GATA DE GORGOS BOASTS A WONDERFUL EXPLOSION OF COLOUR AND ART

Steve and I with two friends decided to go to Gata de Gorgos on Saturday 19th August 2017 to see the hanging textiles that make up the Art al Vent, (art to the wind). This open air textile art exhibition continues until the 3rd of September.

Review and Photos by Lizzie Clayton
(click photos to enlarge)

3 FLOORS OF FUN AT BIG ART SCHOOL SHOW BRINGS ALL AGES TOWARDS THEIR VISIONS

The Escola de Pintura Mediterránea de Xàbia (Javea School of Mediterranean Painting) opened an exhibition of 116 paintings to showcase its students as it wraps up another school year.

I was curious as to what types of visions were being created by these students so I visited the Lambert Arts Center to have a look.

Review by Karla Darocas, Hons.B.A. Fine Arts Historian

MURCIA CITY AND MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS EMBRACES STREET & GRAFFITI ARTISTS IN A REALLY BIG WAY

Urban art: From the Street to the Museum is a really exciting show that is on offer at the Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia (MUBAM) · From 05/04/2017 to 07/09/2017.

GOYA * FOLLY, WAR & MADNESS - tba

The second half to Goya's life and works showcase his overall perspective of life becomes dark and cynical. Now he turns the dramatic Romanticism deep into the monstrous side of the irrational and the dangerous flaws of Enlightenment.

He uses the new invention of "aquatint" (a print resembling a watercolour, made by etching a copper plate with nitric acid and using resin and varnish to produce areas of tonal shading.) as a form of print making to fuel his revelations and revolutionary expressions in order to lampoon, satirize and mock the institutions, practices and commonly held beliefs of his time.

In 1799 Goya published 80 Caprichos prints depicting what he described as "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance, or self-interest have made usual."

Another collection of 82 prints called the Disasters of War, 1810s, Goya vents his visual voice with protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814.

The scenes created withing these prints are singularly disturbing, sometimes macabre in their depiction of battlefield horror, and represent an outraged conscience in the face of death and destruction. Goya expresses the randomness of violence in these prints, and in their immediacy and brutality they have been described as analogous to 19th- and 20th-century photojournalism of the atrocities of war.

They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons.

Goya created another set of prints - Tauromaquia (the art of bull fighting) between 1815 and 1816, at the age of 69. Bullfighting was not politically sensitive, and the series was published at the end of 1816 in an edition of 320—for sale individually or in sets—without incident. It did not meet with critical or commercial success however.

His late period culminates with the Black Paintings of 1819–1823, applied on oil on the plaster walls of his house the "Quinta del Sordo" (house of the deaf man) where, disillusioned by political and social developments in Spain he lived in near isolation.

The paintings originally were painted as murals on the walls of the house, later they were lifted off the walls and attached to canvas. Currently they are held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

At the same time, he worked on 22 prints called Los disparates (The Follies), also known as Proverbios (Proverbs) or Sueños (Dreams), again a series of prints in aquatint and etching, with retouching in drypoint and burin, created between 1815 and 1823.

The scenes of the Disparates, which are difficult to explain, include dark, dream-like scenes that scholars have related to political issues, traditional proverbs and the Spanish carnival.

Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux, accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss, who may or may not have been his lover.

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APPRECIATE ART & CULTURE * LOVE SPAIN
Resource Books written by
Karla Ingleton Darocas 
and published by
SpainLifestyle.com 

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GOYA "WITNESS OF HIS TIME" * RARE ENGRAVINGS SHOWN IN ALICANTE

The Gravina Fine Arts Museum of Alicante (Mubag) held an exhibition in June 2017 entitled "Goya. Witness of His Time", which brought together 138 prints from private collections. They invited reflection on themes that are still relevant 200 years later.

SEE WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE AT THE TRIBUTE TO VALENCIAN ARTIST * MIGUEL SALA COLL

This morning my friends and I were very pleased to visit the retrospective tribute to the Valencian painter - Miguel Sala Coll at the the Lambert Arts Center / House in the old town of Jávea.

ART FILM * THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL . directed by Luis Buñuel.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29TH
10:30 * Coffee, Film & Discussion
5 euro donation
DAROCAS STUDIO * Benitachell

Starring Silvia Pinal, Jaqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal Mexico 1962, 35mm, b/w, 94 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.

Watch as the legendary Spanish surrealist film master Luis Buñuel psychologically tortures a mansion full of uptight high society dinner guests.

Leaving Franco Spain for the artistic freedom of Mexico, in 1962 Buñuel stays true to his surrealist roots and makes this iconoclastic film.

It is a film that demands your attention by breaking narrative rules.

It also draws you into the tragic reality of the characters who cannot process nor escape their situation. These characters are a class of people who thrive by materialistic values and conventional attitudes. They are bound to their rules by duty and etiquette. When the reality of their dinner party becomes very strange, it is their base instincts and phobias that come to the surface.

This film is full of sarcastic wit, unconscious and dreamlike images, Freudian slips, drugs, sex, death, suicide - just to make sure you are paying attention... and so much more!!

It is a timeless masterpiece of surrealist art.

It is also a revolt against all oppressive civilizations... like Franco's Spain.

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PICASSO IN PARIS

A really big Thank you to all who came out to support me today at my public lecture on Picasso in Paris. It was wonderful to see some of my very first Fine Arts Friends from way back in the early days of teaching in Javea. It was also great to see my regular Fine Arts Friends and of course - new faces!

The folks over at the Church Centre are truly lovely people and this time they made cakes for all the Fine Arts Friends. Lizzie and Steve Clayton were helping me with the door, seating and transport and I give them an extra thanks because I am lost with my car in the repair shop at the moment.

Congratulations to Karen and Keith who won my Picasso-inspired paintings today. I hope you will always remember me when you look at these fun pieces of art work.

I hope that you all enjoyed and maybe even were inspired by my lecture today.  I am always appreciative of feedback.

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FILM

This Saturday morning, I invite you to come to my studio in Benitachell and watch the film "MIDNIGHT IN PARIS". It is a 2011 American-French romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The main character is transported in time and meets all of the artists from today's lecture and some from my past lectures on the Impressionist & Expressionists. It is witty and fun!

SATURDAY 21ST, 2017
10:30am - 5 euros includes cafe or other beverage and breakfast snacks
DAROCAS STUDIO inside the offices of BENITACHELL PROPERTIES - main corners in Benitachell opposite the banks at the traffic light.

Just email me if you wish to come along!

ARTFULLY YOURS,
Karla Ingleton-Darocas, Hons.B.A. Fine Arts
www.SpainLifestyle.com
info@SpainLifestyle.com


PHOTOS FROM PICASSO IN PARIS - SATURDAY JANUARY 14, 2017. CHURCH CENTER . JAVEA

REVIEWS

ART ART and More ART.
Yesterday I attended a really interesting lecture in Javea about Pablo Picasso. It was really interesting and gave me much more of an insight into where his inspiration came from. Although the concentration was about his time in Paris I still love learning about his Spanish roots. The lecture was by Karla Darocas and she truly is inspirational and passionate about her subject. We live in a wonderful country awash in colour and light, I came home wanting to get my paints out again. I want to attend more of these lectures so anyone who wants to join me, anyone who wants to turn off the TV and give the bar a miss to do something cultural, please let me know.

***Lauren Staton


It was brilliant - we were so inspired that after a lovely lunch in the pueblo we got out our paints and created our own works of art - all in the blazing sunshine (25 degrees) on our patio!

***Sue Bell

VIEW MORE REVIEWS - VISIT - www.KarlaDarocas.com