{"id":3731,"date":"2020-08-21T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T14:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/?page_id=3731"},"modified":"2025-09-22T20:05:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:05:15","slug":"presentation-of-his-work","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/en\/presentation-of-his-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentation of his work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A master of color and matter<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Blasco Mentor<\/strong> (1919-2003), a painter, sculptor, illustrator and ceramist of Catalan origin, occupies a singular place within the French art scene of the twentieth century. Heir to a Mediterranean tradition, he has developed a distinct visual language, in which colour, light and matter come together to exalt life and sensuality.<\/p>\n

Training and influences<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in Barcelona in 1919, Mentor<\/strong> quickly became part of the Catalan artistic movement. He began his training at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts, before going into exile in France following the Spanish Civil War, following the path of many artists of his generation. Living in Paris, he frequented the artistic circles of the Montparnasse district and immersed himself in the avant-garde movements, while remaining attached to his Mediterranean origins.<\/p>\n

Painting: the expression of a Mediterranean imagination<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blasco Mentor’s pictorial work <\/strong>focuses on magnifying the light of the south, sun-drenched landscapes, the sea and the arid lands of Spain and Languedoc. The large formats, characteristic of his work, impress by the density of the pictorial material, the vivacity of the palette and the generosity of the composition.<\/p>\n

Mentor<\/strong> favors recurring themes such as still life, the nude, the party, the banquet or the bullfight, drawing on a timeless Mediterranean mythology. His still lifes, rich in fruits and flowers, convey a vital energy. The women’s nudes, with their ample shapes, are part of baroque spaces, impregnated with warm tones, where sensuality is combined with monumentality.<\/p>\n

His pictorial technique is based on the thick work of oil paint, which he models like a paste, giving the canvas a striking tactile relief. This approach gives his works a remarkable material and visual presence.<\/p>\n

Figuration expressive<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inscribed in a figurative approach, Mentor nevertheless allows himself great freedom in the composition and deformation of forms. His painting moved away from academic realism to an exacerbated expressiveness: he manipulated perspective, amplified volumes, and intensified colors. This plasticity is accompanied by a poetic dimension, giving his works a dreamlike and timeless scope.<\/p>\n

Sculpture and ceramics: the enhancement of the material<\/p>\n

In addition to painting, Mentor distinguished himself in sculpture and ceramics. He creates works in bronze, terracotta or glazed ceramics, where we find the same attention paid to modelling and texture. His sculptures, often monumental, take up his favorite themes: abundant female figures, animals, festive or mythological motifs.<\/p>\n

In ceramics, he collaborates with several workshops in the south of France, particularly in Vallauris, a mecca of the discipline. His creations, whether flat or volume, bear witness to a mastery of color and matter, echoing his pictorial work: dazzling enamels, rich decorations, expressive shapes.<\/p>\n

Illustration and graphic arts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blasco Mentor<\/strong> has distinguished himself in publishing by his activity as an illustrator of numerous works, especially for Mediterranean authors or classics of Spanish and French literature. His illustrations combine the vigor of the line and the chromatic richness, offering a singular and powerful interpretation of the texts.<\/p>\n

Artistic universe: celebration of celebration, sensuality and vitality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mentor‘s work <\/strong>is permeated by a festive and sensual energy. The scenes of banquets, bullfighting or carnivals bear witness to a joie de vivre and generosity characteristic of the Mediterranean tradition. The resonance of the human body, the profusion of patterns and the warmth of the colors contribute to a celebration of existence, in its most carnal and luminous aspects.<\/p>\n

The artist claims excess as an affirmation of vitality and a response to the tragic condition of exile. Painting, sculpture and ceramics are thus so many hymns to the beauty and splendor of the world.<\/p>\n

Inscription in the history of art<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mentor is part of the Mediterranean tradition, alongside figures such as Picasso, Matisse or Chagall, sharing their taste for color, pattern and a certain artistic freedom. However, he remained attached to an expressive figuration, on the margins of the major abstract trends of the post-war period.<\/p>\n

