Gino Hollander began painting in 1960 at the time that a new medium – acrylic paint – was emerging and he was among the first to explore its possibilities. Viewing his work now, one becomes aware of the virtuosity of both the painter and his medium. There are canvasses with the subtle oriental feeling of dry brush done in India ink, there are thick built up swirls of garish color or soft transparent hues, paint shoveled on with a palette knife, drips and blobs and fine line drawings, as well a mixture of oil medium with the acrylic, sometimes all of these things on one five foot canvas. The end result is pure emotion. You hate it or you love it but it is difficult to remain neutral.

Hollander is an undisciplined painter. He withholds nothing of himself. He refuses to rein in his emotions or his appetites. If a canvas is vulgar it is because he was feeling vulgar when he painted it. He shows it anyway. He feels that any painting he has done is a part of him. He doesn’t show just his party face. He strips himself naked for all to see. ‘To know me is to know all of me”.

Hollander paints for himself. He has no wish to engage in a dialogue with the viewer. It is for him to paint for the viewer to view, the two separate faces of any work of art; both allow a work to be. He refuses to title his paintings. He tells no stories. His people are purposely poised on the far edge of nothingness, faces left blank or at best enigmatic. His figures are abstracted and his abstracts disturbingly figurative. He’ll paint through the day and on into the night, each canvas a different mood. From stark black and white to a splash of brilliant colors and on to a subtle moody sepia, then back to a black and white, gentle this time. He is a complex man and his canvasses reinforce this complexity in the very simplicity of their form and content.

The painter paints. He refuses to discuss his work or for that matter, art in general. To him “there’s nothing verbal about a canvas. A painting is simply one way to express a feeling and feelings can only be made less if they are talked to death”. Beginning and end of conversation. Hollander is a difficult man to interview. Like his paintings, he is tricky, hard to pin down. He’ll talk with you for hours and it is only very late in the night that you are aware that he is interviewing you, finding out who you are and how you feel. He’ll discuss any valid subject in the world. Except his paintings. The canvas has no meaning for him once it is finished. It is the push and pull, the emotional context of painting that captures him. From then on it is the province of the viewer alone. There is a dialogue of course, but a wordless one. A statement, a response; a question, an answer. If these exist they are mute. This is a dialogue of the heart or, perhaps, the soul.

Hollander’s reaction to the garishness and violence of life today takes a unique form: his mood is often of softness and gentleness. He is an eternal romantic. Women exist in the world of his paintings. He sees the hopes and promise in the face of an adolescent standing on the threshold of maturity. There is no disillusion nor despair. Nor is their gaiety. There is only wanting and hope and perhaps more than a little questioning. He paints vast faceless groups the wandering figures intertwined in constant movement. Yet each figure is alone, separate, uninvolved, as in essence each of us must be. Even in his most violent seascapes one knows the slender fishing boat will make it safely back to port. Behind the sun-washed white wall of his country villages one senses a full teeming life, a place for one and all.

BIOGRAPHY
BORN	1924 U.S.A.
1942-1945	U.S.ARMY SKI TROOPS, 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION
1950-1960	DIRECTOR AND DOCUMENTARY FILMAKER
	"I was immersed in filmmaking and yet had a vague feeling of wanting some more direct means of self expression, one that would not have the men, money and materials that films involved."
	NYC was alive with the excitement of abstract expressionism and one of our film hangouts was the Cedar Bar. I caught the disease and immersed myself in both paint and painter's image having decided that if I were to start a new career at this late date and with a family of four children and one on the way…. I had better just paint and learn by doing which is what I have been doing for thirty-eight years
	What I want out of and for my paintings is emotional expression both for me and the viewer, each in our own way.
1960-1962	My studio and the first Hollander Gallery, Bleeker St, Greenwich Village, NYC
1962	Move to south of Spain with my family
1963-1990	Numerous one-man shows throughout Europe…England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain. During those 28 years living and painting in Spain my paintings were exhibited in the following Hollander Galleries.
1962-1990	Marbella, Spain
1962-1969	Bleeker St., N.Y.C.
1964-l973	Madison Ave., NYC
1970-1980	West Broadway, Soho
1970-1980	Toronto, Canada
1968-1978	Mount St., London
1973-1982	Circle Fine Arts became my exclusive agent for U.S.A. and yearly there were one man shows in a number of their galleries.
	At our home in Spain, Cortijo de las Yeguas, in l982 Barbara and I established the Museo Hollander to exhibit our major collection of Spanish antiquities and artifacts spanning 20,000 years. The museum gained world-wide recognition for the quality and presentation of the collection and was viewed by more than 50,000 visitors. It was awarded the bronze medal on the HRH Juan Carlos honors list for it's major contribution to Spanish tourism.
1990	I donated the Museo Hollander to the Spanish Government.
1990	Moved to Aspen, Colorado Studio and home at: 979 Queen St., Aspen, Co., 81611 (970) 925 7855 hollander@hollanderart.com www.hollanderart.com

PRIVATE and ESTATE COLLECTIONS;		INSTITUTIONS
Artur Rubenstein	James Michener	Bristol Museum
John Crosby	Morley Safer	Sloane Kettering Hosp.
Jacqueline Kennedy	Walter Lowendahl	Shell Oil Co., Houston
Vizcondesa de Llanterno	Allan Ladd	Hotel St. Regis, NYC
Leontyne Price	Herbert Kretzmer	CCNY
Leo Narducci	Ricky Nelson	TWA Airlines
Oscar de la Renta	Howard Head	Montefiore Hospital, N
Taki Fukishima	Van Cliborn	New York Pres. Hosp.
Ben Thylan	Vincent Sardi	Mt. Sinai Hospital
Faye Emerson	Burt Lancaster	Cedars of Lebanon
John Mitchell	Betty Phister	City of Hope
Isaac Stern	Princ. Maria Louisa de Prussia	Aspen Valley Hospital
HRH Sophia of Spain	Count Schoenburg	Pennsylvania Hospital
Condessa de Salamanca	Geoffrey Beene	Love Field, Dallas
John Houston	William Pattis	McCann Erickson
Norman Rockwell	Brian Epstein	Diplomat Hotel, Israel
Melvin Douglas	Edward G. Robinson	Hotel St. Moritz
Steve McQueen	Dr. Morris Cohen	Andrew Dickenson
Dr.and Mrs TV Soong	James Griffin	White Museum