I consider myself privileged to have personally
known and spent some good quality time with Vicent Calbet,
who was a quiet and a reserved gentleman with a natural talent
for the art of using brilliant Mediterranean colours in his
wonderful paintings.
José P Ribas has done a good job
on writing the biography of this famous Ibicencan artist.
I also thought it would be appropriate if I were to include
some pictures of Vicent, his home and studio that I was fortune
to have taken during the time I had the pleasure to spend
amongst this unique man.
Sunday afternoon was quite an event at Vicent's
finca on the outskirts of San José, where his family
and friends will always lovingly remember him as being a generous
host.
Colourful characters from all walks of life
would appear at his home on a Sunday afternoon bringing with
them pigeons in cages, buckets of live lobsters with excellent
bottles of vino and cava to be washed down with the food that
was prepared for impromptu feasts fit for a king.
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Vicent Calbet in His Studio (November
1988)
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Antoni Planells & Vicent Calbet
Ibiza Port (November 1988)
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Antoni Planells & Vicent Calbet
Palma (February 1992)
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Vicent Calbet's Studio (November 1988
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Vicent Calbet relaxing at his home
with friends (February 1988)
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Inside Vicent Calbet's Finca (February
1988)
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Vicent Calbet at home pondering over
his next painting (February 1988)
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Vicent Calbet laughing with a friend
on his porch (November 1988)
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All
Pictures © Gary Hardy (February & November 1988 &
February 1999)
Unfortunately, Vicent
Calbet departed this life prematurely and in his prime as
a truly great painter. He died at the age of 55 whilst in
Japan preparing an exhibition of his work. Calbet had left
Ibiza in April 1994 for the Japanese City of Fukuoka but was
suddenly taken ill and died of a heart attack due to excess
medication.
According to his close friend and travelling
companion, Antoni Planells, Calbet hated flying and had taken
large doses of tranquillisers before boarding the aeroplane
for the flight to Japan. He felt ill while still on board
and on his arrival went straight to his hotel room to rest.
Antoni found him dead the next early morning when he went
into his room to wake him.
The artist's death came as a terrible shock
to his family, many friends and critics alike. At the time,
Albert Ribas, director of the Sa Nostra Culture Centre in
Palma de Mallorca said that it was a "sad blow"
to the Spanish artistic colony as Calbet was one of the greatest
artists in Spain.
Gary Hardy
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