Copyright: Jordi Rodríguez-Amat

This text has been registered in the Register of the Intellectual Property of the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia.

 

THE ART CRITIC, THE ART COLLECTOR AND ME

Jordi Rodríguez-Amat

 

One day in the month of May, I found myself in an art gallery on the Seine street in Paris, looking at the paintings hanging on the walls. Just at that moment I saw one of the best-known Parisian art critics enter the gallery. This man writes in several Parisian newspapers and also collaborates in the most prestigious contemporary art magazines. He was accompanied by a fat man with a large belly, dressed in bluish black. After having observed him for a few seconds, I thought he might be a great collector of contemporary art.

After a while and having listen to the art critic, I asked myself why he was explaining the great qualities of all those paintings. After a few minutes, I finally plucked up the courage and asked him to allow me to listen to him, such was the knowledge he showed in his speech.

In front of each painting he talked about the composition, the colors and the artistic values that I, personally, did not know. One of the aspects that determine the greatness of this artist, he said, regardless of other conceptual and technical values, is based on the absolute dominion of the laws of the golden ratio, that is to say, the Golden Section based on the number Phi. The collector, knowing nothing about this golden number, asked him to explain. This, dear sir, is a composition based on the rule of the divine proportion of mystical order. This aesthetic is found in the works of the greatest painters and sculptors of all time, from Phidias and Michelangelo to the great contemporary creators, architects, painters and sculptors. The collector and myself admired, astonished, the great capacity and knowledge demonstrated by that art critic.

We followed the art critic, who, full of pride, continued to speak. The brightness and depth of color with which this painter works brings him closer to the great colorists of all time. See how in this contrast he makes an absolute use of complementary colors, and even how he uses black to emphasize the intensity of the other colors.

You know, there have been great colorists throughout the history of art who have reached the highest levels in the use of colors. Well, this painter not only brings them closer, but he is, like them, at the highest level of the domain of pictorial chromaticism.

While listening to that gentleman, I began to think that to achieve his level of knowledge I would have to read and study thoroughly in order to acquire his artistic culture and, although I like art very much, I thought that I was unable to compete with that art critic. On the other hand, I asked me why this art critic wanted to put this artist on such a high level? Surely, he wants the collector to buy one or more paintings. Maybe he has a good commission from the gallery.

Art, he continued, is the expression of the deepest feelings of the creators. Come on, look at this painting. There was a small sizes panel on which, some abstract shapes stood out from the bottom on a reddish-brown stain. See, he continued, how the painter has composed these forms on a neutral background that emphasizes the intensity of color. I looked astonished and tried to follow and understand everything he said, because I wanted to learn a lot from that art critic.

Believe me my friends, the monetary value of these works is not very high, but I know that after the artist’s death his work will be considerably valuable, since what happens after an artist’s he cannot create more paintings and, then, the commercial value of his paintings rises a lot.

At that moment I saw how he wanted to convince the collector to buy the paintings. At the same time, I remembered what a gallerist said a few months ago while referring to a painter who was exhibiting in his gallery: it is now a good time to buy works from this artist as he is on his deathbed.

But what surprised me the most was when he started to talk about his personal relationship with the painter. He said: I visit the artist very often in his workshop and, with a glass of red wine from the Clos de Vougeot, we discussed art and life for hours and hours. His workshop, he continued saying, is built from a project that the artist himself designed. A workshop with very large windows opened to nature. This painter, he continued, has a great technical and conceptual knowledge; he also has a deep knowledge of the history of art, which allows him to have the great masters as a reference for his pictorial creation. My surprise was such that I had to take a deep breath to come back to myself. I forced myself to continue being attentive to everything he was saying since I learned many technical and conceptual aspects about art from him.

Let me tell you that this artist knows the philosophical theories of art very well. He agrees with Schopenhauer that a metaphysic of beauty is possible, and even, despite not being fully in agreement, he knows very well what Kant says when he says that a doctrine of beauty is impossible because beauty is not an ontological phenomenon. Beauty is a product of human culture, otherwise, beauty has no objective properties.

And he understands very well what Hegel said about art: art has the purpose of translating the spirit into images and that is exactly what the artist has done with these works.

I remember, he continued, a couple of weeks ago I visited him in his workshop. He suddenly stood up and with a brush in his hand he began to talk about Nietzsche's art theory. At the same time, at different speeds, he began to dance, saying: Sometimes grabbing their hands, others times separating and dancing each one at different rates, Apollo and Dionysus move majestically in a dance, now rhythmic, now frantic. Between laurels and olive trees, in harmonic concert with the muses, Apollo moves beautifully and handsomely. It is the triumph of serene beauty, of balance, of control of body and mind. Dionysus, shaking body and soul, surrounded by satyrs, silences and Bacchae dances an unruly orgiastic dance. They mix, they hate each other but at the same time they also love each other. My fellows, he continued saying, art incites life, and exalts it, art is a great stimulant.

Just at that moment I had the impression that he was getting crazy. The art critic did not stop talking, and after another half an hour, he approached me and asked me, sir, who are you? To which I responded: I am the artist who has made these paintings.

Jordi Rodríguez-Amat

February 2019

 

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