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(Examples)
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21th. Century Art.
Don Quijote alucinado.
(100 x 81 cm)
Mix media on canvas
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Blue Fantasy to Zons
(114 x 146 cm)
Mix media on canvas
Van
Gogh's Taylor
(92 x 73 cm)
Mix media on canvas
20th-21th. Century Art.
The
Fisherman.
(92 x 73 cm)
Mix media on wood
José Manuel Merello
21th. Century Art.
May Fragance
(150 x 200 cm)
Mix media on canvas
21h. Century Art.
Poet in Construction
(29 x 21 cm)
Pencil
21th. Century Art.
The Girl from Constantinople
(29 x 21 cm)
Oil
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21th. Century Art. Baby with her Nany. (29x21 cm) Pencil
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© José Manuel Merello Arvilla
20TH.-21TH. CENTURY ART.
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
ART 21. ART NEWS. CURRENT ART PAINTING.
artemerello@gmail.com