I met Marjoleine Boonstra during the time she had her exhibition in the FOTOKABINETTEN series of exhibitions at the Gemeentemuseum and discovered that she not only is a gifted photographer but she also makes intrigueing documentaries. Many of these have been shown on the IDFA documentary festival and the one i specially found beautiful but in the meantime an eye opener was the “Britanya” documentary . The subject…. Fugitives from Iran who are trying to reach Great Britain.
But there is one that i find the very best of all …..it is the documentary on MARK ROTHKO
“THE SILENCE OF MARK ROTHKO” and it can be found here:
There are not that many publications, but there is one which is available at http://www.ftn-books.com. A beautiful small publication designed by Willem van Zoetendaal and one from the series on Dutch photographers who exhibited in the Fotokabinetten series.
Because we also have dogs ( and certaily not the easiest ones ) i remembered there is one artist photographer who devoted his entire career and oeuvre to his Weimeraner dogs. His work always reminds me of the early works by Cindy Sherman, biut instead of Sherman being the subject in her staged photographs it is the dogs of Wegman who enact the scene which is photographed. One of the earliest books i found with his dogs was the fairy tale of “little red riding hood” staged and photographed by the dogs. On the site of Wegman there is a lot of information to be found on his photography, but the most interesting piece of information i found on Youtube:
By the early 70s, Wegman’s work was being exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. In addition to solo shows with Sonnabend Gallery in Paris and New York, Situation Gallery in London and Konrad Fisher Gallery in Düsseldorf, his work was included in such seminal exhibitions as “When Attitudes Become Form,” and “Documenta 5” and regularly featured in Interfunktionen, Artforum and Avalanche.
While he was in Long Beach, Wegman got his dog, Man Ray, with whom he began a long and fruitful collaboration. Man Ray, known in the art world and beyond for his endearing deadpan presence, became a central figure in Wegman’s photographs and videotapes. In 1982, Man Ray died, and was named “Man of the Year” by the Village Voice. It was not until 1986 that Wegman got a new dog, Fay Ray, and another collaboration began marked by Wegman’s extensive use of the Polaroid 20 x 24 camera. With the birth of Fay’s litter in 1989, Wegman’s cast of grew to include Fay’s offspring — Battina, Crooky and Chundo — and later, their offspring: Battina’s son Chip in 1995, Chip’s son Bobbin in 1999 and Candy and Bobbin’s daughter Penny in 2004.
Although primarily known as a photographer, Wegman returned to painting in the mid 1980s[2] Among his oeuvre of paintings are a number of canvases filled with smoke and fire that depict natural and manmade disasters. Volcano, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art demonstrates this aspect of the artist’s work.
He appeared on The Colbert Report in 2010. Wegman is the author of numerous books for children, including the New York Times bestseller Puppies. His latest children’s book, Flo & Wendell, is published with Dial Books for Young Readers.
Wegman originally intended to pursue a career as a painter. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1965 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1967.
By the early 70s, Wegman’s work was being exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. In addition to solo shows with Sonnabend Gallery in Paris and New York, Situation Gallery in London and Konrad Fisher Gallery in Düsseldorf, his work was included in such seminal exhibitions as “When Attitudes Become Form,” and “Documenta 5” and regularly featured in Interfunktionen, Artforum and Avalanche.
While he was in Long Beach, Wegman got his dog, Man Ray, with whom he began a long and fruitful collaboration. Man Ray, known in the art world and beyond for his endearing deadpan presence, became a central figure in Wegman’s photographs and videotapes. In 1982, Man Ray died, and was named “Man of the Year” by the Village Voice. It was not until 1986 that Wegman got a new dog, Fay Ray, and another collaboration began marked by Wegman’s extensive use of the Polaroid 20 x 24 camera. With the birth of Fay’s litter in 1989, Wegman’s cast of grew to include Fay’s offspring — Battina, Crooky and Chundo — and later, their offspring: Battina’s son Chip in 1995, Chip’s son Bobbin in 1999 and Candy and Bobbin’s daughter Penny in 2004.
Although primarily known as a photographer, Wegman returned to painting in the mid 1980s.Among his oeuvre of paintings are a number of canvases filled with smoke and fire that depict natural and manmade disasters. Volcano, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art demonstrates this aspect of the artist’s work.
