Twenty-five years —which we have celebrated at length— plus another year (which has gone by very quickly too) add up to the 26 Years that the Rusiñol Gallery complies with today For this great occasion, we also have a great painter: Lluís Roura, with his extraordinary exhibition titled “The four seasons” (in direct reference to his four large paintings that share together this same title). Josep Mª Cadena has rightly pointed out: «The known landscapes are never-ending when they have been internalized and are carried inside us as real samples of creative identity».

Ignasi Cabanas: «We are grateful to Lluís Roura for his presence among us: an extraordinary painter, Empordà’s adoptive son. We now have the honour, and are fortunate enough to be able to celebrate our 26 Years with him. Believe me: to bring him here is something special, it has cost us tears, sweats, weeping, sleepless nights…, it has been terrible, most terrible! And then, when he finally comes, he turns everything upside down. We allow it because there is only one Lluís Roura: he belongs to that group of artists that must remain as an example of his generation, of what all the great painters of this period have made… This has to be celebrated with our door wide open!».

Josep Mª Cadena: «Good afternoon to all and good afternoon to the Empordà! for they are fortunate to have Lluís Roura there». Every day, when we get up, we shake up our sleep, we look ourselves in the mirror, and we say: —This has to be fixed! Well, I think that every morning the Empordà gets up and says: —This has to be fixed… because Lluís Roura is coming! Why? We all have places of birth, of acquaintances… and then, we also have other places that are kept inside our imagination, inside our spirit, because we may have seen them sometime somewhere. Lluís Roura has this retentive which all painters must possess: he has been absorbed by the Empordà… and in his paintings we see that he has made it his own».

Lluís Roura: «I thank the Cabanas family —Victòria and Ignasi— for they have chosen me to celebrate this significant date: the 26 Years of this art gallery. I also want to make a “special” contribution: I have brought “The Four Seasons” to Sant Cugat… I also wish to thank Mr. Cadena for his wonderful presentation. He belongs in the last saga of art critics. I very much liked his writing for the catalog, because while he talks about the external aspect of landscapes, he also speaks a lot of the intimacy of the landscape soul, by linking it a little to the spirituality I live with and which I incorporate, thanks to my many trips to the Holy Land…».

«The exhibition is based on “The Four Seasons”. Previously, Mr. Cadena was talking about things we do not value when we have them, such as health, which we praise only when it defaults. When I painted these paintings of the four seasons, I considered myself very old, but I now realize that I was only 35 years old, I was a child! I’m surprised at the strength and energy I had then. “The Four Seasons” was a kind of synthesis of the Empordà. In fact, I paint the four seasons all the year round. My job is to take the car, to make many kilometers and to set up my easel wherever I find the light… I get this energy through painting. And I am very pleased to have been able bring it here, to Sant Cugat».

«—Is this The Laurel Inn? Sir, you are in it, you see. –And the innkeeper, is he in? —You are talking to him…» (“Don Juan Tenorio”)… In actual fact, we are not in The Laurel Inn, but in the Rusiñol Gallery. But it so happens that this time another Juan A. Tenorio has come with his exhibition “Human anatomy”… And, with such an enjoyable knack, Mr. Cadena has introduced him.

A quick profile “4 notes about…” (in this case, “about… Tenorio”) reveals unpublished intricacies. When asked for A record in your life? The artist replied: «Winning an award after 20 minutes work. It was in the neighborhood of the Spanish Village, in Barcelona. They called me home for repairing a piece, a machine. I had to leave the contest. I left the painting as it was and I told my friend Matthew to pick it up. «The next day… it turned out they had given me the 2^nd Prize: I was told it was a very spontaneous work…».

Tenorio’s roots are already suggested at the showcase of the Rusiñol Gallery. His family, his wife, Toni, and his father have helped him to set it up. There we can see a metal reproduction of the Brooklyn Bridge. «I am the son of blacksmiths: I know the job, my father taught me how to work in the field of iron. These origins may, more or less, explain the structural forms of my work (metallic bridges…)». Josep Maria Cadena said that «this bridge —made by his family— connects with his roots: roots out of which the sap flows for the tree to mature and the tree are his paintings».

