Inauguration of Vives Fierro (February 19th 2010)
With Vives Fierro and his impressive work “Urbs picturata” it has arrived to the Rusiñol Gallery a whirlwind of expectation, audience, bookings and art sales. In a familiarly relaxed ambience, the evening of February 19th offered us the possibility to more closely know this unfaltering and bold researcher -free from any obligations- who is Antoni Vives Fierro…
Notes from… Vives Fierro. While going along with the usual vernissage “protocol” of the Rusiñol Gallery, our collaborator Joseph Hostench prepares a quick biography of the painter. Words can also “draw” a character. And, thus, the evening revelation crops up: it seems that Picasso’s cradle was a tavern managed by one Vives Fierro’s great-grand-father. Later on, he explained that more in detail.
From the very beginning, the painter remained at the disposal of both the media and the audience. In the picture, one of the moments when Vives Fierro answers the questions asked by some of the people present at the vernissage.
Ignasi Cabanas was saying he had lost track of how many times Antoni Vives Fierro had exhibited at the Rusiñol Gallery. – «I do not remember any more…». And the painter immediately answered – «I do, six times!». Everybody was living the happy moment we were waiting for. When it was up to Josep Mª Cadena to speak, Ignasi could not restrain himself before the huge experience of this reporter and art-critic: «He is the number one!».
Josep Mª Cadena is always on the alert: «Antoni is the number one, Cabanas the number two and I am the “number Pi”»… While getting into the subject, «art is communication and within this communication, painting is its language. It is also a way for people to establish themselves. Antoni Vives Fierro’s paintings are of the kind that “look at you” and “speak”, while facilitating the collective communication. As a person, Antoni is an active man committed to his fellow citizens. And with his painting he does the same. He looks, speaks and frankly communicates what he feels». 
“Urbs picturata”, painted city, is a title with its own history. It comes from another exhibition in the year 2004, at the Residència d’Investigadors. This one is different, but it aims to the same goal: Vives Fierro sets out from the cities as living organisms and he presents them by adding his own will full of personal experiences. «Antoni’s Works offer a plural and dynamic personality made, as time goes by, with construction and destruction at the same time; with posters and signs nobody knows where they come from, although if they were removed we should certainly miss them, because they look at you and speak of an ensemble which is primarily communicative from its shapes and colours».
«I will speak now about Cadena. I am fed up with Cadena speaking only about me…! The number one certainly is Cadena. It does take a lot of imagination to be able to say what he has said about my work: when you paint you do not think about all these things (…). When I paint I propose a suggestion: it may please or it may not. Afterwards, the difficult thing is to sell it. Well, actually, the most difficult thing is to collect the money!». -At that moment Ignasi Cabanas interrupts: «At the Rusiñol Gallery we do collect it!». -Vives Fierro answers: «Yes, but I do not work only for the Rusiñol Gallery… Well, at any rate you are the only Gallery where I exhibit every two years: you do it well and I find myself very much at ease». 
The evening surprise: Vives Fierro explained us that «now, because of that fatal fire, Horta de Sant Joan has become unfortunately fashionable. My family is from there. My great-grand-father was the owner of the Tavern of the town. It was there where Picasso landed when he was 19 years old. He arrived with a friend of his that was ill and needed to rest in the countryside. And they spent there 9 months. He painted a portrait of my great-grand-father that is now exhibited in the US. Later on, Picasso went back to Horta de Sant Joan…, probably towards the years 1908 or 1909, and it was there where “cubism” was born».
The audience starts asking questions to the painter -He reacts: «Let them ask Cadena, he knows everything». – «Do you paint without collage?». – «For the last twenty years I have been using collage. Occasionally more, sometimes less». – «Has your daughter learnt anything from her father?». – «No, she is like a window you open to let the fresh air comes in: she is not easy to influence. The young crowd does fly “fast”: this is why every day there are more shows and photography exhibitions…». – «And your grand-children?». – «They are small. As for the boy, until he will be 16 or 17 we will not know…». MORE PHOTOS OF THE INAUGURATION
