JaZzArt en València

This is my newest piece. Measuring 60 x 80 cm, I painted it with acrylic paint on canvas. It is part of a series. The first Gisela Tabú I painted at Omnia Caelum Studios Miami back in 1998.

I should give a little background…

Gisela was a character I developed for a play (musical comedy) that I wrote in 1993, which was presented in Miami. While working with the actress to develop the character we joked and played around with what would be prohibited, or taboo, when interacting with Gisela. We decided it was everything, so we called her Gisela Tabú (taboo in Spanish).

The first painting, which is in a private collection in the US, is basically a portrait of Gisela, the character of the play, and symbols of her interactions in the play. The play was called “Alas” (“Wings”).

“Gisela Tabú #2” has also been sold, to a collector in Portugal.

I consider the paintings to be “Contemporary Expressionism” and, as in many of my paintings, the “characters” exist in a pop-abstract (sometimes surreal) background.

Here are some details of GT3:

Cheers…

Mr. Putin, you will be remembered as the Stalin (mad murderer of over 30 million people) of the XXI C. STOP THIS MASSACRE AND

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

You are being a tyrant and you are abusing your own people, not to mention that damage, hurt and suffering you are causing to the Ukrainians. You do not belong there, so you should get the feck out!!!

God bless this 90 year old woman who knows who is on the right and who is on the wrong side of history…

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (Jesus)

So, this is another one of the hip, bang, up to date vanguards of the 20th Century, «Pop Art». You probably know all about it because you know who Andy Warhol is, but there is more, and more interesting artists that contributed to this genre. I urge you to watch the video…

Cheers…

Today marks a week that the country of Ukraine has been under attack by Russian troops ordered to invade by Russia’s «president» Vladimir Putin…

Thousands of civilians have been targeted and killed. Alongside the Ukrainian civilians and military personnel that have fallen are also hundreds, if not thousands of Russian soldiers. Many of them are not even twenty years old and Putin has sent them to fight and die while invading and killing people in a sovereign land.

I do not know what twisted view of history is in the mind of Mr. Putin, but I can see that he has no compassion, no sense of reality nor dignity in his despicable actions. He will be remembered together with the rest of the Soviet leaders, that history recalls as murderous dictators.

I pray for the people of Ukraine…

ONE DAY

«When laughter seems a memory,

or a dream so far away,

tears replace the joy

and pain seizes the day.

When all that’s left is left forgotten,

when nothing can relieve the pain,

the land turns cold and white as cotton,

and all your skies turn dark and grey.

It’s then that rises from within you,

a certain force you can’t ignore,

the will to fight,

embrace the light,

one day to die

then die no more…

C.2022, Francis Bravo Cabrera, 03 MAR 2022, Valencia, Spain

It’s the middle of the week and the tune today is one I’ve loved since the first time I heard it: «All the Young Dudes» by Mott the Hoople.

The 1970’s! Wow! The times when rock bands were majestic, bigger than kings and queens! And Mott the Hoople, albeit not one of the big ones, they did leave a mark on me with this song. And now, as I listen to it again, a song that David Bowie gave these lads back in 1972, I feel the power of rock, the rock of my era. After all, I am quite convinced that nostalgia is the strongest force in the universe…

Reference «All the Young Dudes», interesting enough, Bowie denied that the song was written as the anthem of Glam. Instead he said it was a song about the apocalypsis, something completely opposite in meaning. Check out the song «Five Years» from Bowie’s album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

I hope you like it, at least I hope it reminded you…at least some of you…of those days, great days…

Here is the last time (2019) that «All the Young Dudes» was performed onstage…

Cheers…

* Foto de 2001, cuando tocaba con mi grupo, AJA, que son las siglas en ingles de Abstract Jazz Arrangement, o sea, el arreglo de jazz abstracto o el abstracto arreglo del jazz, vale, vosotros decidiréis…

Gracias…

Gota a gota rompo en las riberas, astutas, implacables, subterráneas,

y como el fuego, todo lo consumo, lo deseo,

Y como el agua, todo lo que quema yo lo apago.

C.2022, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 28 de febrero de 2022, Valencia, España

Nota Bene:

Recordareis que hace poco tiempo os presenté al «EURO-KU», un estilo poético que he venido desarrollando con el cual le hago un homenaje al Haiku tradicional, pero con sabor europeo, al estilo occidental, explotando nuestra cultura, nuestro sintaxis, nuestra manera de comunicar y filosofar artísticamente. Pare hacer un «Euro-Ku» tenéis que que comenzar con una imagen original e inédita y de ella sacaras tres versos. No importa cuan largo puedan ser los tres versos, pero si deben estar escrito en un lenguaje claro, coherente y fácil de leer y entender, mas o menos, os diría, como la letra de una canción popular.

Gracias…

Abstract wine, you sip sideways on days when you’ve not frowned a mouth,

flows like a mountain trail upstream to heights unknown,

and then the careful taste, the smell, the colours reach your eyes, your nose, your ears, and then your light has shone.

C.2022, Francis Bravo Cabrera, 01 MAR 2022, Valencia, Spain

Nota Bene:

You may recall that I introduced the «EURO-KU», a style that I have developed recently. It is an homage to the traditional Japanese Haiku, but done with a Western, European mind and focusing on our culture, our background and our way of telling stories, writing poetry, expressing thoughts. To create a «Euro-Ku» you must start with an original, unedited, image and then you must use it to write three lines of poetry. The verses (3) can be as long as you want them, but they must tie in together to form a coherent and plainly evident whole, and the language used, as well as the words, must be pedestrian and play out as do the lyrics to a pop song.

See: https://paintinginvalencia.wordpress.com/2022/02/23/my-new-poetic-invention-the-euro-ku/

Cheers…

El cubismo no fue cosa solo de Picasso y Braque, sino una corriente artistica del S. XX que sedujo a muchos artistas europeos y americanos…

Aquí veremos algunos de Cuba, España, Polonia y hasta un poeta, Apollinaire, que hacia sus versos en caligramas cubistas.

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Cubism was not just reserved for Picasso and Braque. It was a main artistic current of the XX C. that seduced many artists, both Europeans and Americans…

Here we will see the works of artists from Cuba, Spain, Poland and even the calligrams of Apollinaire, the cubist poet.

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Gracias…

Cheers…

El gran surrealista, el que dijo que el surrealismo era él, el auto-proclamado genio, también le metió mano al cubismo…

Su etapa cubista la realizó cuando estudiaba en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, en Madrid y probablemente duró de 1923 y 1925. La búsqueda incansable que siempre tuvo lo llevo a trabajar el cubismo solo, ya que en aquella época no habían pintores cubistas en Madrid. Dijo que Juan Gris fue quien lo influenció y que haciendo cuadros cubistas le abrió camino entre los vanguardistas de Madrid.

En 1926 viaja a Francia y conoce a Pablo Picasso…

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Dalí, the great Surrealist! The man who said «I am Surrealism». The self-proclaimed genius, also took a stab at cubism…

His cubist period was probably from 1923 to 1925 while he was a student at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando de Madrid. His incesant search, which accompanied him throughout his life, led him to study Cubism by himself in his dorm room as there were no Cubist painters in Madrid at the time. He said his cubist influence came from Juan Gris and that painting cubist canvases opened doors for him in the more elite vanguard circles of Madrid.

In 1926 he travelled to Paris and met Pablo Picasso…

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Gracias…

Cheers…