JaZzArt en València

We are colour, movement and intention and we believe in art as a medium but also as happiness…

CHEERS

ART AND THE ARTIST

(Francisco Bravo Cabrera, while listening to the Sonata no. 9 by Beethoven)

Well, maybe I should rather say ART AND LIFE or THE ARTIST AND LIFE, something like that, I don’t know, I think it may have been a better title, but no, the one I’ve chosen I like…

Life, what is life? José Saramago in his book All the Names said: “Life is like paintings; it’s best to look at them four steps back.” Four steps… phenomenal.

The distinguished writer, whom I admire very much, has told us what life is similar to, but he has not told us what life actually is, nor why he relates it to paintings. Well, could it be that paintings are similar to life? I don’t think so, but anything is possible.

Paintings are representations. Nothing that is portrayed on the canvas, wood, or whatever surface the painter uses is truth. Moreover, I remind you that nothing in art is reality. The closest it comes is to a reflection, if the artist does it well, and if you immerse yourself in the painting, you may see something in it that you associate with real life. But you won’t find reality in any painting. However, if you’re lucky, you’ll see how the author has perceived it. A painting, like a movie, a play, or a ballet, lies. Finally, don’t delude yourself into thinking that you’ll find sincerity in art. Perhaps art is the most cynical thing on the face of the earth. Don’t doubt it.

And why do I tell you this? Because I am an artist. My professional and academic training taught me that reality is not art. Art feeds on reality, uses it, embellishes or tarnishes it, but always changes it. The actor does not feel what you think he is feeling when you see him in the theater or in a movie. Neither does the painter nor the poet. Yes, we all play with emotions, but as the great director and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, Konstantin Stanislavski, said, “Raw emotion (human) is not art.” We play with real emotions, but the ones we represent are artistic creations, period.

So, why take four steps back? Frankly, I don’t know. Looking for a better perspective? Maybe…

But well, let’s see, what is an artist? The great masters of the European Renaissance did not consider themselves artists. They viewed themselves as craftsmen, men (and women) who had learned their trade well and had also been trained in other disciplines. Moreover, they painted not what they wanted, but what was commissioned by their great patrons, who were the church, royalty, nobility, and to some extent, the emerging bourgeois class.

It may have been Michelangelo who first considered himself an artist, but that’s debatable. The thing is that artisans and craftsmen began to turn into artists. Once they were artists, they could choose the themes they were going to paint, and the subject matter shifted from biblical scenes and portraits of kings to something more casual, everyday, and completely secular. Art began to gain value, and collectors emerged. Then came the museums, and with them, art history started to be written. In 1793, the Louvre Museum was founded in Paris, the Prado Museum opened its doors in Madrid in 1819, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1870.

That’s how things began to change. The avant-gardes of the 20th century came along, and art took on previously unthinkable directions, causing artists to evolve. But now, after the great artistic milestones of geniuses like Picasso and Matisse, artists no longer know what to do. They seek to experiment, draw attention, shock, alarm, scandalize, and even offend. They also enjoy making people think they are exceptional beings with almost supernatural abilities. But don’t you dare believe that; it’s all nonsense.

Artists today are neither geniuses nor avant-garde. Everything has already been done, so don’t think that for art to be good it has to be original because nothing is original anymore in art. A good artist, as Picasso said, imitates, but a brilliant artist steals. However, what they have stolen is transformed into something better. And I remind you that we create art for only one reason: to earn a living. Nobody enters a studio for ten hours a day, painting like a madman, for the love of art. We do it because we want to sell our work. And if they talk to you about inspiration, don’t believe it either. It’s a myth, nonsense, a fairy tale, a con trick. The artist works and dedicates themselves to their craft not because a muse with magical powers has inspired them, but because they are hungry.

Perhaps a better title would have been The Great Deception…

There are things on earth that completely contradict the «official» history as recorded and supported by so-called «experts» (good grief experts!). It is well known that there are many other sites older than the pyramids of Giza, like Göbekli Tepe in what is now Türkiye. There are other sites discovered, and being discovered, with monuments, art and clear evidence of an advanced culture all over the world. But «experts» choose to deny their existence or say that what people are calling a structure or a temple is a natural formation. And how do they know this? Well, they are experts…

These «experts» say that they pyramid complex of Giza is approximately 2.600 years old. How the hell did they come to that conclusion when many others that have studied the complex, along with comparative studies of the region say that the pyramids could be three or four time older? Well, they are «experts» and they do not like to be contradicted.

