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===Aspen===
===Aspen===
Currently living in [[Aspen, Colorado]], Hollander continues to paint. He also appeared in the film "Mountain Town".
After nearly 20 years in [[Aspen, Colorado]] during which he appeared in the film "Mountain Town", Hollander gave in to his lungs' demands in the near 8,000 foot altitude and moved with his wife Barbara to Ojai, California.

===Ojai, California===
At around 750 feet in elevation, Hollander continues to paint in the new Mediterranean-like climate without the 24/7 oxygen tank which he toted around in a backpack while living in Aspen.


== Artistic Style ==
== Artistic Style ==

Revision as of 19:27, 20 March 2009

Eugene F. Hollander or Gino Hollander (born August 4, 1924 in New Jersey, U.S.A.) is a self-taught American painter. He began painting around the beginning of modern art in New York City during the abstract expressionist movement.

Biography

Early life

Gino's father was in the fur business, enabling the family to travel to Europe including a nine month stay in Paris. At age 13, Hollander experienced his first adventure with a 1,000 mile bike trip up the Connecticut River Valley alone. Hollander was a member of the United States Army's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops and is a veteran of World War II.

New York City

In the mid-20th century, he was a successful filmmaker along with his wife Barbara Hollander[citation needed] before quitting to paint in 1960, during the abstract expressionism movement in New York City. He became one of the group that defined this movement and whom all hung out at the famous Cedar Tavern. Acrylic paint was just emerging at that time and Hollander was among the first to explore its possibilities.[citation needed] From 1960-1962, he had his studio and the first Hollander Gallery on Bleecker Street, in Greenwich Village. Although his paintings sold to the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy, Steve McQueen and Norman Rockwell, Hollander wasn't satisfied with his work.

Spain

Hollander moved his family to Spain in 1962, often bartering paintings to support his family while he continued honing his painting style. Hollander and his wife Barbara took their children on archaeological trips, following the road construction crews which were building new highways throughout Spain, unearthing ancient treasures. They created Museo Hollander, renamed Pizarra Municipal Museum, located in Cortijo de las Yeguas. The museum was to exhibit this collection of Spanish artifacts that span along with Hollander's own paintings. In 1990, the Hollanders donated their museum to the government of Spain and were nationally awarded in honor of the King's birthdate a Medallion de Plata for contributing to the country's growth in tourism.

Aspen

After nearly 20 years in Aspen, Colorado during which he appeared in the film "Mountain Town", Hollander gave in to his lungs' demands in the near 8,000 foot altitude and moved with his wife Barbara to Ojai, California.

Ojai, California

At around 750 feet in elevation, Hollander continues to paint in the new Mediterranean-like climate without the 24/7 oxygen tank which he toted around in a backpack while living in Aspen.

Artistic Style

Hollander paints for himself. He has no wish to engage in a dialogue with the viewer. It is for him to paint for the viewer to view, the two separate faces of any work of art; both allow a work to be. He refuses to title his paintings. He tells no stories. His people are purposely poised on the far edge of nothingness, faces left blank or at best enigmatic. His figures are abstracted and his abstracts disturbingly figurative. He’ll paint through the day and on into the night, each canvas a different mood. From stark black and white to a splash of brilliant colors and on to a subtle moody sepia, then back to a black and white, gentle this time. He is a complex man and his canvasses reinforce this complexity in the very simplicity of their form and content.

The painter paints. He refuses to discuss his work or for that matter, art in general. To him “there’s nothing verbal about a canvas. A painting is simply one way to express a feeling and feelings can only be made less if they are talked to death”. Beginning and end of conversation. Hollander is a difficult man to interview. Like his paintings, he is tricky, hard to pin down. He’ll talk with you for hours and it is only very late in the night that you are aware that he is interviewing you, finding out who you are and how you feel. He’ll discuss any valid subject in the world. Except his paintings. The canvas has no meaning for him once it is finished. It is the push and pull, the emotional context of painting that captures him. From then on it is the province of the viewer alone. There is a dialogue of course, but a wordless one. A statement, a response; a question, an answer. If these exist they are mute. This is a dialogue of the heart or, perhaps, the soul.

Hollander’s reaction to the garishness and violence of life today takes a unique form: his mood is often of softness and gentleness. He is an eternal romantic. Women exist in the world of his paintings. He sees the hopes and promise in the face of an adolescent standing on the threshold of maturity. There is no disillusion nor despair. Nor is their gaiety. There is only wanting and hope and perhaps more than a little questioning. He paints vast faceless groups the wandering figures intertwined in constant movement. Yet each figure is alone, separate, uninvolved, as in essence each of us must be. Even in his most violent seascapes one knows the slender fishing boat will make it safely back to port.

Behind the sun-washed white wall of his country villages one senses a full teeming life, a place for one and all.1

Hollander Galleries

HG Sullivan St., Greenwich Village, NYC 1961 - 1st painting sold here.

HG, Bleeker St., Greenwich Village, NYC 1962-1967 - paintings sold here provided money for the move to Spain.

HG, 950 Madison Ave., NYC 1967-1972 - across from the Whitney Museum.

HG Torremolinos, Costa del Sol, Spain 1962-1963

HG Hotel Pez Espada, Torremolinos, Costa del Sol, Spain 1963-1973

HG Hotel Don Pepe, Marbella, Spain 1964-1990

HG Atalaya Park, Costa del Sol, Spain 1964-1985

HG Hotel Puente Romano, Marbella, Spain 1965-1985

HG Mount St., London 1966-1976

HG Marbella Club Hotel, Spain 1967-1990

HG Hollander-York, Toronto 1968-1980

HG West Broadway, NYC 1970-1982

HG Hamburg, Germany 1975-1978

HG Museo Hollander, Cortijo De Las Yeguas, Spain 1982-1990 – archeological museum as well as a charitable organization.

HG Minneapolis, MN, 2006 - current

Notes

Gino Hollander Website

Museums and Institutions

Private and Estate Collections

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