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You can see this work and many others in the Official Shop of José Manuel
Merello.
From there you can also purchase it and see more details and information.
MODERN ART ONLINE.
(Examples)
MODERN ART. CONTEMPORARY ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 21-XXI CENTURY.
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Mujer
de la tierra
(40 x 30 cm)
Mix media on wood
MODERN ART. CONTEMPORARY ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 21-XXI CENTURY.-
Rose,
Rose, Rose
(40 x 30 cm )
Mix media on wood
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Constantinople Girl.-
Oill
Ibiza at Night.-
Oil
MODERN ART.
CONTEMPORARY ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 21-XXI CENTURY.-
Boy
with a fruit.
Mix media
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Viena.
Graphito on paper
MODERN ART. CONTEMPORARY ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 21-XXI CENTURY.-
Figure.
Mix media on paper
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Woman.
Mix media on paper
MODERN ART. CONTEMPORARY
ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 21-XXI CENTURY.-
El sol
interior.
(40 x 30 cm)
Mix media on wood
MODERN ART.
CONTEMPORARY ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 21-XXI CENTURY.-
Castillo de Morella. Castellón.
(97 x 130 cm).
Mix media on canvas
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Happy Boy.-
Mixed Media
Luz del poeta.
Ink on paper
Mauve sitting
nude
Juan Canela.
Mix media
MODERN ART. CONTEMPORARY
ORIGINAL PAINTINGS 21-XXI CENTURY.-
Ibicenca.
Mix media
Mujer con
pamela de colores.
(60 x 50 cm)
Mix media on wood
Wheat boy.-
92 x 73 cm
Mix media on canvas
Story of a blue ittle horse.
73 x 92 cm
Mix media on canvas
Yellow Flowers.
92 x 73cm
Mix media on canvas
Gold Bullfighter.-
Oil/wood
Graphito
Paper
29 x 21 cm
Contemporary art
VIDEO José Manuel Merello.- "En la playa" (81 x 100 cm) Music by Johann Sebastian Bach.
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Thoughts about art and painting.
" I am not an avant-garde artist.
My art is contemporary, literally speaking: a product of its
time. Vanguard, on the contrary, represents the most modern
innovations – 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 interests
me is to draw from the classic and contemporary traditions,
deepen into the walked path, and remain vigilant – like many
other artists – to provide vanguard artists 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 without
fear, into the abyss. I need to keep an eye on the
Avant-garde Movement because it keeps me young as 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 art
sharp poking at the same time that 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 ephemeral – of the spearhead. Each one of us has
his role, and mine, nowadays, is not in the vanguard." ©
José Manuel Merello
"ABOUT JOAQUÍN SOROLLLA".: Today it does not seem to be too modern
speaking about Joaquín Sorolla, the great Valencian painter.
But I always have refused to see in him an antiquated,
impressionistic painter, luminous and little else more.
Otherwise, Sorolla is one of the big ones, a titan, a
Colossus of the painting. He maybe couldn’t be compared
neither to a Velázquez nor to a Picasso, it would be very
daring, but yes I see him at a height of a Cezanne or a
Manet. Well, it is true that the work of the Valencian one
is very unequal in quality and is paying for decades for
this discontinuity in such way that only very few people can
rescue between his painting those linens which catapult him
towards the Olympus: Sorolla's white linens." © José Manuel
Merello
"Abstract Painting and Surrealist Painting, apart from being
essential and marvelous in themselves, these days also
fulfill an invaluable pedagogical function for any artist.
