Original Francisco Riba Rovira Oil on Board Painting
Item Details
An original oil on board painting by very well listed and revered Catalan painter Francisco Riba Rovira (born Barcelona 1913, died Paris 2002). He fought against the rebellion in the Spanish Civil War and was thereafter forced into exile in a French prison camp. He was arrested later on by the SS during WWII. After that the artist escaped and ended up in Paris where he was eventually discovered and exhibited by Gertrude Stein. Gertrude Stein said of Rovira, “It is inevitable that when we really need someone we find him. The person you need attracts you like a magnet. I returned to Paris after these long years spent in the countryside and I needed a young painter, a young painter who would awaken me. And now here we are, I find a young painter who does not follow the tendency to play with what Cézanne could not do, but who attacks any right the things which he tried to make, to create the objects which have to exist, for, and in themselves, and not in relation. This young painter has his weakness and his strength. His force will push him in this road. I am fascinated and that is why he is the young painter who I needed. He is Francisco Riba-Rovira.” This painting, titled to the verso Oh, Flight, proudly exemplifies some of the finer points of Rovira’s non-objective painting, pronouncing a cleverly divided series of forms, rising and falling, indicative of the landscape, and in reference to the basic form of organic physicality imbued with geometry. In this painting Rovira is achieving exactly what Stein meant when she suggested that the painter was far more daring than Cezanne had been, although ascending on a similar trajectory. The painting would seem a discussion of transcendence. These paintings are truly stunning, truly the kind that ought to hang in a museum. This is an incredible opportunity to own a historical painting, the availability of which will dwindle as paintings such as these are snatched up into private collections. This painting was created just nine years after the artist’s discovery and is indeed an exciting progression in the artist’s oeuvre, much the stuff Stein was talking about. Painted on gessoed board and thereafter tacked into a wooden frame with grey and white paint. Signed to the lower right corner and dated ‘10-1954’.
Condition
- wear to the frame, and a white line to the right from the frame. The framed is probably original to the piece.
Dimensions
- framed, visible image size: 21″ × 17.5″.
Item #
15CIN222-325
