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Las Tres Hermanas by Belin, 2017. Oil and acrylic on panel, 130×180 cm. Wandering around the artistic neighborhoods of many cities I often find myself considering how the skill, technique and creativity of street artists far exceed that of some contemporary artists quoted on the art market. Some artists are extremely good and innovative in technique, as documented last week with the bas-relief sculpture by VHILS, others are in style.
This is the case of Miguel Ángel Belinchón Bujes, known in the environment as Belin. Born in Linares, Jaén, Spain, Belin is considered one of the most significant contemporary Spanish artists of the 21st century. A pioneer of post neo-cubism, Belin studied art at Jaén High School in Spain, after which he decided to continue his artistic training as a self-taught artist, taking advantage of libraries, museums, galleries, artistic exchanges of views with other artists and many books with which he succeeded, obviously combining theory and practice to reach the artistic levels in which he finds himself today.
Today Belin is an artist appreciated all over the world and sought after both for commercial brands such as Dockers, Carhatt and Sephora, and for show-business personalities such as “Kat von D”: tatto-artist, model, entrepreneur and face of American TV. Those who had the chance to visit SCOPE in Miami Beach during Miami Art Week saw him make his debut with a solo show for the Wyn 317 Gallery, in Wynwood Miami. Belin is no stranger to the streets of Wynwood, where last year, again for the Wyn 317 gallery, he created a gigantic mural that attracted many tourists and lovers of street art.
Belin, in addition to making large murals, has made works on panel, canvas, paper and terracotta. Among the preferred mediums in addition to spray cans are oil and acrylic both on panel and canvas. Among the various series that have characterized his artistic career my favorite is the one composed by the works “Post neo-cubism”. The series, with its extraordinary colours, is characterized by the union of realistic-figurative fragments combined with Cubist and abstract art. In this series it is very interesting to analyze the different perspective of the face-nase-mouth fragments into which Belin usually divides the character’s face.
The eyes, in particular, can be represented in the same scene seen with two different perspectives or two different expressions, which demonstrate his knowledge of the anatomy of the face. He has revisited the works of the old masters, including Leonardo’s The Mona Lisa and Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and many others, and has represented characterizations of some historical figures of the art world. The selected work is, in my opinion, a representation in “Belinian key” of the Three Sisters, the only work of profane subject, painted by the painter Jacopo Negretti from Bergamo, better known under the name of Palma il Vecchio. An exceptional work for the creative uniqueness of Belin but also for the daring combination of colours.
From the title: Las Tres Hermanas by Belin, 2017. Óleo y acrílico sobre tabla 130×180 cm .
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