Abstract
Ramon Gaya did not felt comfortable with the painting of his time for this was prisoner of history and, more specifically, of history as the determiner of all human products and creations. Gaya refuses to put his paintings at the service of history because he suspects that the art that fits in molds fabricated by historiography falls into the category of artistic art; that´s to say that it is an unborn artifice and thus it belongs to culture and not to nature. These judgments on art and his rebellion against that exhausting way of being an artist based on the inauguration of a new historical stage every year, did cost him the title of “untimely”. But the truth is that Gaya has placed in front of us the mirror of the impotence to escape from this time we moderns feel sick and tired of. Gaya thus distinguishes between the time of painting and that of history. “The hour of painting”, the sunset, as Titian said, reveals other hierarchies that art history conceals and confuses. In rescuing the art from the context in which it was enclosed by history, Gaya shows us the life transmitted by painting, which despite not being current, is present and therefore presence. If we make the effort to regard Gaya´s pictures not as art history, we look at them with the innocence of those who takes them as a presence exempted from their topicality, and then we will discover that his paintings are alive. We can therefore say that Gaya’s painting fights against the au courrant. Ramon Gaya was never topical.
Highlights
Ramon Gaya did not felt comfortable with the painting of his time for this was prisoner of history and, of history as the determiner of all human products and creations
If we make the effort to regard Gayas pictures not as art history, we look at them with the innocence of those who takes them as a presence exempted from their topicality, and then we will discover that his paintings are alive
Dice Gaya: «La tumba de los Medici, con su trazado, sus mármoles esculpidos, su idea, es muy posible que sea hija –hija y también madre, claro está– de su tiempo, pero en ese recinto solemne hay una escultura al menos, el Crepúsculo, que no ha sido tocada, rozada por el gran vendaval; es la parte de esa obra –al-tísima toda ella– que se ha salvado por completo de la prisión del arte, de ser arte, de ser estilo, de ser tiempo, de ser Renacimiento»
Summary
Ramon Gaya did not felt comfortable with the painting of his time for this was prisoner of history and, of history as the determiner of all human products and creations.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call