|
Carles Guasch, born in Eivissa to an Ibicenco
family about four decades ago, is a real, authentic talent,
a product of the people, the society, the culture of the Island.
He has won his own place under the sun with a very personal
style, an enormous amount of artistic sensitiveness and plenty
of fluid work.
One could think that his works are painted
with tears from his infinite blue eyes.
Since very young he was called by the art;
he remembers from his early years feeling a big curiosity
and being attracted by the paintings, by the colours and the
expression of the drawings, much before the notion or even
the word "art" came into his mind.
It was because of this curiosity, this attraction
and will, a real hunger for painting, that Carles matriculated
in "Artes y Oficios" of Eivissa (the local Arts
School) when he was still studying his first year of "bachillerato"
in Santa Maria Institute.
Carles was going to his art classes by night,
because of his other studies. They were special hours for
the ones who had not any other time available, open classes
to any age. He has good memories of those days and speaks
about them with tenderness: "In these night classes,
we were people of different ages, with a pleasant harmony
in the group; some were just drawing, some painting, some
moulding.... Everybody had a certain amount of autonomy, but
good professors guided us. It was a really good atmosphere,
the ideal environment for artistic expression.
"I remember the background classical
music, the smell of the oil-paintings, inks and other pigments...
"All those drawings, copies of the
figure of the classic "Discobolo" and the "David"
of Michelangelo, or the drawings and paintings of natural
landscapes, helped me later on as a synthesis, keeping just
with what it is: the comparison of colours, the chromatic
unity that Nature offers us, to express it all in abstract
forms.
"All these factors were - slowly, but
constantly - introducing me into what is my world today and
I live it like an inseparable part of my life, the artistic
expression through the Plastic Arts."
As soon as Carles finished his studies of
"bachillerato" in the Institute, by the end of the
1970s, he moved to Barcelona for his university studies, Architecture
and Spanish Philology ("It must be because I felt attracted
by the contrasts", he says). He also matriculated into
the "Escuela de Arte Masana," an advanced art school,
open to advanced and recommended pupils. In this school the
art was more vanguard, it was a good push for his style and
technique to become more personal. Carles started to write
the word "Art" with capital letters.
It was in Barcelona, during his university
years, that Carles had his first exhibitions, the very first
one in the "Ateneo Barcelones," where he obtained
a special award - "Premio de Dibujo Sant Jordi"
- then a collective one in the "Palacio de la Virreina."
Afterwards came the private galleries, such as "Galería
Matisse" and "Galería Roc Guinart".
When he finished his studies, Carles returned
to Eivissa, where very soon he rented an old house, transformed
the inside of it, and opened his own art gallery - "Skyros"
- in the old part of Eivissa, not far from the harbour.
Initially, the art gallery was just a temporary
project, a way to jump into the art circle of the Island.
But also Carles had always wanted to collaborate in creating
a centre for the local artist to exhibit and to give a space
to new talent from any part of the world.
"Skyros" remained open for more
than eleven years and there were about a hundred exhibitions
in the gallery, some by young, still-unknown painters, sculptors
or ceramists, but most done by well-known international artists,
who attracted a good amount of sales. At the time it was the
most active gallery on the Island.
Meanwhile, during these eleven years, Carles
- along with his work in the gallery - was producing his own
paintings. His work was once exhibited in an individual exhibition
in his gallery, but also in other galleries of Eivissa, including
"La Caixa," "Sa Nostra" and "Galería
Eivissa," as well as In several Spanish cities, such
as "Galería Latina" and "Galería
Biblos" in Mallorca, "Galería Leonardo"
in Zaragoza, "Casa Lis" in Salamanca, "Galería
Albatros" in Madrid, "Galería la Cúpula"
in Valencia and "Feria Universal de Sevilla- Pabellón
Balear."
He also exhibited across Europe, "Van
Remen Gallery" in Solingen, Germany, "Plech Gallery"
in Graven, Austria, "Wichy Wood Gallery" in London,
UK, among others.
Carles considers those years as a very interesting
experience, a very important way of getting to know deeply
the problems, the hard side of the art, the commerce of it
and all the difficulties involved in it. He says now: "To
survive as a business and maintain an art gallery, in a small
town like Eivissa, just with the commissions on the sales,
can only be done with a lot of enthusiasm and altruism."
But those years were also very important
for the number of great artists that Carles met and the amount
of Art that he could observe and study; the day he decides
to publish his own biography, there is enough material in
these years for a very good book.
The "Skyros Gallery" was closed
in 1993, not because he wanted it to, but because the rent
became too expensive and instead they opened another shop
for the tourists.
Very soon the next move was to open another
art centre -"Centro Cultural Alhadros" in the Aragón
street of Eivissa - with Rosa Hispan, the manager of the gallery,
in which Carles keeps working as an artistic director.
Since then, Carles has organised, with his
partner, in his new gallery, very successful events, such
as new exhibitions with the best artists of the Island and
especially the "Supermercado del Arte," a macro-collective
exhibition done close to Christmas time. The paintings, normally
smaller works, are sold without the frame or glass, therefore
cheaper, ideal for a Christmas present and a good help for
the artist because they don't have to invest anything in the
presentation of their works.
Carles continues with his exhibitions in
Eivissa and different parts of the world, such as "Feria
Internacional de Barcelona," "Artistas abstractos
de Baleares" in Madrid's Town Hall, "Feria Internacional-Riparte"
in Rome, "J & C Art Gallery" in New York, "Art
Gallery Husstonn" in Los Angeles and - in San Francisco,
USA - "Feria Internacional de Salamanca," where
they bought one of his paintings for the new Modern Art Museum,
to be inaugurated this year.
His paintings are always abstract, a little
bit like his own personality, but that makes me think somehow
of Ibiza, of the cubic blocks of the "casa payesa,"
of geometrical landscapes, of its skies, with very light and
ethereal blues, just fractions, sensitive transparencies on
the paintings. Here's what the expert art critics say:
"Carles Guasch professes the experimental
architecture of the colour. His way of composing in ideal
areas, in estimated planes, with previous and precise projects,
giving to all his art work security and technique quality."
- Carlos de la Viña.
"The art work of Carles Guasch is full
of poetical sensations and suggesting plastic qualities, as
much for the delicacy and transparency of the colour, as for
the pulchritude and purity of the forms, which insinuate harmonic
stratification" - Rafael Perlló-Paradelo.
"Carles Guasch is the prodigious animator
of a procession of relapse blues, a painstaking discoverer
of a mystery of forms and planes, a constant seeker of lyric
order, without automatic processes, but with an intellectual
sensibility in perfect harmony with the chromatic factors"
- Raúl Chavarri.
In my opinion, Carles Guasch is a young
man full of art and talent, and even though he has already
done a very big amount of artistic work, because of his age
and his capabilities, the best is yet to come.
|
|
|
Carles Guasch
(Picture © Gary Hardy January 2002)
|
|
|
|
|
Blank
|
Blank
|
|
|
|
|
Blank
|
Blank
|
|
|
|
|
Blank
|
Blank
|
|
|
|
|
Blank
|
Blank
|
All Pictures of Paintings
Courtesy of Carles Guasch
Details: If you should require information
on purchasing the work of Carles Guasch then please don't
hesitate to contact this office at your own convenience.
| |
