Articles

June 3, 2015

Prof. Hugo Covantes, President of the Mexican Section of the International Association or Art Critics, AICA-UNESCO

Antoine Gaber, today’s painter on the route to Impressionism.

3 June 2015

Translated from Spanish, unedited quote

” In 1874 Claude Monet presented his canvas “Impression Sunrise ” in Paris, a work of art that stunned both artists and art connoisseurs. This canvas was incomprehensible to most people. It was nearly an “abstract” since the only recognizable motifs were a boat and its driver, a red incandescent sun and some ruins; all of which was wrapped in a mist, an atmosphere only shaped by colors.

Impressionism was born with this revolutionary piece signed by Monet in 1872, the boldest trend of the 19th century and the most fascinating for the post-romantic spirit of the last quarter of that century.

To my knowledge, the Canadian painter Antoine Gaber (whose impressionist version of art dates from 1994, when his first canvases were created), is the most recent follower.

One hundred and twenty two years have passed between the French painter’s first impressionist canvas and Gaber’s art. Does this suggest a relative relevance of Impressionism or is it just a single follower?

We can’t answer that question. But the existence of this impressionist artist makes us think of the vitality of this art, an art that has made possible nature and marine pieces of extraordinary and suggestive beauty.

Gaber seems to have chosen a marine universe to present his impressionistic vision. His titles confirm this reality: “Afternoon sailing” “Bermuda’s pink beaches” and “Canadian winter scenery”, which shows two images: a marine one and a landscape with pine trees and mountains.

Gaber´s impressionistic vision is rather severe, if we compare it to Monet´s watery feeling paintings or Boudin´s and Jongkind’s marine scenes. His warmth is however, in the same manner, measured by the luminous phenomenon of light, which together with his quite dense stroke creates the undeniable image of Impressionism.

In the American continent Gaber pursues with his art the route already traveled next to the impressionist masters by the North american Mary Cassatt, as well as Joaquín Clausell and Guillermo Gómez Mayorga in México, two of several painters that also felt the charm of Impressionism.”

Prof. Hugo Covantes

President of the Mexican Section of the International Association or Art Critics, AICA-UNESCO