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Translated
from Italian, unedited quote( Italian version only)
This
stands out as the first time that we have met with a painter
(at the Parma contemporary art show, along with other invited
artists) who we knew of but had never previously met. In the
years from 1957 to the present, this painter has built an
uncontestable reputation among the highest ranked and appreciated
artists in the vast panorama of the world's contemporary art.
His works are displayed in many art galleries in Canada, the
United States, and Latin America, not to mention Nova Scotia,
and Normandy, among others. Gaber's extraordinary activity
is, of course, primarily and foremost artistic. Yet it is
also tied to humanitarian and solidarity endeavors, since
he often uses his talent to support a good cause, such as
with his piece entitled Colorectal Cancer Can Run in the
Family (2004, 50.8 x 61.0, oil on canvas) - without being
the least moralizing.
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Colorectal
cancer can run in the family
(2004,
cm 50,8x61,0 oil on Canvas)
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Orchid
in bloom 01
(2004,
cm 40,6x50,8 oil on Canvas) |
His
work, which successfully combines imagination and reality,
is indeed highly complex, rife with references to nature (in
reaction to the debated and debatable phenomenon of urbanization
and in advocacy of life in direct contact with nature) and
to human beings. Very delicately infused with impressionism,
Gaber's art consistently evidences a relationship between
humankind (with its unhealthy feelings of indifference, cynicism,
and spiritual sterility) and pastoral life. Though disfigured
for many years, pastoral life has been extolled as the sole
panacea, yet has not been revisited ecologically and fully
reappropriated. With an archetypical ideal and material platform,
Gaber offers up work rich in content and color, characterized
by floral impressions, both sporadic and harmoniously soft
and persuasive, that play on the emotions. Orchid in Bloom
01 (2004, 40.6 x 50.8, oil on canvas) stands out as an
example in which inspiration stretches out to touch the peaks
of tenderness and merges with a profound psychological study
of memories, pleasant sensations, and past presences. Gaber's
works include landscapes imbued with an ineffable, seductive,
and intriguing idyllic nature, such as in Monet's Flower
Garden, Giverny (2001, 30.5 x 40.6 cm - oil on canvas).
These pieces-as if by some kind of enchantment or resonant
magic-seemingly conjure up country walks, rural redolence,
and the lack of intrusive noises, leaving an almost palpable
physical and mental absence of "worldly rumors."
Still others of his paintings, such as La Roche Guyon,
Normandy, (2002, 40.6 x 50.8 cm, oil on canvas), bring
to mind the profound serenity of a spirit floating in a nearly
savage space (the singing of a clear-running brook) in a solitude
that is relished and desired especially by those who have
suffered or are suffering the perverse attacks of civilization;
victims of our century's ills, which are pernicious and incurable;
and victims of this non-civilization's profound discontentment.
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Monet’s
Flower Garden, Giverny
(2001,
cm 30,5x40,6 oil on Canvas)
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Paris,
Sunset on La Seine I
(2002
cm 50,8x61,0 oil on Canvas) |
Gaber
reveals to us how life goes on in certain cityscapes, so different
from landscapes such as in Sunset on the Seine I, (Paris,
2002, 50.8 x 61.0 cm, oil on canvas), in which the dominate
feature is not the current, unlivable reality, but rather
nostalgia for a period when cities were truly made for people,
although that time appears lost forever. Or a time when the
refinement of customs, sentimental education styled after
Flaubert, and the elegance of dress (not only and not necessarily
the elegance of official fashion) in no way contrasted with
the commonness of appearances and the vitality of the senses
and loving feelings that, today, are threatened, humiliated,
and corrupted by this perverse appetite for the material:
Elégance Parisienne, (2002, 61.0 x
76.2 cm, oil on canvas).
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|
| La
Roche Guyon, Normandy
(2002
cm 40,6x50,8 oil on Canvas) |
Elégance
Parisienne
(2002
cm 61,0x76,2, oil on Canvas) |
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