Victor Valera

     In order to leave darkness and attain light, I often had to descend
the spiral staircase at the Galerie Arnauld and step into that cellar,
that underground festival room.  It was there that I first saw the paint-
ings of Valera and Lolo.  They are among the best works of the younger
generation of painters that I had the opportunity of seeing in Paris.
I greatly regret that the group of artists to which Valera belonged and
which had regular exhibitions at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles has
scattered to the four corners of the world.
     One doesn't have to be Pythagorean to hear magnificent music through
Valera's concretions.  Threats, whirlwinds, intoxications, and rays order
themselves into sonorous constructions that make the invisible visible,
that causes the inaudible to be heard.  Valera's painting has no fragrance
of guillotined flowers.  Nothing would be a better complement to present-
day architecture than the concretions of Valera and his friends.  They
harmonize perfectly in the bright buildings of Villanueva, with the sim-
plicity of natural objects.

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