"You use a glass mirror to see your face, you use works of art to see your soul."
(George Bernard Shaw)
Dear students,
You did the job of outstanding guides for the works of art of those artists whose exhibitions are permanent in the museun Casa Gourié in our town, Arucas.
You did the job of outstanding guides for the works of art of those artists whose exhibitions are permanent in the museun Casa Gourié in our town, Arucas.
Thanks also to the museum staff for letting us do the activity there.
Santiago
Santana Díaz
Santiago Santana Díaz was born in 1909 in Arucas, although he moved from an early age to Moya. In 1923, he received his first scholarship and he studied in Madrid. He travelled to Paris in 1932 with another scholarship from the Cabildo where he attended the Free Academy. There he receives influence from the works of Modigliani and Cezanne. In 1933 he studied at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Barcelona where he receives classes of sculpture and ceramics and eventually exhibits in the gallery Syra ( Barcelona). He also exhibits in the Balearics and in Madrid where he shows the landscapes and flora of Gran Canaria. After that period, he returns to this island and becomes director of the School Luján Pérez where he would work for thirteen years.
Santana
is usually defined as a multifaceted
genius (urbanist, draftsman, painter, ceramist, sculptor and cultural advisor).
He mixes classicism (and its harmony) with modernity , represented in the ‘indigenista’ character
influenced in its passage by the School of Luján Pérez. As a faithful indigenist painter, he translates his
interest in popular culture into architecture. For this reason, he chooses
those simple buildings that do not clash with the landscape, using materials of
the place for his works of art (sand, clay…)
In
1948, Santana intervened, among other works, in the refurbishment of the House of Columbus , mainly carving the
facades overlooking Calle Herrería and Plaza del Pilar Nuevo in Las Palmas, as well
as El Pueblo Canario. In Arucas he acted in the remodelling of Casa de la
Cultura, helped by the labeler (labrante)
Pedro Pérez Viera. He also worked in the design of the square and church of San
Andrés, as well as in some paintings inside the church.
A
faithful example of Santiago Santana's pictorial work is in the hall of the
municipal museum that bears his name. From the pictorial collection we will
highlight the work entitled "Escorzo de mujer" or " Mujer
Tumbada ". It uses the so-called mixed technique, which means the use of
various techniques: oil, almagre, earth .... As we contemplate this canvas, we
admire the careful stylization of the drawing of bodies, barely veiled by
simple tunics; the delicacy of color, almost always based on white, gray, blue
and pink ranges; the balance of the composition, not subjected to stress,
naturally assembled all its elements. Nothing tragic seems to be in this
harmonious and flowing world.
With
this work, Santana demonstrates his love for the popular, creating an insular
Indian painting, and showing his
preference especially for the Canary woman. The clear and vital colors,
together with the full and compact forms, present a woman of humble and
hardworking condition (peasants, fishermen, washerwomen) often solitary . He
likes to draw /paint these women with
big hands and feet, which involves their
work and effort. Santana was a singer of the southern woman, with thick lips and
broad cheekbones, who alone faces the work of the field and the care of the
children.
(Anabel & Brenda)
Guillermo Sureda Arbelo
Sureda was born in Arucas in 1912 and he moved with
his family to Santa Cruz de Tenerife at the
age of 14. There he studied at the
School of Arts and Crafts. Since his childhood, Sureda demonstrated a great
ability to perceive and feel, that manifested itself, professionally, in a
great skill for the drawing and for the music, arts that he initially discovered in an autodidact way.
This quality along with his sociable character, the search for perfection and
detail, as well as that interest in everything around him, especially for the
stories of the people, was reflected in his paintings.
Guillermo Sureda has excelled in the field of painting
for the use of watercolor, managing to perfect this technique to the point of
being recognized internationally. Perhaps the choice of this technique was due
to its spontaneous nature, its sensitivity together with the somewhat impulsive
desire for the work to take place.
