The first memories I have of Toni Hormigo go back as far as
my very early childhood, I remember very clearly his father's workshop, a little
room by the family house that I used to visit sometimes. I
was allowed to stay, if I kept myself still and quiet, for five, ten minutes,
at the most. (There were a lot of small and fragile objects, easy to break or
to lose, as well as big and small sharp tools, dangerous in children's hands).
Toni and sometimes his brothers (Leonardo, Luís, Paco and little sister
Laly) used to work, after coming home from work, helping their father and learning
from his techniques at the same time. It was fascinating to see them working,
carving little heads, about one inch long, coloured with inks and varnished, faces
of all the races and all the expressions of the entire world, Chinese, Red-skin-indians,
Indian-indians. Moors, Vikings, your neighbour, Cossacks, Africans, the Marx Brothers,
etc. Some had big, smiling mouths with small perfect white
teeth, some looking sad, some terrific. These heads were all different, some sold
as single buttons or a couple of cufflinks, but most were afterwards strung, a
few together, the short ones as bracelets, the long ones as necklaces, that looked
like a big United Nations meeting. Thousands of these little heads were later
sold in the first souvenir shops in San Antonio, Ibiza-Town, Mallorca and Mainland
Spain. Since then, from the little heads made of the same
oleander shoots that the ibicenco "flaúte" are made from, Antonio's
art work hasn't stopped growing, Ibiza and Formentera
are these days firmly established in The World of the Arts. The
legend of the Islands covers every creative area… from the Ibiza disco sounds,
with world class DJs, jazz festivals and live concerts by top-ten stars every
year, to the fashion world, with "Ad Lib" and the "Ibiza-Look,"
known and sold all over the world. The cinema industry
is working locally more and more every year and indeed three proper films were
made in the last fifteen months, using the Islands' scenarios and landscapes and
featuring some local artists and extras (one of them, "Lucía y el
sexo", filmed in Ibiza and Formentera, has been selected this week as a possible
candidate for the Oscars). The Modern Dance and Classical Ballet, Theatre and
Literature perform several first class events every year. The
Plastic Arts, sculpture and especially painting, have a very special relevance,
for the number and the great quality of the artists, locals and residents, that
live and create on the Islands, and export their wares to the rest of the world.
It is very difficult to think of any other place with
such a small community (107,000 inhabitants' altogether) where we can find so
many local and international well-known famous artists. Their artistic work forms
part of many valuable private collections and it can be seen in some of the best
modern art museums in the world. It is an honour and a
real privilege to be able to create such a talented Artist's Gallery, and from
this website show and share it with art lovers' worldwide. For
the first edition of "Artists on Ibiza", we have had the privilege to
speak with one of Ibiza and Formentera´s most important native artists,
Antonio Hormigo Escandell (Toni Hormigo, as he prefers to be called). Toni
Hormigo was born in San Antonio (Ibiza) in 1933. His father also named Antonio
was born in San Antonio and his mother, Catalina, was from Formentera. The
family spent the years of the Spanish civil war (1936-39) in Barcelona, were he
went to his first school. After the war, back in Ibiza,
Toni soon began to work as an apprentice in different jobs, such as cobbler, barber
and sailor. He started learning the carving techniques from his father, a very
talented artisan, at his workshop, until his military service, as a marine in
the navy. Afterwards back in Ibiza again, he started as
a lighthouse keeper, also being paid for sailing snipes that tourists used to
rent, but he never stopped his second job as a carving artisan. Little
by little he started to have more and more demands for his artistic works. With
this extra money he bought himself a bigger boat with an engine to take tourists
out fishing and lived on it for a few years, as well as carving. He
got married in 1969 to Carmen Juan Botella. They have two sons, Paco and Marcelo.
Both sons carry on with the family tradition and also have presented some sculptures
in Toni's exhibitions. In 1973, he had to take one of
the most important decisions of his life when new tax laws and an enormous rise
in the cost of the insurance were taking all the profits. He could not continue
with his job and the business. He was not long married, with two baby sons, still
building and paying for his little new house, at Port des Torrent. And so he sold
the boat and decided to live exclusively by his art. His
life became his family, his house, full of art pieces, his work and his workshop,
his friends around the table, with good wine and simple, healthy, tasty food,
good conversation, classical background music and non-stop smoking (from the local
tobacco "tabac pota" to "Montecristo" Havana cigars). The
size of his sculptures were getting bigger as he was experimenting with other
types of wood, "sabina", junipers, pine-tree, almond-tree, carob-been-tree
and most of the local trees, including some huge exotic trunks, that, from time
to time appear on the beach after a storm, He also created
interesting sculptures in stone. But probably, his best creations are the big
sculptures made of an entire olive tree's massive twisted trunk. There
is no other artist that I know or have heard of anywhere in the world, that does
anything similar to these magnificent masterpieces. For instance there is his
altar in the restaurant "Sa Capella" in San Antonio, a sculpture over
two tons in weight and almost five metres high. History, Mythology, and Nature,
are his favourite subjects. At the same time he was developing
his new and personal techniques, enlarging his knowledge of the materials that
he was working with, working harder and longer every day. His artistic talent
and well-gained reputation was growing at the same rhythm and in the same proportions.
