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-AN INTERVIEW IN THE WEEKLE MAGAZINE “EL VALLENC”-   NOVA CONCA

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JAUME GUBIANAS JOVES

Painting is for me an essential and vital fact very close to fanaticism

Jaume Gubianas was born on the 22nd December (1) in 1923, in Barcelona into a large and humble family with art aspirations. He attended the Montesori School for his Primary education. Years later, he would start his bachelor’s degree in the Maragall High School and would end it in Menéndez y Pelayo High School within the post-war period. Simultaneously, he would attend drawing and painting lessons in La Llotja. After that, he would enter the Fine Art School until he finished all his studies when he would start teaching in both public and state schools.

During the course of his long live, he showed his work in several exhibitions, both in personal and collective art galleries. The first one was the Mediterranean Art Gallery in May 1942, participating in the National Fine Art Exhibitions (2). We can find some of his work in different private collections from France, the USA, Australia and Germany.

Question: When did you start having the love of paining?

Answer: As far as I can remember, colours would arouse an irresistible attraction on me. Since I went to Primary School, Art was one of my favourite subjects. A nice anecdote to remember those times would be when I was drawing in La Seu de Manresa, from the balcony of my parents’, and suddenly saw a fly-man climbing the wall of the church to raise the Catalan flag high above the bell tower, it was on the 14th April in 1931

Q: Does the proliferation of painters make you think that the art of painting is easy and accessible to most of the people?

A: Mediterranean people have a painting bent due to the lighting and richness of colours, and this goes in hand with a huge amount of great educated painters. I would say this has created an environment of liking. I personally do not believe that any kind of art is easy for many people. Art is complicated and the result of art depends on what one might want to express. Picasso was made a similar question by the dancer Xunga, and he answered the following: “painting is the easiest art for those who are not artists”. I do not think that painting seriously is an enjoyable way to spend the time.

Q: Which skills do you think are necessary to succeed in this trade?

A: This question leads to another one: To which kind of success are we referring, the artistic or economic one?

On the one hand, if we refer to it as artistic success, I would say that honesty and modesty are those skills which, in combination with patience and perseverance, may contribute to the reach of both a personal and artistic success.
One should take into account their own feelings, escaping from the contemporary tendencies, main streams and opportunist people. Before anything else, an artistic success should reflect the own expressions and deep emotions of the artist.

On the other hand, an economic success must be taken as an addition to the artistic one, rather than as the engine that motivates the artist.

Q: What is painting for you?

A: Painting is for me an essential and vital fact to the extent that verges on fanaticism. I cannot conceive existence without the anxiety and the feelings that painting provokes. For me, painting is like a challenge, picture after picture, trying to hinder myself and observing what others have not done yet to be the first one in doing it. When I paint, I find myself further away, in a different dimension.

Q: Who is the painter you admire the most?

A: There are lots of painters whom I admire, so it is pretty difficult to name just one. However, since the question is very specific, I may say that Dominicus Tehotucopulis –El Greco-, and, if I am allowed to mention another name, because otherwise I would not feel satisfied, I may say that Vicent is another painter I esteem.

Q: When did your vocation for painting started?

A: I couldn’t say when exactly, I would say it has always been part of me. I would start going out to paint with some colleagues. We created different groups of painters, the Tiana group, the Platjeta group, and many others so far; but now I work alone with enthusiasm and excitement.

Q: Is there any interesting spot to paint in Bràfim and the outskirts?

A: I believe that is not a matter of finding an interesting spot, but of being a good painter. Every landscape is interesting in some or another moment thanks to the light, so that is the reason why a scenery might be interesting in the morning or, on the contrary, in the evening, depending on how the light comes into contact with it.

Q: Which kind of painting do you prefer?

A: All plastic ways of expression, from etching to dry point, from a pen to ink, the watercolour to the oil painting depicting almost every possibility. I find all these techniques really interesting and I try to alternate them all to avoid tiredness.
As for the themes, I think that it is important to alternate the figure, the portrait, the seascape and the landscape.

Q: Would you give any piece of advice to those who are beginning?

A: What I would say is that once the problem of any painting technique is solved, they should try to be themselves, given that this would be the main problem. A work of art will endure if there is emotion and personality on it.

Q: Would you consider yourself a painter or an artist?

A: This is quite an interesting question, since I always do the following in order to come to a conclusion. Vicente López was a great and extraordinary painter; Francisco de Goya –a contemporary of him- was also a great artist. A more recent example is Zuloaga, a great painter and Solana, a great artist.

Artists go over the concept of craft, which is generally linked to the technique and virtuously away from emotion and personality. From the coldness in the eyes of many present painters, the artist usually falls into what is often considered faulty from an academic point of view.

Pere Vives

(1) He was born on the 25th December.

(2) The first exhibition he took part in was the National Fine Arts held in Barcelona, in June 1942. The second one was held in La Liberí­a Mediterrí¡nea (The Mediterranean Library), in March 1943.