(«Three Flowers» by Francisco Bravo Cabrera, C.2021, All Rights Reserved)
Valencia is a very old city. It was founded by the Romans as Valentia, so that tells you it is definitely old. The city, naturally, has gone through many changes. We were Roman, then Visigoth, then Moorish, then thanks to El Cid, we were liberated from the Moors and well, here we are, Christian again but a bit more free from the restraints of religion.
In the «Ciutat Vella» (that is the old city, written in our language, Valenciano), there are many buildings, old, very ancient, and many walls. Lamentably some people…could be young people, I don’t know as I’ve not seen them…have scribbled and painted up some of those old walls, and others, urban/street artists have painted images quite beautiful on them…
But one day I ran across a wall surrounding a construction site and it became the background/backdrop of the painting above. They had just demolished the building and thrown everything away, but I guess that some flower pots from the wall garden had broken and fallen and they remained there, nestled right against the wall. They were red, there were still flowers in them, I think they were chrysanthemums…
«Three Flowers» measures 50x70cm and was painted with acrylic paint on a 100% cotton canvas. This painting, along with many others (please visit our online galleries on Instagram (@Francisco_Bravo_Cabrera) and/or www.fbcart.wixsite.com/jazzart for more) is for sale via Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia. Message us for more details through DM on Instagram.
(Room Alpha: Omnia Caelum Studios València with Bodo Vespaciano)
Omnia Caelum Studios…
The name comes from Metamorphoseis, («The Metamorphoses») a poem written by the Roman poet Ovid on 8 AD, which narrates the creation of the world and it’s history until the day of the deification of Julius Caesar…
The translation of Omnia Caelum into English is hard to achieve, but the best I can do is to think that it may mean: «all is heaven»…
First came Omnia Caelum Miami. I started this business in the year 2003 with my first professional exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey. I never thought it would be there, but it was, that’s destiny I guess. From there I proceded to New York, to Zaragoza, Spain, to Miami, and to other cities in the State of Florida. I took my work to all galleries, to all fairs, festivals and to special expos. But my greatest accomplishment…I would say…was that I was able to reach fabulous individual collectors that opted for my work, and they are from three continents: Europe, Asia and America.
Upon my return to Spain I re-named the studios Omnia Caelum Studios València, as València, Spain, is my city. From here I have exhibited in Barcelona, Sevilla and in Izmir, Turkey, as well as participating in many trans-European art auctions and I have seen my art travel to many countries in the continent. And this is just the beginning. There are many countries in my plans, many places to visit, many places to take my work to…
Like I have said many times before, I am a painter, not an artist. I really don’t know what they mean when they say «artist». I am a searcher and searching is the greatest form of art, as far as I know. I don’t believe in a lot of things that I hear are important to so-called «artists», like originality and style. No artist is original. We cannot be original. Perhaps our ancestors were original but even then, I am sure they copied nature. And as far as style is concerned, it is a limiting factor. To develop a style all you have to do is to do the same thing over and over again. Like Picasso said, God created a giraffe and an ant, totally different, where was His style? And for me, God is the only creator…
I invite you to look at…most of my artwork…the work I sell and display on Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia, through Instagram. We are at @Francisco_Bravo_Cabrera and @Guloshka (my representative, curator and adviser). And I also invite you to my YouTube channel (through the link below) where I post videos of art and of many artists in my Art History series.
Well…an artist creates a painting, a sculpture; a composer a song or a symphony, and perhaps many tunes in between; a choreographer creates a ballet, a modern or jazz dance. But I am a painter. Although I did create…back in 1997…my «greatest» work, I call him «Bodo Vespaciano». I was Bodo for many years, well, until 2019 when I returned to Spain and settled down as Francisco Bravo Cabrera (we use two last names in Spain).
So if you see my work signed as Bodo Vespaciano (or Bodo V), it is still me as I am still Bodo to many people in other countries. And I kind of like Bodo so I do not want to get rid of him so quickly.
I just want to mention that I write, compose and paint, but I do it as the practitioner of a craft…an art-form to many…and not as something intuitive. I have studied and researched my craft too much to allow for something to surge spontaneously out of «inspiration». I am a craftsman so I plan everything, sketch out everything, research colours, tones, hues et cetera and plan…very well…my compositions. And as an artist, I use emotions as a tool. Raw emotion is not art.
