FTN-blog

Rankin is a British photographer, publisher, and film director. Alongside being head of the eponymous agency RANKIN, which hosts an 80+ strong team that puts strategy, creative and production all under one roof.

Through RANKIN, he is best known for work that is on the cultural cusp and leading future trends: producing rule-breaking campaigns for brands such as Rolls Royce, Unilever, L’Oreal and Samsonite; creating wide reaching projects for charities including Women’s Aid and Macmillan; and shooting music videos for the likes of Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Kelis.

As a photographer Rankin’s portfolio ranges from portraiture to documentary. He has shot The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner and The Queen to name only a few.

As a publisher, Rankin co-founded the seminal magazine Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack in 1991, and has since published the likes of AnOther and AnOther Man, alongside over 40 books and the biannual fashion and culture print and digital platform, Hunger.

His photography has been published everywhere from his own publications to Elle, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, and Wonderland, and exhibited in galleries globally, including MoMA, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. www.ftn-books.com has the Male nudes /Universe publication now available.

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Nelli Palomäki Biography Nelli Palomäki (b. 1981) lives and works in Isnäs and Helsinki, Finland. Nelli Palomäki’s photography focuses on the fragility and silence of the moment shared with her subject, as well as on the idea of the uncomfortable portrait. She is a graduate of Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture in Helsinki.

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The only dutch equivalent i can come up with is Koos Breukel, in some ways he approaches his subjects in the same way. Fascinating photography by a fascinating photographer/artist. The second copy of the book i have is available at www.ftn-books.com

A good way to start the new year. Happy New Year to you all…..

For a short period Ting studied at the Shanghai Art Academy before sailing to France where he arrived in Paris in 1950, without money, friends or shelter over his head. After eight years in Paris, Walasse Ting had finally managed to build close relationships with several of the CoBrA artists, especially Pierre Alechinsky and Asger Jorn. Ting travels to New York in 1958 and meets Sam Francis at the same time as abstract expressionism is most prevalent. The two artists become very close friends and Ting is obviously inspired by Francis.

Børge Birch becomes acquainted with Walasse Ting through Pierre Alechinsky, who recommended him to do an exhibition in Galerie Birch, Copenhagen. On the 5th December 1960 Galerie Birch opens the doors to its first exhibition with Walasse Ting, with 19 paintings and eight ceramic plates. The success is great and a number of other exhibitions follow, in 1963, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1980 and 1981.

 And 1963 was the year that the most important publication by Walasse was published by Birch. He published TING. a 40 page artist book containing 12 original lithographs and some full page poems. This scarce publiscation was published in a numbered edition and now the copy no. 946 is available at www.ftn-books.com

In the seventies Ting develops his characteristic style and in contrary to in his time in Paris, he begins to sell a lot of paintings. After more than 20 successful years in New York, Walasse Ting moves to Amsterdam. Whre his second artistic life took off in a blast, making many impressive paintings influenced by his Chinese ancestors, but the color expplosion from his first years still stand out.

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Recently i acquired another oil painting by Arie van Geest. It is the 1986 painting ZELFPORTRET XIII-IX , which was originally sold by galerie Delta and became part for over 28 years of the IMTECH art collection. Imtech was declared bankrupt and the art collection had to be sold and the painting then became part of a private collection, but now FTN art has acquired this impressive Arie van Geest painting and it is now for sale. ( look at the art section).

Of course it can be viewed but only on appointment. please apply at wilfriedvandenelshout@gmail.com

Title : Zelfportret XIII-IX

painting, oil on canvas

year : 1986

size : 100 x 81 cm

Condition: excellent

One of the paintings by Arie van Geest which i can offer

signed and dated on the frame

provenance:

galerie Delta, sold in 1986

Imtech collection until 2016

Private collection

collection FTN-books and art

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From 1954 to 1964 he devoted himself to painting, but in 1965 he turned to the creation of objects inspired by observation of natural events and energies, which he exhibited in 1967 at the Galleria Sperone in Turin. In 1968 he joined the Arte Povera movement, embodying actions or ideas through combinations of contrasting and opposed materials (that didn’t involved industrial process, which is why the movement was called Arte Povera, “poor art”), whose weight, gravity and vigour he explored. In 1972 he turned to words and their immateriality to explore the relationship between abstract categories of thought, such as general and particular, finite and infinite, culture and nature, the passing of historical time and the hypothesis of the eternity of universal physical laws, the routine of experience and the abstraction of philosophical principles. He took part in Documenta 5 and 7, organized at Kassel in 1972 and in 1982. In 1990 he was awarded the Leone d’Oro for painting at the 44th Venice Biennale. His striving for a universal energy and an idea of infinity led the artist to represent actions of approach and communication between different realities in sculptures which express a compressed force, blocked “at the limit”, at a moment of balance. The Museo d’Arte Moderna in Bologna (MamBo) held in 2006 a wide-ranging anthological exhibition conceived by the artist as a total work. He lives and works in Turin and on the island of Stromboli.