And so it is today, still growing, still working and creating, even more then
ever. God bless you, Toni. Individual and Collective
Exhibitions with the "Grupo 77" 1964
"Premio Isla de Ibiza" (Island of Ibiza Award) Sala es Pilo. 1969
Galería Vallribera, Sant Antoni. 1970 Galerìa
La Rana, Sant Antoni. 1973 He is invited to participate
with a collective exhibitions tour in Norway. 1974
Sala de Exposiciones "La Caixa", Ibiza. (His first exclusive exhibition)
1975 Galeía Bes, Sant Antoni. "Pintores
de Ibiza" Palacio de la Virreina, Barcelona. Galería
Exoteria, Madrid. 1976 "Semana de Ibiza",
Madrid. III Semana Cultural de Ibiza 1977
Galería Internacional, Sant Antoni. Toni Hormigo, together with three painters,
forms the "Grupo 77" Paco Torres, (Cadiz, Spain) Hemio Mitchells (Germany)
Bert May (Germany). Inauguration of the "Monumento
al payes" (monument to the peasant) "Es Verro" in Sant Antoni.
1978 "Salón de Primavera" (Spring
Salon) Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Ibiza. Kulturkreis,
Oberursel, Frankfurt, Germany. 1979 "Homenaje
a la Infancia" (Homage to the Infancy), "La Caixa", Ibiza. Centro
Cultural de la Villa de Madrid. (Madrid's Cultural Centre) Sala
de Exposiciones del Casino de Ibiza. 1980 "II
Salón de Primavera" Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, (Contemporary Art
Museum) Ibiza. "Artistas de San José"
(San José artist) Galería Berri, Sant Agustí, Ibiza. "Artistas
Ibicencos" Galería Mulí, Santa Gertrudis, Ibiza. Galería
Internacional, Sant Antoni. "Homenage a D'aifa",
Casa de la Curia, Ibiza. "Circulo Cultural de Bellas
Artes", Palma de Mallorca. In the 1980s and 1990s
decades, he continued working at the same rhythm, with one or two, individual
and collective exhibitions in Ibiza every year and some out of the island, in
Spain and other European countries. 1982 "Galería
L'oeil de Boeuf" Paris, France. 1985 "Galería
Nova" Hagen, Germany. 1986 "Casa Lis"
Salamanca, Spain. 1987 "Galería Palette"
Wuppertal, Germany. Here, Toni Hormigo form part of the "Gruppe R B K"
1988 "Instituto Español de Cultura"
(Spanish Culture Institute) Munich, Germany. 1998
"Eivissa, anys 1960" (Ibiza, the 1960s) A collective exhibitions of
the best artist of the island in the 1960s. (MAC) Museo de Arte Contemporaneo
(Contemporary Art Museum) Ibiza. 1999 "Eivissa,
L'art dels 1970" (Ibiza Art in the 1970s) (MAC) another collective exhibition
of the best artist in the 1970s. His work has also been
reflected in several cinema documentaries, such as "Ibiza es una fiesta"
(Ibiza is a fiesta) filmed by Granena "Beautiful People" a German film.
"Baleares" film by V. Roselló. Also in
the books "Ibiza, la senda de los elefantes" (The track of the elephants)
by Mariano Planells. "Diccionario de los secretos
de Ibiza" (Ibiza's secrets dictionary) by Mariano Planells. "En
la isla del dios Bes" (In the god Bes island) by A. Barbero. "Diccionario
biografico de las Pitiusas" by M. Pesce. "Gran
Enciclopedia de la Pintura L'escultura a las Balears" (Great Encyclopaedia
of Painting and Sculpture of the Balearics). "Eivissa,
anys 1960, el naixemen de Babel" (Ibiza, the 1960s, the birth of Babel).
"Eivissa. L'art dels 1970" (Ibiza. The Art at
the 1970s).
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| Crucificado
- 1963
Pino, 36 x 12 cm |
Símbolo - 1966
Pino, 38 x 10 cm |
Ciclo Vital - 1975
Encina, 70 x 30 cm |
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| La
Gestación de un Profeta - 1975
Pino, 40 x 20 cm |
El Abrazo - 1976
Freeno, 95 x 40cm |
| |
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| Pequeño
Gran Pensador - 1977
Freeno, 100 x 40 cm |
Señor Curie - 1978
Olivo, 45 x 30 cm |
All Pictures
courtesy of Antonio Hormingo Escandell
José P Ribas | 
