The first 29 paintings of around 50 are now hung at the historic Ojai Resort, considered one of the best kept secrets among travelers. http://ojairesort.com/ This fantastic 5 foot horse and rider painting by Gino is one of many shown in the Inn.

A Social Safari took place on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 in downtown Minneapolis’s Warehouse District. Fifty percent of sales go to Smile Network International; providing free surgeries to children with facial deformities. Gino’s art was featured along with jewelry from celebrity designer Susanna Galanis. Images from party coming soon.

http://www.smilenetwork.org/Smile_Network/Event_Calendar.html

“My gallery was on West Broadway (the 19th C. Old Post Office) and it was about 5 thousand feet between the ground and basement; I think about 3 thousand feet on round floor with great windows. And, it was a hell of a space to put in shape for it had been some kind of machine work shop and literally had inches of greasy substance over entire floor. It was Alex Katz’s building; his studio was upstairs and still is I think. He had rented the building out before to one or two people but they did nothing with it so… he only wanted a long term lease with guarantees. So with less than half the rent to start and escalating costs…ended up with ten years and renewals…it all worked out.

I brought Juani in from Spain, illegally of course, to work the sanding machines day and night. I borrowed 10 maybe 15 grand from Gene Schweitzer who then was big hot shot in the womens wear market. He came through without a question..we needed the money for I wasn’t quite finished, about 90 percent, with the our first SoHo gallery on Spring Street a block east of West Broadway. It was a good space and inexpensive because it was a block off the traffic and this was before SoHo blossomed into hundreds of galleries.

Anyway, we put three weeks of work into the Spring Street place (oye vey, it had a second floor) and it was just about ready. I’d signed a 3-year lease and upon learning about the West Broadway spot, bottom line, I dropped the Spring Street location, and negotiated the Alex’s West Broadway location. This resulted in being sued for 3 years by the Spring Street spot and as I was back in Spain, it went away.

And, the West Broadway gallery opened in 2 weeks with a great opening! Circle Fine Art’s owners Jack and Carolyn Solomon saw it and knew my place on Madison across from the Whitney and, as they had their gallery across the street, 1 of 8 I think.
Long story short, Jack sensed the new and I became represented by them.

Broadway was gonna be the center of the art world in a couple years and my place was the best down there. Jack came to Spain and negotiated with me to take over my representation as Circle Fine Arts. The contract was a a good six figure monthly for ten years. It worked for both of us; he got about 300 paintings a year (then prices were well below $100 average) and I got nice monthly lump sum plus an override on rent which I was paying at 3 thousand a month. Ah life. So I went back to Spain and finished Yeguas; put in the gardens and thousands of trees as we had dreamed …ah life indeed.

The contract with Circle was for 10 years and I guess the date as starting was 1972 not 1969 (69 is when I took the West Broadway place and opened it) for in 1982 I got the head bump on the tennis court at Lew Hoad’s Campo de Tenis. This resulted in a blown bundle branch which was very life threatening including fibrillations and stuff. I was in the States in 1982 for a show at Circle but before that I had a long session with head/heart guy (Nixon’s doctor)at Georgetown Hospital who gave me a five to ten year life expectancy!

And with nothing I could really do to help so when I came into the show opening for Circle in my old gallery, I did so knowing I wanted out; it was the expiration of my 10-year contract with them and Jack and Carolyn wanted a renewal as I was their hottest volume painter.

They now wanted to significantly raise prices especially knowing I was going to die sooner than later (odd coincidence was…they were staying with us and negotiating our renewal contract, telling me how they were goin to open Hollander only galleries on upper 5th Avenue and in L.A., blah, blah, blah.) And they’d attended the finals of the tennis tournament at Hoad’s in which I, at age 58 was playing against a 28-year old Yugloslav whom I disliked and he me. I was at set point, match point (mine) when I hit a line and ref called it in. The Yugoslav yelled and screamed and I at other end of court said, ‘Oh Shit!!’ which he heard (100 people watching these finals) and he turned ran at the net, jumped it and with wooden racquet cocked, came at me and full force wacked me on my jaw and cheekbone with racquet, breaking both and sending me reeling. Lew Hoad jumped in and broke it up but I was blacked out for a short time. Jack and Carolyn saw all this and surely they thought, ‘Hmmmm…gonna have another dead artiste soon,’ (like happened to their biggest money maker Erte) and could count the millions.

