ARTISTS | FALCÓ
Joaquím FALCÓ began to exhibit at the beginning of the eighties. That decade brought with it a return to painting that ran parallel with an exaltation of the individuality of the artist. Free of ideological illusions and the belief in a progressive direction of history and art, the artist could now devote himself to creating without transcendental preoccupations or any justification or goal other than the pure pleasure of painting. Art recovered its identity as an object, with a concern for formal values, and the assertion of its expressive singularity.
In this setting of the rescue of painting, many turned their attention to the search for a specific language for subjective expression and discovered turn-of-the-century expressionism, albeit seen in a totally different light.
Neoimpressionism opposed the symbolic significance of the work to the enjoyment of contemplating and executing it. Painting became a hedonistic practice of intimate contents, a space for private expansion, devoid of moral, aesthetic or social implications. The emphasis was laid on the search for individual universes and the assertion of the artistic act in itself. Large formats collaborated in brilliant, spectacular stagings. The plastic image presented itself in the exaltation of values that are immanent in it - colour, texture, the formulation of a world of its own - abandoning the social commitment that had characterised other movements.
These artists would find, in the history of art, a new resource that became a strategy for the new painting, giving rise to the eclecticism which is one of its signs of identity. Recourse to history permits the coexistence of languages which are distant, in terms of style and time, giving a new identity to that which was old. This tied in with the international launch of the Transavantgard, a term coined by the critic Bonito Oliva to define a new trend characterised by a return to figurative representation conceived as a syncretic operation between the expression of individualism and continuity with traditions, whose style and themes it appropriates with no hang-ups whatsoever. Bonito defends the use of the images provided by the history of art and their appropriation by the new artist, and also defends the permanence of the genius loci, to wit, the artists' link to their own cultural roots, the only way of maintaining cultural identity in the face of the almost regulatory standardisation of modern artistic language. The eclecticism defended by Bonito Oliva is therefore based on the coexistence of past and present, of classicism and vanguard.
The work of Joaquím Falcó fits into the parameters defined by Bonito Oliva, i.e., symbiosis between the forms of individual expression and those of tradition.
The use of a neoexpressionist plastic language and a heterogeneous iconography that taps into a subjective re-reading of the history of art, consumer objects, the mass media, landscapes, fauna, flora. Tradition and vanguard are part of his cultural heritage, a well-known territory that he can travel, availing himself of the most suggestive views to build his own plastic world. In a nutshell, local and international, past and present, classic and modern, real and imaginary, haute and low culture, they are all his reference points.
On observing his work more closely, the first thing it conveys is that he likes painting, he loves colour, he needs to paint.
In his canvases, thick, greasy brushstrokes coexist with plain colours and clean surfaces. Moreover, the recovery of the material values of painting engenders a new appreciation of the trade and the traditional techniques, exercising a kind of revenge of matter over mind, albeit not to deny or annul the latter, but simply to offer us, first and foremost, the painting as a sensitive substance.
In some of his work Falcó uses the lessons of abstract expressionism, with his drips, impastos and surfaces invaded by a hurricane of brushstrokes, to build two-dimensional scenarios into which he inserts isolated figurative elements; he thus does away with abstraction, and the images appear as floating figures, abandoned on backgrounds of masses of colour.
The spontaneity of the brushstroke, the agility of the gesture or concentrations of stains are values that the painter conquers in his executions. The satisfaction with the matter and chromatic texture is even more interesting and the plastic surface acquires all the expressiveness of creative tension.
Focused on the power of the colours, the artist personalises his work with an intuitive and sensitive language, building visions that approach reality, recovering figuration by appropriating the images that conform the iconosphere in which our society lives and are consumed by millions of people daily. The pop references restore the sense of modernity, recovering for art a gaze that is in tune with the conditions of society now. Falcó avails himself of consumer images, of household and commercial products, to afford these products a prestige with the added value of their being art, creating an unequalled rapprochement between art and life. What sets him apart from Pop is the artistic assimilation, the manual elaboration of the language and the techniques he uses as opposed to the mechanical and mass-production used by Pop artists, scorning individual expression.
