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Class of 1982, On the Internet: Roger de MontebelloFROM: Bernard Chauchet, ThirteenLangtonStreetGallery"Roger de Montebello was born in Paris in 1964. He started painting at the age of 17, and took his first art classes at the Facultad de Bella Artes of Seville (Spain), where he is awarded, in 1985, the matricula de honor in painting. He then pursues both his artistic activity and his education, graduating from Harvard College in 1988 (Bachelor of Arts in Art history and Theory), and from the Paris Institut d’ Etudes Politiques in 1992. The same year his friends organise in Paris his first solo exhibition. He shows in New York in 1993, then at the French Cultural Services. He settles in Venice in 1992, where he takes on a studio, but continues travelling to Spain 3 or 4 months of the year. In 1994 he takes part in several shows in Italy, including Bologna’s Contemporary Art Fair, and is granted a solo exhibition in New York in 1999, and in Paris in June 2002. At the heart of Montebello’s work is the search for the depiction of his very personal vision of Venice and Spain, trying to capture their essence under the ever-changing effects of the light. He paints the same buildings of Venice - the Zattere, the Arsenale, San Marco; and often the same general views, of San Michele or Burano , but they are usually seen from a distance. They are also varied almost infinitely, by capturing the effects of the light through the subtle variations in the tonalities used, and brought about by the simplification of his palette. He is also interested by painting different compositions, to combine various elements, Water occupies a very important place in his œuvre, as does the sky, and he has greatly developped its observations and treatments. The artist is captivated by the reflexions of buildings or how a view can vary according to the effect of light. There is a great love for nature in Montebello’s work, and he manages, through painting the reflection of a building in the water, to make it enter the world of nature, to make it become part of nature. He also explains that incorporating a reflextion in a painting helps him achieve a much more finished composition, by closing it as in a circle. The same element represented appears above and below, and balances the composition almost perfectly. Each works becomes very individual, translating a mood captured in an instant. He manages to go beyond the description of a building, capturing instead the essence of the scenes he represents, by reducing them to a few elements, and by an economy of means which confers them their great strength, and their silent quality. The artist also likes to travel to Spain during the summer, when he will follow bullfights form one village to another. It is there a very different evocation from the one of Venice, where the subtlety of the ever changing light and mist are replace by a much harder and contrasted light, which brings out the vivid colours so typical of Spain. Montebello particularly likes to work on small formats (panels of usually16 x 22 cm), which allow him to execute them directly on site. He uses a box, on which two rails are fixed, and between which the panel is held. This allows him to paint easily, in whatever circumstance, and with great flexibility. Just like watercolourists were painting directly on site, but this time using oil painting. His pictures are finished in one session, are never touched up in the studio afterwards, and are never done from photographs. Montebello is fascinated by bullfighting. They are of course very evocative of Spain, and in their paintings the artist manages to capture a feeling of immediacy, where the action is frozen. He likes to depict the movement of the corrida, the relationship and harmony between man and bull, not at all the brutal and bloody aspect of the fight. It is the great themes of valour, nobility, life, death, and challenge that draw the painter to the rings. There, he feels connected with three thousand years of history and civilisation, going back to the early Greek mythology, redefining elementary rapports between men and animals. In the most remote regions of Spain, where little signs of modern life have made their way, these timeless rites continue, and are perceived by the painter as a true form of art, combining skill, elegance, strength, movement, bright colours, and musique. The challenge and tension going on in the arena is felt by the artist and in a similar way to the fight that is going on in the ring, the artist likes to feel under the pressure from the gaze of the people around him watching him in his fight to produce a painting in less than two hours. The outcome of this struggleis never sure, leading at times to the unfinished aspect of some works, or else at other times to the defeat of the painter and the destruction of his work." SOURCE: http://www.thirteenlangtonstreet.com/artistsFolder/MoreinfoRogerdeMontebello.html |
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