An exhibition from 1951, an important exhibition of which i noticed that many of the sculptures are now part of the permanent collection, but what makes this publication even more special is that it is a very large publication for those days. It contains 62 pages and…… a plan for the exhibition. I had never seen the publication before but the plan makes it even more special. It shows the importance of the exhibition and the scale must have been enormous for those days. It was so large that it needed a plan not to get lost. This plan is what i want to share with you, because it is very special. The publication is for sale at http://www.ftn-books.com or you can exchange this for the Erwin Olaf publication…Erwin Olaf – I am. A historic publication for a future collectible photobook.
(please note that the Gemeentemuseum was open in the evening too)
Because of the Weston blog from yesterday, a book title reminded me of Anton Josef Trčka. Another photography pioneer who’s work is closely related to the Vienna art movement from around 1900. Klimt and Schiele were personal friends and the friendship resulted in some great photographs. Photographs that show that the poses Schiele takes in his drawings and paintings are deliberate poses.
These are highly important photographs and these make Trcka at least as relevant for modern photography as Weston and Newton were a few decades later. The title below is available at www.ftn-books.com
On occasion of the opening of the Erwin Olaf exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. a 10% discount will be given this week on all Erwin Olaf items at http://www.ftn-books.com
Marianne Brandt is one of the true fist multi disciplined female artists from last century. One of the front “(wo)men” for Bauhaus and what it stands for. She was responsible for some truly great designs for everyday objects.
Teapots, lamps, cupboards and plates, she has designed it.
Lesser known is that she was one of the pioneers of Photomontage.
A discipline in which she excelled and on which subject a few years ago an exhibition was dedicated at the Bauhaus Museum in Berlin ( catalogue available at www.ftn-books.com)
It is time that outside Germany Marianne Brandt becomes known for her excellent designs. At auctions her designs are very much sought after and reach record prices, so how is it possible that a great female artist like Marianne Brandt is hardly known?
Yesterday…. a blog on Marianne Brandt, today the subject is Bill Brandt. Not related in anyway and an age difference of some 50 years, but both working with photography. But where Marianne cut up photographs to make some excellent photomontages, Bill Brandt uses the angle of the lens to make some very impressive photographs. For me Brandt is together with Lucien Clergue one of the very best nude photographers from last century. He uses the angle of the lens to photograph parts of the body and with this technique his photos are like the sculptures of Maillol and Moore in which body parts are enhanced and polished into almost abstract sculptures.
This technique makes him quite unique among photographers and with this quality he stands out. Add the use of Black and White film and Bill Brandt becomes a very recognizable photographer. His nudes are among the very best photographs from the last century and it took me only a minute to find some of the examples that show in an excellent way that what i tried to explain in words. www.ftn-books.com has some Bill Brandt titles avaialble.
Willem van Zoetendaal made me look more careful at the photographs by Sara Blokland. It was at the time he was invited by Hans Locher to curate the Fotokabinetten exhibitions at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. It was at that time that i began to realizxe and see that photography was a very interesting and highly personal search for the inner soul of the photographed. The persons depicted in the photograph were not ordinary models but their appearance reflected their inner soul. Koos Breukel was one of them and surely Sara Blokland was the other with whom i experienced this.
Sara Blokland (1969 NL) is a visual artist, independant researcher and curator of photography. She lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at the Rietveld Academy (BA in photography) and graduated at the Sandberg Institute (MFA photography and video) in the Netherlands and a MA in Film and Photographic Studies from the Leiden University.
As a visual artist she is predominately working with photography. Her work reflects on the complicated role of this medium in relation to the histories of individuals, the concept of ‘family’ and culture heritage. Blokland’s films and photographic works have a strong focus on the portrait and landscape as part of identity and memory. Internationally her work has been exhibited in venues such as Kumho Museum (Seoul, Korea) and Gallery Lmak-projects (New York) the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art (Arnhem, Netherlands) and Gemeentemuseum The Hague (Netherlands). Her work is part of several private and public collections, such as the ABN-AMRO Collection, the Rabobank Collection, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and Gemeentemuseum The Hague. She was also the photographer and editor of the book Van Waarde [Of Value] (2008) and the photographer of the publication The Surinam Police Band (2009).
