Jan Smejkal once knew Jan Schoonhoven, with whom he exhibited at the ‘orez’ gallery in The Hague. He also knows Hans Houwing, through whom I came to know Jan Smejkal. Together, we travelled to Berlin to see his work for the first time. The joy was immense: during the first exhibition in 2014, he presented a ‘mirror table’, a base on which layers of old found mirrors were stacked. No broken mirrors, sometimes a little weathered, somewhere a round mirror. The composition reminded me of modernism. This work and the intervention in the space – gallery space bel-etage PHŒBUS•Rotterdam – was sublime and sympathetic: beautiful, but also a bit ‘chance’ because of the found, old mirrors; but above all nice, because the works by Hans Houwing, who carried the solo, were reflected when walking past.
www.ftn-books.com has now some extremely rare Smejkal items available published in the late 70’s for the KUNST PUBLIKATIE/ Gorinchem KUNSTCENTRUM BADHUIS
This is what Hana Jakrlova says about her work on her the site:
I am Czech photographer and film maker living in New York and Prague. My work addresses issues of identity, belonging, intimacy and freedom. In my book In the Meantime: Europe I chronicled a personal photographic journey across Europe after the fall of communism. The following book Big Sister documented the extraordinary ways in which the Internet has transformed our world and how it effects our sense of intimacy and privacy. My various documentary projects over the last 15 years explore life in countries transitioning from totalitarianism to democracy. In projects from Russia, Serbia, Albania, Georgia, Burma and Cuba, I photographed lives of people in oppressive regimes. In my recent photography and film documentary projects in Cuba, I wanted to capture life in the country stuck between the past and the presence and the struggle of people for freedom. In the Cuban Disneyland series I photographed an old government theme park, while the most recent project Musica o Muerte! captured the phenomenon of liberation through music and personal sacrifice. My work has been exhibited and published internationally and my photography projects won awards at various photography competitions.
During the exhibition “Nothing is Enough,” a photo taken at a Tokyo station in 1999 was partially enlarged and hung on the wall above the basement, in order to connect Heden’s ground floor with the underground space. Ta. Photographs were exhibited on the first floor, and sketches were exhibited downstairs. In fact, it’s too detailed to be an icon, but it’s common in Japan. Everything has a soul. I was shocked because I wasn’t just looking at a sign or a message, I was also looking at a story. Current | 2012 | Exhibition | This is M. Martin Engelbregt
In the summer of 2012, I exhibited with Martijn Engelbregt at Heden in The Hague. The starting point for the exhibition was to open the archives to the public. For Martijn, this affected his entire archive, and for me, my collection of photographs and ideas. The title of the exhibition is “Nothing is Enough”. The text and design were given a second life during Martijn’s project for Utopisch Nest in Leiden.
Sui Jianguo is a contemporary Chinese artist born in 1956 in Qingdao, China. His parents were factory workers, and he did little work from an early age due to the workload imposed by the Mao Zedong regime. When Sui was 10 years old, schools were closed during the Cultural Revolution and he worked as a laborer in a factory with his parents. In an interview on the subject, he said, “I was transfixed by the era of Mao worship, when Mao was practically a god in the country.” Sui broke his arm at the age of 18 and was unable to work in a factory, which inspired him to start painting. Soon, with his father’s permission and guidance, he began studying painting at night. At the time, realism was an accepted art style, and its mission was to portray Maoist ideals in a romantic and positive light. When he returned to the factory, he began painting propaganda posters for Mao Zedong. After Mao Zedong’s death, he completed his study of traditional Chinese landscape painting in 1976. Sui then moved to Jinan and then to Shandong, where he majored in sculpture. A few years later, he earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He said his inspiration for creating his sculptures came from being told that he was “skillful with his hands” while working in a factory. In addition to traveling around the world and exhibiting his art, he also worked as a visiting professor and lecturer at several universities outside China.
www.ftn-books.com has the Fondation Maeght publication on 3 sculptures in which Jianguo features asone off the selected sculptors
Ata Kandó born Etelka Görög; 17 September 1913 – 14 September 2017) was a Hungarian-born Dutch photographer. She began her photography practice in the 1930s with children’s photography. In 1932 she left for Paris with her first husband, the artist Gyula Kando, with whom she had three children. After the war, she joined the Magnum photo agency where she befriended Robert Capa. In Paris, Kandó also worked as a fashion photographer. In 1954 she married the Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken and moved to Holland with him.
