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Potters have been making beautiful things out of clay in Ibiza
and Formentera for thousands of years.
The relationship between clay and creation
has its origins in the beginning of time, as we can read in
the Bible.
God used clay, as the most modest and the
only material, to mould what's supposed to be his best creation,
Man.
The difference is that he then breathed
life into it, but the relationship between the clay, the religious
art creation and the Pitiusas Islands also has its origins
in the beginning of our historical times.
When the Phoenicians reached our Islands
to found the city of "Ebusus" (Eivissa, 654 BC)
they were very impressed by the fact that there were no dangerous
or poisonous animals, such as snakes, scorpions, tarantulas
or wild beasts, so abundant in their countries in the Middle
East and North Africa.
They saw this, as a divine blessing for
the place, especially for its soil and clay that wouldn't
support evil creatures.
Images and medallions of their Gods, "Bes"
and "Tanit" - as well as other little objects made
of the local clay - used to be worn as an amulet to protect
them against the evil and the poison of these creatures whenever
they had to sail away from the island.
There are records of a very active industry
in pottery and artistic ceramic production in the Islands
from those days, basically "terracotta." We can
still see a good collection of them in the "Punic"
area of the Museum of Archaeology of Eivissa. The tradition
still goes on.
This is what we were talking about when
Gary Hardy and I had the pleasure to visit our artist for
this week.
Toni Ribas Costa, "Toniet", was
born in June 1955, in Sant Jordi, Eivissa. A real "product"
of our land and culture, a solid and confirmed artist and
even a better person, with a clear and bright look, full of
harmony and serenity, like the sky and the sea of Formentera
on a pleasant spring afternoon.
Toniet started studying painting and artistic
ceramic academic ways when he was twelve, first with the professor
and painter Toni Pomar in the local Art school (Escola d'Arts
i Ofisis d'Eivissa), then in Sabadell (Barcelona) with the
ceramist professor Isidre Creus.
Later, back in Eivissa, he also studied
and worked by the side of the local pottery master, "Toni
Daifa", at the time the best ceramist in the ancestral
Mediterranean terracottas, especially in the Punic models
and its techniques.
Toniet also spent six summers of his life
living and working in Formentera (in the winter he was going
back to Barcelona) by the side of another exceptional local
artist "Gabrielet." Learning from him, he increased
his own creativity and enlarged a more philosophical point
of view about Art and life in general.
At the age of twenty six, Toniet left his
academic studies and started working and experimenting in
his own workshop, cultivating and developing his own very
personal style.
It is a mixture of the classic Mediterranean
terracotta and the modern ceramic, done with natural materials,
colours and enamels that he prepares and mixes himself to
be fired in his own oven.
"I'm interested in all materials, especially
the ones that I can prepare myself from the original, natural
matter, because they adapt better to my artistic expression.
Not so much for the artificial materials - I'm against chemical
abuse in the ceramic. Sometimes there is a chemical abuse
in it, though what really counts is the final result. Ceramics
should never be a laboratory, but a creative and free technique."
About his preferences as far as the style
of his art pieces, he says: "Everything can have an influence
to a creator. Life by itself, everything around, can be a
motive for the artist to be translated into an art piece,
though, in practical terms, most probably I'm influenced by
the traditional Eivissa ceramics, the actual modern style
and the ancestral, archaeological, Phoenician and Punic, beautiful
terracotta art pieces".
Coming from such a rich and extraordinary
background, with such exceptional teachers, plus his own methodical
discipline in his creative work, it is understandable that
there is a big variety, though also very personal, in all
his artistic creations.
There are painted tiles that form polychromatic
murals, jars that could be abstract sculptures, single painted
tiles or plates with exquisite drawings, sculptures and figures
based on the Punic terracotta. And a large list of other works,
most done with home-made natural colours, mainly ochre, yellows,
blues and reds.
"In my art work, I look to create beauty,
to identify myself with my own aesthetic. My art pieces are
meant to be somewhere in between the painting and the sculpture.
But, I also think that the artist can't keep steel, one can't
stop investigating, experimenting with new techniques and
materials, always a step ahead. If you don't do so, there
is nothing new for the artist to say, nothing new to create".
At present Toniet continues working methodically,
with discipline, basically in commissioned art pieces, not
so much producing to exhibit, sharing his time working as
an art professor, teaching the age-old secrets of ceramics
and working techniques.
Individual Exhibitions
1978 Galería Roc Ginard, Barcelona
1980 Galería "Tot Art", Eivissa
1981 Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa
1983 Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa
1985 Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa
1987 Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa
1989 Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa
1990 Galería Bearn, Palma de Mallorca
Galería Berri, Sant Agustí, Eivissa
Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Ciutadella, Menorca
1991 Galería Bella, Sioma & Baram, Sant
Francesc, Formentera.
Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa.
1992 Galería Berri, Sant Agustí, Eivissa.
1993 Sala Almirall, Barcelona.
1994 Sala Almirall, Barcelona.
1996 Sala de Exposiciones "Ayuntamiento de Sant
Josép" Eivissa.
Collective Exhibitions
1991 Galería Azara, Eivissa.
Galería Bella, Sioma & Baram, La Savina, Formentera.
Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra" Eivissa. Artistas amb
el poble Saharià.
1992 Galería Bella, Sioma & Baram, Sant
Francesc, Formentera.
1993 Galería Art-Bar, Sant Josép, Eivissa.
Galería d'Art "Es Llimoner", Sant Antoni,
Eivissa.
Special Public Art-works
1989 Diosa Tanit para la "I
Semana Internacional del Film de Eivissa"
(Special Ceramic of the Punic Goddess "Tanit" for
the "First International week of the Film of Eivissa")
1990 Diosa Tanit para la "II Semana Internacional
del Film de Eivissa".
1991 Murales para embellecer las fachadas de las estaciones
marítimas de Eivissa y Formentera.
(Murals for the Maritim Stations in Eivissa and Formentera).
1992 "Torre de los Vientos, con Reloj de Sol"
en el Puerto de la Savina, Formentera.
("Tower of the Winds" with a Sun-Dial in Formentera's
harbour, "La Savina").
1994 Mural para la fachada de "Sa Nostra",
Eivissa.
(Mural for the saving-bank "Sa Nostra" in Eivissa.)
Other Art-works Done In Collaboration
With Other Artists
1973-1974 Trabajos sobre terracota
tradicional con Joan Daifa. Taller estudio "Can Espanyol",
Eivissa.
(Traditional terracotta-art-works, together with Joan Daifa,
in the work-shop "Can Espanyol", Eivissa)
1975-1976 Trabajos escultoricos y en bajo relieve con
Antonio "Gabrielet". Taller estudio "Es Torrent
Fondo", La Mola, Formentera.
(Sculpture artwork, together with Antonio "Gabrielet"
in the workshop "Es Torrent Fondo" in La Mola, Formentera.)
1978-1981 Trabajos sobre cerámica policromada
con Antonio "Gabrielet". Taller de cerámica
"La Mola", Formentera.
(Polychromatic ceramic-art-works, together with Antonio "Gabrielet",
in the work-shop of "La Mola ", Formentera.)
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All Pictures Courtesy of Toniet
José P Ribas
josepribas@liveibiza.com
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