|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch was born in Sant Antoni,
Eivissa, on the 18th May 1917. Most probably he would have
followed his father’s steps in a military career if it
wasn’t because, since he was very young, he started to
show an exceptional talent for drawing and his preferences
for the Fine Arts.
That pushed him to matriculate in the “Escuela
Superior de Bellas Artes San Jorge” in Barcelona, in
which he passed his degrees as a drawing teacher. Since 1962,
he was teaching drawing and painting in the “Institut
Santa Maria” of Eivissa, (Ibiza’s High School) until
1982, when he retired.
Ferrer Guasch is - without doubt - one of
the most appreciated and rewarded artists of the cultural
world of the Islands, one of our greatest painters of all
times. His biography and his works figure in the pages of
Spanish and the Balearic Encyclopaedia and Art-history books.
In his large career, he recognises he’s
painted about five thousand art-works, half of them sold on
the Island; that proves the respect and love that locals have
for his art and his persona. The rest of his works have sold
all over the world.
They form part of the private collections
of Richard Nixon, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the “Fundación
Juan March” or in the U.N. Building in New York, among
other important collections. There have been around a hundred
exhibitions (he doesn’t even remember himself) most of
them in Eivissa, but also in some of the best Art Galleries
of the world, such as the Wally Findlay Galleries, in New
York.
At present and until the end of this month,
we can admire a small and new selection of his works at “Can
Berri”, the art gallery run by Gastão Herbele,
in Sant Agustí, Eivissa. At the same time, Ferrer Guasch
is preparing his latest material to be exhibited shortly,
once again on their own request, after the successful experiences
in the Wally Findlay Galleries of New York.
Eivissa, always and only Eivissa, the “White
Island”, this is the life-motive of all his work. “The
City of Eivissa is a real passion for me, a challenge that
never ends. Like if this town was telling me to keep on working,
keep on painting, because there is still a lot to be done,
a lot more to paint until you can show me as I really am.
“For many years I have concentrated
myself on this exclusive subject, Eivissa, which I feel so
much deep down inside.
“This is the way that I feel so sorry
for what is happening at present with it, and the worst thing
is that I don’t have the strength or the way to fight
against it.
“I never have surrendered in my battles,
only now, only in front of these Islands that we are destroying.
“The greed of money (“por cuatro
pesetas...” as he says in his own words) is turning Eivissa,
our beautiful White Island, once full of tranquillity and
peaceful harmony, into a “Heritage of Misery”, Ferrer
Guasch declared to a local journalist, in his last exhibition
last year.
Being in his studio, where Gary and I met
with him and his charming wife Fanny, last Wednesday afternoon
at two o’clock, a sunny apartment on the second floor,
full of light, not far from the harbour, in the Avenida Bartumeu
Roselló, the wide street that splits, or joins, the
two sides of Eivissa Town, the old and the new part of it.
Looking at his paintings, I asked him why
there are no people in the streets, or birds in its immaculate
blue skies, or flowers showing by the side of the door or
the tiny windows of his paintings, no signs of active life
in them.
The answer was: “Life is action, movement;
what I am trying to reflect in my paintings is the tranquillity,
the peaceful harmony of its streets with its cubic white buildings,
the serenity that one could feel in Eivissa.”
Here, (talking about Eivissa especially
in the wards of “Sa Peña” and “Dalt
Vila”, most common sides in his paintings) it’s
one of the very few places (this also happens in some of the
Greek Islands, he says), that the shadows have their own light
and colours.
Perhaps it is because of the extreme whiteness
of the buildings and the different planes of its cubes, in
which the light rebounds in all directions. It is almost like
they were mirrors, forming endless kaleidoscopes through the
different hours of the day.
When the Sun is at its zenith, it is hot
and the life is in the interior. It is that light - with its
bright blue skies and slightly coloured shadows - and especially
the tranquillity and intimate serenity that this town and
the entire Island inspires what I mean to reflect in my paintings.”
“Now, in my latest works, I’m
trying to simplify the most. I have stopped painting the points
of colour of the doors and windows that I used before, as
a “pattern” to be able to paint some colour transparencies
in the different whites, and as a very personal way to balance
my paintings.
“At present, I work three hours per
day, and I keep doing it with enthusiasm and the same illusion
as ever. Like all art-creators, I keep looking and re-looking
for my own personal line, my personality as an artist.
“Now, at my age and after a hundred
exhibitions, I don’t need to convince anybody, and I
just look for a new pattern of interior composition, to paint
just the essence, to synthesise all this just in planes of
lights, volumes and cubes of different whites, simply lights
and shadows on the Ibicenco walls. ”
This is something that the art-critics can
also notice in America; let’s see for instance what the
Wally Findlay Galleries brochure says about Ferrer Guasch
and his paintings in his first exhibition in New York.
“Guasch’s work portrays the unique
beauty of Ibiza. Although not the reality of Ibiza today,
with its bustling congested streets and multitude of tourist,
it is the essential Ibiza that captivates the artist’s
imagination. In Guasch’s words... – the Ibiza that
it was and will be again. His paintings reflect the tranquillity
and serenity Guasch feels toward his subject.”
“The paintings are clean and pure.
Guasch’s palette has a prismic quality, which he has
harmoniously adjusted to the light and colour of Ibiza. As
one critic cited: “I don’t think it would be possible
to portray with a higher degree of flexibility, the atmosphere
of a place, the reflective whiteness of the walls and the
cool shading on its streets, than Guasch has done in his pictures.”