Kando first made her name with compassionate photographs of refugees fleeing their homeland during the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Throughout their adolescence, her children acted as models for her famous story photo books. In the late sixties, Ata Kando went on several expeditions to South America to raise awareness of the genocide against aboriginal tribes in Amazonia.
As a teacher and mentor, Ata Kando also played a significant role for younger generations of Dutch photographers at the Enschede Academy of Visual Arts (AKI) and elsewhere. Among her pupils were later luminaries such as Koen Wessing and Ad van Denderen, the latter of whom, together with Leo Erken, made the selection for her retrospective book Ata Kando Photographer.
Her work has been published in many books, newspapers, and magazines in addition to being seen at numerous exhibitions throughout Europe, Hungary in particular, and North America.
In 1959, she won a silver medal in Munich for fashion photography and then in 1991, received the Pro Cultura Hungarica Medal; this was followed in 1998 with the Imre Nagy Prize, and that same year, she and her husband received the Righteous Among the Nations, awarded by Israel for saving Jews during the Holocaust. In 1999 she was awarded the Hungarian Photographers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
www.ftn-books has now the KIS MUNKÁSOK publication from 2015 available. It is the very special”de luxe” edition including the box. Numbered 115 form the edition of 200 copies.
A. van Campenhout expertly layers one upon the other, leaving behind traces – images upon images, with charcoal seeping into the paper, or sometimes resting on its surface, casting different reflections when illuminated. The overall abstract image delicately balances between ‘what is’, ‘what can be’, and ‘what could be’. In this twilight zone, much remains uncertain, despite the structure. When does white become emptiness, and when does it transform into a tangible presence? In what depth does the grid lie? The drawing has the ability to rotate, change scale, or even reveal a hidden backside. A. van Campenhout strives for tension in the rhythm between pure white and pitch black, with nuanced shades in between: “You see something, but it exists nowhere; a drama with a soul; a form within pure black and white.” Associations reinforce the mood. The grid becomes a stone wall, the lines become prison bars. “They exude abstraction, yet hold within their dusky shadows numerous allusions, memories, and melancholy. They are the cracks of, as he puts it, ‘the human condition’, that he wishes to depict in grey or black with charcoal or chalk.” The entire field of view is filled by the drawing. In that space, the viewer is like a football player on the field. They try to grasp onto something, think they recognize it, but ultimately miss. A. van Campenhout describes it as follows: “The world begins to vibrate. The overlapping drawings, experiences, and memories become landscapes that one carries within. I view the drawing as the residue of attempts, because it is impossible to grasp or hold onto that, or anything else. The charcoal that falls to the ground is a remnant of what has been useful in the passage of time.”
www.ftn-books.com has now the A VAN CAMPENHOUT publication for the DE PONT exhibition available.
Henk van den Bosch (1960) intricately incorporates the element of time within his works. To fully comprehend the creation, one must take their time and ponder – is it a window, a mirror, a painting within a painting, or another space that the piece reflects?
Judith van Meeuwen, curator at KAdE art hall, refers to this technique as “slow-looking.” Along with this direct encounter with time, references to seasons and the atmosphere of the 1950s also play a significant role. Van den Bosch’s paintings often depict vast interiors with a glimpse into an adjoining space. Be it through a window, a doorway, a staircase, or even the outdoors, the viewer is invited to wander through the composition, losing track of time.
