JaZzArt en València

“A calm, profound stare can destroy all boundaries and melt ice.” (Francisco Bravo Cabrera)

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Baya Mahieddine, known in the art world as Baya, was born in Bordj El Kiffan, Algiers in 1931. She was an artist celebrated for her quite vibrant, dreamlike paintings that blend elements of folk art, fantasy, and North African culture. She began painting as a teenager and gained international recognition at just 16 years old when she held her first solo exhibition in Paris in 1947, curated by the influential French art dealer Aimé Maeght.

André Breton, the «Father of Surrealism» was a bit captivated by Baya’s paintings and thought that she was truly creating a pure form of Surrealism. Yet she did not become formally associated with the Surrealists or with any other art movement. Her compositions are very colourful and depict women in lush, decorative environments, surrounded by birds, plants, and musical instruments. Her paintings then evoke themes of femininity, freedom, and joy. Despite their apparent innocence, her works carry an undercurrent of resilience and cultural identity, reflecting her experiences growing up in French-colonized Algeria.

During her marriage to the musician El Hadj Mahfoud Mahieddine, Baya took a break from art and painting. She returned to her art in the 1960s and continued to exhibit her work in Algeria and abroad until her death.

Today, although not in most art schools at uni, Baya is recognized as a pioneering figure in modern North African art. Her legacy continues to inspire generations of artists, especially women working within postcolonial and diasporic contexts. She is a female artist, successful and recognised that we all must come to know better and appreciate more. Baya died in Algeria in 1998.

Here are some of her works…

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Artist Representative: «By Guloshka»

E-Mail: guloshka404@gmail.com

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Parece que el gobierno no acaba de entender…

A little bit of you…

a piece of me.

Sweat breaks off our skin and we sprinkle the floor with the gin we drank in better days when we thought we were truly free.

No, it wasn’t honey, we toasted with bile and not champagne, no honey moon with us remained.

And it wasn’t freedom.

Shackled hands and shackled feet to the altar we were led by a glorious man of many wars a sailor tried and true, with voices pouring from his head that made us dream of youth…

A hefty chunk of you,

and a bit more of me,

leads us to days when we suffer dearly and crave to live one more second of laughter or a minute of tears.

Because if from you and from me there exists only shadows,

from me and from you there is nothing.

C.2021, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 28 de noviembre 2021, València, España

And I am also known as Francisco Bravo Cabrera…

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…

I would like to say that this is one of the first (done in 2001) of the Jazz-Art Series of graphite/ink drawings on Canson paper. There may be others from the same time but this one has survived. I apologise for the quality of the photograph. Actually I had a tee-shirt made with this image and that’s the only thing I have now so I stretched it and took the picture (it is now framed).

This drawing is very important to me because it has within the composition the idea, the jazzyness, i.e. the elements that later formed the series JaZzArt en València. I started with the idea of music, but music is totally abstract and I did not intend to create an abstract drawing. So I revised my thought and started sketching the idea of music, the flow of the phrases, the staccato, the legato, the syncopation, the rhythm, the voice of the singer, the swing of the players…

I think you get the rest…

If you would like to see a complete…well, almost…collection of the black & white drawings, please visit us on our Instagram, @Francisco_Bravo_Cabrera and I think you will get a complete picture and you will see how this 2001 drawing became the great grand-father to the drawings that came later.

Cheers…

Welcome to part 2 of this new Art History limited series. We started with Fra Angelico, and now we continue with another Quatrocentist painter whose work is very important in the development of Renaissance art, and that, of course, created the masters…classics…who still influence artists today.

Cheers…

ONE DAY

One day when I am old and mad,
like a useless worn-out prostitute,
conversing with the cat…

Illuminated by a single ray of light,
as the afternoon recedes and fades,
I’m comfortable in my chair next to the window,
watching the world spinning away.

All things are complicated that once were simple…

I think I’ll take a walk down to the bar,
to grab a handful of potato crisps
and a glass of Irish “wine”.
I look around with wild intentions,
are those old friends,
or figments of my imagination?

But I must dance,
and dance I will,
though now alone,
my glass half filled,
the dance floor’s empty,
so are the eyes
of laughing ghosts whose envy
has kept them so far from the sky.

The train has gone,
it’s steam still clinging to my skin,
I don’t travel anymore,
I just watch trains as a whim.

Sitting by my window,
I curiously take a peek
as the carnival is leaving
with its elephants and freaks.

My loved ones,
not so many,
hold a lantern in a storm,
afraid of me receding into madness all alone.
But like an old retired prostitute,
I wonder through the yard,
throwing corn flakes to the chickens
and reciting like a bard.

In truth I’m a survivor,
I’ve toasted every scar,
my tears are made of broken glass,
that broke through those nostalgic thoughts
I launched one day quite far.

The stormy seas can’t drown the music
that I play with my guitar,
so my bones will one day witness
the changing of the guard.

I’ve tasted bitter apples,
I’ve danced with girls sublime,
and a few quite ugly too
I’ve danced with over time.
But surprisingly enough,
I’ve lived to tell the tale,
of this old raging sycophant
that’s ordered one more ale.

One day I’ll be alone and old,
haunting these old hallways,
in a pose somehow unthinkable,
upside down like I’ve been always.

Francisco Bravo Cabrera – 8 SEP 2025, Izmir, Türkiye

«One Day» is another example of my «Jazz Poetry» from my upcoming book. The rhythm does not change, but the time does. Improvisation guides the strength of the story as it would a ghost who walks about just looking for a place to haunt…

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ENTRE RAÍCES Y SOMBRA Bajo este manto de aguaya no hay piel,solo sal que arde.Mis manos,vacías.Mis ojos,sellados por la niebla. No recuerdo el …

Bellos versos de Yvonne Torregrosa (Editor Francisco Bravo Cabrera)

Pincha el enlace para leer el poema completo…

GRACIAS

So Banksy is defending terrorists now? Incredible the amount of “useful idiots” out there, not only in Venice…

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¿Así que ahora Banksy defiende a los terroristas? Es increíble ver a tantos “tontos utiles” que surgen por doquier, no sólo los que se han unido en Venecia…

CHEERS – GRACIAS