Thoughts of a painter.

"A good drawing does not in any way compare unfavourably with a good painting. It is more the case that beneath every picture is an essential underlying drawing that sustains it, a skeleton that mobilises it and gives it form. Any painting lacking this base crumbles and appears flimsy.”

"Everybody asks themselves what art is. I think that art is any human creation that is able to lift the spirit to a higher plain of emotion and wonderment."

“…being a painter, a writer, a sculptor or a musician does not put one at a higher rank than any other profession. There are a lot of professions that, when carried out to the extreme, without a doubt achieve a higher level than that of the majority of artists. For instance, a wonderful craftsman, a maker of Manila shawls, can go further than a mediocre sculptor; the work can be superior. Or a great soccer player can raise greater passion than most of us, painters. To be an “artist” does not guarantee anything. However, sometimes a genius is born in a way that distinguishes the great arts, along with science, philosophy or politics, from any other endeavor. We cannot compare Michael Angelo’s Sixteen Chapel or Newton’s Law of Gravitation with the most amazing soccer goal. Art with capital letters is easy to detect; its light continues to shine through time.”
 

“ I am not a vanguard artist.  My art is contemporary, literally speaking: a product of its times.  Vanguard, on the contrary, represents the most innovative – neither better nor worse; like the sharp point of a spear which opens up new paths.  However, that sharp point needs all the power and weight of the rest of the spear, the weight of Art History.  Without all this History, there is no push to open up new ways.  Vanguard Art represents freshness, novelty, surprise, the truth and the fake, a risky and fascinating bet.  However, what intrigues me is to draw from the classic and contemporary traditions, to deepen into the walked path, and to remain vigilant – like many other artists – to provide vanguard artists with a solid foundation.  Much in the same way as an older brother holds his youngest brother’s hand with fascination as the intrepid child peeks, with wonderful daring and no fear, into the abyss.  I need to keep an eye on the Vanguard Movement because it keeps me young as an artist, it cleanses me, it clears up my spirit so that my view doesn’t sour.  I am a part of the body of the spear and, from that vantage point, I observe with fascination the young sharp art poking at the same time as I draw from the magnificent work of the masters of all times, the powerful legacy that sustains us.  I am not part of the sparkles – sometimes ephemeris – of the spearhead.  Each one of us has his role, and mine, nowadays, is not in the vanguard."

"Spanish painting has, throughout the centuries, maintained a serene and melancholic regard: tragic but never violent. There is no such thing as violent Spanish painting. Even the most ferocious Goya or the most horrifying Picasso never lose the composure and class inherent in the brushwork."

“I plead for humility in painting. Painting does not need so much fanfare or intellectual pretension. It must come from a person’s clean soul, from the clear and pure eye of the painter, even if only a simple apple is being painted. It is for this reason that I admire Morandi so much.”
 

"Many museums and galleries of modern art of Spain, presently century 21, they are cold, hard, metallic places and extremely minimalists. Not well conversant minimalism. This aesthetic fashion so arrogant and intellectual will be ridiculous with the step of the years. The north is the north and the south is the south.
In Spain we are sometimes so clumsy that we build a cold and hard architecture, typical of the countries of the north, totally far from the mediterranean style, except for some exceptions like the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava that is able to understand the modern art in a refreshing way and pasional, full with life and of mediterranean sun. But for many other Spanish architects, at the moment, the mediterranean style doesn't seem sufficiently interesting, neither advanced, and in Spain many galleries and current art museums give until fear of entering in them and the Nordic foreigners that want to visit them they believe, surprised that have returned in an instant, like in a lightning, to their countries of the north. Although they want to see and to feel the happiness and the color when they visit Spain and their museums and art galleries, on the other hand they don't find anything of the mediterranean heat neither of the Spanish welcoming style. I suppose that it is only another stupid fashion. To be modern is not to be serious, prepotents and gray. Can we imagine the pathetic effect of a gallery of art minimalist of Nordic style in Equatorial Guinea? I am for sure some Africans would shit very happy inside them. Pure art."

JOSÉ MANUEL MERELLO.