Graciela Rodo Boulanger
Parade Suite - "Elephant" and "Bear"
Allegro con Brio
Ninos, Ninos Suite
Les Belles Annees
Portrait de la Mairee
Champ Fleuri A Moret
Autour de Monde
Her perspective on the universal innocence of children and her
interpretation of the spirit of Latin America give a unique stamp to the
work of Bolivian artist Graciela Rodo Boulanger.
After a retrospective of her work for the Organization
o American States at the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in
Washington, internationally-renowned critic Jose Gomez-Siere observed:
"Her work shows personality. She's well-liked, especially by collectors
of prints, and her prestige is growing and growing."
More recently, her highly stylized approach and
abilities as an experimenter and colorist won her acclaim as a highly
prominent Latin American artist.
Rather than depicting children as smiling and laden
with sentimentality, Boulanger's interpretation emphasizes their mood
and sensitivity.
And they are, as a critic once wrote, "never
coldly-drawn."
"When there are two figures, they touch and that touch
is it language of love. They are happy and seem secure. But they are
above all formal about themselves. It is as if each child is posing
stiffly and ritually in one frozen instant of time, awed by the richness
and goodness of that instant; as if each were thinking beyond its own
vocabulary."
Although she has lived in France for the past two
decades, her style is strongly influenced by her native Bolivia and the
Andes.
She once told an interviewer "...you'll find in my
paintings something that is typical of my country. It's the light, the
colors, the movement, and the atmosphere, the feeling.
"There's a strong contrast between the neutral
background and the brightly colored figures. The mountains of Bolivia
are drab, brown, grey and the people wear intensely bright colors. La
Pat is at a high altitude. The air is so clear and the sun so strong the
colors seem to vibrate."
Her portfolio is also distinguished by its diversity.
She works with equal facility in oils, watercolors, pastels, lithography
and etching. Recently she added sculpture and tapestry.
"For me," she says, "the subject, dictates the medium.
Some subjects, for example are better suited to oils, others to
watercolors. It also depends on what you want to say and how you feel
the day you're working."
Graciela Rodo Boulanger has been featured in 100
exhibitions on three continents and her renditions of children have also
appeared on Bolivian and UNICEF postage stamps.
The daughter of a concert pianist, she herself gave
many piano recitals in her early years. In Paris in the 1960s, she
studied with renowned engraver Johnny Friedlander and art became her
vocation, the piano her recreation.