“Within the rich and varied subject of themes that Lluis Ribas has chosen, the most stimulating and captivating, without doubt, is that of the female. Only such a select spirit as his, only such a brush as his, soaked in delicacy, could confront the universal theme of the woman and emerge triumphant.”
J.Mascaro Passarius
Lluis Ribas was born on December 28, 1949, in Masnou, Spain, a coastal town in the Maresme district near Barcelona. Ribas spent hours on the beach tracing his first drawings in the sand. His mother dreamed of a life for him that would be less difficult than that of a fisherman. At nine years of age, he began studying drawing and painting with Jose Maris Martinez. He entered the “Escuela Massana” in Barcelona when he was 13. In 1975, at the age of 25, Ribas held his first one-man exhibition which immediately earned him international acclaim. Since then, Ribas has continued to show his works in some of the most prestigious galleries in Europe and the United States. To date, five books have been published about his paintings.
Ribas is one of the best-known luministas of contemporary Spanish art. His profound knowledge of the secrets of light, shade, and opaqueness are present throughout his work. His female forms are classics – brilliantly executed and exquisitely drawn. His palette contains a wide range of colors which give his paintings their great beauty.
The son of fishermen parents, Ribas learned the vicissitudes of a life dependent upon the sea at an early age. In spite of this, he always felt an affinity for the beach as it represented a point of departure for the horizon that marked the beginning of an adventure across the waters.
As a young artist, Ribas chose the sea, with its continuous harmonic movement as another favorite theme, which he translates to his canvas with an emotional precision few have mastered.
For Ribas, time is not important. He is an artist who prefers to work slowly – continuously defying his vision in a never-ending search for aesthetic. Although his successful career already spans more than twenty years, Ribas does not produce the quantity of paintings that others may, but each canvas is highly desired by galleries and collectors alike. Ribas is not a prolific painter. His disciplined manner of painting requires years of planning for an exhibition.
“Ribas has shown his command of technique, his drawing capacity, and his great skill in a wide range of themes – especially the female figure, the touchstone par excellence for all painters. The figure of the woman, dressed in transparent clothes, facing the sea, caressed by the sun, leaves us in no doubt that he can take on any subject matter that he pleases. Only when you love something, when you feel it in your heart, can you translate it on to canvas the way Lluis Ribas does. And he converts each of his canvases into a study of light; blending the tone, working the material, capturing not only the reality, which is the guideline Ribas always maintains, but also the special atmosphere which pervades all of his paintings. His brushwork is insistent and carries out work that is almost that of a miniaturist, uninvolved with the passage of time. In each of his paintings, Ribas knows just how far to go, knows when just one more brushstroke could shatter the magic charm of the canvas. Reality immersed in atmosphere prevails in all of his paintings. Light penetrates the canvas and becomes a neutral fundamental element; it is the creator of transparency and reflected sunlight, ennobling all that is beautiful, founding and settling the deep human breath which beats in each and every canvas of Ribas.”
Joan Llop