I hope you enjoy my site, my blog, my work and whatever else happens to make its way into this site.
Your visits are tremendously appreciated, cheers…
(We kindly ask that you please like, comment, share and subscribe as this helps our channel)
(C.2021, All Rights Resesrved, «Blue-Eye Jazz» by Francisco Bravo Cabrera, acrylic on canvas, 50x60cm)
Welcome to JaZzArt en València. This blog will post daily articles on art (especially the paintings I make), on artists, music…and musicians…and the poetry that I write. I will also post here many of the videos that I make for YouTube that comprise my Art History series.
What is «Jazz-Art»? It is the approach to painting that I have been developing for more than twenty years. I believe that painting is the art of the search, and the search is eternal. A painting begins in the head then begins to travel down the arms to the fingers that hold the brush and apply colours, lines and ideas on a surface. After the thought of the painting comes the actual work of putting it on a canvas, or other surface. To do this I allow room for much improvisation…as would a jazz musician after studying the charts of the song…and in so doing I let the painting…sort of…paint itself, of course with rhythm, which is as essential to jazz as is improvisation.
All of this is contrived, well thought out, well researched and investigated. Art is not intuitive. A painter need not be original. I believe, as many artists throughout art history have stated, that we are all copyists and the original ones copied from nature. I do not consider myself an «artist», I am a painter, a searcher, a man of faith, a student of nature and a lover of God.
I will start with this piece, this invisible sculpture you «see» above and the featured image. Believe it or not, this invisible work of «art» (read bullshit) was sold by the artist, Salvatore Garau, for 18.000 USD. This is what the Sardinian born artist said about his «work»: “The vacuum is nothing more than a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that ‘nothing’ has a weight…therefore, it has energy that is condensed and transformed into particles, that is, into us.”
Does anyone understand what he said? He added that although you do not see it, it is there, it is made of air and spirit. If this isn’t having us on, tell me, please, what is!
And here is a second example by our famous artist Damien Hirst.
(Fairuse/https://en.wikipedia.org)
It is called «For the Love of God» and created in 2007 with flawless diamonds (I am not going to go further into the craftsmanship and who actually made it). But the «artist» said it had been sold to an anonymous consortium for £50 million. However, it was quickly discovered the «artist» was among the buyers. He bought it to keep his prices high and to keep the thing from collecting dust in some basement. In my opinion, and I love skulls as you may know, it is hideous. What do you think?
And number three…
This one I really like, not for the subject matter, but because I think the artist, in this case Piero Manzoni, was having «them» on. In my opinion he was goofing the whole crowd that gets wowed by these «conceptual artists» that think we are so stupid that we are incapable of understanding the stupidities they write and the subtleness of the message included in their «art».
Piero Manzoni created (and sold) Artist’s Shit in 1961. They were 90 sealed tin cans, (looking like tuna cans), allegedly containing his own excrement. He sold it by the cost of its weight in gold. I know some think this was the epitome of conceptual art, but I found it refreshingly smart and a way to goof the ones that are always trying to goof us. What do you think?
Comenzare por decir que de esta artista mexicana, María Izquierdo, yo no sabía nada hasta hace muy poco. Pero ahora que la conozco, veo que tiene una obra muy buena y que es una artista importante en la historia del arte, especialmente el arte americano… Izquierdo nació en Jalisco en 1902 y fue la primera artista mexicana femenina en exponer su obra en EEUU… Fue en 1923, cuando su familia se mudó a Ciudad México, cuando pudo asistir a una academia de arte. Pero ya venia aprendiendo desde pequeña fijándose en otros artistas y sacando habilidades de donde pudo. No fue autodidacta, porque nadie puede enseñarse cosas que uno no sabe, pero si se puede aprender de otros, de libros, de catálogos etcetera. Al fin, graduándose de la Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (1928), en la capital, pudo ejercer como artista profesional… Recibió el apoyo de Diego Rivera que a la sazón era el director de la escuela… Uno de sus grandes mentores, despues de la academia, fue Rufino Tamayo y se dice que también fue su amante… Aqui veremos algunos de sus cuadros que reflejan el arte típicamente mexicana.