The have now become part of Classical Art and are the
Artistic Heritage for Spiritual Learning and Artistic
technique. They are like gymnastics for the unaware and for
the eye, providing places where almost all feelings and
spiritual emotions can be hatched to finally lead to build
this immeasurable and grandiose thing we call THE ART of
PAINTING." © José Manuel Merello
"A good drawing cannot in any way be unfavorably compared
with a good painting. It is more, beneath every picture is
an essential underlying drawing that sustains it, a skeleton
that mobilizes it and gives it form. Any painting lacking of
this base crumbles and appears flimsy." © José Manuel
Merello
" The drawing does not remain defined by the line, not even
the painting remains defined by the color. The painting is
still saved, and this is partly what currently defines it,
of being able to be assimilated and comprising in a monitor
or a photo. On the other hand the drawing does really is
asimilable by these means. Leaving aside fetishisms, it does
not matter to me to have an original drawing or a photo or
an identical poster of him. It is the same thing and the
drawing can be enjoyed identically, as it happens despite of
reading a good book in different editions, or seeing the
same photo revealed for the second or tenth time. When it is
not in game neither the fetishism nor the plasticity, all
these supports take us to the nobility - or misery - of the
work. But in painting the plasticity is always in game, the
plasticity, the morbidity, the opaqueness or the
transparence, the brilliant or dull surface... qualities
that are impossible to be transmitted by means of a monitor
of computer, a TV or a poster. The digital technique, far
from ruining the arts, it only does to demonstrate the
singularities of these other techniques, and the painting
gains the garland due to currently it is impossible to enjoy
completely The Meninas in an image, impossible to feel the
powerful sensation of gap of the stay where Velázquez does,
impossibly to perceive the pearly rind of the pictorial
layer of the picture, useless to turned oneself and to see
sideway to be able to feel the delicate nodes and stretch
marks of the painting of the genius. And let's not say
anything about pictures of Tàpies, or of Lucian Freud, or of
Jasper Johns... The color and the disposition of the forms
can suggest us very much, of course, but they remain far
away, they are not enough to express the plasticity of the
picture. This is the Painting." © José Manuel Merello
" In painting and in drawing, technically speaking, things
can be wrong done if they do not know how to make them
correctly, but the bad made things must be "perfectly wrong
made". This way the result will always be good. " (summer
2004) © José Manuel Merello
"Art History is the emotional and spiritual History of
humankind. It is a remembering of its most sublime feelings
materialized in works of art that transcend time. Altamira
and Lascaux are primitive examples of this human desire of
expressing its emotions. In my opinion, there is not any
artistic era superior to another one in its initial impetus
to create a material proof of an emotion or a spiritual
pleasure. On the other hand, I believe there have been art
eras superior to others since the human being has improved
its technique. In the same way that scientific progress
always goes up, artistic progress, which needs technology to
advance, evolves with an increasing trend. However, this
evolution is not continuous, since it depends on two
factors: technique and spiritual emotion. Art is not just a
feeling. Art is the feeling being materialized, incarnated,
sculpted, written with skill and technique. The cavemen had
only a few tools at their reach; consequently their art is
more primitive than Baroque Art, to give an example. The
problem lies in the fact that technique and emotion do not
always move along parallel lines. As a result, we can
sometimes find art periods with a greater and purer
emotional and spiritual impulse, even though they relied on
inferior technique. On the other hand, we sometimes can find
other periods with better means, in which the art is weaker
due to the human soul was soured, repressed, or manipulated.
When the human spirit undergoes a sublime and free period,
accompanied by a superior technique, then we will refer to
this period as a Golden Art Age." © José Manuel Merello
Art and the economical crisis
Art, as any commercial product, is noticing the same or
more, since it is not an essential item, the consequences of
the current economic situation. However, as in all times of
change and redirection of political, economic and social
paradigms, art can come out, enriched and even strengthened,
of a situation like this.
In the Art world, particularly in the interpretation, actors
and actresses tell that certain levels of anxiety and stress
are able to awake in them the ability to concentrate and a
transmission talent which they do not have in normal
situations. And, what is the present time but a continuous
state of turmoil and excitement? The art has been,
fortunately or unfortunately, nurtured by many or all of the
major episodes of human seizure; signs of this are the
Picasso's Guernica or the Fusilamientos del 2 de Mayo from
Goya.
Would then be currently expected to flourish great works of
art or even a new art movement? Movement that could result
in two very different topics, one that would focus on
criticism and look to the past aiming on the events and
behaviors that have led us to the current economic crisis,
and another that would extoll all that nourishes and gives
the human a second opportunity to reorient their economic,
social and political processes, as intelligence and
generosity. ©P.M. Giménez
"Nowadays, Modern Art exudes a breath of fresh air and
freedom never before imaginable. Up till now, Art History
has never had such an array of possible techniques for
artists to choose from or such a variety of artistic
languages for artists to fully express themselves. All the
different Art schools and tendencies, favoritisms aside
(even though they have always been there), enjoy a great
open field that promises fabulous creations in the coming
years.
Surrealism, which was born in the 20th century as a
perfectly defined art movement, is nowadays a tendency
impacted by Expressionism, Figuratism, Abstract and many
other schools of Art, which enrich Surrealism without
diluting it and enlarge Surrealism without voiding it. I
opine that the borders in art tend to vanish. It is still
very complex to reflect upon this phenomenon since we find
ourselves currently in this Art multimovement searching for
the "one Art". But beware; never should it be an imposition
or an absolute movement. Art is free by nature and it will
always slip away, like water through our fingers, from the
premonitions and the horizons that we try to impose on it."
© José Manuel Merello
“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.” © José
Manuel Merello
"I detest a large part of the minimalism that is practiced
today across all the arts. I'm afraid that within this
alleged synthesis there is an excess of rubbish and
uselessness floating around that serves only to confuse the
audience, which sometimes may be ignorant but blameless,
although, more frequently, intolerably pedantic, void of any
understanding or knowledge."
