MENTOR Blasco

MENTOR (1919-2003) was born in Barcelona in November 1919. At the school of fine arts in his home town he studied painting brilliantly, and after Picasso he won the silver medal in 1933 and 1934. They will only be three painters to receive this distinction: Picasso, Clavé and Mentor. Engaged in the Republican army from 1936 to 1939, Mentor fled the Franco dictatorship in France where he took refuge. With Snow, his muse and his lifelong companion, who collects him, treats him and avoids deportation, he settles in Sollies-Toucas. On a hill in this beautiful village of the Var, they build together, year after year, an extraordinary house, the "Casa Nieves" and compose for it a garden, fabulous setting. Simultaneously, Mentor works in Paris in his workshop on the impasse of the Grange-aux-Belles (atelier now disappeared).

Source: The official website of the Artist: www.blasco-mentor.fr