Paul Blanca

PAUL BLANCA (Netherlands, 1959- Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2021).
"Bull of blood, Mary", 1988.
Photograph on paper. Copy 1/100.
Signed, dated, titled and justified in the lower middle area.
Measurements: 28 x 27,8 cm (photograph); 40,5 x 30,5 cm (paper); 50 x 40 cm (folder).
Paul Blanca, pseudonym of Paul Vlaswinkel was a Dutch photographer of great international prestige. One of his most famous photographs shows a crying Mickey Mouse, carved on Blanca's back. According to legend his first camera was a Canon F-1 that he had stolen by smashing the window of a photo store. When she returned to the store after her first solo exhibition to pay for the damages, the owner refused to accept her money. Eva Veldhoen (daughter of Aat Veldhoen) introduced Blanca to the art world of Amsterdam. She met Hans van Manen, who introduced her to the world of ballet and became her mentor. As photographers, Blanca and Van Manen worked together on a series of photographs in which they portrayed themselves. In the mid-1980s, Blanca became friends with artists such as Rob Scholte and Koos Dalstra. With Dalstra she published in 1986 the double portrait series Timing. Fifty portraits of people from the Amsterdam art world with Blanca's photographs accompanied by Dalstra's poems. Blanca also met and became friends with the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In the field of photography, Mapplethorpe considered Blanca his only competitor. In the late eighties and early nineties, Blanca spent two years in Zaragoza and Seville documenting bullfights. The result was a series of silkscreen prints entitled Sangre de Toro (Bull's Blood). Instead of ink, she used the blood of bulls for the silkscreen prints.