In 1956, the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London unveiled the exhibition “This is Tomorrow,” which became the legendary starting point of British pop art. The entrance to the exhibition was marked by a large reproduction of a small collage by Richard Hamilton, which would later become an iconic symbol of British pop art.
The collage, aptly titled “Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?” was composed of magazine and advertisement clippings, arranged within a perspective space resembling a living room. In the center of the room stands a bodybuilder, while a pin-up model poses on the couch – the epitome of the modern couple in the language of advertising. Surrounding them are symbols of modern life, such as a television, tape recorder, vacuum cleaner, and a pulp comic strip serving as a modern painting on the wall. The window grants a glimpse of the bustling urban nightlife.
With just one glance, it is evident that the living room represents the essence of modern life in 1956.
At first glance, it is evident that the living room serves as a model for the modern life of 1956. Upon closer examination, Hamilton made use of other current images as well. It appears that the living room is composed of macro-shots of water, the moon’s surface, and a crowded summer beach, which respectively form the floor, ceiling, and rug. Thus, the spatial dimensions of the room are of a completely different order, a macrocosm in which modern life unfolds as a microcosm. It is precisely this relationship that made Hamilton’s Just What Is It… the icon of the modern future: tomorrow begins today.
www.ftn-books.com has the TRANSPOSITION book by van den Bosch now available.
A distinguished mind in the realm of artistry, Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871 – January 13, 1956) stands as an exemplary figure of Expressionism. In addition to his prowess as a painter, he also flourished as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. Although born and raised in the bustling metropolis of New York City, Feininger’s passion for perfecting his craft led him to Germany at the tender age of 16. There, he delved into the nuances of art and honed his skills.
Initially embarking on his artistic journey as a cartoonist in 1894, Feininger quickly garnered recognition and acclaim in this field. For two decades, he majestically juggled the roles of a commercial caricaturist, producing stunning works for magazines and newspapers in both the USA and Germany. However, at the age of 36, he shifted his focus to fine artistry.
Aside from his renowned paintings, Feininger also left behind a significant body of photographic works, created between 1928 and the mid 1950s. However, these remarkable pieces of art were kept within his circle of friends. As a man of many talents, he was also an adept pianist and composer, leaving behind several compositions and fugues for the organ.
Born to German-American parents, renowned violinist and composer Karl Feininger and talented singer Elizabeth Feininger, Lyonel Feininger inherited a rich artistic background. However, it was not until 1887, at the age of 16, when he traveled to Germany to broaden his artistic horizons. In Berlin, he studied under the tutelage of Ernst Hancke at the prestigious Königliche Akademie. He continued his studies in art schools in Berlin with Carl Schlabitz and in Paris with renowned sculptor, Filippo Colarossi.
Feininger’s exceptional talent as a caricaturist was recognized and showcased at various exhibitions, including the prestigious Berlin Secession, from 1901 to 1903. His drawings were lauded and admired by fellow artists and art enthusiasts alike.
Moreover, Feininger’s personal life was also intriguing. In 1900, he met the talented Clara Fürst, daughter of painter Gustav Fürst. The two tied the knot in 1901 and welcomed two daughters into their lives. However, in 1905, Feininger’s life took a turn when he met Julia Berg. He divorced Fürst and married Berg in 1908, and they were blessed with three sons.
In conclusion, Lyonel Feininger’s legacy as a versatile and gifted artist continues to captivate the masses. From his unforgettable paintings to his captivating caricatures, he remains a source of inspiration for artists across the globe.
The journey of Feininger’s career as a cartoonist commenced in 1894, with his contributions to numerous renowned magazines in Germany, France, and America. In February 1906, as a quarter of Chicago’s population was of German descent, James Keeley, editor of The Chicago Tribune, traveled to Germany in search of the most popular humor artists. Feininger caught his eye and was recruited to illustrate two comic strips, “The Kin-der-Kids” and “Wee Willie Winkie’s World,” for the publication. These strips were praised for their whimsical humor and innovative graphics, setting Feininger apart. He also dedicated 20 years to being a commercial caricaturist, creating works for various newspapers and magazines in both the United States and Germany. Years later, Art Spiegelman acknowledged in The New York Times Book Review that Feininger’s comics possessed a breathtaking formal elegance never before seen in the medium.