Since 2009, she is the co-founder and co-director of UNFIXED Projects. The organization aims to create platforms for dialogue about photography, contemporary art and theory with a strong focus on cultural identity. In 2010 UNFIXED projects organized in cooperation with the Center for Contemporary Art Dordrecht in the Netherlands, the UNFIXED exhibition, artist-residency , workshop and symposium. Sara co-edited the publication: UNFIXED – photography and post colonial perspectives in contemporary art, which was co-published by Jap Sam Book in Spring 2012.
www.ftn-books.com has a very nice Sara Blokland publication available which was published by Willem van Zoetendaal.
A great dutch photographer who is known for his Fifties and Sixties photography , but also for his active part in the resistance during WWII.
Some interesting periods during the life of Blazer made him a true international photographer.
After been educated at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, he soon after travelled Spain to photograph the Civil war. After that period he travelled Italy and visited Rome to photograph this city which photographs were published in a book by Contact. Later there were travels to Asia and Sicily. On both occasions series of photographs were taken and published.
Willem Sandberg took an interest in these photographs and presented a selection at an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum which catalogue is available at www.ftnbooks.com
There are many titles which have these breathtaking Blazer photographs in them, so beside the ones that i have in my shop please locate 50’s and 60’s books at bookmarkets and look into the colofon to discover if photographs by Blazer are included.
The first time i was confronted with the work by Oliver Boberg was when he had a large Retrospective exhibition. This was in 2004 at the Fotomuseum and i was very much impressed. Specially the large scale photographs had a feel of desolation and now i have bought for FTN Art two of his greatest photographs at a much smaller scale but still these are originals and very well worth collecting. The book i had on Boberg was sold years and years ago, but this is even better for the true admirer. The photographs are both from a very small edition of 20, numbered and signed and in pristine condition. Framed in a quite expensive frame and come from a collector from the US.
Memorial by Oliver Boberg , 2002, edition 20, number 14/20, C-Print and signed by Boberg.
Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. C print is 35 x 25 cm. , condition is MINT
“Erdgeschoss” by Oliver Boberg , 2001, edition 20, number 13/20, C-Print and signed by Boberg.
Frame measures 51 x 42 cm. C print is 38 x 15 cm. , condition is MINT
Please visit the FTN art section on this page for more information
Oliver Boberg was born in Herten, Germany, in 1965. He studied art history at the University of Würzburg, Germany, from 1985–86, before transferring to the Art Academy Nürnberg to study painting from 1986–93. Since 1997 Boberg has garnered attention for his photographs of what appear to be bleak, uninhabited architectural sites but are in fact models constructed by the artist in his studio. The sense of neglect that haunts these scenes contradicts the painstaking meticulousness applied to their fabrication. In Boberg’s work from the late nineties, the elegant formalism of his compositions contrasts with the subject matter—color-drained stairwells, roof decks, and building facades painted to dissemble age and dilapidation. Works such as Park (1998) and Playground (2000) offer barren sites of disrepair despite their sunny titles. Boberg created his first films for the series Night Sites (2002–03). In these films, the artist utilizes familiar Hollywood devices—fluorescent blue lighting that typically permeates suspenseful night scenes and eerie settings like an abandoned alley or fog-coated forest—to promise a drama that never unfolds. In 2003, with his Building Shell series, Boberg returned to his characteristic photography of elaborate models, this time recreating multistory edifices in the midst of the construction process. In 2004 the artist began to work for the first time with black-and-white photography for his Pagesseries. In Pages and Walls (2007), Boberg revisited his photographic investigation of highly constructed, formalist sites of inattention. Inattention gives way to tragic neglect in his series Slums, begun in 2008, which focuses on the derelict makeshift dwellings composed of serrated tin and other urban debris. For this series, the artist juxtaposed his photographs with computer-generated drawings.
Solo exhibitions of Boberg’s work have been organized by the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago (2001), Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne (2002), Kunstverein Hannover (2003), and Duolun Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai (2005). His work has also been included in major group exhibitions such as Experiment at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2000), Moving Pictures at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2003), and Artist’s Choice: Herzog & De Meuron, Perception Restrained at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2006). Boberg has been recognized with the Bayerischer Staatsförderpreis für junge Künstler, Fotografie (1997) and Förderpreis für bildende Kunst der Stadt Nürnberg (2005), among other awards. Boberg lives and works in Fürth, Germany.
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
