Rafael Griera i Calderón

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Rafael Griera i Calderón (born October 21, 1934 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ; † July 31, 2018 in Olot ) was a Catalan painter, draftsman and illustrator who was in the tradition of the Olot School .

life and work

Griera was born in 1934 by chance in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as the son of an Olotens manufacturer of artificial figures - based on the place of birth. He received his artistic training at the Escola Superior de Paisatge a Olot ('Olot Art Academy'). He met like-minded people in the art association Cràter d'Art ('Crater of Art') in Olot. He had his first exhibition - especially with the landscape painting typical of Olot - in 1953. A joint artist contact with other painters in Mallorca from 1956 led to a new artistic and stylistic direction. After a period of “informalist painting” after his stay in Mallorca, during which Griera “let off steam in a plastic way”, he returned to figurative painting, but in his new painting style broke with the Olotens landscape tradition or, better, opened up completely new dimensions.

His new painting style lacks the luminosity of the early landscape paintings in oil , watercolor and gouache . It is more reminiscent of the model of Central and Northern European painting schools. Griera's pictures now show a completely realistic world. Anonymous people - without faces and without reference to or to one another - let themselves be driven through interiors, landscapes or cities. In such pictures the phantasms from the artist's dreams - but also from his experience - come into real life. The people portrayed blend in to a certain extent with reality and show more than the naked eye can ever perceive.

Griera wasn't the artist who created for the mass media. On the other hand, his credo was the individualization or personalization of the individual out of the anonymity of the masses. From his numerous museum visits all over Europe, he had chosen Antonio González Velázquez and Paul Cézanne as role models and teachers. He organized the core scenes of his pictures in terms of light and lighting similar to these. For example, a house lantern carefully illuminated intimate human scenes. Griera took people out of the darkness of their anonymity and brought them into existence as persons.

literature

  • Domenec Moli: Olot Art, Doscents Anys de Pintura . Ed .: Viçens Coromina. Olot 1979, OCLC 803497564 , pp. 161-169 (Catalan).
  • Viçens Coromina (Ed.): 80 Artistes Olotins del anys 80 . Olot 1982, OCLC 434435958 , pp. 82 ff . (Catalan).
  • Rafael Griera: Rafael Griera . Illustrated book with a foreword by Julio Trenas. Ed .: Vincens Coromina. Olot 1987, OCLC 434775076 (Catalan).
  • Rafael Griera: Olot . Illustrated book with a biography and texts by various authors on Griera's artistic themes. Ed .: Vincens Coromina. Olot 1988, OCLC 433865718 (Catalan).
  • Josep Maria Canals: Diccionari Biogràfic d'Olot; Article “Griera i Calderón, Rafael” . Ed .: Ajuntament d'Olot. 1st edition. Olot 2015, OCLC 943687866 , p. 374-376 (Catalan).

Web links

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ The exact date of birth comes from Rafael Griera 1988. Page 5. The artist's childhood
  2. ↑ Mor el pintor i il·lustrador olotí Rafael Griera. In: elpuntavui.cat. August 1, 2018, accessed August 2, 2018 (Catalan).
  3. ^ Josep Maria Canals. 2015. Griera i Calderón, Rafael.
  4. ↑ So the Enciclopèdia Catalana in their article.
  5. ↑ So Julio Trenas in the preface to Rafael Griera 1987.
personal data
SURNAME Griera i Calderón, Rafael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griera, Rafael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 2018
Place of death Olot