José Luis Fajardo is measured by the “martyrdom” of Rubens in the Carlos de Amberes Foundation

During the years of the epidemic, this painter, Jose Luis Fajardo (La Laguna, Tenerife, 1942), from Generation Including Antonio Sora Jose Luis AlexancoAnd Lucio Munoz also Manolo MillaresHe didn’t even leave his house to buy paintings. With what imagination, experience and paint there was, every day (every day) he sat in front of the paintings that were already in his studio and finished no fewer than a thousand. Some had to do with the amazement in which society lived about him and others were due to old feelings for him, among them the appearance, the eyes in the paintings, the spellings reminiscent of Cy Twombly’s assertiveness, and the many darings characteristic of his long career as a painter.

Everything was coming out as part of A testimony confirming his obsessions. His friend, designer Pedro García Ramos (and his son of the same name) helped him put each painting in its place and from that huge amount of paint they helped him hang about one hundred and twenty paintings that would be. Shown on Thursday. offered in an area of ​​almost supernatural challenge, where Fajardo’s effort would coexist, he says, “with martyrdom Robbins”, since solid Famous by the impressive flamenco painter is an extraordinary touchstone for this exhibition that ranges from Pestilence, Another Martyrdom, to the struggles and fantasies of the Canarian artist.

The incomparable setting that hosts this challenge is, of course, the headquarters Charles Antwerp Foundation (Claudio Coelho, 99, Madrid), where that painting by Rubens (The martyrdom of Saint Andrew 1639) For centuries how important this painting is between us. Fajardo hasn’t shown in Madrid since 2010. Then he brought out what he calls “white paintings,” while here he shows those that, in a certain way, have more to do with the darkness of the time. We spoke with him about these people today and those who are part of his unrepentant passion to make painting a medium of conversation next to his most impressive challenge, which is alive. martyrdom Robbins.

Q: Here you have paintings from different eras. What have you drawn recently?

R was found. With the pandemic, I was locked up, like everyone else, and started filling out scribble sheets. It was like that for two years, or about three years, and one day I realized I had a thousand and one strange backgrounds. Here there will only be about 30 or 40 of those leaves. The rest are bits under different series I’ve been working on, like those of Goyesque characters & mldr; Pedro García Ramos chose what seemed most cohesive to him.

Q: What did he choose? What does that mean in his picture?

R was found. Maturity means the end of the stage. Or from my life, right? Drawings signify the enormous freedom of expression on paper.

Q: How has the pandemic affected your life and inspired you?

R was found. It basically gave me tremendous discipline. I’ve always had it, but since I couldn’t get out, well … I had a feeling of complete freedom, and since the pandemic had given me a lot of paper, I didn’t need to search for materials either.

Q: What do those panels say?

R was found. I don’t know. Because they say that neither is the same as the other. The reflection I made seeing all I did was that I labored with great freedom and got one thing and another, every daughter for her father and her mother.

Q: Has your style of drawing changed with these recent incidents?

R was found. It’s not the same. Freedom is the foundation and if you allow yourself to be guided by it, you create without obstacles. Then comes the classification stage and that.

Q: What you have drawn is not necessarily related to the epidemic. What does your current board have to do with it?

R was found. with my previous life. Now that I have reviewed practically all of my work, I have seen that I have always been consistent. Even if I paint some potatoes or some vegetables, my concept of painting has always been the same.

Q: But how has your relationship with painting changed?

R was found. It’s if I think about it that I’m basically in doubt. And I never thought of repeating myself. But I also know that it is not enough to stain the cloth, huh. What matters to me is focus, get up early, go to work, and realize six hours have passed and you haven’t heard. It is the board that shows you which way to go, and if I see that something is clumsy, I keep it for two years and come back to it and wait for it to tell me where to go.

Q: Does the present interest you to draw?

R was found. No, I haven’t tried to be contemporary. In other words: I’m not focusing on the fact that the painting has to belong to a specific time because … Then everything will be void. The painting belongs to my world and that’s it. There is no more thinking.

Q: Where does your passion for eyes come from? There are eyes, always eyes, silent or nonexistent mouths, and eyes.

R was found. This morning a man hanging pictures said to me: Listen, did you ever paint your mouth? Well, no. In place of the mouth I have come to put the word “silence”, as if to indicate that I want to be in this world of silence. Painting silence. In general, all paintings have a vanishing point, but I have to indicate something about it. word for example.

Q: What distinguishes your generation? Who are your friends and what happened to them?

R was found. well … I already bring flowers to most of my classmates. I am a survivor from a chronological point of view. But I don’t feel old. Despite the ailments, I feel good mentally and this relaxes me. What happens is that, sometimes, I tend to call someone to see what they think about something and … It is no longer possible, they have already gone to Shersha [así se llama al cementerio anglicano en el lenguaje popular de Canarias].

Q: Are they people who were just your friends or who also influenced your way of drawing?

R was found. There was everything. There are very few who you consider a friend in the world of painting, because the world of painters feels very lonely. I spent years attending a workshop with Jose Luis Alexanco and we never really talked about painting. It was taken for granted that each one had their own system in an intimate way. We didn’t let other painter friends in because they have tremendous simulation ability. They didn’t copy, they felt the effect and the next day they were already capturing it in their canvases.

Q: Who did you let in, who left their mark on you?

R was found. The biggest influence I have in my life is that of Manolo Millares. There was mystery and honesty in Manolo. That’s impressive, isn’t it? Lucio Muñoz has also left an imprint on me. They are people who also respected my work. Lucio would call me and say, “Come and see my paintings, see what you think.” That frankness, that honesty, that lack of envy, that respect and admiration for each other and our own. Once he disappeared … Well, I still admire and respect his work. Without disrespecting me, huh. Each one has its own work coordinates and that’s it.

Q: Now, when you see your paintings here, how do you feel?

R was found. First of all, I had a feeling of surprise. Secondly, I was terribly afraid of exposure. Because it’s been a long time since I did a show and it’s a time when I wasn’t interested in galleries, the art market, or anything else. I thought my time was up. Let’s say it’s my general time because I kept working. Because of the death of José Luis Alexanco, and previously because of an illness that forced us to leave the workshop, I could no longer do big things and started with what I did in the pandemic. I also salvaged some boards stocked and covered and … Now look: it turns out that I am accompanied by Robbins and & mldr; In other words, Picasso said: If my family is the Prado, how can I not be happy? Well, see: Rubens (this Martyrdom of Saint Andrew) It’s part of my family and also here, in a place established centuries ago, well & mldr; It’s a miracle!

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Pedro García Ramos included in the exhibition phrases that over time formed part of the ideas given by Fajardo, in various texts, including interviews. “Since we were babies, we’ve been tumbling in cradles, on swings. They taught us the vertigo of falling. They covered us with words. Now, in old age, snare is something else. Now they sit us in a rocking chair to forget & rdquor ;.” my hand to discover the obsessions and silence of the deaf, to search among those shot in the night for encouragement to survive ” “Sometimes I recognize myself as an island, as if it were an island with a weary history of solitude.” What is painting if not an attempt to fix an image of another reality, or a hand gesture to gain freedom against time?

A poet’s painting in front of a martyrdom legendary.