The foundation of Sciarone’s work centers on autonomous art, intricately intertwined with the surrounding space. According to Sciarone, “In a room filled with various objects and items, when one object is moved, it changes the entire coherence, including the position of the person moving the object.” Sciarone crafts sculptures and draws, in addition to realizing public artworks such as the Matrozenhof in Amsterdam, 1,2,3 and Quicksand in Almelo, and the Envelope Sculpture nr. 2 in Groningen. These sculptures are meticulously placed with the intent of redefining the space, creating a new balance.
For 20 years, Sciarone served as the coordinator for the Monumental Art program at the AKI, Academy of Fine Arts in Enschede. They were also a teacher at the Academy of Architecture, a master’s program for architects, in Groningen from 2005 to 2015.
www.ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum publication from 1988 now available.
Lewis Baltz, a native of Newport Beach, California, pursued higher education at the San Francisco Art Institute and obtained an MFA from the esteemed Claremont Graduate School in 1971. A successful stint as a freelance photographer in California followed, during which he also imparted his expertise as a photography instructor at esteemed institutions such as the California Institute of the Arts, University of California (Riverside and Santa Cruz), Yale, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the Art Academy of Helsinki.
Baltz has been recognized for his contributions to the field of photography with prominent displays in major exhibitions, including the renowned New Topographics at George Eastman House in 1975 and Mirrors and Windows at the Museum of Modern Art in 1978. His accolades include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1973 and 1977, as well as a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1977. Additionally, Baltz has undertaken commissioned projects for esteemed institutions such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, producing The Nation’s Capital in Photographs, and the Nevada State Arts Commission, resulting in Near Reno.
Since the mid-1980s, Baltz has been based in Europe and frequently jet sets across the globe. His photography typically revolves around a central theme or geographical focus and is often published in book form, exemplified by works such as The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California (1975), Nevada (1978), and Park City (1981). Baltz’s oeuvre, in sync with other artists associated with the New Topographics movement, challenges the conventional landscape photography style of the nineteenth century, as epitomized by icons like Timothy O’Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, and William Henry Jackson. His perspective on the landscape traverses beyond its natural beauty, lending insight into the impact of contemporary culture and suburban development on the nation’s terrain. His books, Rule Without Exception (1991), Lewis Baltz: Politics of Bacteria, and Docile Bodies, Ronde de Nuit (1998), feature splendid color photography capturing Europe’s urban landscapes.
www.ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum catalog for the Baltz exhibition now available.
I have been filling some Pinterest pages with items i have in my inventory and which i think are nice tos hare with other collectors. It contains some great and important poster and book designs from the last 70 years. Please share these and hopefully you will enjoy these Pinterest boards too.
I have created four boards which are filled regularly with all original photo’s by FTN . Feel free to join the boards and use the photographs for noncommercial usage. I expect to post over 15.000 items on Pinterest in the coming year.
There now are boards on the inventory of FTN books & Art, Stedelijk MUseum Amsterdam, Wim Crouwel, Willem Sandberg
Mary Bauermeister was born in 1934 in Frankfurt am Main. After studying at the art academies of Ulm and Saarbrücken, she moved to Cologne in 1956. Her studio at Lintgasse 28 in Cologne was an important meeting place for avant-garde artists and musicians around 1960. Performers, composers, and Fluxus artists such as Nam June Paik, John Cage, Karl Heinz Stockhausen, David Tudor, Wolf Vostell, Christo, and Benjamin Petterson gathered here to organize the latest music performances, events, and happenings. Paik performed his legendary action Etude for Pianoforte (1959-1960), where after playing a piece by Chopin, he cut Cage’s tie and squeezed a bottle of shampoo on the heads of Tudor and Cage.
Mary Bauermeister’s oeuvre includes sculptures, assemblages, drawings, performances, and music. When Bauermeister participated in one of the “international summer courses for new music” in Darmstadt in 1961 under the direction of Stockhausen, she developed her Malerische Konzeption, a model for applying serial compositional techniques to the visual arts. Black and white photo of Mary Bauermeister in front of her work ‘Wabenbild’ Mary Bauermeister in front of ‘Wabenbild’. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962.
Her reliefs and sculptures, incorporating drawings, texts, found objects, natural materials, and fabrics, reference various concepts: from natural phenomena and astronomy to mathematics and language, as well as her own “spiritual-metaphysical experiences.” Karl Heinz Stockhausen wrote about her work: “It is typical that she does not strive for a personal style recognizable by motifs, techniques, routines, and material explorations, but instead considers every material or object (found or artificially made), every technique, every stylistic provision as material.”
www. ftn-books.com has the Stedelijk Museum and galerie Schüppenhauer both available.
