#art, Léon Spilliaert en la Serie de grandes artistas – Series of Great Artists

Comenzare diciéndoos que de este pintor simbolista belga nadie me habia hablado en la facultad y no tengo ni idea, porque si me lo hubieran mencionado me hubiera fascinado con su obra que es estupenda… Spilliaert, que nació en la Flandes occidental en 1882 era, además de pintor, ilustrador y grabador… Os diré que Léon se codeaba con tales escritores simbolistas como Maurice Maeterlinck y Émile Verhaeren y sus influencias pictoricas procedian de expresionistas como Edvard Munch y Fernand Khnopff, y también de escritores existencialistas y simbolistas como Nietzsche y Lautréamont. Su tema es la soledad que lo rodeaba, o que nos rodea a todos de cuando en cuando, muy parecido a su contemporáneo, el pintor norteamericano Edward Hopper… Y bueno, aunque algunos historiadores lo clasifican de autodidacta, y eso no existe pues como te vas a ensenar a ti mismo cosas que desconoces, Spilliaert estudio en Brujas en la Academia de Arte… Trabajó de impresor y editor de libros en París y en 1907 comenzó a exponer en Bélgica… Trabaja temas metafísicos y también relacionados a la cultura flamenca, prefiriendo siempre la espontaneidad… Era de carácter introvertido y hasta melancólico y mucha de su obra la realiza a través de la introspección de la cual se derivan sus grandes autorretratos… Muere en 1946…

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I will start by telling you that no one told me about this Belgian symbolist painter in college, and I have no idea why because if they had I would have been fascinated by his remarkable work… Spilliaert, who was born in West Flanders in 1882, was not only a painter but also an illustrator and engraver… Léon mingled with symbolist writers such as Maurice Maeterlinck and Émile Verhaeren, and his pictorial influences came from expressionists like Edvard Munch and Fernand Khnopff, as well as from existentialist and symbolist writers like Nietzsche and Lautréamont. His theme is the solitude that surrounded him, or that surrounds us all from time to time. A topic that was very similar to that of his contemporary, the American painter Edward Hopper… And well, although some historians classify him as self-taught, which doesn’t exist since how can you teach yourself things you don’t know, Spilliaert studied in Bruges at the Academy of Art… He worked as a printer and book editor in Paris, and in 1907 he began exhibiting in Belgium… In his paintings he explores metaphysical themes and also those related to Flemish culture, always preferring spontaneity… He had an introverted and even melancholic character, and much of his work was created through introspection, from which his great self-portraits were derived… He died in 1946…

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GRACIAS – CHEERS