“…In beholding this remarkable—and terrible—series of oil paintings by Batlle Planas, we experience how a playful framework transcends human testimony. You will say countless elements of meditation and, of course, countless forms seem to surface from a catastrophe. Years of silent struggle, and also of faith in art, have forged a specific universe of expression, of almost tactile states, where the soul of the artist—and often of the one who beholds the work—is tangible”.
“Thanks to their combination of the figurative and the abstract, as well as their classic imagery, Batlle’s paintings have a range of visual effects. At the same time, his work evidences a tighter and tighter relationship to monumental painting and its point of view. That is clear in his extreme synthesis of form and the planes that are strikingly set apart by a generally simple color, with no complications of shade or materials.
… This painter, who according to local identity documents goes by the name of Juan Batlle Planas, is a painter of worlds, that is, he is one of the few who puts his whole self on the line in the never-complete adventure of art”.