The end story is that…in knowing I had only a short time to live, I wanted to clean up everything I was doing which I didn’t like and number one was getting rid of Circle Fine Arts as my agent. I just like to be free I guess and never did ike just having that big income…took the fun away maybe. Anyway I picked a huge fight with Carolyn at the show in the gallery over the bad stretching and framing or something and…walked out! I wouldn’t renew for another ten years at HIGHER six figures..oye vey!!! As Lady B said and would say (and bottome line), ‘life has been better and…alive at age 85!’

From 1982 to now has been a hell of a good trip..doing it all by the
doubt aided in lifes continuing……and now it’s the last stage and I am going to be home with B and paint and watch my family doing their thing…whatever best for paintings go do..with love.”

Gino recently donated this fantastic large Universe painting to the Benalmadena Town Hall, Malaga, Costa del Sol, Spain.

See more by clicking on this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hearseetv/sets/72157620906057759/

Gino on James Michener:

Jim Michener was a close friend (met in Torre) and often houseguest during the entire research for Drifters (which in his books normally is done by a crew of many) but this, Pamplona the wildness of our Torremolinos of that time com Hemingway’s of Fitzgerald’s Cote D’Azur of earlier decades…..so we took Mitch to Pamplona…he ran with me under my tutelage and on way up
Santo Domingo realized he wasn’t very agile so put him in a shallow, one foot closed doorway entrance and had our closest friend Harry Hubert to stand with Mitch and make sure he tucks in his tummy as the horns go by up Santa Domingo as always trying to clear the walls of peoples…and sure enough..one 699 kilo macho bull stops cold in front of Harry and Mitch (I
have a photo of it) and sways back and forth probably wondering which belly to horn and toss….and………..and…the bull’s attention caught by a couple of pomplanican running aides and he wheels around and off goes with the herd…

When was I his final days in hospital in Texas..I called…and he spoke immediately of that incident and said nothing ever put a smile on his self more than that first “run”…and yes he ran with us each of the days left of that ferias,

enjoy..

gino

With 84-year old Gino’s oxygen levels dropping continually at a ‘mere’ 8200 feet, the plan took shape and has already been executed: a move to sea level. Gino and Barbie flirted with the idea of Spain again but with family stateside, Ojai, California seemed to fit the bill. And, it does; see so with the email below:

“My kids knew my modus operendi and suggested Ojai as being my best shot..considering barbara’s needs as well..and lo and behold..have a three bedroom on the last street in town to west..only alfalfa field and huge orange grove and then Natl forest as view from my bedroom the sorta office and the ample studio space and sizable backyard….not a house or structure to be seen..good start…and yes five hundred feet instead of 8 thousand altitude has resulted in zero use of oxygen feed so far and probable continue same……the week here in Ojai…strange and wonderfull feeling after near five years on ox….24/7 good start….had all family so willingly crawling around on hands and knees with workload doing all to be done..unloaded some 80 large boxes plus all our furniture and most already put in place……
my studio just about set..and figure to start painting agin in few days. call next time your heading this way…we will be finished with this
settlin in process in week or two…. tel number is 805 272 8107 and just got back on line this afternoon…. with some 180 e’s showing….oye vey!!!
Sempre Advanti, gino”

As Gino is living the moment and appreciating his health, he has been very busy painting. This painting of 4 nudes is the latest although there have been others in the past two weeks which I will post also.

