Given that the longest drive we can have
here on Eivissa is no more then forty-five kilometres, at
most, without having to drive back, I have the feeling that
we take a trip around the entire Island when Gary and I go
to visit our international artists.
We have the unique chance to listen to them
talking about their intense cosmopolitan lives and the way
they finally established themselves on our Island after showing
their Art in many countries on several Continents.
This is what I was thinking about last Tuesday
afternoon, in the pleasant company of Marcel and Mary Floris,
sitting on the terrace of their house, surrounded by the original
garden and forest, with a glass of tasty and healthy fresh
tomato juice that Mary had made and kindly offered us.
Marcel Floris was born in France in 1914,
but he’s lived a good part of his life in Venezuela,
as a director of one of the biggest and best publicity and
commercial-art-design companies in that country. It was also
there where Marcel had his first art-exhibitions by the end
of the 1950s and started to be recognised as a very talented
creator.
Marcel and Mary arrived to Eivissa in 1971.
With the help of Agnete, from the bar-restaurant “Cana
Agnete” of Sant Carles, they found this little casa payesa,
not far from Santa Eulari, and decided to buy it to make it
their own home, adopting also the Island as their new homeland,
where they have been living, successfully and peacefully up
to present.
The house itself keeps most of its original
elements, even the Ibicenco “good luck blue” in
parts of its genuine “sabina roof”, obviously with
the necessary changes, also enlarged with some new rooms,
but keeping the local design, built with the local materials
and dry-stone walls.
It is like a little museum, full of art
and Pre-Columbus archaeology pieces, in which, the sensitive
hand of Mary can be seen in a lot of details. Mary is a lovely
person, a loving wife full of vitality and joy for life, discreet
and clever, with a high artistic feeling; she does her own
artistic works, like her collage that I hope she will decide
to exhibit in future. It will be a real pleasure to be able
to write about them soon. They are both really good people;
it was a real pleasure meeting them, a privilege and honour
for any society they bless by their presence.
In their finca, they have also built Marcel’s
studio and workshop, of a bigger size then the house, with
all the tools and materials necessary for his creative job.
Being in it, as he was showing it to us,
I confessed to him my total ignorance about most of his works
(I only knew the sculpture that he donated to Eivissa City
and some of his things shown in the Museo d’Art Modern
d’Eivissa) as well as his style of Art (Constructivist
Art, as I think it is called).
Marcel, understanding my problem, lent me
one of the books about his Art work, published by the “Galerie
Lahumiére” of Paris, in which he explains his
vision of his Art. The following is from this book.
“Not wishing here to list all my former
research work, it was in 1974 that I practically abandoned
metal constructions based on geometrical planes and the use
of mirrors and only retained the lines that delimit them in
order to create transparent volumes and spaces.
“To achieve this, the materials had
to be completely different from those I had previously used,
hence the choice of cables or, even better, elastic cords
that had the advantage of ensuring a permanent rectilinear
tension whatever the atmospheric variations might be.
“My first achievements were groups
of pyramids whose scale and size, two to three metres high,
were substantial enough to allow the viewer to move about
these constructions evoking esoterical associations and feel
the space created by the transparent planes and volumes suggested
by simple straight lines.
“These works have led me to add, with
the help of the same cords, in juxtaposition to the volume,
the drawing of a plane on a vertical wall used as a supporting
surface, so that the volume originates on one side of the
plane and, in a way, materialises it.
“This juxtaposition brings about two
new factors, one of them being ambiguity that makes the plane
appear, by its extension of the volume, as if it were a mass
in itself, and the other one being the reversibility produced
by the plane drawn in axial perspective.
“The third logical step consisted in
liberating me from the support, namely the wall, to create
autonomous works.
“The material could no longer be the
cord which necessitates one or several fixed points to tighten
it. I therefore returned to the use of metal, using bars of
minor section or diameter to create small-sized works that
would later be designed on a larger scale.
“These later works have given me two
additional effects, one being, from certain angles, the reversibility
of the volume joined to the plane, the other being the transformation
of the plane into a simple line when in profile.
“The reversibility both of the plane
and the volume creates the illusion of a reciprocating motion
completely non-existent in an inert piece of work.
