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Antoni Clavé (1913-2005)

Antoni Clavé was born in Barcelona in 1913 and lived with his mother until 1934. In 1918 he entered elementary school, after which he entered the Hispanic American Quorum. Since 1926, he has been forced into forced labor from the age of 13, working first as a clerk in a textile store for cases. At the same time, he enrolled in the night class of a part-time art school. There he modeled in Angel Ferran’s class and painted with José Mongrel. Along the way, he meets Eduardo Serra, Jordi Casals, Ramon Martim, Grau Sala and Hermann Pico.

José Mongrel finds a job as a facade painting apprentice in Tolosa. By mastering crafts and techniques such as making plaster, plaster, and glue, and then mixing paints, young clave learn techniques such as fresco painting, lettering, and fantasy painting.
In 1928, one of his first works was a portrait of his maternal grandmother. He remained employed in Tolosa well into the 1930s to support himself and his mother, who was now paralyzed and wholly dependent on him. In addition, he continues to take evening courses at an art school, of which he is now in the regular course. There, he meets Salvador Ortiga, with whom he develops a deep friendship. Ortiga advised and influenced his disciples over the course of three years. In 1932 Clave left art school. When he won second place in a poster competition organized by Sparkasse Barcelona, he felt encouraged to quit his painting job. In 1934, Clave was already using new materials in its advertising and stage design work that were first used by the avant-garde artists of the time: collages of various materials, ropes, printed fabrics, cardboard, newspapers, etc. I was. Together with his friend Salvador Ortiga he searched for other new material and created it in Paris a few years later.

http://www.ftn-books.com has some interesting Clave titles now available.

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Koen Wessing (1942-2011)

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Koen Wessing was and remains on of the Netherlands most important icons photo journalism. Wessing started as freelance photographer in 1963. In his early years he became renowned for picturing the May protest of 1968 in Paris, the occupation of the Maagdenhuis of the University in Amsterdam in 1969, and later the military coup in Chili in 1973. Later Wessing produced more uniquely powerful work in Ireland, Guinea-Bissau in West Africa, Nicaragua, El Salvador, China and Kosovo.

Seen retrospectively, his work from South America probably received the most attention throughout the years. His images of the 1973 coup in Chile against the progressive government of Salvador Allende, as well the insurrection in Nicaragua and his reportage of the massacre during the funeral of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador, were all striking and alarming. His engaged work in these countries made him an internationally renowned photographer.

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Regrettably, Koen Wessing was never able to see the finished exhibition as he passed away in Amsterdam in the morning of February 2, 2011. Until the last moment he had been involved in the preparation of the exhibition. Knowing that the show was going to happen gave him a lot of strength during the last period of his life.

www.ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum catalogue on Koen Wessing now available.

wessing china

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New Business Card FTN books & Art

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Some recent changes made it necessary to translate these changes into a new business card. The most important one being two new email addresses. One personal one and the other for the FTN books & Art contacts. So here is all the new business information to contact me and keep track of my activities, the daily blog and additions to my inventory.

Wilfried van den Elshout / FTN books

Veursestraatweg 106c

2265CG Leidschendam,  the Netherlands

www.ftn-books.com

www.ftn-blog.com

new email : wilfriedvandenelshout@gmail.com

new email : ftnbooksandart@gmail.com

 

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Franz Eggenschwiller (1930-2000)

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Discovering “new” artists is one of the nicer thing of writing a daily blog. And writing a blog on this artist is a pleasurable experience since i like his art .  Mix total astraction wit constructivist art and use very delicate colors and you get an impression of the art Eggenschwiller stands for. Born in 1930 het must have known the abstract painters from his generation, but this does not show. His art is original and although not very well known, deserves to be presented in exhibitions and galeries. This is one of the goals the Eggenschwiller-Wiggli foundation has set for themselves.

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Eggenschwillers works must be known with a much larger public than these are known now. Works by Franz Eggenschwiller are present in the Solothurn Museum and http://www.ftn-books.com has the most important publication on this artist available.

eggenschwiler

 

 

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A classic Christmas Card by Bill Hurtz, ca. 1940

This year a classic Christmas Card for all blog readers. It is a card by one of Walt Disney’s 1940 studio employees…Bill Hurtz. he made a true Disney “classic” with this card.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS,

wilfried

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Black Friday at FTN books

Not just a 3 days discount but a total of 11 days, a one period discount of 10% on all your FTN books purchases. Valid from the early hours  of Friday the 22nd of November until midnight on the 1st of December 2019. Use the special Black Friday 10% discount code:

                                                               B2019F

 

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Jean de Gonet…Relieur

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If you love books like i do there are two aspects that make a book special. First of all there is the design. The combination of Layout and typography making the book stand out from the rest of all other publications….and secondly there is the binding of the book. Here is an aspect in which Jean de Gonet shines. Gonet is considered worldwide as one of the true masters of book binding and this is the reason why there have been special exhibitions on his bookbindings all over Europe. Onme of the very best was at the Bibliotheca Wittockiana in Brussels in 1989. The exhibition showed over 120 special books by Gonet of which all have been published in the outstanding publications which published by the Bibliotheca Wittockiana. The Wittockiana publication is now available at www.ftn-books.com

gonet

 

 

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Wim Crouwel (1928-2019)

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This morning i heard that one of the most influential designers from our time, Wim Crouwel, has died. The last years of his life he suffered Parkinson disease, but he was still going strong and must have looked forward to the retrospective of his works being opened later this  month at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. What better way to commemorate this great artist than to show a selection of the many items designed by him. www.ftn-books.com

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And to finish one of my personal favorites. Wim Crouwel will be an example for many designers in the decades to comewerkman crouwel aa.

 

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Ad Dekkers , Tekeningen 1971/9174

 

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This is the title of one of the most important artists books in dutch art.  Yes, of course tghis is my personal opinion, but look at it and you will undoubtedly agrre with me.

The publication was neglegted for over 3 decades, but now that the art of Dekkers is discovered again, the interest in his publications rises too. ……and, this is one of the nicest and best of his publications . Just some details. designed by Baer Cornet, printed by one of the best in the business, Rosbeek, who were up to the extreme printing qualities of the drawings that had to be reproduced in this 1977 publication. Oblong shaped, cahier stitching and a very small print run makes this a highly desirable and collectable artist book and available at www.ftn-books.com

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Frank van Hemert publications

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Because i have a long time admiration for the works by Frank van Hemert , i started to collect his publications and since 2007 i even could buy a painting and some drawings by the artist. In the meantime i visited many bookmarkets and whenever i find a book by van Hemert , i can not resist it and I buy it. I am almost complete now for my own library, but i have bought so many of his titles that i have now several double or triple in my lown ibrary. These i have now put up for sale, so please take a look at www.ftn-books.com to find some very nice van Hemert titles available.