Paul Blanca - from the Deformations series

Beautiful C-print by Paul Blanca in new condition.
Acquired from private collection. Signed and titled with silver marker. A3 in perfect condition.


You can view the work in advance at the Rotor gallery in Gorinchem and pick it up after the auction or have it sent by registered mail.
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This item falls under the margin scheme


Paul Blanca, pseudonym of Paul Vlaswinkel, (Curaçao, November 11, 1958 – Amsterdam, October 15, 2021) was a Dutch photographer. In his younger years he was described as a 'volatile' person with a lot of energy, but at the same time with a vulnerable sensitivity. Blanca made portraits in which he molested himself with razors, wire, arrows, nails, and needle and thread. One of his most famous photos is with a crying Mickey Mouse carved into Blanca's back.
Life and work
In his younger years, Blanca practiced the sport of kickboxing at a high level. In his own words, his first camera was a Canon F1, a camera he had obtained through a burglary. Once started as a young photographer, Blanca worked together with Hans van Manen and, as a non-dancer, got a leading role in Van Manen's Piano Variations IV. His developed motor skills and skills in kickboxing were central to the choreography devised for him. As photographers, Blanca and Van Manen worked together on a series of photographs in which they photographed themselves, each other and others, with the theme: 'The man as Lustobject'.
In the mid-1980s, Blanca befriended fellow artists such as Rob Scholte and Koos Dalstra. In 1986 he published a series of double portraits Timing with Dalstra. Fifty portraits of people from the Amsterdam art world with photographs by Blanca and poems by Dalstra. Blanca also met and befriended the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In photography, Mapplethorpe regarded Blanca as "his only competitor".
In the late eighties/early nineties, Blanca spent about two years in Zaragoza and documented bullfighting there. This eventually resulted in a series of serigraphs called Sangre de Toro (Blood of the Bull). Instead of ink, he actually used the blood of the bulls for the prints. Around this time, Blanca also started writing columns, first for a year for Het Parool, but later also for Nieuwe Revu. In this magazine he not only reported on his life as an artist, but also on his life as a drug addict and his experiences with the criminal world.
In the mid-1990s, Blanca was accused of the bomb attack on Rob Scholte and his then wife Micky Hoogendijk. Scholte himself made this accusation in an interview, an accusation that would never be proven. As a result of this affair, Blanca lost his popularity as a photographer and he became increasingly isolated within the art world
In 2021 the film Paul Blanca, This film saves your life from the director Ramón Gieling was released. This documentary portrays Blanca's great talent and his life, work and downfall. The film was announced upon release with a preamble that it looked like he "has not long to live".
Blanca passed away on October 15, 2021 at the age of 62