Already the compliments are flowing in! Off Axis Art installed the oh-so-suitable black and white group painting of Gino’s at 428 N. Washington in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. Sapor Cafe usually rates as one of the ten best restaurants in Minneapolis. Sip on my favorite, Parisienne Roux (try on being a redhead for the evening) and take in the robust art!

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Gino wrote in a recent email: As to Salvador Dali. I had a two man show at the Spanish consulate in New York back in the sixties or early seventies..with Dali…met him there and at my Hollander Gallery on Madison Ave. He couldn’t believe we would choose to live in Southern Spain when came from NYC…..We visited him in his Pueblo outside Barcelona..at his invitation…..but he had been called away to one of his infamous events or other…we drove up suitably in a 1928 Bugatti B (yellow, bright yellow)…and were gawked at suitably as he always was. Ah life.

Check out this link to a swell slideshow featuring Gino’s paintings alongside sculpture by his daughter Siri Hollander. This artwork is installed at the famous Rand Tower in the windows of Brosseau PR. We’ve been working with James Rutherford, Regional Director, to make this window exhibition possible:
http://www.slide.com/r/OFgFi6Xs1T8oxeCFM_5EcpClbaZO1bbB?view=original

Gino’s work is also showing for view at C.McGee’s in the Warehouse District. Images coming soon.

This, ladies and gentleman, is a maverick! Here is 84-year old painter, Gino Hollander, in action in the early days of September 2008.

Although Gino paints indoors also, he prefers to paint out in nature. Hence, the Hollanders live on the Roaring Fork River in Aspen, smack dab near the city but one wouldn’t notice with the roaring river and the woods. Take a peek into Gino’s studio. Also, he surrounds himself with the sculptures of his daughter Siri Hollander. www.sirihollander.org, some of which are shown in the third picture.

This is a beauty! One of Gino’s first paintings in 7 weeks resulting in his longest layoff from painting in 48 years.
Gino paints elegant universes and here are a few words from him, “It is an elegant universe and it goes on and on and everything – of which we’re the…..uh….one billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a part of our universe. But it’s all one. And life is all of one. We reproduce and so everything that reproduces, and that’s everything that lives, is your brother or your sister and one with you.”

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Gino!

August 4th, 2008…Gino turned 84 years old!

Kick it!

Out-of-touch for a few days…trying to keep up with Gino.

Friday, August 1st, we opened Gino’s and his daughter Siri’s exhibition at the Roaring Fork Club in Basalt, Colorado. What a beauty! We’ve gotten a lot of emotional response…which is what Gino’s paints….emotion. During the show, clips provided by Jonny Kloberdanz, cinematographer/editor of Gino’s new documentary The Art and the Artist, were shown in the bar and the library, all with positive response. Along with Gino’s son, the primary photographer for the Running of the Bulls (check out this link: http://www.hollanderart.com/sitepages/pid15.php), his daughters, Alex and Mikella were present, Gino’s daughter Lise Hollander-Cohen and her husband Howard. Jim Light, the Roaring Fork Club’s managing partner, swung through as well as Karen Woodard of Aspen, Kevin Ward of the Aspen Science Center, Jeff and Linda Howard of Miami and Basalt, Leslie McNamee-Johnson with KDNK Community Radio,….more coming.

During installation, Gino, his son Jim, and I were standing in the hallway of the RFC Lodge, looking over the newly installed paintings. Gino noticed that one was crooked so he asks me for a boost onto a fairly high chest, “C’mon Katrina, give me a little boost.” Before Jim or I could dissuade him, 83-year old (84 on Monday) Gino was standing up on the chest, had his painting straightened and jumped down, commanding us to remove the ladder we’d grabbed for him. He amazes me!

Barbara Hollander, Gino’s wife, has authored a number of books thus far and is in the process of publishing her memoir, Tapestry. Her writing style is fresh and uncensored. Get a taste with this excerpt from 1985 which gives one a rare glimpse of her husband.