The Texas rock wall, in the town of Rockwall, Texas, is another example of evidence of an advanced culture perhaps 10-15.000 years old that the so-called experts are saying that it is nothing more than a natural formation. The wall, found buried, is over 7 stories tall (21 metres) and as long as 20 miles (32,19 Km). Areas of the wall show what might have been windows and in some areas there were actual rooms found. But, because it does not fit into their narrative…which they refuse to change/amend…the geologists and other «experts» say that it is only a natural formation. Nothing to get hung about…

Well, we know that every time there is something strange seen, whether in the sea, the sky or the land, and we do not know what it is, some «expert» says that there is rational, logical and scientific explanation for it. In my mind those are key words that mean «we are the experts and we will lie to you» and that way they can continue with their «scientifically» accepted theories without letting the «facts» get in the way. The strange cloud we saw coming into the shores of Portugal early in July comes to mind. Although it looked to all as something «otherworldly» the experts quickly said that it was only a type of cumulous cloud that rolls on itself and looks strange. Hmm…

And of course we have the Art experts deciding what is authentic and what is fake. They tell us that a painting someone found in a rubbish bin in Weehawken (NJ) is really a lost masterpiece. And that a painting, such as the «Salvator Mundi» was really painted by Leonardo, because it looks like something he would have painted. Well, there were many artists in Leo’s day that painted just as good and very similarly. Leonardo was one of many, not an exception. Of course, except to the experts.

So I’ve no use for such «experts», neither in art or in science. The real scientists, the ones that have the knowledge, the academic titles and the track record, are men and women with open minds, as all investigators should be. They do not go around making assertions on things that they do not understand. And what they do work on are things for the benefit of our health care and life in general. For me to believe an «expert» he has to show me how he got to the level of supposed expertise. Otherwise, to me, he is just one more charlatan out there selling snake oil…

* The image is of a portion of the Texas rock wall

Now it is your turn, tell me what you think…

CHEERS

¿No os parece que eso es lo que está pasando, ha estado pasando y seguirá pasando?

Alma Buscher was a German designer who studied and trained at the Bauhaus… She was born in Kreutzal, Germany in 1899… In 1922 she began her studies at the Bauhaus of Weimar taking Johannes Itten’s preliminary class and later classes offered by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. She was accepted to the textile workshop directed by Georg Muche, but later, in 1923 she changed to wood sculpture under the direction of Josef Hartwig. That same year she exhibited her furniture designs at the first Bauhaus exhibition. Her items were children’s furniture, theatrical puppets and marionettes and other toys.

Alma Buscher died died during a bombing raid (WWII) in Buchschlag, close to Frankfurt on the 25th of September of 1944. Short life, not enough work done but I think she showed a tremendous potential and who knows how far she could have reached had she survived the Second World War.

CHEERS

I must admit that until quite recently, when I ran across an article about her, I had never heard of Lucia Wilcox. But seeing that she had been an influential painter, especially for the surrealism movement, I could not leave her behind. However, there is not much about her to be found.

For starters she was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1902 (although some say 1899). She moved to Paris as a young woman and there met Picasso, Léger and other young aspiring artists. She wanted to study art and possibly did at the Académie Ranson. André Derain, a fauvist, became her mentor.

In 1938, with war on Europe’s horizon Wilcox left for the United States. She settled in Amagansett, Long Island where she became friends with Jackson Pollock, Frederick Kiesler, Max Ernst, and others. In New York Lucia had her first solos show in 1948 at the Sidney Janis Gallery. Then in 1949 she was instrumental in organizing East Hampton’s first contemporary art exhibit at Guild Hall. Reviews of her artwork from The New York Times and other newspapers, described her work as being “a dramatic compound of Byzantine color, allegro fancy, modern treatment, and near mystic feeling.”

Her work was mostly surrealist up until the 1950’s when she started doing some abstract expressionism, something quite popular at that time. Lucia was invited to participate in two of the four historic exhibitions that Alfonso Ossorio organised at Signa Gallery in 1957 and 1959. Then in 1961, she had a solo exhibition at Lefebre Gallery on East 77th Street in Manhattan.

By 1972 she had gone blind but continued to work, substituting ink for oils and allowing her mind to guide her, free of distractions. Lucia Wilcox died in New York in 1974.

These are some of her works. I find them interesting. What about you?

