Exposición ‘Variaciones sobre el absurdo’, de David Vallès

David Vallès era un artista del mismo modo en que los niños son artistas. Fue, hasta el final, un niño-artista, una persona que dibujaba o pintaba “porque sí”, porque le divertía, y probablemente le hubiera resultado triste cualquier motivación para pintar que no fuese pasarlo bien. En cuanto a su opinión del arte, hay que remitirse a una de sus frases favoritas: “todo puede ser arte”. “¿Incluso un escupitajo, incluso una bolsa de basura?”, contraatacaban sus interlocutores. “Incluso”, decía, e inmediatamente sonreía, probablemente fascinado por la idea de un escupitajo artístico.

Estudiando su producción, uno tiene la sensación de que, para él, el arte era ante todo una experiencia: una experiencia vivible en cualquier momento, en cualquier lugar. De hecho, el grueso de su obra no son los lienzos de gran formato que mostramos aquí, sino los miles de esbozos y dibujos que dejaba ahí donde iba, aprovechando cualquier material como plataforma para hacer despegar su imaginación —una servilleta, una factura, un periódico, o páginas arrancadas de un libro de cocina. En su momento la mayoría de estas obras fueron olvidadas, abandonadas, o simplemente ignoradas: lo que presentamos en esta exposición es apenas un fragmento de su producción perdida. La impresión general es que sus obras tenían poco valor para él, o al menos que no eran lo esencial: se trataban más bien de un efecto colateral de su proceso artístico, una simple consecuencia de pasárselo bien.

Pero incluso estas palabras, “proceso artístico”, “producción”, “obra”, parecen demasiado pesadas para referirse a lo que en realidad hacía. Lo cierto es que él prefería referirse a sus creaciones como “divertimentos”, palabra a la que otorgaba un gran valor. Hacer un divertimento era, para él, lo más alto a lo que se podía llegar, la última cumbre para el artista con una conciencia lúcida del absurdo de la existencia... Pero basta de teoría! Esperamos que disfrutéis de la obra de este artista que hasta ahora había permanecido en la oscuridad, y que aceptéis su invitación a divertirse.

Exhibition ‘Variaciones sobre el absurdo’ by David Vallès

Opening on January 10 at 7pm

Exhibition open until January 20

C/Sant Pere Més Alt, 46, Barcelona

To introduce this exhibition with the reverence usually accorded to artists, particularly those deceased, would mean to betray the spirit of David Vallès (1946-2023). It is no exaggeration to say that his practice consisted of rejecting the customs and conventions of the so called art world. If David Vallès had a "project", it was that of laughter: to laugh at life, at official painters, at institutions, at technique, at the academy, as well as at the excessive sacralisation of the term "art".

He was an artist in the same way that children are artists. He was, to the end, a child-artist, a person who drew or painted "just because", because it amused him, and he would probably have found any motivation for painting other than for fun pitiful. As for his opinion of art, we must refer to one of his favourite phrases: "anything can be art". "Even a spit, even a rubbish bag?" his interlocutor's might respond. "Sure", he would say, and immediately smile, probably fascinated by the idea of an artistic spit.

Studying his work, one gets the feeling that for him art was first and foremost an experience: an experience that he could re-enact at any time, anywhere. In fact, the bulk of his work is not the large-format canvases, some of which are shown here, but the thousands of sketches and drawings he left wherever he went, using any available material as a platform to let his imagination take off —a restaurant napkin, a receipt, a newspaper, or pages ripped from a cook book. Most of these were abandoned, given away, forgotten or simply ignored: what we have here is just a sample that has survived by a twist of fate. Seeing how he kept his oeuvre (in poor condition, and cast aside in a dusty warehouse), it would seem that his works were of no real value to him, or at any rate they were not the important thing: they were rather a side-effect of his artistic process, a mere consequence of him having fun.

But even these words, "artistic process”, “oeuvre” "work", seem too heavy to talk about what he actually did. Instead, he referred to his creations as "divertimentos", a word to which he attached the highest value. Creating a divertimento was for him the greatest achievement one could attain as a painter, the ultimate summit for the artist with a lucid awareness of the absurdity of existence... But enough of theory!

We hope that you will enjoy the work of this artist, who until now had remained in obscurity, and accept his invitation to have fun.