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Spanish ambassador moonlights as talented artist
Print Edition
FOR the Spanish Ambassador to China, Manuel Valencia, art is a huge part of his life, not just a hobby.
At his first solo exhibition in Shanghai, which will run until December 14, Valencia exhibits his most recent works in a collection called “Sea Poems” because “painting and poetry are the same thing and the sea has always been a point of reference and meditation for me.”
Valencia’s career has brought him to Asia and he takes from the East what interests him and experiments with images. Most of the drawings are created on rice paper but he also uses Chinese ink and Xuan paper.
“I’m concerned with every little thing like leaves, clouds, waves and many other things, because like men, they are similar and different at the same time. Black is the color that contains all the other colors, while white is the color of the passing time.”
Q: How did you begin your artistic life?
Art and life are always intertwined. But my proper art education began in the Hague, Holland in 1987 and has continued since then. Museums and art theory have been my food for thought for many years. You always need to learn.
Q: Looking back at your art, have you seen it evolve over the years?
My beginnings were very figurative because I realized soon that you need to master technique, for example to be able to draw an ear perfectly and not until then are you able to produce a scribble in an abstract painting… Later I moved to more experimental forms and other unknown art territories. That is what makes art exciting.
Q: What are you trying to express through this exhibition?
It consists of 30 drawings in two series: Cartas (Letters) and Islados — many on Xuan handmade rice paper. The exhibition is entitled “Sea Poems” because painting and poetry are the same thing and the sea has always been a point of reference and meditation for me. When you spend some time watching the sea, you realize that you only see yourself, your life, your fears. Its immensity brings you into the picture.
Q: What is the highlight of the exhibition?
The show is, at the end, one painting. You have to see it as a whole. Every drawing is closely linked to another, and then you realize that the meaning lays there, in the connections of the different drawings. I have even for the occasion draw an ephemeral big painting on the mirror of the art gallery.
The master piece for the exhibit is “Into The Other Side” I made for the exhibition painting on the mirror. They remind us the mirror of the “Alice in the Wonderland” story and when you are in front of it you are part of the painting too.
Q: You’ve studied art in the Netherlands, but your creations are also very much influenced by Asian techniques and painting materials. How has Asian culture influenced your way of creating and thinking?
I discovered Asian art in Kyoto almost 20 years ago. By the way, for me and many others, Kyoto is very Chinese and has kept intact the traditions of the Tang and Song Dynasties… Since then, I have engaged in reading a lot of Chinese philosophy and poetry, which has deeply influenced my Westerner thinking, changed my approach to understanding nature and, of course, my paintings.
Q: As an ambassador, does your position give you another perspective?
Some time ago, I thought I was two different people who developed different activities. But then, I realized that my approach to life and reality was the same in both sides. By the way, China has many examples of emperors and high-ranking mandarins who were also successful painters and poets. That is also the case to a lesser extent in the West. Rubens was an ambassador as well as a painter, and Velázquez was an artist and a high-ranking official in the Spanish Court, Ingrès a painter and a successful violin player, Le Corbusier an architect and painter, etc… Art is the engine of my life, not just an activity.
Q: You’ve been in Beijing for more than a year, has this influenced your art?
I began “Sea Poems” in Spain three years ago and continued in China. Now I am working on something new, perhaps more influenced by living in China, but I prefer not to comment until it is done. It brings bad luck.
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