RAMBLING THOUGHTS ABOUT GINO . 1985

I often wonder if the children have any idea how their father feels about them. How much he cares for them. How much his life has been devoted to them. It might not always seem so to them. He is often gruff, he yells a lot, he’s short tempered and demanding and insists he’s always right. Of course we won’t mention that he usually is right and those times he’s proved wrong he’s very willing to admit it. He’s never been an easy man to live with but he’s made up for it by being a challenging mentor. Our house hasn’t had an awful lot of jokes and laughter. He has no sense of humor. None. Smiles yes, warmth and soft words of encouragement. He alternates strict control and hands off treatment. His love of home and family is almost unique in today’s world.

In some ways he’s a wild man, testing himself against dangers, ignoring laws and customs he considers unfair or ridiculous, pretty much thumbing his nose at the mores of the world at large. He loves America, or at least the idea of America but he’s troubled with Americans. Most of his friends are European or people with a strong European bent. He misses the old-world, it’s feelings. strong connection to crumbling cities, ancient customs.

It has never occurred to him that he could possibly fail at anything he set out to do. His supreme self-confidence, hard work and optimism always carry him through. I marvel as over and over again I see him do those things he can’t possibly do. Take as an example his inexplicable and almost spur of the moment decision to be a painter. He couldn’t draw a straight line. Hardly had ever tried. There was an easel in the house and some art materials left over when I finally abandoned the whole thing but that was no excuse. He said at the time and has repeated over and

over that he wanted to escape the pressures of the market place and instead put all effort into a life’s work at what was meaningful. His wanting to get everything done yesterday didn’t go too well with the rush and wait atmosphere of film making. Too many conferences too much of everything.

He knew intuitively that Europe was going to be a more hospitable place for him. In Europe there still is a respect for an artist, an atmosphere more conducive to pure creativity, not the bottom line dollar credo of the States. In starting out as a painter he needed, he knew, a place where he could live more simply, more meaningfully, than Manhattan. He had no fear, no second thoughts, he just rushed off impetuously. And of course it worked. Of course he was right.

True to a blog, Gino sends random messages and photos from their little nook by the Roaring Fork River in Aspen. So, I’m adding and sharing these. In this photo, the doggies are chowing breakfast, con gusto, on Lady B’s bed.

Enjoy!

14-yr old Spook, Charlie, a West Highland white terrier age 8 or 9, and the cutie pie in gray is Madigan…a miniature schnauzer age 4 or 5

Another story from Gino:

JK and Fermin Borquez, famous rejoniador and winery from Jerez de la frontera..I am just in back of her and when some hundreds of photographers shortly after this photo blocked the way..horse started freaking and I went up and grabbed the reins and as was the only english speaker in the whole mess of people…there we began to talk and were held up for 1/2 hour..so was a long warm talk of this and that…Invited her to my NY Hollander Gallery on Madison..said I would be in the following month..and sure enough a month later her limo showed up parked double lane in front of gallery..and she came in spent an hour looking and talking of whatever; life in Spain mostly and art. She bought a painting and I gifted several works on paper and did a sketch…had a gracious thank you note a week later.

Another thing was that nite after the ride we were all, my family, in the Alfonso Trece hotel bar…and in came Grace of Monaco, the other famosa woman of the year who, up to the point of Saturday paseo on horses (photo), had been the beloved of Sevilla …until Jackie.

Ah you women…a different, perhaps better world you are and beget.

In Junio de ’73 we went with six horses and the four kids and a friend of Jim’s (Gino’s oldest son) across Spain from Pizarra to Pamplona. It was a trip that Marc had suggested after he went with us to Sevilla for the Feria 1969.

After two very heavy years I decided now’s the time for me to get into the act of living once again. And a horse trip sleeping and out all the way and probably taking about 30 days was just the thing. Being on Marejada for five hours a day for thirty days would have been challenge enough but cutting cross country with no roads allowed and carrying whatever with us on a couple packhorses was a challenge indeed.

