Art and the Artist Trailer from Gino Hollander on Vimeo.

Hollander is an undisciplined painter. He withholds nothing of himself. He refuses to rein in his emotions or his appetites. If a canvas is vulgar it is because he was feeling vulgar when he painted it. He shows it anyway. He feels that any painting he has done is a part of him. He doesn’t show just his party face. He strips himself naked for all to see.

“To know me is to know all of me,” says Hollander

The painter paints. He refuses to discuss his work or for that matter, art in general. To him “there’s nothing verbal about a canvas. A painting is simply one way to express a feeling and feelings can only be made less if they are talked to death”. Beginning and end of conversation. Hollander is a difficult man to interview. Like his paintings, he is tricky, hard to pin down. He’ll talk with you for hours and it is only very late in the night that you are aware that he is interviewing you, finding out who you are and how you feel. He’ll discuss any valid subject in the world. Except his paintings. The canvas has no meaning for him once it is finished. It is the push and pull, the emotional context of painting that captures him. From then on it is the province of the viewer alone. There is a dialogue of course, but a wordless one. A statement, a response; a question, an answer. If these exist they are mute. This is a dialogue of the heart or, perhaps, the soul.

CLICK HERE FOR GALLERY

:: Aug.21.2008 :: Gino Hollander :: No Comments »

The Reattu museum has invited Christian Lacroix to take possession of the totality of the splendid Renaissance palace, which was once the grand priory of the Order of Malta, where as a schoolboy playing hooky dreamed of becoming an artist. Paying homage to a magical site at the very bend of the Grand Rhone, the magnificent scenography elaborated by Christian Lacroix composes as a “light, roaming, dreamy autobiography” where it is about habits, Minotaurus, Picasso, geography, antique and contemporary, north and south, body, tailoring, pleat and hair… a sort of lively workshop in which the author mixes old and contemporary collections of the museum, his guests’ works – no more than 14 artists, painters, sculptors, videasters – with the wealth of his dressmaking: about 650 artworks divided in 30 rooms

During my travels through Europe, I visited this fantastic Christian Lacroix exhibit at the architecturally magnificent Reattu Museum in Arles, France. The mixture and placement of avant-garde fashion, 17th century paintings and contemporary artists is magical. The show goes until the end of October and I feel it is well worth attending this multi media exhibition if anyone is in the area.

Musee Reattu

Ancient Grand-Prieure de Malta

10 rue du Grand Prieure

13200 Arles, France

Telephone (33) 04 90 49 37 58

musee.reattu@ville-arles.fr

– Barbara DeVorzon

President, DeVorzon Gallery

CLICK HERE FOR MUSEE REATTU WEBSITE

:: Aug.18.2008 :: Christian Lacroix :: No Comments »