Since i recently aquired some Ton Slits publications i tried to find more information on the artists, but beside the occasional exhibition it is hard to find a current biography. Still…. Slits has exhibited many times in the important museums in the Netherlands. Among them the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam which catalog is available at www.ftn-books.com
The publications that I have added are scarce. The Wanda ±Reiff one is even the first one I ever encountered. For those admiring Slits do not hesitate to discover the Slits publications at my site.
This is what i found Ruhenberg in his own words on his work:
Reiner Ruthenbeck in his own words
‘In my work I have often presented contrasts, polar elements, tensions, and tried to bring these into a formal unity. I have reduced formal structures as far as possible. The result seems to offer relatively little nourishment to the intellect. I would like thereby to bring the viewer to a contemplative, holistic acceptance of my art.’ –Reiner Ruthenbeck, 1986
‘I try to create something hovering, a balance. I want to maintain tranquillity. Everything can be traced back to polarity and unity – opposites that creation always builds on. Polarity has been a presence in my work almost from the beginning. Two different materials, hard and soft, or polarity based on colour, black and white. This pervades my whole work. We are moving towards immaterial art, yet we only approach it in small steps.’ –Reiner Ruthenbeck, 2006
From the beginning of her career, Rini Hurkmans is concerned with topics such as absence, loss, disruption, alienation and the related concepts of safety, security, identity and compassion. This can, among others, be perceived in the photo series Pietà, in the films Dear Son, The Flavor of Salt and Don Quixote but also in the sculptures The White Shroud and The Inner Garden.
Life, art and politics are intertwined in a continuous dialogue and each specific period requires its own thoughts, strategies, and forms. Hurkmans initiated the conceptual artwork Flag of Compassion in 2002 out of the desire to go beyond the framework of cultural consensus and consumption. Since 2008, she is an advisor to the Unda Foundation, which manages the artwork and also organises a series of Making Waves events around themes related to Flag of Compassion. By engaging with the Flag, it is investigated how a work of art can activate ethical questions in society and how it can function both within the arts and in society. Hurkmans is the driving force behind the book Compassion. A Paradox in Art and Society (Valiz, 2017) in which Flag of Compassion is discussed as a case study.
Presently, she conducts further research into the concept of loss in relation to ethics and politics and makes new work based on her working period as Artist in Residence at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR), partner of the Akademie van Kunsten (KNAW), in 2019. Her research into the press photo of the moment just after Michelangelo’s Pietà (1499) was attacked in 1972 serves as the starting point for her current work, which also builds upon earlier work inspired by this photo since she acquired it in 1992. When the Pietà in the St. Peter’s Basilica was attacked by Laszlo Toth, he destroyed the left arm. Consequently, the initial gesture that reaches out to the public to engage with the theme of the Pietà was annihilated. With the overarching investigation entitled Pietà, A Reconsideration of the Gesture, Hurkmans explores the multi-interpretability of the press photo and the gesture, ultimately reconsidering the gesture in all its forms.
A few years ago i wrote a blog on Vali Myers. She was the” Muse” of Ed van der Elsken for many years and his series with her as a subject is a classic amonglast-century photographs. A few years ago the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam organized an exhibition on Ed van der Elsken and his works. The series with Vali Myeres stood out and was used in the publication to illustrate his Parisian years. The book is now available at www.ftn-books.com and for those interested in Vali Myers the invitation card for a book presentation on her is still available.
Natasja Kensmil is one of those talents that emerged in the last 10 years and proved tobe highly important for modern art. Her art is personal and her style can not be compared to anyone else’s. If any….. i immediately though of Basquiat, but these paintings and drawings by Kensmil practically all tell a story or contain a message for the viewer. Her series of REGENTEN PORTRAITS is a tribute to women who held a position in boards and committees who took care of the old and sick. It was not possible for women to hold a position within a company or government , but these woman made charity in these years possible and took care of the old and sick in society.
Another multi panelled work is the “HUWELIJKS PORTRET VAN JOHANDE WITT AND WENDELA BICKER “. Natasja Kensmill forces us to look at our (not so nice) history and beside the importance of the art itself it makes us aware of the message too.
The book i now have for sale at www.ftn-books.com is different. Personal, horror like drawings bound and published by Boekhandel Broekhuis in 2003. Edition of only 500 copies, this book already shows the attraction of Kensmil’s drawing. They attract and repel at the same time. This is the kind of art one must admire and i will be on thelook out for work by Kensmil for our collection.
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.
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.
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