+++

Follow VALENCIARTIST on social media:

Instagram: @Francisco_Bravo_Cabrera

YouTube: http://www.YouTube.com/@FranciscoBravoCabrera

X: @Euskadi_Bakero

+++++

GRACIAS – CHEERS

This is one phenomenal artist that cannot be ignored in the history of art…

Here’s a good way to get to know her:

En París toma clases de dibujo en la Académie Humbert de ​1903 al 1904, y fue allí donde conoció a Georges Braque… Su primera exposición fue en1907 en el Salón de los Independientes, y así llegó a conocer a Pablo Picasso, ​y a todo el grupo del Bateau-Lavoir de Montmartre. Picasso la presentó a Guillaume Apollinaire, y con el tuvo una relación hasta el 1912… Sus referentes fueron los fovistas y los cubistas (hasta cierto punto), pero también las miniaturas persas les interesaron como el arte del rococó… Marie nació en Paris en 1883 y murió igual en París en 1956… En la década de los años 1920 pintaba figuras femeninas en tonos pastel, utilizando colores fluidos y muy suaves. Sus composiciones eran sencillas y en ellas prevalecían formas femeninas y eso le dio mucha fama en el París de los años 1920… Laurencin también fue ilustradora de libros, entre ellos «Alicia en el país de las maravillas» de Lewis Caroll, pero también libros de André Gide, Max Jacob, Saint-John Perse, Marcel Jouhandeau, y Jean Paulhan… Laurencin fue una artista completa, pues también fue retratista de mujeres famosas como Helen Rubenstein, Coco Chanel y Colette… Además de todo esto, decoró y diseñó vestuarios para famosos ballets de la Opéra-Comique, los Ballets Rusos,​ La Comédie Française y los ballets de Roland Petit en el Teatro de los Campos Elíseos… En Nagano, Japón, se abrió un museo dedicado a su arte que alberga 500 obras suyas… Sin más, Laurencin es una artista extraordinaria que admiro grandemente, ojalá os guste su obra…

+++++++++

In Paris she took drawing classes at the Académie Humbert from 1903 to 1904, and it was there that she met Georges Braque… Her first exhibition was in 1907 at the Salon des Indépendants, where she met Pablo Picasso and the entire group of the Bateau-Lavoir artists, poets, writers of Montmartre. Picasso introduced her to Guillaume Apollinaire, and they had a relationship until 1912… Her influences were the Fauvists and the Cubists (to a certain extent), but she also took interest in Persian miniatures and Rococo art… Marie was born in Paris in 1883 and passed away there in 1956… In the 1920s, she painted female figures in pastel tones, using fluid and very soft colours. Her compositions were simple, with a prevalence of feminine forms, which brought her much fame in the Paris of the 1920s… Laurencin was also an illustrator of books, including «Alice in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, as well as books by André Gide, Max Jacob, Saint-John Perse, Marcel Jouhandeau, and Jean Paulhan… Laurencin was a versatile artist, painting portraits of famous women such as Helen Rubenstein, Coco Chanel, and Colette… In addition to all this, she decorated and designed costumes for famous ballets at the Opéra-Comique, the Ballets Russes, La Comédie Française, and Roland Petit’s ballets at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées… A museum dedicated to her art containing 500 of her works was opened in Nagano, Japan… In sum, Laurencin is an extraordinary artist whom I greatly admire; I hope you enjoy her work as well…

GRACIAS – CHEERS

Debo confesar que no conozco a esta pintora española, nacida en 1904 en Madrid. Pero bueno, os la presento porque me parece importante para la historia del arte y además es una de esas pintoras un tanto olvidadas o ignoradas por los nuevos «expertos» (madre mía los expertos!). Fue pintora figurativa de la Sociedad de Artistas Ibéricos y también partidaria del movimiento Nueva objetividad, un movimiento artístico alemán que rechazaba el expresionismo y que fue derrumbado por los Nazis en 1933. Rosario pertenece a la generación de las Sinsombrero (grupo de mujeres artistas españolas) de 1927. Pues, venga, aqui algunas de sus obras…

+++

I must confess that I do not know much about this Spanish painter, born in 1904 in Madrid. But, well, I present her to you because I think she is important in Art History and she is also one of those somewhat forgotten or ignored female painters by the new «experts» (good grief the experts!). She was a figurative painter of the Society of Iberian Artists and also a proponent of the New Objectivity movement, a German artistic movement that rejected expressionism that was dismantled by the Nazis in 1933. Rosario belongs to the generation of the Sinsombrero (a group of Spanish women artists) from 1927. So, here are some of her works…

+++++

GRACIAS – CHEERS