Sureda's extraordinary manual dexterity coupled with
his capturing ability has always allowed him a speed, almost without limit, to
execute a landscape. On many occasions, he dropped the drawing and attacked them directly with the
colours. The brushstroke is therefore loose, quick, lively, simple, full of
colour and light. With the watercolour, he manages to reflect with total
mastery the transparent effects of the water and its reflections, as well as
the luminosity of the landscapes.
His bohemian life led him to represent countless
landscapes and urban scenes from different places, like London, Venezuela,
Puerto Rico or the Caribbean and of
course, his homeland. Hence, it is said
that he was a man of two worlds: the Old World and America, especially of
Puerto Rico, defining himself as the pictorial singer of San Juan, its capital.
However, he
also stands out for the strength of his portraits, generally, of anonymous
people. This choice leads him to represent, with care and dedication, the
humble and sincere expression of his models, their typical clothes and their
customs.
(Alexandra)
Manolo Ramos González
Full name: Manuel
Esteban de los Reyes Ramos González . He is one of the Spanish
sculptors of all time. His timid personality, calm and confident, led him not
to sign many of his works, conforming to the client's knowledge. He was very
critical of his own production so, on many occasions, he destroyed his
sculptures or drawings.
Ramos was born in Arucas in 1899. From 1921 to 1925
he studied
in San Fernando school and some times worked in Miguel Blay’s workshop as
his pupil. Later he lived for some time in Paris where he sold his works in the
streets. After that, he travelled to London where he left a
few busts, two of them in Lord Carlaysle’s collection. He comes back at the
time of the Civil War. EL Cristo Yacente belongs to this period. This
breathtaking sculpture we find in Arucas
church. It is made
of wood and stands out for the treatment
of the nude and the expressive power of
the head. It shows on the whole the great knowledge Ramos had of the human body.
The way Manolo Ramos carves his sculptures is, above all, figurative. He always looks for
the motives in which you can unleash the violent movements and positions of the
human body . He cultivated with equal
profusion the subjects of religious and profane character. Within the profane
subjects portraits, nudes, and, to a lesser extent, racial subjects, children,
maternities and animals abound.
Manolo Ramos basically
worked the wood, especially the noble one, like the barbarian, the cedar, the
mahogany or the ebony. But he also
carved the stone and sometimes used the bronze.
In the room there are
interesting drawings made with coal where he carefully studies the forms of the
human body and the expressions of the faces. Of great expressive force is the
theme Canary peasants where he reflects the principles of the Canary
indigenismo in every detail: the hardness of their faces by the work and the
suffering, the clothes, etc., but within a great harmony and serenity. That is
to say, Manolo Ramos reflects the social concern, not based on an exaltation of
the worker, but of a certain denunciation, putting itself face to face with the
harsh reality of the disinherited, but with a bitter tint, almost leaving no
chink for a solution.. .
(Ignacio)
Abraham Cárdenes and his students
He was born
in Tejeda and he entered the Luján Pérez School. He founded the Municipal
Academies of Fine Arts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1942-1971), playing the
role of director.
He was always
cheerful, affable and optimistic in the face of adversity, his life evolved
around his work, and later around his disciples. On many occasions,
the work of his pupils presented in exhibitions, competed with his.
Several
authors, some of them disciples of Cárdenes, emphasized his high sense of
friendship, the goodness of his heart and his disconcerting cordiality. For
example, Santiago Vargas, speaks of his vigor and vehemence, always smiling in
spite of misfortune and misunderstanding. In the same way, Berlamiño, stands
out his ingenuity and bohemian romanticism.
His art was
original as he was himself, unmistakable, arrogant, grim, strong, expressive,
vigorous and Cyclopean. The mountain, the rocks and the pyramid are his
starting point, adjusting the forms to this short conception. He is, therefore,
a giant sculptor in the style of Michelangelo. He does not add strange grafts
of sculptures to the Canary race or to
the integrity of nature…
(Carmen)
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