Which is Tenorio’s style? The artist answers: «Figurative realistic. With plenty of concepts added through the collage. Images, visions. The inserted “mentor” in the scene is the spirit». Mr. Cadena added: «What can we find in his work? We can find in it the mobility of the city. We usually believe that cities are static forms. But, it is not so!, they constantly change. Tenorio explains it through his collages: he combines the city with things he has recollected from very different places, moments and circumstances that motivated him when he was painting, thus, creating a close relationship between what he is building and that he wants to put into his work».

Juan A. Tenorio: «I am going to tell to you a story… I was recently exhibiting in Malaga. A client came to me and said: —It is curious; being a painter from Barcelona you have no intonation whatsoever. Then, I said: —It’s true that I am a painter from Barcelona, but I was born in Utrera, Seville. —Ah! “right”, so you are in your land, he replied… Today I am at home; I am at the Rusiñol Gallery. It is the third time that they welcome to me. I am with my friends; you are part of my world. I feel very comfortable with the Cabanas family and their team. Apart from this, I am in Barcelona, a city I love and admire; a city full of architecture and elements that are useful for me in order to make my work». Tenorio ended with a warm thanks to his wife, Toni. «Your help is great!».

“20 years later”. Yes, it has been a long time since Jose Miguel ROMÁN FRANCÉS had exhibited at the Rusiñol Gallery. Now, exactly 20 years later, he is doing it again, and with a very high quality. —I hope that we will not have to wait twenty years again to see his work!, said Ignasi Cabanas.

“When winter is over and spring approaches, it’s a good time to be able to talk about the paintings by José Miguel Román Francés (the artist uses both surnames and is well-known through them). Since his work brings the bloom of nature and has the warmth of the sun which is reborn every morning so as to make sense of continued renewal in everything it touches” (from the writings of Josep Maria Cadena).

Looking at Román Francés’ paintings tempts us to think of Mediterranean lighting, which is present in all his work. Josep Mª Cadena compared them to a verse by Unamuno, saying: “Levantinos, the aesthetic overwhelms you”. —No!, the aesthetic does not engulf them José Miguel uses aesthetics to explain the beauty of the world, the beauty of people… He is fortunate to live in an idyllic place, splendid… Should we live where he lives, we would be painting one of Román Francés’ paintings: his paintings express what is going on around him.

“Román Francés proved very soon that as far as he was concerned his means to express the beauty of the world and of the female youth that he wished to capture, were drawing and painting (…). With his will to grow through the study of the great masters he found at the Museo del Prado of Madrid, with critical willpower (…) he drank in the classical figuration and he learnt to respect whichever work that was sincere, although having already decided he would move within the Mediterranean type figuration and realism, he felt as his own (from the review by Josep Mª Cadena).

Román Francés: —Trying to explain painting is somewhat surrealist because there it is, painted! I am not much interested in many explanations; there is a lot of feeling inside: one day you get up, you want to paint something and you paint it… To a certain extent, it gives me the chills to show my work: I find it hard to show it because it is mine. —He was asked for the model appearing in almost all his paintings: —I met her at a restaurant. She asked me why did I look at her so intently! It is not easy to find a model, because sometimes she is not photogenic. In the case of this one, for each photograph I could use five! In just one summer I took some ten thousand pictures of her.

Javier Sanagustín has come again to the Rusiñol Gallery (“Harmony and silence”) in nature. Things that happen in life!: «February 24^th, 2012, It is exactly 25 years, today, when I exhibited here for the first time, and I must emphasize the many attentions which I have always received from the Rusiñol Gallery as well as their professionalism. I  welcome you and I hope you will enjoy looking at my paintings».

