TORERO
Curated by Conchi Alvarez
Bullfighter, universal word that leaves no one indifferent. This exhibition, curated by Conchi Alvarez from STOA Gallery in Estepona, is the first of a series to try to show some of the visions and interpretations, sometimes conflicting, always complementary, which this National Feast causes.
The start of the journey is the man, the bullfighter, the matador, the ordinary fighter… the object of inspiration, in this case, for seven artists, four painters and three sculptors. The result is a multifaceted view, eclectic, juxtaposing artists´ works with very different forms of expression, techniques, training.
This exhibition’s catalogue has a luxurious introduction: the extraordinary prose of Antonio García Barbeito, inseparable companion of his personal and enveloping voice.
HERMANAS DE FORMAS by Antonio Garcia Barbeito
Con una intención de hermanar dos expresiones artísticas, el cante y el toreo, escribí una vez: “Cantar es torear puntas del grito; torear es cantar con todo el cuerpo”. Esto mismo puede decirse si tratamos de hermanar toreo y pintura, o toreo y escultura. Si respecto del cante hablábamos de hermandad de hondura, en éste hablamos de mundos de formas. El toreo puede hermanarse con todas las expresiones artísticas, porque todas las artes son, en mayor o menos parecido, hermanas. García Lorca, cuando describe a Ignacio Sánchez-Mejías, lo “pinta”, lo “esculpe” en los versos: “…como un torso de mármol / su dibujada prudencia…”, “…aire de Roma andaluza / le doraba la cabeza”, “no hubo príncipe en Sevilla / que comparársele pueda”. En el toreo, cuando los aficionados relatan una faena, un detalle para el recuerdo, un gesto, siempre lo cuentan con recursos plásticos: “Dio cuatro verónicas y media que eran para perpetuarlas en bronce”, “Pegó dos trincherazos que eran dos carteles de toro”. Y aun fuera de la cara del toro, he oído decir a algún aficionado: “Es que sólo verlo hacer el paseíllo ya es un cuadro vivo…”
Por eso tiene tanto sentido esta exposición, porque son dos mundos hermanados en las formas, emparentados en los detalles. Saben los pintores que hay trazos en el lienzo o la tabla, que son como una media verónica improvisada, abandonado el oficio y entregado al momento de la inspiración; y saben los escultores que a veces la mano decide algo en una forma que lo convierte en un natural interminable. Por la misma razón que en el toreo decimos “es un torero que pide pintores desde que se está vistiendo hasta que se viste de calle”. Estamos, pues, ante dos hermanas de formas, dos artes que se hacen una para, sin menoscabo de ninguna, engrandecerse.
MARGRIT FÜLSCHER
Only one work of art, “Half past Five” (“Las cinco y media”), in which the sculptor summarizes perfectly the spirit and the title of the exhibition, in a symbiotic language between surrealism and abstraction. She uses mixed techniques with predominance of various metals and terracotta. The iron from the ranches, Dali’s head turned into a clock with the hour, half past five, and the bullfighting costume jacket, elegantly articulated to show a bullfighter-warrior, a gladiator.
MANUEL FERNANDEZ
Unravels the depths of the soul of the bullfighter culled from centre of the earth. His bullfighter is inspired by the most pure and elegant Jose Tomas. “Heart and Overcoat” (“Corazon y Capote”) is a pyramidal composition of a veronica, in which the cape seems to erupt from the depths, wrapping the man, becoming one being. In “Volapié”, he describes this crucial moment. The fighter, standing right next to the still bull, leans in a helical composition, with convulsive motion, revealing a sculptor rooted in the Mannerist and Baroque arts. His figures are possessed with deep feelings and an energy shock that invites to interaction, a stereometric vision, made possible by the use of swivel stand on them.
JOSE CANO MANCILLA
The sculptor, friend of the fire, models iron as if it were clay. His works “Montoliu” and “José Tomás”, in small format, escapes from the hardness and heaviness inherent in this metal, appearing light, ductile, and capable of transmitting elegant delicacy, despite the assurance of its everlasting nature. In a different scale and with greater force in the plastic language, this artist performs “Manolete”, conceived as an imperial bust in which he synthesizes in just a few lines and features a legend.
PEDRO CASERMEIRO
Figurative painter of great command of techniques in magical realism. His “Minotaur in Las Ventas”, a great work of art in a reduced format, reinterprets the myth par excellence, while the “Allegory of bullfighting”, a bullfighters “vanitas”, reflects the dreamy melancholy of a bullfighter in front of a field, conceived as a technicoloured “flashback”. “The reaper is coming” (“La parka se acerca”), a surrealist work with the only bull in this exhibition, because of his dreamlike nature, unreal, is the view of an impressed spectator filled with terrible presentiment, of which the bullfighter is not aware of.
JUAN ENRIQUE MENDOZA
Artist of the goyestic bullfighter, whose torso stands in the middle of the ring in a very close composition. They are works in large format, featuring drawings and lines, of highly original comic art forms close to the Pop Art and Naïf. “Goyesco Happy” (“Goyesco Feliz”) and “Goyesco Peace” (“Goyesco Paz”) could be the advertising slogans for the pro-bullfighting group against the anti-bullfighting group, they are full of abundant material, making them true bas-relieved of flat, literally palpable colours.
JOAQUIN MOLINA
Takes a unique approach to the bullfighting from his philosophy of life, bodybuilding, and with an unmistakable label, like the obese, plump and happy view in Bottero´s world. His paintings put a hyper-muscular bullfighter in mid-agony and gloomy atmosphere enhancing his tremendous sense of loneliness. Made with oil technique, “Bullfighter Nude I” and “Bullfighter Nude II”, are surprising due to the provocative nudity of its abundant muscles and astonished look, of that who does not see anything or anyone except the bull. In “Bullfighter I” and “Bullfighter II”, of mixed techniques, he hardens even more the point of view, a threshold approach, revealing the sculptural passion of the author and his particular skills of sculpting details of the bullfighter’s costume.
CONCHI ALVAREZ
Painter who focuses on the ritual, almost liturgical, which precedes the bullfighting show. A purification process in which the man, stripped off his fashionable clothes, begins catharsis to achieve the interior sublimation. A delicate and quiet protocol in which each garment is a step in spiritual transformation. Her works of art, dominated by bright colours and strong Mediterranean light, were painted using two techniques: oil on canvas, with detailed finishing, and acrylic on panels, with swift implementation and easy-flowing brushstrokes.
See the Opening “Torero”