more than a documentation of developments and facts. I observe symptoms. Without a personal value judgment!”

From the data, the artist distills an autonomous image. “Sometimes, the images immediately come to my mind’s eye and I only have to copy them, but often I struggle for a long time before finding the symbiosis between image and concept. Once that happens, the artwork is complete to me. It only needs to be executed.”

Luckily, the creative process allows for the inclusion of fortuitous elements and the necessary adventure to keep it engaging. When something becomes too routine, my interest fades and I reach for new methods.”

Hazenberg is not seeking an unrivaled “signature style.” Rather, she carefully chooses the formula that best enhances the expression of each subject in her artwork. Nonetheless, her work bears a convincing and highly personal signature.

www.ftn-books.com has several Hazenberg publications now available.

Balka often uses his own body and studio as a starting point, incorporating materials with distinct textural or historical associations in his work. A select few of these include ash, felt, salt, hair, and soap. Drawing inspiration from personal and collective memories, Balka’s subject matter is heavily influenced by his Catholic upbringing and Poland’s tumultuous recent history. His art confronts the complexities of translating subjective traumas into established historical narratives, and vice versa. Simple, ordinary objects are transformed by Balka into powerful reflections of daily life and the hidden stories of Poland’s Nazi occupation.

Miroslaw Balka was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1958. He currently resides and creates in both Otwock, Poland and Oliva, Spain. His body of work has garnered widespread recognition, including solo exhibitions at venues such as Castello di Ama, Siena (2019); Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2017); Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany (2017); British School at Rome (2016); Museum of Art MS1, Lodz, Poland (2015); Foksal Gallery, Warsaw (2014); Freud Museum, London (2014); National Centre For Contemporary Art, Moscow (2013); Akademie Der Kunste, Berlin (2011); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2011); Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2010); Modern Art Oxford, UK (2009); Tate Modern, London (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2007); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2007); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21, Düsseldorf, Germany (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, France (2004); Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands (2001); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland (2002); and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuelle Kunst, Ghent, Belgium (2001).

www.ftn-books.com has Balka titles available.

On February 22, 2017, the world lost Fritz Koenig, an influential and talented artist known for his unique approach to sculpting. His life was spent at his estate, Ganslberg, where he lived a fulfilling and rich existence.

Born in Würzburg in 1924, Koenig’s early experience fighting on the Eastern Front during WWII left a lasting impact on his life. This experience of fragility and tension between love, death, and transience became the central theme of his work.

After studying under Anton Hiller at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Koenig rose to fame as one of the most important sculptors in Germany during the second half of the 20th century.

His success extended internationally, with notable exhibitions at the XXIX Venice Biennale in 1958 and documenta II in Kassel in 1959. The following year, his work was featured in his first solo exhibition at Galerie Günther Franke in Munich. In 1961, he had his first exhibition in the United States at the Staempfli Gallery in New York.

In 1964, Koenig was appointed to the Chair of Plastic Design at the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich. His unique language of form earned him worldwide recognition, leading to his participation in numerous significant international exhibitions and competitions.

Driven by the need to remember the victims of National Socialism, Koenig created poignant works such as the ‘Pietà’ for Maria Regina Martyrum in Berlin Plötzensee (1962) and the Federal Republic of Germany memorial in Mauthausen (1981). His monumental ‘Klagebalken’ from 1995 serves as a memorial for the victims of the 1972 attack at the Munich Olympic site.

Koenig’s most famous work, the ‘Large Spherical Caryatid NY’ for the plaza of the World Trade Center in New York, was created between 1968 and 1971. Though damaged in the 9/11 tragedy, it remains a powerful memorial to the victims of the attack.

Throughout his life, Koenig received numerous awards for his contributions to the art world, including the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art and the Grand Cross of Mer. His legacy as a master sculptor and an influential figure in the realm of art will always be remembered.

www.ftn-books.com has several Koenig publications available.

