I
consider myself privileged to have personally known and spent some good quality
time with Vicent Calbet, who was a quiet and a reserved gentleman with a natural
talent for the art of using brilliant Mediterranean colours in his wonderful
paintings.
José
P Ribas has done a good job on writing the biography of this famous Ibicencan
artist. I also thought it would be appropriate if I were to include some pictures
of Vicent, his home and studio that I was fortune to have taken during the time
I had the pleasure to spend amongst this unique man.
Sunday
afternoon was quite an event at Vicent’s finca on the outskirts of San José,
where his family and friends will always lovingly remember him as being a generous
host.
Colourful
characters from all walks of life would appear at his home on a Sunday afternoon
bringing with them pigeons in cages, buckets of live lobsters with excellent
bottles of vino and cava to be washed down with the food that was prepared for
impromptu feasts fit for a king.
Vicent Calbet in His Studio (November 1988)
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Antoni Planells & Vicent Calbet
Ibiza Port (November 1988)
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Antoni Planells & Vicent Calbet
Palma (February 1992)
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Vicent Calbet’s Studio (November 1988)
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Vicent
Calbet relaxing at his home with friends (February 1988)
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Inside
Vicent Calbet’s Finca (February 1988)
Vicent Calbet at home pondering
over his next painting (February 1988)
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Vicent
Calbet laughing with a friend on his porch (November 1988)
All
Pictures ©
Gary Hardy (February & November 1988 & February 1992)
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Unfortunately,
Vicent Calbet departed this life prematurely and in his prime as a truly great
painter. He died at the age of 55 whilst in Japan preparing an exhibition of
his work. Calbet had left Ibiza in April 1994 for the Japanese City of Fukuoka
but was suddenly taken ill and died of a heart attack due to excess medication.
According
to his close friend and travelling companion, Antoni Planells, Calbet hated
flying and had taken large doses of tranquillisers before boarding the aeroplane
for the flight to Japan. He felt ill while still on board and on his arrival
went straight to his hotel room to rest. Antoni found him dead the next early
morning when he went into his room to wake him.
The
artist’s death came as a terrible shock to his family, many friends and critics
alike. At the time, Albert Ribas, director of the Sa Nostra Culture Centre in
Palma de Mallorca said that it was a “sad blow” to the Spanish artistic colony
as Calbet was one of the greatest artists in Spain. |