LLEI D'ART 10

with a gift for clarity. As such I feel that I am in debt to his multi-faceted, profound and varied work, the kind of which nobody does any more. He wrote profusely, including books, and collaborations in journals and the press. His trilogy, published by Espasa-Calpe, is made up of: Spanish Painting Outside Spain , Spanish Architecture in Disappearance and European Painting lost by Spain . From Van Eyck to Tiepolo (1964) is the peak of his production; its bibliography is im- pressive: The Caretaker of Saint Saturius , Treaty of Untruth- fulness , Critical Bibliography of Velázquez, Picasso, Pancho Cossío, Dalí , History of Spanish Art Criticism , José Gutiérrez Solana , European Art in Danger , Understanding Art , etc. He created an incomparable cultural monument which has guided the profession of art critic in Spain. The Spanish Art Critics Association (AECA), which I lead, arranged an homage for the author’s centenary in Soria and Madrid on the 6th and 7th of June, which underlines Gaya’s talents as a writer, critic and historian. The homage was at- tended by Alvaro Delgado, Antonio Bonet Correa, Amparo Martí, José Esteban, Gonzalo Borrás, Carlos Pérez Reyes, Lourdes Cerrillo, Mª Paz Pérez Piñán, Álvaro Sanz and myself. Gaya, who was imprisoned after the Spanish Civil War in 1943, and later released on condition bail. He lived in Bilbao and the Madrid. From 1948 to 1952 he worked as the director of the Galerías Layetanas; in 1962 he was sum- moned to the University of Puerto Rico, after which he re- turned to Madrid, where he would succumb to cancer on the 6th of July 1976, accompanied by his wife, the poet Concha de Marco. A member of the Hispanic Society, the Coimbra Institute, and the vice-president of the AECA and the AICA, Gaya was awarded the Lázaro Galdiano prize in 1973. V Monument to Antonio Mingote. And we return to Madrid City Council! Once Mr Villalonga and the noisome trail he left behind had left, someone had to clean up the mess. The best course of action would have been to declare it null and void in order to rectify as far as possible. On the 30th April, the BOAM (Official Madrid City Council Bulletin) number 6910 published a Decree from the Government Councillor for Arts on the 24th of April which announced the competition for a monument to be placed on a lawn in the Retiro Park. Frankly, the competition is shameful, and only countless civil servants and a jury that have paid no attention to the sham- bles have participated. The City Council is contributing nothing except for a small garden space and has kept all the rights for themselves: i.e. it has announced a competition, and once the winner is cho- sen, the project is approved, an artefact is placed in a public space with the right to mention the promoter and the author. In addition, both the promoter and the author have to sign away their reproduction, image and who knows what other rights. Shame on you Mr Villalonga! Why does Mingote need a monument in the Retiro done un- der these circumstances? How much does the City Council spend on promoting culture and on what? If the City Council has no money, why does it get into such impossible situa- tions? To seem like it is doing something? Are all the juries free of influence? What does this kind of thing cost? Why do institutions like the San Fernando Academy of Fine Art get involved in these farces? Pedro Corral, Mr Villalonga’s successor has an enormous amount of work to do and an opportunity to change some unhealthy habits. If he doesn’t do so, the City Hall will continue to sink and will drag the PP (Popular Party) with it, without the opposition showing any signs of life or anything else of use. VI The fashion for commissioners. A fashion that many have signed up to: young, not-so-young and pretentious people with nothing to say. First of all, I should say that I am always in favour of total freedom: it is not the mistake of those youngsters that are making their own way in life and looking for new experiences, but rather the blame lies at the feet of the gallery owners that don’t know what to do and wanted to try and surprise people with paupers’ salaries just in case their fortunes turn around. Here I am talking about the impo- sition of fashion, not of those responsible for the big exhibi- tions or theses. Being a commissioner, critic, or gallery owner cannot simply be improvised. It cannot be learnt on a course, it is a long process of learning. It requires a language that is construct- ed and a concept to be expressed, with a strong will to show and promote what the artists do, and I do not see this hap- pening in this process. In the majority of these cases, there is an attempt to go beyond what is shown, when the most important thing is to discover art, not the name of the per- son proposing it. There are specific cases, but I shall merely mention the crime, not the perpetrator. Being a gallery owner is complex. They are the point where the seller, promoter, the amateur, the critical spirit, the responsible criteria, the information and the sensitive and efficient eye all meet. And this should not, and cannot be replaced by an opportunistic trend. And finally…VII Art according to bull-fighters. For some, bull-fighting is not an art. I respect this point of view, and many think that it is. I’m not a fan of the fights, but I read and consider what ‘art bull-fighters’ say. Some day I shall write an anthology with definitions, bull-fighting sayings and opinions that have a specific or special meaning. Pepe Luis Vázquez, who recently passed away, said about the Machado family: ‘I always remember Antonio Machado. He understood life.’ ‘More so than Manuel?’ asked his son. And the ‘Socrates from San Bernardo’ replied: ‘Manuel wrote more about bulls, but Antonio fought better’. Or, as José Tomás wrote: ‘a step forward can lead to a man’s death, but a step back can mean the death of art’. A book, Diálogo con Navegante ( Dialogue with Navegante ), has recently been published with contributions from José Tomás, Mario Vargas Llosa et al., printed by Espasa Libros in Barcelona this year. At the book’s presentation in the Madrid Readers’ Circle, José Tomás said ‘The figure of the bull often appears as an abstract image. You wonder why you haven’t been able to extract the essence of the bull charging. It is a fictional dialogue that perhaps symbolises the doubts, fears and the ghost of a perfect fight’. 35