Lita Cabellut / Coco Chanel - Opera Gallery
Lita Cabellut / Coco Chanel - Opera Gallery
Lita Cabellut / Coco Chanel - Opera Gallery
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My life didn’t please me, so I created my life »<br />
Although the words are <strong>Chanel</strong>’s, they could easily have been <strong>Cabellut</strong>’s. These two women<br />
have much in common: both began their lives in extreme poverty and had to fight to impose their<br />
unique style with amazing audacity…and talent!<br />
Born a gypsy in the earthy streets of Barcelona in<br />
1961, her father unknown, deserted by her<br />
prostitute mother at the tender age of three<br />
months, nurtured by her gypsy grandmother who<br />
refused to send <strong>Lita</strong> to school, handed over to an<br />
orphanage at age eight, <strong>Lita</strong> <strong>Cabellut</strong> slowly<br />
climbed the ladder of artistic success, starting with<br />
her studies at the Fine Arts School in Amsterdam<br />
(one of the world’s most reputed institutions).<br />
Her obsession with the Prado Museum at the age<br />
of 13, her admiration for Rembrandt and Francis<br />
Bacon, her sense of closeness with fellow<br />
countryman and artist Antoni Tàpies, were the<br />
spiritual and artistic nourishment that defined <strong>Lita</strong>’s<br />
style: a unique blend of representational rigor and<br />
eloquent strokes, where shape and emotion<br />
become one.<br />
<strong>Lita</strong> <strong>Cabellut</strong> - Crédit photo : Maarten Schets<br />
<strong>Lita</strong> <strong>Cabellut</strong>’s passion : the human condition<br />
n<br />
<strong>Coco</strong> <strong>Chanel</strong> built her own style just as <strong>Lita</strong><br />
<strong>Cabellut</strong> ‘builds’ her creations. The artist creates<br />
larger-than-life portraits, fashioning them with oil,<br />
plaster on linen, a painterly technique and<br />
procedure creating cracks on the surface of the<br />
canvas; a process which the artist has mastered<br />
and that enhances each piece’s visual power.<br />
Exhibiting throughout Europe and the United<br />
States since 1984, hailed by art critics<br />
everywhere, <strong>Lita</strong> <strong>Cabellut</strong> is famous for her<br />
provocative and stirring series that illustrate her<br />
definition of the human condition: prostitutes,<br />
clowns, transvestites, musicians, entertainers…<br />
Following her series on Frida Kahlo which sold out<br />
in London in February, 2011, <strong>Lita</strong> <strong>Cabellut</strong> is<br />
currently preparing her next project where she<br />
will take on one of the world’s tragic afflictions:<br />
mental illness.<br />
<strong>Lita</strong> <strong>Cabellut</strong> in her studio<br />
photo by Eddy Wenting