Presentation
Josep Giribet Màgic
by Odeda Rosenthal
The word
unique
has often been over-used. But I know of few other artists
whose work fits this description as rightly as the body of
work produced by the Catalonian Josep Giribet. He is a
master of light and of translating colors. He has had to
develop a system of translating colors because he is
daltonic (color blind). He has always wanted to use a full
spectrum of colors in his paintings, but he couldn´t. The
language of color as we know it is alien to him. So, he has
taken on the task that would be equal to writing the most
lyrical and subtle poetry in a language that he does not
know. Yet what he produces delights the native speaker (or
the person who sees the full spectrum of colors). His basic
secret is that he is a master of light. We all need light
for color appreciation, but for daltonics it makes a very
big difference. What’s more, it is amazing how Giribet uses
light to his advantage by tricking us to consider colors in
their full intensity as actually being in the shade, while
having our mind’s eye fill in the colors as they would be
seen in blazing sunshine bleached to a pastel, (colors he
cannot see). He tricks us into triggering our minds to see
what he does, and to give it a new twist. You can notice
this, for instance, in his painting of the Morocco market.
There you can see that he presents the colors of the spices
in the shade, while the colors of the spices in the bags
that are lit by full sun are left to our eyes to determine.
Giribet
goes a step further. He confronts us with the question of
how white is white. This can be seen in his painting of the
white handkerchiefs, and the white stucco wall of the
building where a girl stands outside on the terrace, where
a myriad of colors create the appearance of white. Again,
we are forced to confront an experience in seeing that we
would otherwise ignore if we have full color vision. The
shadows of white seem to be alive with colors to him, and
indeed, so they are but we often ignore this reality.
The
Flemish artists Jan Vermeer and Rembrandt were masters of
light in the 17th Century, but they focused on contrasts
with dark areas and with refracted light and highlights.
The French Impressionists in the 19th Century focused on
capturing light, but they focused on colors may blend in a
distance. They could do this with ease because paints in
colors had become cheaper since the mid 1850’s when
synthetic dyes were developed. They benefited from the work
of a daltonic. It was John Dalton (who wanted dearly to
become a chemist but could not because of his color vision
condition, and the first to write scientifically on his
condition) whose genius led to the capacity for noting
chemical equations and using them as recipes for production
of synthetic dyes in that rapid development in the field of
chemistry of the mid 19th century.
One would hardly guess that this artist does not see the
very colors he uses. Most artist who have this inherited
condition hide in other arts like sculpture, crafts,
architecture, printmaking, photography. If they do paint,
they use mainly what are considered the secondaries or else
rely on their basic color palate of blue, grays and amber
(from orange to brown or wine red). They tend to work in
some abstract or impressionistic way, not in realism.
Whether they are “red color blind” (protanopic) or “green
color blind” (dueteranopic) their color vision is limited
not only to an inability to see red or green, but they may
equate red and black or deep brown, and green with white,
orange or yellow or red and other combinations most people
would not think of as equals. Theirs is not simply a matter
of mixing up dark blue with black or odd shades of green
and blue in odd light. Their color confusion is constant
and distinct.
Perhaps,
now that Giribet is a young grandfather, he has allowed
himself to expose his inherited “handicap”. So many of
those who have it, and at least 9% of the world’s male
population do, refuse to admit to it, hide it, or are
ashamed of it. I suspect this is why so little serious
study has been done on this condition. Always a pioneer,
Giribet is right on time to wake us all up, now that
color-based computer graphics are taking over. In fact, he
uses the computer as a tool.
When you look at
Giribet’s work, you can see just what road he traveled to
overcome this condition. His painting of the sinks is
similar to what one might expect. He then dared with his
downtown square of Tarrega in mid day. His painting of a
Van Gogh- like room showing a red table cloth which casts a
green shadow is typical of the confusion, but somehow, in
his hands, we do not notice it at first. Then he came upon
doing color translation for himself by way of the computer.
