Agustín de Celis, painter: “In the transition they forgot about the artists of my generation” | Culture | EUROtoday

The research of the painter Agustín de Celis (Comillas, Cantabria, 93 years previous) is situated between the Park of La Bombilla and the Manzanares River, in what’s now a part of a really coveted Madrid, however when he succeeded, within the early sixties, he was a area that didn’t wish to strategy the suppliers. Everything has modified loads in these a long time. The road lamps now not gentle with gasoline, however the neighborhood retains a distant bohemian taste that the artist is happy and stimulates. In this broad research he continues to work day by day. From mid -morning to the tip of the afternoon. Stacked subsequent to the wall there are many very orderly work. From right here a number of the 50 works of the itinerant exhibition have come out, entitled Agustín de Celis 2025 12 monthsdevoted by the Cantabrian Government and can finish in Madrid already in autumn. The choice is a compendium of the totally different phases traveled all through his life: panorama, its hyperlink to abstraction, blue colour, its dedication to at present and, at all times, its ardour for cinema and poetry.

Ask: The exhibition, which could be seen within the Central Library of Santander, till March 31, begins with works dated in 1966, once you had already returned from Rome awarded by the Academy of Fine Arts. He undertook the journey with 30 years. What was that 4 -year keep within the Italian capital for you?

Answer: That scholarship was the most effective that would occur to an artist. I had left Santander to check in Madrid and survived badly in order to not return to the life he had left behind. We have been in full dictatorship. In Spain there was nothing, no stimulus.

P. The arrival could be dazzling.

R. In my eyes, every little thing was new. I had solely seen works from the classical world in books and, instantly, every little thing was inside my attain.

P.: What impacted him most?

R. Everything, however the very first thing I found is that I used to be a painter, however I used to be not but an artist.

P. What is the distinction?

R. Be conscious of what you do and for what. Art supposed a complete supply and was pure life and transformation. Rome was a full immersion in artwork and politics as a result of between 1960 and 1964 tradition was a very powerful in Italy.

P. Could you take care of modern artists to you?

R. Yes. Both painters, sculptors, filmmakers and writers and Leonardo Sciascia, Rafael Alberti and plenty of others.

P. Was there a number of cultural life throughout the Academy?

R. Lots. We had the courses and every one organized life, however at lunch and dinner we agreed on nice tables by which every little thing was mentioned. Then, within the Academy, there have been creators of various specialties, one thing that enriched us all intellectually. There have been architects, reminiscent of Rafael Moneo and Dionisio Hernández Gil; Musicians, reminiscent of Antón García Abril and Carmelo Bernola, or painters like Manuel Alcorlo. We talked about all of the information in all fields. For instance, there we found Italian neorealism, the Cinema Truth, that I integrated to my work from the tip of the sixties in works reminiscent of Chronicle of reports o The man, the placeeach of 1968.

P. In the academy he additionally discovered love.

R. Our conferences have been open doorways. Artists from different locations might come and, after all, the Italians. There I met the one that’s nonetheless my spouse, the sculptor and poet Miranda d’Amico.

P. I see that they don’t share research. Is it tough to dwell with one other artist?

R. It is just not tough if you happen to can manage. She has her workshop close to right here, within the space of ​​Prince Pío station, and there she additionally goes to work day by day. We even have the home on this space of ​​Madrid.

P. From the enriching Italian Panorama returns to Madrid in 1965. What is it?

R. At the tip of that decade, tradition in Spain is essential and artists are activists for democracy. I used to be already instructing in structure and I needed to symbolize Spain at a competition in Holland. Everything was so precarious that my good friend José Luis Fernández del Amo purchased me a second -hand digital camera and we participated within the competition speaking about actuality within the streets, poetry, portray and music.

P. Of these years is considered one of his greatest recognized works, The journey (1971).

R. It is an experimental brief filmmakers with the architect Juan Miguel Hernández León by which we painting what was Franco’s Spain. Carmelo Bernaola composed the music and Miranda D’Amico contributed poetry.

P. He was on the Biennials of Venice and São Paulo, within the Pavilion of Spain with different artists of his era (Isabel Quintanilla, Paco López, Luis Gordillo, Alfredo Alcaín, Juan Genoés, Eduardo Sanz or Rafael Canogar, Eduardo Urtulo) and in 1971 he received the National Prize of Fine Arts.

R. In these years I participated in lots of collective or particular person exhibitions.

P. He was additionally within the Pamplona conferences, by which 300 artists participated between June 26 to July 3, 1972.

R. I’m of a era by which what occurred in your setting was not a world parallel to artwork. We believed that the transformation needed to be complete.

P. What recollections do you retain within the confinement that greater than 80 artists starred within the Prado Museum demanding the liberation of José María Moreno Galván, artwork critic of the journal Triumph?

R. We did it within the Goya room, in entrance of the portrait of Carlos IV’s household. There have been additionally Martín Chirino, Saura, Sempere, Giraralt, Juan Genés, Lucio Muñoz, Arcadio Blasco. When the museum employees got here to evict, we stated we stayed. There we spend the night time. When they opened the following day, we left with out issues.

P. Meanwhile, the dictator dies, the transition and modern artwork start to reach in Spain with new museums, reminiscent of Queen Sofia, however a lot of you fall into oblivion.

R. They razed us, and plenty of of those that had fought for a New Spain have been marginalized. We didn’t match with the model of modernity with which Felipe González’s socialism needed to journey world wide.

P. Have you by no means had a celebration card?

R. No. I’ve at all times voted for the Socialists as a result of I’m a person on the left, however I’ve by no means affiliated.

P. His work is represented in lots of personal and a few public collections. The journey It is within the archives of the Reina Sofía National Museum. Would you’ve favored to be represented within the everlasting assortment?

R. Clear. They have of that work the drawings I made for a tapestry, however I have no idea that they’ve been uncovered.

P. Have you been in a position to keep from the sale of your work?

R. In half, however the mounted revenue got here from my courses on the Higher Technical School of Architecture.

P. There has been discuss of a doable basis devoted to his work in Cantabria.

R. Of that matter I choose to not say something.

P. And what do you suppose as an artist, humanist and fighter of the regression we live with characters like Trump and Putin?

R. I’m horrified. They are leaving with out funds companies combating for peace, in opposition to starvation … we have now to strengthen tradition, it’s the solely factor that may save us from catastrophe.