Inauguration of Mateo (4th November 2016)
Ignasi Cabanas begins his speech. He welcomes the artist and his friends, old acquaintances and the admirers of Joaquín Mateo’s work. Mr. Cabanas remarks that this is the fifth individual exhibition of Mateo at the Rusiñol Gallery.
Mr. Josep M. Cadena: «All of you who have watched the exhibition that Mateo is presenting today you have seen “spaces of life” —as the tittle of this collection says—, but I would rather add “of comfortable life”. The painter is able to choose things and he has chosen the bicycle that represents the trip; the library that represents the interior life and the quiet life; the window, that represents the exterior life… and all with a certain disorder organized by the artist and by ourselves».
And Mr. Cadena continuous: «Everybody seeks comfort and the artist shows it to us in this exhibition with figurative and very imaginative works. Mateo has a long artistic track in exhibitions and he knows how to express, because the most important feature of an artist is to display something that is not there. When we contemplate a painting we have to see not only what it apparently represents but what it really wants us to teach, because Art is everlasting in our feelings.
«Josep M. Cadena has understood me perfectly», says Mateo. «He has captured my message exactly. I paint desires. The paintings are little stories which are desires that are transformed into reality. The bike, the balcony, the window… are the communication from the interior to the exterior. I would like the spectator to be the one who writes that story, who lives that scene. The human figure is not present but it is just in front of the painting, observing it. All the disorder of the works would be the disorder of the observer».
Time for questions! The first: «When you start painting, do you prepare something previously?». Mateo answers: «Because of my fear of the white color, I make some initial compositions by Photoshop. Although I print it, actually they aren’t useful to me because the final result has nothing to do with the first idea». Another attendee asks about the pictorial technique: «Acrylic, gel, matt transparent, more painting with acrylic and glazes and, finally, oil. After that, I varnish it and it becomes integrated».
