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In our research for our series "Artists
on Ibiza", I have become aware of the large number of
artists from around the world living and working on the island
and I have to ask if Ibiza is a cultural Utopia. Who better
to answer this question than Edith Sommer, a German born artist
who has lived and worked on the island for the past forty
years.
"I once told a Barcelona artist to
leave Ibiza and go back to mainland Spain because he had no
future here. Now I believe he is doing very well for himself
in Spain.
If you want to be famous you have to live
in a city where art happens. New York, London, Paris, Berlin,
etc.; anywhere but not in Ibiza or in a small village.
If you want to become a famous artist you
have to be living and exhibiting your art in the right place.
Even putting your art on the Internet won't
bring you fame. You have to go to the city and meet the art
critics and the press, as well as holding exhibitions in well-known
galleries.
I would say that any new artist in Ibiza
needs a second job because he/she won't be able to survive
on art alone.
You can only survive on art when your paintings
are selling for 50,000 to 60,000 dollars and people are coming
running after you to see your latest work. But otherwise you
have to do something else to make a living.
I suppose unconsciously everyone would like
to see their paintings in a big gallery but this is only a
fairytale for the minority. The difference is that most artists
don't need to become famous; it would be nice, of course,
but all they really want to do is to make enough money to
paint and do what comes naturally.
I wouldn't mind if it had happened to me,
but I would never live in a big city so I considered it impossible.
Once I was offered a contract with a famous
gallery in New York, but I decided not to accept because it
would have meant that I would have to live in New York for
three to five years.
It would have gone against my beliefs as
a human being but perhaps everything would be different now
if I had gone.
If I had been in New York I would have had
to be available three times a week to go to the shows ‘they'
tell you to and meet with the critics.
The other problem was that if I didn't become
famous during five years I would have to stay for another
five years or as long as necessary.
I considered that there were too many compromises
to be made and also, I didn't want to live in the city. I
was living here in Ibiza and fortunately or unfortunately
I had enough money to live my life carefully.
Naturally if I hadn't had money I would
have had no other choice but to go.
But as I had the choice I decided not to
go and I was so happy living here in the sun, under the trees
and free from noise, and I didn't think much about the future.
At the time I was only interested in what I wanted, without
thinking about what was best.
I have to say that I don't regret my decision.
For me there are two kinds of success: you
can be successful because you are famous or because you are
content with yourself and your way of life.
Even though you might not be successful
in the eyes of others, to yourself you are a success.
Every life has two sides but to me it is
more important that I'm content with myself.
In Ibiza there are lots of internationally
known artists, but most of them come here to relax or to retire,
without even trying to sell their artwork.
There is another group of artists that doesn't
even bother to have exhibitions on the island because they
have a large group of friends who buy their paintings.
Personally I've had lots of exhibitions
all over the world. I don't think I could live off my art
but it has been a good help.
The last exhibition I had in Germany was
really tiring. I had to put all my paintings in the car, drive
to Germany and stay in a hotel. Then I had to get a flight
back to Ibiza and also have a second car here to get around.
Three weeks later I flew back to Germany for the presentation
of the exhibition and to meet the critics.
Economically it wasn't that beneficial so
I stopped holding international exhibitions because it was
senseless.
I had an exhibition in Ibiza three years
ago, but the problem is that - although it's beautiful to
see your work in a gallery - only my friends buy my paintings
and they would have bought them anyway.
I find that most people that buy art are
friends of the artist. For instance, if an artist from Mallorca
were to hold an exhibition here in Ibiza, he would have little
chance of selling because he hasn't got any friends here.
Another thing that I have discovered over
the years is that the art galleries haven't got a great interest
in exhibiting your paintings if they are only selling for
1,000 dollars instead of 20,000 dollars, as they don't make
much profit.
Although I used to be very ambitious I find
that it's all gone now.
There is one thing I know for sure about
my life as an artist, I have always done what I wanted to
do, in my art but also in my life.
I suppose some people would say that if
I hadn't been able to do what I wanted, today I might have
been a famous artist.
But I know that I couldn't be more content
with my life than I am now. Probably if I had been a famous
artist my personal life would have been a failure. You can
never know what might have happened so there is no point in
having regrets, that is my philosophy.
I change a lot and this is one of my main
problems. When I exhibited at a German gallery at first all
my paintings were very 'quiet', mostly pale green. I did two
shows in the gallery and then for the next show I arrived
with a series of 'action' paintings and the owner basically
threw me out.