Barbara was to ride Alexi, as she did on the three days up and three back to Sevilla. An enthusiastic horsewoman she wasn’t. But somehow with what I got involved in she managed to go along with at least once. All was set for our departure vente-uno de Mayo at six in the morning. A huge downpour (early for Málaga) started as we were packing up the horses; saddling. I mean a torrential affair.

The quadra almost immediately became a lake. Barbara said with no if’s and’s or but’s no way am I going to go with you all on horseback for a month. Well, after twenty years with a woman you get to know what you can get away with and what you can’t. This was a definite no no. And at 6:30 am and the downpour outdoing itself, we’d be lucky to get the horses out of the stable without them sinking up to their bellies. To make it to Alora through all those newly plowed orange groves would be like plowing through a sponge where one could lose a horse.

So what to do now? “Okay, here’s what we are going to do, guys and dolls. Unpack the pack horses (general moan from Scott, Lise, Siri, Jimmy and friend). Jim, go get the VW bus (ancient) and bring here into the stable. Barbie, you are as of now off the hook, no riding a horse to Pamplona. You are going to drive the VW with all our packs in it, and bedding and camping supplies, food, horseshoeing, and the works. We don’t need a packhorse to slow us down. You’ll take all the equipment and we’ll be able to ride light. It will be easier by far on the horses and on us.” “No way,” says Madam Hollander. “I am not going to drive this decrepit old wreck to Pizarra, no less 1000 miles to Pamplona alone.” “Who says ‘alone’, my love, your beloved Duchesa (our two-year-old St. Bernard) will be your constant companion.” A scream from Lady B, the tone of which I interpreted as not a definite NO, and possibly we could talk her into this. Which all of us, each in our inimitable fashion did. Then the VW pulled into the stable and everyone started piling things in. Duchesa jumped in and plunked herself down on this mountain of blankets and goodies and Barbara, with having lost another set, resigned but mellow, started coming up with practical suggestions as to what to add to the goodie list. A couple of checked tablecloths, candles, food, staples and delicacies, a more or less complete library (for a VW), down pillows and comforters—yes, all the goodies that had been denied when we were going to use pack horses—were now fair game.

How was this to work? “How,” asked my mate, “am I to take this beat up junk pile, behind you guys who are on horseback? Are you riding on roads?” “Nope,” says I, winging it as my excited brain whirled. “We will ride cross country all the way. You will go by roads. Any passable roads that will take you to the spot on this Firestone map marked ‘X’, our meeting place for each day.”

We finally arrive in Pamplona, days ahead of schedule. We looked for a place to stable, we will truck the horses back. We are stared at with our Andaluz dress: Pamplona has never seen the chaps and riding boots and flat hats outside of a bullring. We can’t believe we made it intact, all with aching muscles, cramps, cuts and bruises but essentially in one piece. Can you blame us for being just a little bit boastful? We complained a lot over aches and pains—the horses kept their opinions to themselves. But like us they must have heaved a collective sigh of relief.

So now on to the corridas; on to the annual insanity known as the Feria de San Fermin.

The attached Feria de San Fermin one is the first shot of me, the second the San Fermin 1966 the second of the sequence……the guy with the newspaper in hand had come over with the waving paper got the bulls attention to it instead of me and I scooted…as well the man on the fence was properly prodding the blulls belly or balls to distract………ah life indeedy.

Looking good for PBS on documenetary Art and the Artist…they requested near an hour length containing Gino’s 10th Mountain WWII bits and some more what he calls chispas de la vida, those lightening bolts in life, where instinct takes over and one knows exactly what to do without explanation.

Art and the Artist – Gino Hollander
A brand new documentary on the art and life of Gino Hollander.

You are invited to view a new film called Art and the Artist – Gino Hollander. Step into the home and studio of Gino Hollander in Aspen where you will learn about the 28 years he spent in Spain and how he gave up his career in filmmaking in the 50’s to become a painter.

You will learn about much more than just art in this film. It’s an honest portrait of a man who has lived a life full of adventure!

Art and the Artist – Gino Hollander from Gino Hollander on Vimeo