“Salinas is interested in spirit,” boldly proclaimed the French publication, L’aube of the artist’s premier exhibition at Galerie Barreiro, Paris, in February 1950. “He offers to us a still-life close to reality, portraits vibrating with the sense of flesh, nudes surprising with romantic expressionism, impregnated with a mysterious floating internal light.” Marcel Salinas was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1911 and studied painting with André L’hote, the French cubist theorist who so strongly influenced modern painting in the last century. The mature paintings and graphic works of Marcel Salinas revealed his careful studies of Paul Cézanne and the Provençal landscape. Atmosphere, light, and the importance of geometric shapes permeated his works. Salinas was active as a mentor in the fields of drawing, painting and graphic art, and served as artist-in-residence at the Foundation Francois Desnoyer, Saint-Cyprien and Foundation of Paule Mikkelsen Minde Klarslov, Denmark. Working with both French and American ateliers, Salinas was involved with artists of all aesthetic persuasions. This extraordinary artistic flexibility derived from the exceptional quality of his education and his formal training.

Marcel Salinas passed away on January 6, 2010.

“Anything that pleases you is art—you make the choice. You shouldn’t be ashamed to like or to not like—you should only be ashamed of not understanding. There are no art movements, just a sensibility to the new possibilities in art.” Marcel Salinas