DESIGNATION OF ORIGIN

Andante

There exists a highly corrosive solvent called ‘Oblivion,’ which slowly erases the most recent past, let alone historical past. It is indeed difficult to remember amidst the daily informational chaos that engulfs us, like a threatening Lorcan jungle.

Allegro Vivace

Just recently, I presented my latest book: ‘Lorca, the Unknown Visit’ (Work in progress), in its second edition, and once again, many are surprised or astonished that a painter from Tarragona writes, and not only writes, but also publishes. I have stated more than once that if I carry out my activities in Tarragona, it is not because I am ‘A painter from Tarragona,’ meaning born in Tarragona; rather, it is because I am here, just as I have done when living in other cities. I live here, and it seems entirely natural to me that a significant portion of my activities take place here. Nevertheless, I do not possess a particularly territorial spirit; I have never had one, and therefore, I am as much a painter from Tarragona as I am from Barcelona, Madrid, or Overseas.

Allegro Ma Non Troppo

Many visual artists have written throughout history, with varying degrees of success. The first, among those I know—for perhaps there was some philosopher from classical Greece—was Saint Luke, the Winged Ox, who not only wrote the Gospel that bears his name and ‘The Acts of the Apostles,’ but is also credited with the first portrait of the Virgin Mary preserved in the Vatican, and a painting, also of Mary, on the walls of the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome. It is also said that he created the only portrait of Jesus drawn in the presence of the Son of God. He was a physician and dentist, which is why he is the patron saint of physicians and artists. I cannot fail to mention Saint John of the Cross, an extraordinary poet who was forced to destroy his writings for fear that the Holy Inquisition would discover them. In a state of ecstatic trance, he produced a foreshortened drawing of the crucified Christ. An emotional and moving drawing that inspired Salvador Dalí (who also wrote) to paint his Christ of Port Lligat, and Josep Maria Subirachs for the Christ of the high altar of the Sagrada Família Temple in Barcelona. Many Renaissance painters and sculptors also wrote, such as Leonardo da Vinci, with his ‘Treatise on Painting,’ and Michelangelo with his poems dedicated to Tommaso Cavalieri. And the more contemporary figures: Santiago Rusiñol and his articles, his theater; García Lorca, his poems, his theater, and his delightful drawings; Picasso, ‘Desire Caught by the Tail’; Miró and his Dadaist poems; Jean Cocteau, with his cinema, theater, and poetry. Narcís Comadira, Perejaume, Frederic Amat—and thus the list grows long, very long.

Andante

Many Renaissance artists were known by the name corresponding to the town or territory where they originated, so much so that, when associated with their name, it has in many cases evolved into a surname. Such is the case of Leonardo da Vinci, or Doménikos Theotokópoulos ‘El Greco,’ originating, one from Vinci, a small town in Italy, the other from Greece. This is a custom that has faded over time, just as the use of nicknames by which members of the same family were commonly known has diminished. My mother’s family was known as ‘Els Felinxos,’ or from Cal Felinxo, and therefore perhaps I would have been known as ‘El Rosselló de Tarragona,’ or ‘El Rosselló de cal Felinxo.’ Who knows… because as there are many of us painters, the designation ‘Painter from Tarragona’ would only have contributed to creating confusion, just as in an attempt to distinguish, it would merely dilute and territorially confine an individual.

Allegro Con Fuoco

Some years ago, over thirty, as it was in the 80s, I created music, driven by an imperative need. I had a debt to myself and to a poet: Federico García Lorca, and I set some of his poems to music, which I presented in recitals throughout Catalonia, accompanied on the piano by the invaluable Charles Miles.

Later, while in Madrid (a painter from Madrid?), I broke the lapis lazuli guitar in front of art critic Santiago Amón, who had been telling everyone that I had burned a grand piano on Sant Sebastià beach in Sitges (a painter from Sitges?). He told me that I had invoked my painting, and that sooner or later, the presence of poetry and music would become evident in my work. Creation, in any of its forms, is a game, a high-risk game, a game in which one neither loses nor wins. One simply plays. And it matters little if a painter with a designation of origin—Tarragona—writes, creates music, or decides to juggle at the circus. He is an artist who advances on the uncertain Path of the Angel.

Josep Maria Rosselló / 20-9 – 2015