At the age of 36, Feininger embarked on a career as a fine artist. He joined the Berliner Sezession in 1909 and was associated with several German expressionist groups, such as Die Brücke, the Novembergruppe, Gruppe 1919, the Blaue Reiter circle, and Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four). In 1917, Feininger held his first solo exhibition at the Sturm Gallery in Berlin. When Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Germany in 1919, Feininger was among his first faculty appointments and was appointed the master artist in charge of the printmaking workshop.
Last December we visited the Wurth Museum in Erstein and were blown away by the small retropective the museum presented on Lore Bert
Lore Bert, born on July 2nd in Gießen (Germany) in 1936, was raised in Darmstadt. From 1953 to 1957, she studied painting in Darmstadt and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, under the tutelage of the esteemed sculptor Professor Hans Uhlmann.
Throughout her artistic career spanning over four decades, it is evident that paper and space have been the fundamental components of her work. Since 1982, she has been creating collages, reliefs, transparencies, and sculptures using Far Eastern papers on paper, canvas, and later on, wood. In 1984, she started constructing installations, paper rooms, and environments using various materials. Her work has since evolved to include neon letters, neon tubes, oriental neon numbers, and neon spheres, resulting in complete neon spaces.
Until 2019, Lore has realized more than 125 environmental installations in public spaces across Europe, Asia, Africa, Arabic countries, the USA, and Mexico. In 1996, during her significant exhibitions in Cairo (Egypt), she incorporated the use of papyrus and gold leaf into her work.
Constructive, geometrical, and architectural shapes and ornaments, along with numbers and letters, are the key elements in Lore’s artistic expression. Drawing inspiration from humanities and sciences, poetic and philosophical writings, astronomy, logical constellations, mathematics, abstract qualities, and universal relations, she creates artwork that showcases the poetic beauty of the absolute. Her work also explores the historical circumstances and cultural characteristics of various countries, transforming them into captivating pieces of art.
With over 280 solo and group exhibitions spanning 28 different countries, Lore’s work is a testament to the “Dialogue of Cultures.” Her extensive portfolio has been published in more than 110 books and catalogs, including over 40 monographs featuring her solo exhibitions in various museums.
Weems received training in both dance and photography prior to enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, in the mid-1980s to study folklore. It was during this time that she developed an interest in the observation methods used in the social sciences. In the early 1990s, Weems began incorporating her own persona into her photographic compositions in an intentional effort to evoke a sense of both being within and viewing from outside the work. She has since referred to this recurring figure as an “alter-ego,” a “muse,” and a “witness to history,” representing both the artist and the audience. “As a Black woman, it is crucial that she is engaged with the world around her,” Weems explained, “engaged with history, with seeing, with existing. She is a guide into rarely seen circumstances.”
Using her own image, Weems explores a wide range of topics in her 1990 Kitchen Table Series, which consists of 20 gelatin silver prints and 14 texts on silkscreen panels. She comments on “woman’s subjectivity, woman’s ability to celebrate her body, and the woman’s construction of herself and her own image.” Throughout the series, Weems, or rather her protagonist, is depicted in the same intimate domestic interior. The photographs feature a wooden table illuminated by an overhead light, and include scenes such as Untitled (Man smoking) and Untitled (Woman and Daughter with Makeup), in which the protagonist interacts with a variety of characters (friends, children, lovers) and objects (posters, books, playing cards, and a birdcage). In Untitled (Woman and Daughter with Makeup), for example, the woman and a young girl sit at the table, gazing into mirrors as they apply lipstick in parallel motions. The photograph highlights the notion that gender is a learned behavior, while also centering its Black female subjects with tenderness.
www.ftn-books.com has currently several titles on Weems available en highly recommend her Basel exhibition which is currently on show.
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