He has exhibited regularly in major galleries and museums, in France and internationally. His career is marked by numerous distinctions, and he leaves a lasting imprint, both by the richness of his production and by his commitment to the transmission of the values of artistic creation.<\/p>\n

Posterity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since his death, Blasco Mentor<\/strong>‘s work has not aroused the interest of collectors and art lovers. Present in many collections, private or public, it is the subject of regular retrospective exhibitions in France. His style, immediately identifiable, inspired young artists attached to the expression of color and matter.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blasco Mentor’s abundant work<\/strong>, firmly rooted in the Mediterranean tradition, is distinguished by its vitality, sensuality and generosity. At the crossroads of painting, sculpture and illustration, she celebrates the body, light and matter, offering a luminous and warm vision of the world. An unclassifiable artist, Mentor<\/strong> occupies a major place in twentieth-century figurative art, and his work remains the bearer of a universal message and a festive energy that continues to radiate.<\/p>\n

Alain de Lespinois<\/p>\n

September 12, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presentation of Mentor’s work by Daniel SIMONIN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel Simonin joined the association of friends of the work of Blasco Mentor from its inception. He practiced as a lawyer in Paris within the international law firm Landwell, of which he will ultimately be responsible. His atypical career as an art lover has led him to become an excellent connoisseur of the milieu, so particular to the contemporary art market. He currently lives in N\u00eemes with his wife. <\/span><\/p>\n

It seemed interesting to me to make his point of view accessible to everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

BLASCO MENTOR<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0He is the great baron of the baroque\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0one of the last Catalan princes of painting, whom Picasso considered to be one of his legatees in modern art – Herv\u00e9 Bazin. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0My house and my work reflect the same vision: the taste for celebration and mockery<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

La Fenice, opening <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We had friends, H\u00e9l\u00e8ne and Jean Pierre, who lived in Solli\u00e8s-Pont, near Toulon, whom we had known from vacations at the Mediterranean Club. We saw them regularly, despite the distance that separated us, and they introduced us to the painter Blasco Mentor. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne was a podiatrist and Jean-Pierre a dentist and they looked after the minor ailments of the painter and his wife Neige who lived in the village near Solli\u00e8s-Toucas. The friendship of Mentor, of the \u00ab\u00a0Master\u00a0\u00bb as Helene affectionately called him for this couple and their children has never wavered. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mentor also helped decorate their beautiful home. <\/span><\/p>\n

We were invited to the opening of the \u00ab\u00a0La Fenice\u00a0\u00bb exhibition, at the Guign\u00e9 gallery, avenue du faubourg Saint Honor\u00e9. What an exhibition! what a crowd, what an exuberant, baroque, crazy, funny painting … <\/span><\/p>\n

It was a dazzling painting of Venice, where large paintings depicted operas performed at \u00ab\u00a0La Fenice\u00a0\u00bb in Venice. \u00ab\u00a0One cannot go with more verve and invention against contemporary art,\u00a0\u00bb said critic Jean Crespelle. We have since had the opportunity to go to Venice to visit this temple of opera music and learn about its history of destruction by fire and its identical reconstruction over the centuries. I sat in the large box built for the Emperor Napoleon, it is she who is represented in Mentor’s painting<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t buy the painting from the gallery, it was way too expensive for me. I bought it several years later, on an April 1st, it\u2019s not a joke! on the phone in Honfleur. I had seen the advertisement of the sale on the Gazette Drouot and I asked the auctioneer for explanations on the canvas to confirm that it was indeed the painting that I had seen at the gallery and which was shown on the invitation card. He described it to me and didn’t even ask me for a RIB (those were the good times, then) and I bought the painting for a very reasonable price. The person selling must have wanted discretion because he had chosen a provincial auction house, and I knew then that the number and quality of the paintings offered would have justified contacting a Parisian auction house. What was his motivation? money of course, you always need money if you sell! Or did she no longer believe in the artists she had collected and get rid of her bulky paintings even if it means losing a small fortune? I prefer to believe in the first hypothesis and then I am grateful to him for having sold off this painting which I would never have been able to acquire under normal conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