I never heard of Anselmo until Rudi Fuchs became director of the Haags Gemeentemuseum . Fuchs has presented Anselmo at the Documenta 7 and was planning to make several presentations with the artist at the Rivoli Museum and at the Haags Gemeentmuseum. A for this museum….only a few loans were presented in the late Eighties and no large solo exhibitions with Anselmo were held at the museum at all. A pity since Anselmo is one of the great artists from the Seventies and Eighties. www.ftn-books.com has some nice Anselmo titles available at this moment.

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The Hess Art collection combines two favorit subjects of mine. First there is one of the most famous wineries in the world and second. It has a great privately owned art collection with the focus on Modern Art later than the 60’s.

Founder Donald Hess’s art collection began when he purchased a painting as décor for his new home. Years later, a friend studied the painting and informed him that he owned a Picasso. This twist of fate gave Donald his first indication that he might have an eye for art curation. Donald Hess formally began collecting art in 1966, and for him, art collection is a personal endeavor. He is driven by a passion for connecting with living artists and developing a close dialogue with each artist to better understand what drives them to create.

As is evident by the caliber of the art gallery, Donald Hess collects art with an uncanny ability to identify lesser known artists who often go on to become well-known and highly-respected in their disciplines. Once he connects with an artist, Donald is committed to each artist throughout their career.

When you visit the winery on Mount Veeder, you have the opportunity to take part in a guided tour of the impressive Hess Art Collection, followed by a tasting. To prepare yourself www,ftn-books.com has now the 350 page book on the Hess collection available.

Sarah van der Pols (Rotterdam, 1973) graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. A recurring theme in her work is the elusiveness of humankind. Her drawings depict human figures who mirror themselves in their environment and who are taken up with a constant search after themselves and the recognition of the other: a relationship sometimes visualized by a running thread that literally connects the figures in the image. The figures are shaped by its surrounding, but also leave traces in these settings. The figures’ silvery shadows lead lives of their own. The ethereal and laborious materials reflect the elusiveness of the image. Van der Pols uses materials such as soot, charcoal, silk, and silver leaf to create an image that obscures as much as it reveals. The figures are created from their environment by partly erasing them from the soot, painting them over, and drawing them in again. Shadow, mirror image, and afterimage flow into each other, while the surroundings eventually seem to disappear.

The reason for introducing Sarah van der Pols is because FTN art has acquired a beautiful and impressive large work by her, which is now for sale. Thelarge sized and framed work is executed on paper and is a mixed techniques, which measures 142 x 101 ( without the wooden frame )

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Power relations, sexuality, and mythology are common threads running through the work of Paula Rego (b. 1935). Her figurative paintings explore both her personal struggles, including years of depression, and social problems like the inferior status of women. Rego grew up in Portugal, “a terrible country for women”, according to her father, who moved to Britain for his work, leaving her with her grandmother. Rego went to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and eventually made the city her home after many years of moving back and forth. It was in London that Rego evolved into one of the biggest stars of contemporary painting, but her work is now increasingly appreciated outside the UK, too. In collaboration with Tate Britain, Kunstmuseum Den Haag is to host the biggest retrospective of Paula Rego’s work to date, featuring more than seventy collages, paintings, etchings and drawings, ranging from her early work in the 1960s, her huge pastel drawings like Angel, and the impressive Abortion series, to her multi-layered ‘staged scenes’ of the 2000s.

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This is how the publicity department of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (Kunstmuseum) describes the current exhibition by Paula Rego. Last week, me and Linda visited the exhibition together with the other exhibitions at the museum. The Rego exhibition was on my shortlist, since i had encountered her graphic works some years ago when i bought a very nice book on Rego ( currently a second copy available at www.ftn-books.com). There are some 70 works within the exhibition. Presented chronologically the first 2 rooms really blew me away. Works so complex and so poignant that i cannot remember during the last 10 years to have seen such 2 impressive rooms filled with great art. Than there are 2 rooms filled with paintings by Rego which i found less impressive and than, perhaps the ones she has become famous for ,about 40 works executed in pastel. Many of those on large formats. These are the ones that tell a story. Each work his own story, but all equal impressive.

The exhibition is at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag ( KUNSTMUSEUM) until the 20th of March 2022.

Paula Rego publication available at www.ftn-books.com