“The transformation, only by the power
of the mind, of the plane into the volume, the mutations of
appearance into reality and reality into appearance could
be interpreted as the concretion, through works of art, of
the multiple subjective interpretations of the verity.
“This research and their guiding lines
induced the next works such as painted-wood relieves where,
owing to a particular device used in assembling the structure,
two superimposed parts can create the impression of a transparency
by means of an opaque material.
“These two parts appear as if they
were challenging each other to obtain the predominance of
one over the other. This conflict leads to a simultaneous
preponderance whose result is, by this selfsame fact, the
nullification of the precedence and its transformation into
imaginary sensation of transparency.
“These works followed by the linear
constructions of painted iron, then aluminium, with suspended
bars freely revolving and swaying by the only effect of the
displacement of air. These works combine a definition of the
inscribed space with the suggestion of a relative space, moving,
apparently traced by the mobile’s suspended bars.
“The touching of these bars among themselves
or against the supporting surface produces various sounds
at extremely variable intervals of silence, adding a random
element of time and transformation.
“The iron constructions present an
ambiguity created by the real angles joining together the
planes suggested by the surrounding lines and the angles set
up on a same plane. As the random transformation and the time
element due to the mobile parts subsist, the sound is practically
non-existent.
“As a different approach, the designing
of mobiles and small-sized geometrical constructions made
of wire mesh which encircle space between their transparent
planes add, by mere shifting movement, the shimmering effects
of a moiré as well as the dematerialization of light
effects.
“Throughout these works and those whose
creation has been achieved simultaneously in time, I try to
sensitize space, to underline the changing relations between
moving lines, to accentuate the ambiguity of certain connections
between angles, planes, masses and lines, to integrate sound,
time and light, to suggest the virtual movement and generate
the transmutation of realities into appearances. Within this
particular vision of geometry, I try to retrieve a refuge
of poetry, meditation and peace.”
Marcel Floris
June 1984
One Man Shows
1960 Gallery Foundation Mendoza, Caracas. (VENEZUELA)
1962 Gallery Motte, Paris. (FRANCE)
1964 Gallery Bolles, San Francisco, (USA)
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (VENEZULA)
1966 Gallery Dawson, Dublin, (EIRE)
1967 Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1968 Gallery Conkright, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
Casa de la Cultura, Maracaibo. (VENEZUELA)
1969 Gallery Conkright, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1972 Gallery Van der Voort, Eivissa. (SPAIN)
Gallery Conkright, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1974 Gallery Van der Voort, Eivissa (SPAIN)
1975 Gallery Lanzenberg, Eivissa (SPAIN)
1976 Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1977 Gallery Arte Contacto, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
Gallery International, Madrid. (SPAIN)
1978 Gallery Christine Colin, Paris (FRANCE)
Gallery Jesse, Bielefeld. (GERMANY)
1979 Museo Villa Vizcaya, Miami (USA)
Public Library of Dade, Miami (USA)
1980 Gallery Sutton, New York (USA)
Gallery CB2, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1981 Fundación Miró, Barcelona (SPAIN)
Gallery Schoeller, Düsseldorf (GERMANY)
Gallery Sutton, New York (USA)
1982 Studio 1, Musée d’Art Moderne Kunst
Landreis, Cuxhaven. (FRANCE)
1984 Gallery Maloney, Eivissa (SPAIN)
1986 Gallery Blauer Ofen, Seeheim-Jugenheim (GERMANY)
1987 Gallery Dorothea van der Koelen, Mainz (FRANCE)
Gallery Franka Berndt, Paris (FRANCE)
1990 Gallery Lahumiére, Paris (FRANCE)
Group Shows
1956 Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1964/65/66/67 Pintores Internacionales, Valencia (VENEZUELA)
1965/78 Gallery Byron, New York (USA)
Austin University Museum, Texas (USA)
1966 Facultad de Arquitectura, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1966/67 Exposition Irlandaise d’Art Vivant, Dublin
(EIRE)
1966/68 Movimiento y Color, Gallery Conkright, Caracas
(VENEZUUELA)
1967/70 Confrontación, Atenea de Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1968/70 Bienal de Medellin (COLOMBIA)