Why not? He is a 21st Century man using a 21st Century
tool.
Clearly,
his work is well constructed. It is realistic, his
selection of subject matter seems simple. It offers us the
opportunity to create a story in our mind. But it is his
use of light which makes the paintings all the more
charming in a special way. We feel we belong in his
presentations, even though he makes us work- yet we enjoy
doing that too.
Truly,
there is no other way to describe how this artist produces
such extraordinarily artworks than by some sort of
magic.
Odeda
Rosenthal,
2006
ODEDA
ROSENTHAL
has been part of the Art world for more than 40 years,
as
graphic designer, exhibition director of major historic
material, exhibiting
artist, art historian and consultant
in color vision confusion. A native of
Jerusalem, her
degrees are from universities in New York City. She is the
author of the comprehensive reference COPING WITH COLOR
BLINDNESS (1997),
the director and narrator of the
educational video TRANSLATING COLORS
(2006). She has been
a member of the Inter Society Color Council, the
International Color Association and Optical Society of
America. Currently she teaches Art History in North
Carolina
Introduction
The
color that surrounds and fascinates us: nature, food,
clothes, our homes, signs, attractions, spectacles,
objects, toys, books, science, design, publicity,
communication, and... art.
The color of skin, the colors
of eyes, red lips, the color of a water melon, the
intensity colorant of saffron, bright green fields, vine
leaves in autumn, deciduous forests, golden with the
backlighting of the sun... and the sky, that immense sky
that is always with us, different every day, with intense
blues and the generous splendor of the evening sky.
During
my life, I have spent many an hour watching sunsets, and
never two the same. A range of shades fills the sky from
the east to the west. Delicate colors accompany the horizon
at the end of the day. And when there are clouds, their
forms and colors draw unpredictable caprices. Shiny golden
lines outline ochre masses with violet transparences.
Colors are found everywhere in nature, some for clear
functional reasons but others, more gratuitous, inspire
transcendental reflections. However, it is in culture where
we have developed a huge range of meanings for colors:
signals and codes, references and suggestions, to attract
and seduce, to forbid or warn, to define semantic hues,
warnings about order and hierarchy, to transmit messages
about emotions, identities, ideologies... an explicit or
subtle language that we have to learn and interpret.
It
affects all areas and activities: education, communication,
the home, gastronomy, transport, fashion, science and
technology, art and culture...
Despite all this, color is
a personal, intimate, nontransferable experience, for which
it would be difficult to find sensorial equivalents,
indefinable except by referring to the color itself or the
objects that usually show it. Technically measurable as a
physical phenomenon, but impossible to transmit to those
who have been unable to experience it.
But despite having
this experience, an important percentage of people do not
see the same. Colors vision confusion is a congenital
defect that affects all aspects of life where color is
important.
Since I found out that I didn’t see colors the
same way as other people, it has been a real intrigue that
has obsessed me for years. What must the world be like
through the eyes of someone with full visual capacity? Some
simply tell me that I don’t see either better or worse, I
just see things different. But put before an Ishihara test,
and not seeing the numbers that appear, and that the vast
majority see, I know I’m missing something.
This
circumstance conditioned me for many years, especially
because I have worked professionally in design and
audiovisual production. In this aspect, the appearance of
computers and the programs that allow the manipulation of
images and, especially, define and control colors has been
a fundamental aid.
But given that I have an artistic,
creative vocation, I have always searched, time and time
again, for ways and tools to orientate myself through my
personal world where the perceptive mists lead towards the
above-mentioned confusion. Thus, it is in computers that I
have found that ‘compass’ that allows me to ‘navigate’,
even with fog, through my pictorial experience.
The
catalogue for this exhibition encompasses my work over four
years of research, where science, technique and artistic
experience have been woven together inseparably. My great
hope is that this work is useful for others who, like me,
are on a quest to find those invisibles colors.
Josep
Giribet, setembre del 2006