Fear, destruction and decay, but also strength are recurring themes in the paintings of Susanne de Vries. For each painting she chooses a limited and balanced color palette, so that her works radiate harmony and tranquility. She deliberately analyzes her subject in form, light and shadow in order to depict the essence of her subject. She mostly works in oils, sometimes in acrylics and nowadays also in gouache and watercolors. She has a fascination with architectural structures. These could just as well be the luxurious apartment buildings on South Axis of Amsterdam; details of dilapidated structures or the shattered beauty of ancient cities and buildings that are in danger of disappearing from the face of the earth. With a painter’s eye she registers the beauty of both strength and upheaval.

www.ftn-books.com has an important de Vries publication now available.

Painter and teacher, born in Staffordshire, of idyllic landscapes depicted with much atmosphere and in minute detail. He studied at Beckenham School of Art, 1959–63 then Royal Academy Schools, 1963–6, a French Government Scholarship in 1964 enabling him to work in Paris. In 1966 Inshaw organised Young Contemporaries show, the year he began teaching at West of England College of Art, in Bristol, a position he held until 1975, when he joined Trinity College, Cambridge. Inshaw had first one-man show at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, where he had moved, in 1969, with another at Dartington Hall, in Devon. Three years later with Graham and Ann Arnold he formed the Broad Heath Brotherhood, and this trio with four others went on to create The Brotherhood of Ruralists in 1975. In that year Inshaw had a solo show with Waddington Galleries, which went on to represent him. In John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool, 1991–2, Inshaw was represented by Portrait of Silbury Hill: May 1989. Inshaw’s exhibition Moments of Vision (Between Fantasy and Reality) was at Agnew in 2004. Arts Council holds his work.

www.ftn-books.com has the Academy Editions publication on Inshaw now available.

When “documenta” started and materialized in the city of Kassel in 1955, located just a stone’s throw away from the border that divided West and East, “capitalism” and “communism,” it undeniably held a significant position in the cultural front of the Cold War, with the intertwined issues of artistic liberty and the role of experimentation in mass culture at its center of polemics. Six decades later, and twenty-five years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, this controversial legacy continues to loom over both the political landscape and socio-cultural scenery – we are now arguably further from the thaw of the 1990s than ever before, and certain elements of Cold War culture have resurfaced to haunt the aesthetic imagination of contemporary Europe. One notable aspect is the renewed fascination with the erasure of East German culture and history, in which Ulrich Wüst has inadvertently become a chronicler of sorts.

In his illustrious career as a photographer, spanning several decades since the late 1970s, Magdeburg-born artist Wüst has captured a vivid glimpse of his surroundings – the rural Uckermark, small towns of both East and West Germany, and the eventual reunification of the two. Through his lens, he has honed an unparalleled ability to capture the nostalgia and sense of loss that permeates these landscapes. His evocative monochrome shots of abandoned buildings in East Germany, frozen in the Brezhnev-era stasis, foretell the inevitable demise of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik. What is striking is Wüst’s deliberate omission of human presence in his depictions of the sozialistischer Staat der Arbeiter und Bauern, the socialist state of workers and farmers. Symbolically, the workers and farmers are missing from their own republic, leaving behind a desolate and empty shell.

In contrast, Wüst’s photographs of Magdeburg in the post-1989 era, when the country was undergoing significant changes, showcase the superficial nature of these transformations. His more recent forays into exploring the history of the GDR, presented mainly as leporellos, focus on the little specks, fragments, and marks that serve as a silent witness to the past. With an archaeologist’s keen eye, Wüst reveals the muted echoes of a bygone era. There is a deliberate detachment from the melancholic undertones that characterize some of his most renowned images from the earlier period, like the one with an unknown woman sitting next to a Trabant, staring out at the stagnant gray waters of the Baltic Sea in the languid embrace of late summer. The image stands as a testimony to the emptiness that once ruled this land and continues to leave its mark on the landscape to this day.

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