1968 Pintura y Grabados de Venezuela y Colombia
Gallery Buchholz, Munich (GERMANY)
1969 Newland Galleries, Los Angeles, California (USA)
Gallery Denise René, Paris (FRANCE)
Biennale de Sao Paulo (BRAZIL)
1970 International Exhibition, Osaka (JAPAN)
Color, Línea y Luz, Gallery Conkright, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1971 Gallery Buchholz, Bogotá (COLOMBIA)
Gold Medal in Biennale de Sao Paulo (BRAZIL)
1972 Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1973 Biennale of Sculptures, Budapest (HUNGARY)
1975 Gallery Schlégl, Zurich (SWITZERLAND)
White Gallery, Lausanne (SWITZERLAND)
1978 Gallery Van der Voort, Bale (SWITZERLAND)
1979 Public Library of Dade, Miami (USA)
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
“Arte Construido” Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1980 Gallery 99, Bal Harbour, Miami (USA)
Gallery Sutton, New York (USA)
1981 Equitable Gallery, New York (USA)
I.G. Metallgesellschaft AG, Fracfort (GERMANY)
1986 Kronkret Sech, Nuremberg (GERMANY)
1987 De 2 Carrés, Wilhem-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen
(GERMANY)
Institut Français, Minz (GERMANY)
1988 Gallery de Stis, Doedrecht, (HOLLAND)
1989 En 3 Dimensions, Gallery Lahumiére, Paris
(FRANCE)
1989 Gallery Dorothea Van der Koelen, Mainz, (GERMANY)
1989/90 International Fairs in Frankfurt, Bale, Chicago,
and the FIAC, with the Gallery Lahumiére of Paris (FRANCE)
Museum of Klagenfurt (AUSTRIA)
Awards
1967 First Prize Asociación del Museo de Bellas
Artes, Caracas (VENEZUELA)
1968 National Prize of Painting, Venezuela
1969 National Prize of Sculpture, Venezuela
1971 Golden Medal in the Biennale of Sao Paulo (BRAZIL)
Museum Acquisitions
Canada Contemporanean Art Museum, Montreal
Colombia Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá
Museo “La Tertulia”, Cali
France Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris
Italy Instituto Latino-Americano, Roma
Mexico Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico D.F
Spain Museo d’Art Contemporaní d’Eivissa
F. l’Autoroute Mediterranie, Barcelona
USA Modern Art Museum New York
Institut Smithsonian, Washington DC
Museo del Arte Latino-Americano, Washington DC
Public Library of Dade, Miami
Public Library of Dade-South, Miami
Instituto de la Cultura, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Carnegie Library, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Germany Modern Art Museum Kunst Landreis, Cuxhaven
Bergen Museum, Glandbanch
Venezuela Galería de Arte National, Caracas
Instituto “Los Teques”
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas
Museo de la Cultura, Maracaibo
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mérida
Museo de la Fundación Jesus Soto, Ciudad Bolivar
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Marcel Floris
Photograph © Klaus Sange
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Acier Peint, Autoroute Mediterranean,
Gerona, Barcelona, 5 Metres x 7 Metres 1974
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Angles Ambigus 74 x 44 x 17 1993
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Fer Peint 80 x 38 x 17 cm
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Giros, Painted Iron, 90 x 104 x 90
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Colcar, Painted Iron, 148 x 190 x
99
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Signature, Unpainted Iron
75 x 50 x 50 cm 1996
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Trois Points, Brass & Copper
67 x 57 x 40 cm 1996
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Wilm, Painted Iron
60 x 53 x 30 cm 1995
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Pliages Grillage De Fer Peint 40 x
50 x 42 cm
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Aluminium Corporation Venezuela de
Tourism,
Caracas, 1970
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Marcel Floris
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Foundation Joan Miro 1981
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Murale 60 x 60 x 3 cm 1977
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Aluminium, Biennale de Medellin,
Colombia, 1970
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Murale 72 x 72 x 3 cm 1977
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Installation Biennale de Sao Paulo,
Brazil, 1971
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All Pictures Courtesy of Marcel
Floris
José P Ribas
josepribas@liveibiza.com
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