H\u00e9l\u00e8ne introduced us to the \u00ab\u00a0Master\u00a0\u00bb who reigned over all the small world gathered for the occasion. He was an elderly man already, with a weathered face, abundant graying hair, an ironic but benevolent smile on his lips and mischievous eyes, searching the interlocutor with his gaze. He painted the portrait of Marie-Jeanne on the inside page of the book dedicated to his work, which was published for the opening. I remember Mentor vividly staring at my wife under her big eyebrows, for a few seconds to determine her characteristic features, no doubt, and then suddenly, without any hesitation, to draw a few lines of her face on the white sheet. A few moments were enough to catch Marie-Jeanne’s gaze. She hasn’t changed since then! and his portrait is in the living room.<\/span><\/p>\n

The master <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost every lunchtime visit we went to see Mentor and his wife. We discovered his fabulous house which he had built in masterly stages and which is unveiled in a 1995 issue of \u00ab\u00a0Residence\u00a0\u00bb. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mentor was a earthy person, liking good food and good flesh too, he who painted plump female bodies all his life. He obviously didn’t like skinny people!<\/span><\/p>\n

I drank his words: one day at a flea market, he saw a very convoluted and colorful pottery: \u00ab\u00a0It’s so ugly it’s almost beautiful,\u00a0\u00bb he said, laughing! <\/span><\/p>\n

Another time, looking at his little sculptures, he said, \u00ab\u00a0that one, (it was a bull), had a tail, and it fell, but it’s much better like that\u00a0\u00bb! <\/span><\/p>\n

I asked him if he could paint me a picture with the theme \u00ab\u00a0luxury, calm and pleasure\u00a0\u00bb, he didn’t say no, but I understood that bothered him and he never did. On the other hand, as I was looking at one of his almost finished paintings, he said to me: \u201cdo you want it? sure ? \u00ab\u00a0And hesitating before dedicating it to both of them, to my wife and to me, asking each other with eyes,\u00a0\u00bb are you going to stay married together? \u00ab\u00a0He bet on the yes and\u00a0\u00bb Le Taureau Amoureux \u00ab\u00a0is still in our possession, well hung in our room<\/span><\/p>\n

I noticed on this occasion that in general, a painter only signs a painting when it is sold, this is the moment when he relinquishes it and it is undoubtedly a protection because an unsigned painting finds more difficult to buy. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was in his company that I also understood that even great artists doubt and fear the gaze of others on their work. This was the case with Picasso, whom he followed for some time when he was starting out, he said. I also understood that even a technically gifted artist like him, since he started painting at thirteen while portraying his brother, could have problems with his palette! one day he joined us and said \u00ab\u00a0I can’t do it\u00a0\u00bb he was painting a modern version of the painting from the end of the 16th century, by an unknown painter from the School of Fontainebleau, representing Gabrielle d’Estr\u00e9e and her sister in the bath, the latter pinching the nipple of the red painted breast of Henri IV’s favorite. He got there later and it’s a very beautiful painting that I saw going up for auction.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we knew him his career was already behind him, he had nothing more to prove, he had exhibited all over the world, in Italy, in Milan, at the Castiglione Palace he painted an extraordinary fresco, in the C\u00f4te d ‘ Ivory, in Asia, in Japan\u2026 But it was at La Courneuve, at the Maison du Peuple, that he painted the largest fresco in Europe which is currently in a deplorable state. In France, of course, he exhibited in Toulon, Rennes, Saint-Denis, at the Vasarely Foundation, exhibition inaugurated by Fran\u00e7ois L\u00e9otard, then Minister of Culture, at the villa Tamaris in La Seyne \u2013sur \u2013Mer, at the Palais des Rois from Mallorca to Perpignan and we were at the Mentor exhibition at the Bourdelle museum in Paris which was one of the most beautiful. He was convinced, I’m sure, to be a great painter, and had retired to his home, away from the media light and the honors that go with it, no longer being too interested in the world. contemporary<\/span><\/p>\n