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I will begin by saying that I didn’t know anything about this Mexican artist, María Izquierdo, until very recently. But now that I know her, I see she has a very good body of work and is an important artist in and for the history of art, especially American art… Izquierdo was born in Jalisco in 1902 and was the first (female) Mexican artist to exhibit her work in the USA… It was in 1923, when her family moved to Mexico City, that she was able to attend an art academy. However, she had been learning since she was little by observing other artists and honing her skills wherever she could. She was not self-taught because no one can teach themselves things they don’t know, but one can learn from others, from books, from catalogues, etc, (in our day and age through videos). In the end, graduating from the National School of Fine Arts (1928) in the capital, she was able to work as a professional artist… She received support from Diego Rivera, (the most famous and well known Mexican artist), who was then the director of the school… One of her great mentors, after the academy, was the artist Rufino Tamayo, and it is said that he was also her lover… Here we will see some of her paintings that reflect typically Mexican art.
Bueno este artista y poeta gitano, que nació en Sevilla (Triana) en 1905, lo hizo, y lo fue, todo durante su corta vida. Digamos que fue sindicalista anti-franquista, pintor, cartelista. y este poeta gitano español, también fielmente representó la vanguardia artística de principios del siglo XX. Estudio Bellas Artes de noche y de dia era ayudante de pintor en la fábrica de la Cartuja. En 1925 expuso por primera vez obras cubistas… En 1927, por sus opiniones libertarias se tuvo que exiliar en París… Fue expulsado de París por manifestarse ne contra de las ejecuciones de los anarquistas Sacco y Vanzetti… Se fugo a Bélgica, pasó por Amsterdam y Vienna y estuvo dos meses en la URSS… En 1930 publicó su primer álbum Días de Ira en Berlin… Después de la dictadura de Primo de Rivera volvió a Barcelona. Colaboró en los diarios L’Opinió , La Rambla, La Batalla, L’Hora, Bolivar, Estudios y Nueva España haciendo las portadas e ilustraciones. Pero por sus tendencias que fueron muy lejos para unirse a las de los comunistas fue pronto expulsado por unirse a los grupos pro-soviéticos… Bueno, despues de dar un sin fin de giros que incluyeron exposiciones en la URSS, y despues de la guerra fue puesto en prisión por asociación ilegal. Allí pintó el fresco La Capilla Gitana. Estuvo privado de libertad hasta 1954. Murió en Barcelona en 1956.
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Helios Gómez, gypsy artist and poet was born in Seville (Triana) in 1905. During his short life he was an anti-Franco unionist, painter, poster artist who represented the artistic avant-garde of the early 20th century. He studied Fine Arts at night and during the day he was a painter’s assistant in the Cartuja factory. In 1925, he exhibited cubist works for the first time… In 1927, due to his libertarian opinions, he had to go into exile in Paris… He was expelled from Paris for protesting against the executions of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti… He fled to Belgium, passed through Amsterdam and Vienna, and spent two months in the USSR… In 1930, he published his first album Días de Ira in Berlin… After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, he returned to Barcelona. He collaborated in the newspapers L’Opinió, La Rambla, La Batalla, L’Hora, Bolivar, Estudios, and Nueva España, creating covers and illustrations. However, due to his far-left tendencies that aligned with communists, he was soon expelled for joining pro-Soviet groups… Well, after a countless number of twists that included exhibitions in the USSR, and after the war (SPanish Civil War), he was imprisoned for illegal association. There he painted the fresco La Capilla Gitana. He was deprived of freedom until 1954. He died in Barcelona in 1956.
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(Capilla Gitana de la cárcel Modelo/Foto de Albert Garcia/El País)
(Image source: Canal Sur)
(Image source: Solidaridad Obrera)
Para mi fue un artista consecuente con sus ideas y supo, como artista que era, expresarse y educar. El que puede hablar es el que debe hacerlo, no importa lo que cueste. Siempre que se opone uno a una dictadura uno esta ejerciendo la labor del hombre libre que no admite ataduras de ningún tipo. Creo excepcional la vida y la obra de este pintor y poeta sevillano y creo que se debe conocer pues a mi nunca me hablaron de Helio Gómez y por eso lo haré yo…
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For me, he was an artist consistent with his ideas and knew, as an artist, how to express himself and educate. Those who can speak are the ones who must do so, regardless of the cost. Whenever one opposes a dictatorship, one is exercising the role of a free man who does not accept any kind of shackles. I find the life and work of this Sevillian painter and poet exceptional, and I believe it should be known because no one ever told me about Helio Gómez, and that is why I will tell you…
JaZzArt en València 