When his paintings evoke the great maestros (Van Gogh, Picasso, Zurbarán, etc., among others) he shows an unusual mental sharpness, a capacity to penetrate into the imagination of others to develop his own, a subtle skill for adapting in an era of inadaptation. The artist uses the fiction of others, an existing reality, to turn it into a new fiction that can surpass the first one, which strikes us as being a kind of hyperreality.
He thus obtains canvases with a great decorative effect, where the figures are superimposed on colouristic backgrounds dominated by nervous brushstrokes that transmit all their dynamism to the composition. Together with an eclecticism that draws from heterogeneous models and references, humour is another permanent facet of his work; an irreverent humour that enables him to demythologise the materials and objects he makes his own, and appeal to the spectator's complicity for the latter to participate in the game of demystifying cultural myths.
The artist's attitude is always an open one, and he avails himself of them all comfortably to make interesting adaptations to his proposals.
Each work by Falcó functions as a flashback, part of a memory. Each work is like a fragment of reality in the first reading, but allegorical in its final meaning.
JOAQUIM FALCÓ
1958 - Spain
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1981 Sala d´Art Xipell, Manresa. Spain
1981 Galería 491, Barcelona. Spain
1985 Galería Seny, Barcelona. Spain
Galeria Lleonart, Barcelona. Spain
1987 Passages Centre d´Art Contemporain, Troyes. France
Musée Chateau-Fort, Sedán. France
1987 Bel Air, Barcelona. Spain
Galería Sergio Sánchez, Manresa. Spain
1987 Bianca Pilat, Milano Italy
Diagonal Art, Barcelona. Spain
Galería Tertre, Mataró. Spain
1987 Passages Centre d´Art Contemporain, Troyes. France
Fundació Caixa de Manresa, Manresa. Spain
Galeria El 16, Olot. Spain
1987 Galería Arteara, Madrid. Spain
Bianca Pilat, Milano. Italy
Galeria Giulia, Roma. Italy
1993 Símbol Galeria, Manresa, Barcelona. Spain
1995 Galería Vayreda, Olot. Spain
1995 Sala d´Art Xipell, Manresa. Spain
Galería Magda Baixeras, Barcelona. Spain
Galería Real 79, Almería. Spain
Sociedad General de Autores, Madrid. Spain
Galería Rovira, Sabadell. Spain
1995 Sala d´Art Xipell, Manresa. Spain
Galería Bianca Pilat Arte Contemporanea, Milano. Italy
1998 Sala d´Art Xipell, Manresa. Spain
Espai Miquel Gaspar, Barcelona. Spain
Sala Caja Madrid, Barcelona. Spain
1999 Bianca Pilat Contemporary Art, Chicago. USA
2000 Raffaella Silbernagl Arte Contemporanea. Varese. Italy
2001 Sala d’Art Xipell, Manresa. Spain
2001 Galeria de Arte Pilares, Cuenca. Spain
Galeria Iris, Barcelona. Spain
Galeria Siglo XXI, Castellón. Spain
2001 Galeria Catalonia, Barcelona. Spain
Galeria Al Vent, Barcelona. Spain
Galeria Espacio Tres, Málaga. Spain
VIII Feria Internacional de Osaka. (Artista invitado). Japan
Galeria Magi Arte, Feria de Bolonia. Italy
2001 Galería Villanueva. Art-Expo. New York. USA
Galería Annia. Feria Arcale. Salamanca. Spain
Galería Eduma. Linares. Spain
Galería Catalonia. Barcelona. Spain
Galería Punto de Encuentro. Lanzarote. Islas Canarias. Spain
Galería Rua X d’Art. Manresa. Spain
2001 Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones. Madrid. Spain
Palacio Isolani. Bolonia. Italy
Galería Lecrin. Granada. Spain
Palacio La Salina. Diputación de Salamanca. Salamanca. Spain
Santa Marina di Salina. Italy
Castell de Cardona.Cardona. Barcelona. Spain
Museo de Arte de Caguas. Porto Rico
Galería La Casa del Arte. San Juan. Porto Rico
2001 Galería Alisea. Bolonia. Italy
Galería Jorge Ontiveros. Madrid. Spain
Galería St’ART. Bolonia. Italy
eART Galeria.Comarruga.Tarragona. Spain
Canals Galería d’Art . Sant Cugat. Barcelona. Spain
Galería D’ARTS Patrick Cabrera. Valencia. Spain
2001 Galería Espai Cavallers. Lleida. Spain
ALINKA Arte Contemporaneo. Santo Domingo. Dominic. Rep.