“Ferrer Guasch is a master of geometric
balance. Each of his paintings contains an order and serenity,
yet there is not repetition or similarity of composition and
his forms, although life-like, are not photographic. One might
say that Ferrer Guasch is an artist of the abstract school
who still feels a responsibility towards true representation
and aestheticism.”
As some of his most representative exhibitions
and awards.
1932 First exhibition, in the “Societat
Cultural Ebusus”, Eivissa
1952 “Real Academia de Sant Jordi”, Barcelona,
where he obtains the award of this Fine Arts School for his
landscapes
“Premi de Paisaje Josep Masriera”
1964 “XXIII Salón de Otoño”.
Golden Medal of the “Circulo de Belles Arts de Palma
de Mallorca”
“Premi Mallorca” de la Diputació
Provincial de Balears
1981 Spanish Tourism Office in the U.N. Building, New
York, USA
1983 First exhibition in the “Wally Findlay Art
Galleries” in New York, USA
“Golden Medal of Fine Arts” For his 50 Jubilee as
painter.
“Man of the Year” Voted by the
local paper “Diario de Ibiza” as most important
or popular person of the year.
In between, several and regular exhibitions
in: Eivissa, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Barcelona,
Madrid and Bilbao, Spain
In Vevey and Konstanz (Switzerland), Philadelphia
and other cities of the USA
Bibliography
“Ferrer Guasch, Mestros Actuales de
la Pintura y Escultura Catalana” N° 16 Ed. La Gran
Enciclopedia Vasca. 1980
“Ibiza y sus pintores” Cabot Lompart
J. Palma de Mallorca. Ed. Imagen, 1970-1979
“Enciclopedia Catalana” VII. Barcelona
1974
“La senda de los elefantes”. Mariano
Planells, Ed. Antigua Imprenta Soler. Palma de Mallorca, 1980
“Viatje a les Balears Menors”.
Baltazar Porcel. Ed. Noguer, Barcelona 1974
“Diccionario de Artistas de Cataluña”,
Valencia y Baleares. II, Ed. Catalanas, Barcelona 1980
“Maestros Actuales de la Pintura y
Escultura Catalanas”. Ed. Catalanas, Barcelona 1980
“Nova Enciclopedia de les Illes Balears.
V.” Palma de Mallorca
|
|
|
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1932
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1937
|
|
|
|
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1950
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1958
|
|
|
|
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1963
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1965
|
|
|
|
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1979
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1982
|
|
|
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch October 1993
|
|
|
|
|
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1997
|
Self-Portrait Vicente Ferrer Guasch
65 x 54 cm 1942
|
|
|
|
Plaza Palacio (Barcelona) Oil 61 x
54 cm 1944
|
|
|
|
Carrer De Sa Penya
Oil 46 x 37 cm 1952
|
|
|
|
Plaça De Dalt Vila
Oil 31 x 61 cm 1964
|
|
|
|
Paret
Oil 73 x 54 cm 1977
|
|
|
|
100 x 73 cm
|
|
|
|
100 x 81 cm
|
|
|
|
110 x 89 cm
|
|
|
|
73 x 100 cm
|
|
|
|
100 x 73 cm
|
|
|
|
92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
61 x 50 cm
|
|
|
|
89 x 61 cm
|
|
|
|
89 x 61 cm
|
|
|
|
92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
100 x 83 cm
|
|
|
|
Ventanas con Torre
Oil on Canvas 36¨ x 25½¨
|
|
|
|
Casa en Ibiza
Oil on Canvas 29¨ x 39½¨
|
|
|
|
Calle Hacia el Mar
Oil on Canvas 29¨ x 39½¨
|
|
|
|
Calle de Dalt Vila (Ibiza) 55 x 38
cm 1964
|
|
|
|
92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
Puerta y Sombra (Oil on canvas) 39½¨
x 29¨
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Dalt Vila (Ibiza)
81 x 60 cm
|
|
|
|
Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza) 73 x 54
cm
|
|
|
|
Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza) 61 x 46
cm
|
|
|
|
Casas (Ibiza) 73 x 54 cm
|
|
|
|
Las chimeneas (Ibiza)
|
|
|
|
Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza) 61 x 46
cm
|
|
|
|
Dalt Vila (Ibiza)
|
|
|
|
Iglesia de Santa Eulalia (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 72 x 54 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de la Marina (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Casa tipica (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Pozo tipico (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
|
|
|
Casa tipica (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Calle de Dalt Vila (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
|
|
|
Iglesia de San Rafael (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
Iglesia de San Lorenzo (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Iglesia de Santa Eulalia (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Iglesia de San Rafael (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Calle de Dalt Vila (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 100 x 73
|
|
|
|
Ventana (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65
|
|
|
|
Casa típica (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 55 x 33 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
Casa típica (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
|
|
|
Pórticos de la Iglesia de San
Miguel
Oil on Canvas 46 x 33
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
Casas del Puig de Missa, Santa Eulalia
(Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
|
|
|
Balafi, San Lorenzo (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 100 x 73 cm
|
|
|
|
Calle de la Marina (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 50 x 100 cm
|
|
|
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 81 x 60m cm
|
All
Pictures Courtesy of Vicente Ferrer Guasch
Jose P Ribas
josepribas@liveibiza.com
| 
