reflections on my work as a painter

Leonardo

Reflections on My Work as a PainterAuthor(s): QueroSource: Leonardo, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Spring, 1980), pp. 133-134Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577986 .

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Leonardo, Vol. 13, pp. 133-134. Pergamon Press 1980. Printed in Great Britain

REFLECTIONS ON MY WORK AS A PAINTER

Quero*

1.

In my youth I had thoughts about becoming an architect, but later I chose to become an ophthalmologist. I know now why I chose this profession. I did so, because I was attracted by the artistry and delicacy of drawings of the eye with its circular shapes and by the fine threads and beautiful instruments used in eye surgery. Although I have been content with my medical work, there was an initial period of years when I felt that my life was lacking in some important ways. A major change occurred when, at age 35, I became engrossed in pictorial art.

My first oil paintings were of a figurative kind, primarily landscapes (Fig. 1). It was then that I began to apply various color combinations and textures and used other media and techniques. As time passed, my pictures became more and more abstract depictions of figurative subjects. Finally, I arrived at a stage where I made only blobs of color on paper. I had completed a transition from figurative to nonfigurative pictures. I became fascinated by my color blobs, and I made a number of paintings of this type before I felt that I had fallen into a trap. I had drifted into a facile mode of expression that could have preoccupied me indefinitely, for I could have painted variation after variation of the same theme.

Fig. 2. 'Bird', oil on canvas, 160 x 80cm, 1972.

Fig. 1. 'Landscape', oil on canvas, 40 x 60cm, 1967.

2.

A break finally came in 1972 when I began to make much more complex compositions, some with figurative elements like the bird at lower left in Fig. 2. Now on

*Painter and ophthalmologist, 3 Ram6n Gordillo, (Paseo al Mar), Valencia-10, Spain. (Based on text in French) (Received 12 Feb. 1979).

looking back, I regard my previous pictures as a prepara- tion for the kind that provided me with a virtual personal cosmos to explore.

I have a passion for music, too, one that extends farther back in time than my passion for painting. I regard.my pleasurable experiences of listening to music and those I wish others to have in viewing my paintings to be similar, particularly in one way. In listening to a pleasurable, often heard melody, I attempt to grasp the fleeting sensation of something new and indescribable. In my painting I try to introduce a rhythmic quality by repeating patterns and colors to cause in viewers a kind of vibrating sensation, awesome and new. I do not try to interpret a piece of music in terms of a painting, as then I feel an unneccessary restriction would be imposed on the painting.

133



Examples of my current work are shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 (cf. color plate) [1-4]. They depict the polished surfaces of metal curved bands, cylinders, spheres, flat strips on glass plate, etc. Some viewers regard such works as representations of a technological world. Perhaps they are right, but I do not try to do so deliberately. It is true that I am an admirer of present-day technology and, of course, employ some of it in my work as an opththal- mologist. But in my paintings, whatever technological characteristics are evident in them are an indirect con- sequence of the way I paint.

It is not my intent to convey the idea of a mechanical world. To me the smooth rounded metallic forms have a quality of softness, almost of an organic or a human character, and their depiction as elements in my composition conveys feelings of loneliness, enjoyment and even pain. These are the ideas I wish to convey about life in contemporary industrialized societies.

Fig. 3. Untitled, collage, paper on wood, 32 x 26 cm, 1978.

3.

I use what I call 'small', 'medium' and 'large' formats. The small ones are watercolors, oil or acrylic paintings on paper and collages of paper on wood. In making these, I tend to work spontaneously. My initial idea for a picture is not clear at all, for I think that if it were, the act of painting would lose its fascination for me. But after I delineate the first elements, subsequent ones appear under my brush in a way that I cannot explain. All I can say is that the choice of subsequent depicted forms becomes smaller in number as the composition progresses.

My medium and large works are done in oils on canvas. I usually begin these by concretizing an embryonic idea conveyed by a small picture; of course, I do not replicate it at a larger scale but incorporate new ideas as I paint.

The pitfalls that I have to avoid in my work are: monotony of color of depicted forms, glaring colors, repetition, too many different and an excessive dispersion of elements, rigidity in appearance, etc. But the one that troubles me the most is a premature termination of a picture. Sometimes I believe that I have completed one but soon I realize that that is not so. Then, often with much effort, I decide what needs to be done to terminate it.

Sometimes after I think a painting is completed, I decide to resume work on it, realizing there is a risk of spoiling it. Sometimes I add more elements and then must struggle to restore balance in the composition. Usually I find a reworked painting is pictorially richer and more unified. Results obtained in this way encourage me on subsequent works to try 'one step more'. I often marvel at the amount of daring required in the peaceful activity called painting-a 'hypnotizing' activity that engages my spirit.

References

1. V. A. Cerni, Quero, catalogue (Valencia, Spain: Galeria Punto, 1974).

2. A. Oltra, Quero, catalogue (Valencia, Spain: Galeria Punto, 1977).

3. A. Oltra, Jose Quero y su epopeya espacial, Monograph No. 6 (Valencia, Spain: Artes Plasticos, 1977).

4. G. Xuriguera, Quero, catalogue (Barcelona: Galeria Rene Metras, 1979).

134 Quero



Top left: Quero, 'Flight between the Sun and the Moon', oil on canvas, 150 x 195 cm, 1978. (Fig. 4, cf. page 134.)

Top right: David Zaig. Superimposed reversed images of a photographic slide, 1976. (Fig. 2, cf. page 137) (cf. also Fig. 3 in text.)

Center: Paul Re. '111-4: Madonna', acrylic paint on Masonite, 48 x 43cm, 1975. (Collection of Helen Re, Albuquerque, NM, U.S.A.) (Photo: K. Cornyn, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.) (Fig. 4, cf. page 94.)

Bottom left: Alan Wells. Untitled, tempera paint on poster paper, 183 x 244cm, 1977. (Fig. 3., cf. page 106.) Bottom right: Michael Krausz. 'Oracle', acrylic paint on canvas, 183 x 244cm, 1974. (Photo: F. Herrera,

Washington, DC) (Fig. 4, cf. page 143)























reflections on my work as a painter

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