2 Balbino Giner – Painter of Words 2 3 by Ellen Hall 3 First you are struck by the day-glo pinks, limes and yellows of his canvases. The words emerge from the black background only on closer inspection. The highly structured compositions of Balbino Giner organize themselves around messages, slogans and pleas in Catalan,Spanish and French. With the playfulness and simplicity of a cartoon, Giner’s works invite your attention. In Giner’s studio in Collioure every book and pen and pot of paint has its place. The artist is a small, neat, modest man who speaks in a breathless monotone. I found listening to him was like the title of one of his works, “Escolti el vent” (Listen to the wind). “El cami”(the road) is one of his favorite themes. With it he expresses the movement and restlessness of his life and work. The child of Spanish refugees from Franco’s Spain, he studied in Paris and taught art in Toulouse before settling in Collioure in 1999. The sense of depth in Giner’s painting is derived from his threefold method which he calls “Couvrir, Recouvrir and Découvrir”: covering his canvas in bright colors, painting over them in black and finally removing some of the black to reveal the colors beneath. Where does he get his ideas? Looking out his window at a citrus tree, watching people passing in the street and imagining their conversations. Giner loves everything that moves: wind, trees, kites. Even Collioure’s iconic bell tower, in Giner’s hands, flies above rolling waves or wheels along a railway. His current project is a triptych for the celebration for the Declaration of the Rights of Man. “Llibertat per tot hom” (Liberty for all) is the central message. His conversation is full of references to the importance of experimentation, having confidence in yourself and fearing nothing. Creation, he said, is being true to oneself. As the son of a famous painter (1910-1976) of the same name, Balbino Giner has not always found it easy to forge his own identity as an artist. He explains that he has three fathers: his real father;his symbolic fathers, Picasso and Matisse; and his imaginative fathers, Picabia and Dubuffet. Giner’s exploded forms, rounded cut-outs, collages and clowns may be reflections of his many fathers, but his remains a distinctive style and body of work. To see them, go to: [www.balbinoginer.fr->www.balbinoginer.fr ] or visit Galerie Castan , 3 Place Gambetta in Perpignan. |