Without knowing it, without knowing it, in the Salon d’Automne in 2002. Neige had reserved a space and then she had forgotten and she asked me at the last moment, since I lived in the Paris region if I could not. bring some paintings to the Salon. Mine paintings! because for Solli\u00e8s\u2019s paintings, it was too late. I got by, packed my paintings, hired a transporter and occupied a small space in the living room! it wasn’t great but I made sure Mentor was there. I had an exhibitor’s badge, it was \u00ab\u00a0funny\u00a0\u00bb and I could see that the public of the show knew Mentor and especially the \u00ab\u00a0Fenice Rinovata\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0was exhibited in the main aisle and is listed in the catalog. edited for the show. It was a salon that had lost its notoriety, which featured artists who were not \u00ab\u00a0in fashion\u00a0\u00bb, and above all, in my opinion, exhibited too many painters and sculptors, of too unequal value. This is where I really realized that there were two markets disconnected from each other, a traditional one, which is struggling to renew itself, to be modern, and an \u00ab\u00a0in\u00a0\u00bb, media, and financial \u00ab\u00a0which monopolized all the light.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mentor had concern for the public, the fear of looking at his work, which some would say, the characteristic of artists of the past, since today our \u00ab\u00a0plastic artists\u00a0\u00bb (at the beginning I thought he was acted artists who worked plastic!) do not create for the public, even if their work is presented to the latter, and make the work the subject of the work, so that they can talk about it endlessly. I’m hardly exaggerating, although there are still, and gladly, some notable exceptions. <\/span><\/p>\n

For Mentor, \u00ab\u00a0a painting only exists by you and as many times as your gaze rests on it. Each time you recreate your table. If you look at it with complicity, this painting will live, speak to you and dialogue will take place \u00ab\u00a0. And again \u00ab\u00a0between the creator and the viewer must necessarily establish a state of grace\u00a0\u00bb<\/span><\/p>\n

He was also concerned with leaving a trace, he had the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a place that would have brought together his works and those of other local artists, who were of course enthusiastic about this prospect, which proved that he enjoyed ‘a great aura among his peers. The project fell through, too many people were drawn to success and greed. There was even an attempt to misappropriate the work for the benefit of ill-intentioned individuals, which fortunately failed. <\/span><\/p>\n

And then, while in Africa, Mentor had a stroke. Poorly treated on the spot, he was repatriated to the American hospital in Neuilly, not far from our home. I don’t have a good memory of our visit even though he recognized us anyway, but he remained paralyzed and unable to speak coherent words. <\/span><\/p>\n

One day at his home, he made us voluntarily, spontaneously \u00ab\u00a0with his left hand,\u00a0\u00bb in pencil, quick portraits of the children who accompanied us and of us both. Maybe we’re the only ones who have such drawings, maybe he wanted to prove to himself that he was still good at something, or just thank us for our visit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Guign\u00e9 gallery, which only lived by and for Mentor, has closed, perhaps out of necessity? I’m not in a position to judge but Mentor even though he was still alive no longer had a gallery to defend him. Ingratitude? <\/span><\/p>\n

So what is the future of this painter? oblivion looms if there is no major exhibition in the years to come. There are few paintings or sculptures that go up for auction! In Arles three or four years ago, large old paintings were put on sale. <\/span><\/p>\n

They found buyers, but at relatively low prices. The scarcity of quality canvases is accentuated by the fact that important paintings are stuck in the \u00ab\u00a0foundation\u00a0\u00bb and cannot be sold from what I understand. And the commune of Solli\u00e8s-Toucas does not have the means to bring its work to life. The beneficiary is a quality person who managed to have Mentor exhibited at the Goya de Castres museum in 2009, but she is apparently not a specialist in communication and her financial resources are limited, I have been told. . <\/span><\/p>\n

