LLEI D'ART 13

tomás paredes In 2006Paredeswas named correspondent academic of Granada’s NuestraSeñorade lasAngustiasRoyal Academy of FineArt, and was vice-director of the El Puntode lasArtes magazine until 2008. Withdegrees in Law, Ancient History andArt History, this lecturer, journalist and art critic has publishedover 10,000 articles in various newspapers and specialised artmagazines and is a frequent contrib- utor toBarcelona’s LaVanguardia newspaper on the artmarket. He has givenover 200 conferencepapers inSpain, France, Switzerland andPortugal, and is the secretary of theBMWPrize for Painting. Since 2004 he has beenpresident of theMadridArt Critics’ Associa- tion (AMCA) and is the current headof theSpanishArt Critics’ Asso- ciation (AECA/AICASpain). Analysis from theSpecific I nan interviewAntonioMuñozMolina said: ‘Because thenovel ismadewitheverything that is knownandeverything that is not known, I am fascinatedby the reflectionon theweight of the specific. There is the specific, so fundamental for anovel. Yes, Because imagination is so limited. It feeds not on the invented, but onwhat has happened’ ( El Cultural , 21.11.2014). For Hegel, knowledge follows thepathof theabstract to the specific, fromgeneral ideas to thedeterminateandprecise. I Relationships in theworldof art. Howcanwepush for the visibilityof anemergingartist?And for a youngartist?How canweget in touchwithacritic?What differentiatespublicity from information?Howdoes apublicationwork?How is an artworkpromotedandwhopays for it?Relationshipsbetween artists andcritics, galleryowners andpromoters, collectors andcommissioners. It seems absurd tohave to insist on it, but facts suggest that ideas about these relationships are stale, or non-existent.Whenanartworkhas indeedworked, itwas a business concept, or aprofessional job. Thepresident of theSpanishAssociationof Painters and Sculptors (SAPS), JoséGabrial Astudillo, hasbeen insisting on theconvenienceof aSAPS-AECAcollaboration. Knowing the stateof the relationshipand themutual ignoranceof their agentes, I have seen theneed todedicateacourse inorder to clear upwhat, tomy eyes, is theproblemaffectingeverything around thatworld.What shouldacreator do togive visibility to hiswork?How?Where?What do themedia that are incharge of this liveoff?Reflectingon the roleplayedbygalleries, art fairs, paper anddigitalmagazine, commissioners, collectors? Seeking theprofessionalisationof abusiness that is largely self-taught, furtive, opaqueand selfish. If anartwork is sold, whydoesn’t theartist value theworkof thepersonwhomade it happen?Publishers alwaysget theirmoney, thecriticor writerwhocreates a text, well, not usually -howhemust love todo it!- so, it shouldbe free… Let’s not kidourselves, today themarket is everything, but toget there, anartist needs journalists, critics, art historians, conference speakers, writers,merchants, galleryowners, intermediaries andcommissioners, aswell as all those professionals that have to liveof theartist’swork. Between thecreator and thecollector there is a largedistance that someonehas to reduce, weavingbridges tobringpeople together, which themselves arenot easy andare varied. Awar oncheapartistry, Praisebe for serious approaches toart! Anartist has to invest in their development, just as thegallery owner andcriticmust.Whydo someartists appear in the mediaandothersdon’t?Thereareobjective reasons and causes, not everything is left to luck (asmany think). There arequalities, strategies, investments that all tend tobear fruit, since it is rare that hardworkdoes not payoff. It is a plural action, contributed tobymany sectors. Onecannot do muchbyoneself, therearenomiracles, there is aneed for a concatenationof agents andmanagement. Thecoursewill beabout this social, economicandcultural interweaving, and will begivenat theheadquartersof theSpanishAssociation of Painters andSculpturesby yours trulyduring the firstweek ofMay. Thecoursewill have specificexamples, avoiding ambiguous abstractions. This ispure information, straight from thecourse. If itwerepublicity, itwouldneedanother formal andconceptual treatment.When thearchitect Peter Zumthor received thePritzker Prizehe said ‘Myworkhas nothing todo with theexperimental, it is concrete’. II Theexpulsionof culture . I found this expression inanarticle byRafael Argullol in El País 6.3.15 ‘Lifewithout culture’. It is banal and imprecise toblame today’s situationonpoliticians, for thepolitical class isbut a reflectionof the society that elected them. Argullol, lecturer inAesthetics at Barcelona’s PompeuFabraUniversity, analyses the lossof thehabit of readingand therefore theexistenceof anuncultured society. A society that hasn’t left thewordbehind in favour of the image, but has frustrated thecapacity toperceiveboth, leading toaculture-less state. His allegations areendedby this resignation-tinged bonmot : ‘Maybea lifewithout culture ismuchhappier. Ormaybenot:maybe lifewithout culture is not evena life, but apoor imitation, agame that it isboring toplay’. Culturehasbeenexpelledas theaxisof aman’s life, the resistance is an insignificant, selfishanddividedcrew that liveson in their cardboard towers. There is nomoremarble for thesewhite towers, and thismuch is fair, but even so thereare no subjects that deserve suchdelicacy. Themodernaverage citizendoes not needculture. Hehas no time to read sincehe is travelling, or at sports eventsor guzzlingwineand vol-au- ventswithunbridledenthusiasm. On the4thofMarch the Observatory of Bookselling2014 was presentedbyMiquel Flamarich, whowent on toexplain the 2014 study. InSpain thereare3,650bookshops, of which 3,012areoperative: 912closeddownand226openedup. Thereare7.8bookshopsper 100,000citizens. Thereare807 municipalitieswithbookshops. Any establishment that sells more than30,000euros a year is consideredabookshop. The reliabilityof the study is low.M. Flamarichwarned that the ‘fieldwork’ hadbeencompleted in threemonths viaphone andemail, thus thework is not ‘field’ but ‘electronic’. I ama book-buyer, I imagine that thepeoplewhowork therealsoare, andas such I cancomfortably state that nobodygives you a receipt if youdon’t ask for it. On the internet, some require your data tomake the receipt.WhichdatadoesM. Flamarich use toextract his conclusions? TheVice-director of theCentre for Books, Readingand SpanishLetters,MónicaFernández, was alsonot especially active, andneitherwas her adviser Javier Pascual, who proffered150,000euros tomodernisebookshops. Yet theproblem is notmodernisation, nor thee-reader, it is 31