I was told that I couldn't change my style
like that because I had just started to build up an image
of doing quiet paintings and the change of style would mean
I would have to start again. And I knew that if I built up
an image of action paintings, sometime I would change my style
and do something completely different.
Most artists will stick to the style that
makes the most money but I have never been able to do this.
Art is different. When you paint a picture
and then you look at it in the future and regret not doing
it differently, you can just paint another one.
Very often I will do two paintings that
are very similar but they will never be the same because I
hate repeating myself. People who know my paintings understand
my different changes in style and, although a series of my
paintings look drastically different they nearly always share
the same colours or if not, the same elements.
When I finish a series I don't usually go
back to that style, instead I try to do something completely
different in my next series.
I nearly always use very vivid colours because
they match my way of thinking.
I never paint landscapes because it doesn't
interest me. I paint impressions of landscapes or only the
part that inspires me.
Sometimes I will do a series of fairytale
paintings but most of my art is abstract.
I can't put a label on my art because I
think that each of my paintings would have a different label.
If I label my artwork today, tomorrow it
won't be true anymore.
Most artists don't have the same approach
to life than other people. While most people are interested
in having a big house and a nice car, artists prefer a simpler
way of life. But this depends on each person.
Perhaps in Spain, in some places, you can
still survive with 200 dollars a month but no one wants to
live there because you can become very lonesome and for a
lot of artists it's an excuse to do nothing.
Here in Ibiza everyone knows each other,
the climate is wonderful and the island attracts an international
group of people because of being so small.
In this group the artists all like to stick
together from San Antonio to San Carlos and therefore you
are not isolated.
If a new artist arrives on the island he/she
is welcomed to the group.
I think this is one of the biggest attractions
of the island; familiarity, interesting people from around
the world and the fact that nearly all of us can speak English
means that communication is no problem.
But Ibiza is too small, it will always stay
a little bit buried from the rest of the world but I think
that is what makes it so special".
"Landscapes are for Edith Sommer spatial
stage sets for strange visions. Lonely and exotic, her paintings
give an effect of strong, clear, contrasting colours which
simultaneously calm and stimulate the viewer. The tension
in her paintings does not arise accidentally, but through
the opposition of being and appearance, actuality and imagination.
Reality is fantastically transformed". Dr. Eike Pies
Individual Exhibitions
1960
Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal (Germany)
1962
Galeria Vedrà, Ibiza
1963
Galeria Grife-Escoda, Barcelona
Galerie im Weissen Haus, Winterthur (Switzerland)
1966
Galeria Ivan Spence, Ibiza
1967
Galerie Becher, Wuppertal (Germany)
1969
Galeria Ivan Spence, Ibiza
Selected Artists, New York (USA)
1972
Galeria da Barra, Barcelona
1973
Bryant Gallery, New Orleans (USA)
Bryant Gallery, Houston (USA)
1974
Galerie Kona, Zürich (Switzerland)
1975
Tower Gallery, Southampton (USA)
1976
Studio Wein, Stuttgart (Germany)
Kleine Galerie, Köln (Germany)
Galerie Latina, Hamburg (Germany)
Röderhaus, Wuppertal (Germany)
1979
Galeria Maloney, Ibiza
1980
Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, Munich (Germany)
1981
Galerie Arpi, Paris (France)
Galeria Maloney, Ibiza
1982
Studio Wein, Stuttgart (Germany)
1984
Galeria Maloney, Ibiza
1985
Van Remmen, Solingen (Germany)
1987
Röderhaus, Wuppertal (Germany)
1988
Galeria Maloney, Ibiza
1990
Galeria Becher, Wuppertal (Germany)
1997
Galeria Alhadros, Ibiza
Since 1997 to present
Galeria Nomad, carretera San José
km. 1,5 Ibiza
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Shall We?
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Unterbrochen
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Fairy Tree Eruption
60" x 44"Blank
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High Tide In My Flower 39" x
32"
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Ibiza Beach 34" x 43"
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Monument For An Unknown Divorce
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Petrified On A Beach
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Pink Brick Road
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UFO Over My World
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Windows To
Morocco 43" x 60"
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Auch im Dschungel
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Memory Sea
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All
Pictures Courtesy of Edith Sommer
Louise Wright
louisewright@liveibiza.com
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