A painter like Mentor is not in the current media and financial circuits, but hey! Mentor’s past pleads in his favor and one can hope that the Spaniards will rediscover him one day. Baroque figurative painting, saturated with color, with life, and which takes an indulgent but ironic look at the faults of our human condition, is not fashionable in France, but will become so again, because I am sure it will. there is a public sensitive to this art, including me!<\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to be able to acquire other paintings, from the \u00ab\u00a0musicians\u00a0\u00bb or \u00ab\u00a0circus\u00a0\u00bb series in the years to come. It almost happened the day a \u00ab\u00a0woman with a dove\u00a0\u00bb was put up for sale, but the auctioneer called me the day before the sale to tell me that the painting was taken down, it was a fake! <\/span><\/p>\n

But above all I’m happy to have met a real painter, maybe a great painter and a good man who loved life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Simonin <\/span><\/p>\n

Extract from his book \u00ab\u00a0The tribulations of an art lover\u00a0\u00bb Editions de la Fenestrelle- dec 2016-<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presentation of Mentor’s work <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

All of Blasco Mentor’s work constantly alludes to the customs and traditions of his country of origin: Catalonia. Thus, they certify their shapes, the sense of humor, the baroque style and the particular colors of the bullfight. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mentor’s painting could be defined as monumental, gentle, tragic, rich, worked, always human. Everything about her reflects her happiness and worries. <\/span><\/p>\n

The woman is the central theme of his work. <\/span>The painter and the model is one of his most recurring themes, but Mentor’s other passions are bullfighting, circus, carnival in Venice, birds (especially pigeons), musicians and concert performers. Subjects which have given rise to large pictorial series. Always through the practice of sculpture and modeling, Mentor worked in his unruffled quest for a personal transition to reality. Friends of Blasco Mentor’s work<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Presentation of the work of Blasco Mentor<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

We owe Mentor, if I may say so, to the kindness of Franco who sentenced him to death at 20 years for enlisting in the Republican army … Thank you! He lived half a century in France where his paintings, however, show the envy that he has not forgotten the lights and the violent colors of his country. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mentor! It is a name that was already worn by a famous sage. At first glance, this Mentor seems above all to be an enthusiast. But I am tired of Pierre Mazars (1) who said that this painter does not take painting tragically, but that he takes it seriously. To judge the world around it, wisdom has very diverse means. He, Mentor, has chosen the derision and you can imagine that, because of this, my pen has a friendship for his brush.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is he saying, what is he actually laughing at? Above all, pretenses, prejudices, faking appearances. His universe of masked beings, mixed creatures, as strange as the Hindu or ancient Egyptian gods, is highly symbolic. In his personal circus, the elephant, the rhino, the giraffe, the monkey and the horse are animal transvestites. Willful confusion between beast and man! And most often the first advantage! In the arena, glory be to the bull first, all leather, against the gold of its killer! If he plays the flute, the faun, remember that he is half a goatee. Who is this lion-boy threatened with her wand by an opulent tamer in the pulpit of a courtesan? Lots of birds, in the work. This is because the bird is the symbol of lightness, of independence. But we don’t have wings. See this other plump lady, this magician who, nostalgically, makes a flight of doves escape from an overturned gibus, some of which are already perched on her arms. Here, innocence envelops the sensuality provoked elsewhere by the virility of the horns and proboscis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Technically speaking, Mentor has a safe hand. He loots his palette. It illuminates, it sparks, it diffuses. He loves embroidery, ribbons, lace: all the trimmings of the rainbow, which flatters the eye but also expresses the vanity of things. Watch out for what glitters: there is fake underneath. Beware of entertainment that covers a puzzle. Mentor paints as otherwise he sculpts: in our time, he is a great baron of the Baroque and, let us not forget, one of the last Catalan princes of painting whom Picasso considered to be one of his legatees in modern art. <\/span><\/p>\n

(1) Writer and journalist, specialist in art history<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A master of color and matter   Blasco Mentor (1919-2003), a painter, sculptor, illustrator and ceramist of Catalan origin, occupies a singular place within the French art scene of the twentieth century. Heir to a Mediterranean tradition, he has developed … Continuer la lecture →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3731","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":3731},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3731"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5169,"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3731\/revisions\/5169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blasco-mentor-solliestoucas.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}