IN MEMORIAM
Picture of an old woman, by Gene Holbrook
Vernissage: Friday 14 Abril, at 7 pm
The exhibition runs until 30 Abril 2006.
Opening hours: Sat-Sun: 11:00 – 14:00 h
Thurs-Fri: 19:00-22:00 h
Or by appointment.
More than sixty years ago the first artists came to the remote, quiet village of S’Arraco. It was the unspoiled, meditative beauty of its surroundings which attracted them.
Almost entirely neglected by the tourist industry, the area — with its rust and yellow soil and the myriad greens of its vegetation — offers a harmonious and striking pallette of colors.
The Mediterranean light, changing from harsh winter clarity to the milky radiating haze in the broiling summer sun, presented a continual challenge to the artist’s perception.
It was perhaps for these reasons that several painters finally settled in the area, at least for a while, and some forever. This exhibition is a witness to the enduring attraction the area held and still holds for these artists, who made S’Arraco and its outlying areas their refuge.
The artistic settlers made friends, of course, with their Mallorcan neighbours, and out of these stimulating encounters came much inspiration on both sides. Particularly in the Port d’Andratx, several of the fishermen took up a paintbrush in their spare time, and began to capture the life of their village in paintings that sing out to us of a time gone by, vibrant with the characters, the colours and the passion of those times. Scenes of daily life, memories of Cuba, monsters of the deep, portraits of loved ones: vivid testimony to a time that is past.
At the show at Sa Taronja paintings of Academy-trained artists will hang side by side with the naif . For years, it has been impossible to see these treasures, buried away in private homes – and it has not been easy to prise them away from their owners. This show presents a unique opportunity to see some of these paintings for the first – and perhaps the last – time.
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