© José Manuel Merello
“A frame to a good painting is like a dress to a beautiful
naked woman. It is not essential but serves to celebrate and
give charm to the work.” © José Manuel Merello
"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." ©
José Manuel Merello
"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." © José Manuel
Merello
"The Expressionist Painters, The Surrealistic ones, The
Contemporary Painters in general ... and The Ancients,
Figurative Painters, Abstracts, Realistics, Pop, The
Greatest Painters, The Unknown ones, The Famous ones, The
Genial Artists and The Artists without Genius... The
Draftsmen of Comic, The Digital ones, Arrogants, Simples,
Mad Painters, Rich ones, Poor Painters. It does not matter
for me from where are they, Chinese or Spanish Painters; I
like All the Painters around the World, I am interested in
the whole painting; a simple vase, an anonymous portrait, a
pretentious picture, a stupid picture, a brilliant painting:
They all are Painters, All is Painting" © José Manuel
Merello
"Horses and children. Fat women, beautiful women and old
ladies. The magicians and poets. Dogs and cats sleeping.
Bulls and Spanish bullfighters. The processions of Seville
and Malaga. The crucified Christs filled with blood and
prayers. The saints. A Virgin for each village. The sun and
the rain of Biscay. The sea, the passion, love and art of
the Mediterranean. Painting and older architecture. And the
most modern. The dances and dances of the villages lost.
Literature issued by the Spanish world. Deep red, purple,
black and olive. The balance between the sun, moon and
stars: this is the Spanish art. " ©José Manuel Merello
"How will be the art in 2011 and in the near future? Freedom
defines contemporary art. International art fairs are fun
and intriguing, are challenges for thought and human
emotion. Walking through a contemporary art fair like ARCO
in Madrid, is now a mental release. You may think that what
we are seeing is not "art", you may think that some artistic
creations are not moral and then deduce that they are not
art. But you are wrong. The art does not ever depend on
morality. Any work of art owes nothing to any form of
thought or ideology. The human spirit is free. Art is free.
The art is beyond good and evil. What is necessary is to
prevent some forms of art that are violent, dangerous,
dictatorial. We can not allow them because we need rules for
coexistence or because it is ethically unacceptable. For
example, we can turn the Amazon into a garden empty, naked,
with only a tree. Sure could be a work of conceptual art,
but it would be really stupid. The savagery and brutality
can be handled with great skill. It would not be moral, it
might be art, but should not be allowed.
Another common mistake for many visitors to ARCO is to think
that there can be only paint. No. The painting is a very
important part of art, but only a part. Many artists
complain that there is very little paint on the contemporary
art fairs. They have a point, perhaps the art galleries with
paintings should be more exposed there. Modern painting or
classical paintings are wonderful, a highly evolved form of
art ... but Art does not need paintings for being Art. Of
course, many current creations are just ephemeral art, art
to think and meditate during a few minutes. And now that's a
very interesting difference." ©José Manuel Merello
Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart and Marilyn. Matches.
"More nonsense. Now it's up to Van Gogh. Just a new book
that speculates about his last days of life, whether he
committed suicide or was accidentally killed.
I don’t have read the book, but I have read some notes like
one where someone asks Vincent, who was bleeding in his bed,
if he had wanted to commit suicide and he said “I think so”.
And for some persons this is a enough reason to write a book
because this answer might indicate that he did not pull the
trigger.
This nonsense, and others cited in the book, justifies,
without shame, to raise a new plot that will surely give a
lot of money, because it is likely to be after converted
into a film. Tangle and dig no matter what it takes, without
the least respect in the life of someone who gave everything
for nothing. It's disgusting this hobby to create a
hieroglyph which gives morbid fascination and money for a
long time. It seems to me outrageous disrespect to the
generous genius.
This is the same with Leonardo's Mona Lisa. Come and see
what we invented now or what we can discover in the
hackneyed, heavy and nothing enigmatic smile of Donna. Hey,
look, I think this hair of his hair is like a cross of a
rare sect and this union of points that I see is the trail
of a powerful secret means that Leonardo knew, even then,
the existence of neutrinos. And on and on, nonsense after
another, no matter if the Mona Lisa is a mediocre picture
(beyond the use of "sfumato" as innovation), mediocre, yes,
in its historical context and others it can have a bit
interest but plastically is not too good. Never mind. They
have already managed to become it an icon based in chatter
and nonsense, and then it begins to have an interest, quite
apart from its true quality. As the image of Marilyn in pop
art. Nothing more. Poor Marilyn, how many people are still
profiting from his image and his death. I am convinced Da
Vinci would be saddened about all these matters.
Or Mozart. He and his death. Salieri and Mozart enmeshed in
a tangle mesh tarnishing forever the image of the great man,
making him look like drivel, like a clown in the, otherwise
extraordinary, film of Milos Forman's, "Amadeus". It is
always the same: to make art or intrigue whatever it costs.
I always say that art does not know morality but that does
not entitle us to crucify dogs or to make intrigues and
cabals on humans who only made to magnify our spirit giving
it all they've got.
I am very sad about people do not stop to remove the ears,
bones, misery and privacy of these martyrs of art.
Please, leave them all alone."
©José Manuel Merello
"…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 Sistine 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.” ©José Manuel Merello
ORIGINAL PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS BY MERELLO. MODERN ART ONLINE.
ART 21. ART NEWS. CURRENT ART PAINTING.