Mr. Ignasi Cabanas. Visibly affected, he informs us that at noon —just less than 6 hours ago— his aunt Lola has passed away. «Even though we are in mourning, we have deemed it convenient to keep our invitation to this inauguration, specially bearing in mind our personal friendship with Xavier Sanagustín and our commitment with all of you». Aunt Lola has been present in the life of the Rusiñol Gllery from its very beginning. Lately, even though she could not attend to our vernissages, she was always asking how many paintings had we sold out…

Josep Mª Cadena: «We all share the sorrow of the Cabanas family. I would like to stress their spirit of sacrifice on the day of this inauguration, in these moments of mourning; It has happened like that! We are with our friends and we are in defense of art, and we are involved with the prestige of both painters and art galleries, precisely in these times of crisis… Most of you already know Sanagustín’s work. He is a man of atmospheres, a man that captures the level of nature and wants to transmit it to others».

Josep Mª Cadena: «Nature tends to a trend; it has its own way to explain our feelings. Sanagustín knows how to capture it: he goes around the world with his painter’s gear, with his willingness to find things… and finds them! It is difficult: one may get tired while walking, one may get distracted with many things, one can have the feeling that… Not Sanagustín, though, he is never lost! (…). This is a lively exhibition, from a person who believes in things as he finds them and who knows how to add his own feelings to them. «The strength of his will is also growing: thus, those 25 years exhibiting».

After the acknowledgments Javier Sanagustín was prepared to answer some questions. —Actual or invented landscapes? –I paint from actual landscapes but I also paint in my studio. This does not mean that lanscapes come out better if painted in the nature. The important thing is to be in contact with nature. It is very clear that the landscapes I `paint do exist … but only the painter sees them like that. The painter already knows where he should go! —Why always during the Fall? —Now I am painting pictures with more summer light. It is more romantic to paint in autumn time, with the fog…

February 3^rd, 2012: neither cold nor snow can block the usual expectation generated each time the great Antoni Vives Fierro exhibits with us. Full of people, as always! This time, moreover, Cities and people brings a new proposal by the painter —”the people”—, but with continuity and in his distinctive style, characterized by using collage. This exhibition is presently being enjoyed by the visitors!

The essence of the “Vives Fierro style”, by the hand of Josep Mª Cadena: “Our society can be very chaotic. Antoni Vives Fierro knows it and he depicts it through his painting-collage techniques. He takes advantage of different elements arriving into his knowledge, as if by chance —they believe they are going their own way in color and society magazines, but the artist is waiting for them in the right place where he knows they must go through— so that, when individually placed out of context, they may create a new pictorial approach. All its elements are based on realities that can be recognized and identified by their own characteristics, but thanks to him they form a new ensemble”.

Let us now consider the “characters” that, featuring children, are the novelty of the suggestion we are now admiring: “Antoni Vives Fierro knows how to travel through the foam of life while taking advantage of the waves, the sea of thought raises to connect with the dynamics reaching him from the first visions of childhood (…). In this exhibition we are also pleasantly surprised to see how through the shapes of these creatures, he clarifies the way how we are to look outwards. In this way he persuades us to renew as people and to hope for a better society”.

Vives Fierro was asked about the “dolls”. The topic of the dolls (we see them in three paintings in this exhibition) is something classic for him, although we may be less accustomed to it. They are from a “victorian” inspiration —as the hats they wear show— and they “come from a remote place in time”. Another very different thing is the “people” painted in the figure of creatures: this is the novelty, brought to us by the insatiable creativity of the artist. He portrays the reality in his own way (even looking upside down to see things in the right perspective).

Vives Fierro lives in the country, but he paints cityscapes, cities. During his career he has been to many cities, highlighting Barcelona, New York, Paris… But, which city does he prefer? Havana, of course! The “official” reason is the language: sharing the same people’s language helps to understand people better and their city. Also, concerning the Havana, there is something related to snuff (given that Vives Fierro loves his cigar…)!