Galería PIV ARTE. Bolonia. Italy
Museu de la Mediterrania. Torroella de Montgrí. Girona. Spain
eART Galería . Calafell. Tarragona. Spain
TolArt Galeria. Madrid. Spain
2001 Vernissage Art Galería. Castelldefels. Barcelona. Spain
Galería Geraldes da Silva. Oporto. Portugal
Palacio Montcada. Fraga. Huesca. Spain
Tauromaquia. Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones.
Zaragoza. Spain
Vernice Art. Forli. Italy
Göteborgs Konstmässa. Göteborgs. Switzerland
ArtZ. Zaragoza Spain
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1979 Sala d´Art Xipell, Manresa, Barcelona. Spain
Casal Català, Stolberg, Germany
1979 Galería Kreisler, Barcelona. Spain
1979 Galería El Revés, Manresa, Barcelona. Spain
Sala Jaimes, Barcelona. Spain
1981 Sala Parnaso, Palma de Mallorca. Spain
1981 V Biennal d´Art Jove, Palau Meca, Barcelona. Spain
XXVIII Salón Internacional, Bèziers. France
1981 I Biennal d´Art Jove, Casa Caritat, Barcelona. Spain
Galería Sa Coma, Tossa de Mar. Spain
1981 Galería Arte Expréss, Madrid. Spain
Copy-Copy, Transformadors, Barcelona. Spain
Fundació Colegio del Rey, Alcalà de Henares, Madrid. Spain
1988 Galería Emilio Navarro, Madrid. Spain
Galería Andrea Serrano, Barcelona. Spain
1990 Bianca Pilat Arte Contemporanea, Milano. Italy
Galería Pàdova 2000, Pàdova. Italy
Galeria Maria Salvat, Barcelona. Spain
Galeria Contemporanea, Pàdova, Italy
1991 COCART,
Exhibition hall Coca-cola, Verona. Italy
Palazzo della Ragione, Mantova. Italy
Pinacoteca provinciale, Bari. Italy
Spazio Flaminio, Roma. Italy
Vestiti d´Artisti, Galeria II Baule, Milano. Italy
4 Artisti da Corsa, Museo colecc. Maranello Rosso,
San Marino. Italy
1987 Contemporanea Gallerie d´Arte, Padova. Italy
Space A.D. 2000, Tokyo. Japan
Bianca Pilat Arte Contemporanea, Milano. Italy
1987 Artisti DOC Hall Ferrari, Treto. Italy
Símbol Galeria, Manresa, Barcelona. Spain
Associazione Cult. II Politico, Roma. Italy
1987 Bianca Pilat, Milano. Italy
Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid. Spain
Aula Magna, Università di Ancona. Italy
1987 Stadtmuseum Münster, Münster Germany
Embarquement pour Cythère, Vivre, Milano. Italy
Absolut Vodka, FAD España, Barcelona. Spain
Xth International graphic exhibition, Catania, Italy
Aurea-Aurea, Palazzo RUINI, Regio Emilia, Italy
Galleria d´Arte Cattelani, Modena, Italy
Une lettre en passant…pour un abecedaire, Passages
Centre d´Art Contemporain, Troyes, France
El mundo màgico de Mickey Mouse, Illa Diagonal,
Barcelona. Spain
Mickey Mouse, Bianca Pilat Arte Contemporanea,
Milano. Italy
Nel Segno dell l´Angelo, Bianca Pilat Arte
Contemporanea, Milano. Italy
1987 Sala d´Art Xipell, Manresa, Barcelona. Spain
Singul-Art Llafranc, Girona. Spain
Beneffit, Galeria Bianca Pilat, Milano. Italy
Made in art, Galeria Terzo Millenio, Milano. Italy
Taller Obert. Taller Blau, Calaf, Barcelona. Spain
Galeria Giacometti, Manresa, Barcelona. Spain
Comics d´Artistes, Museo de Berga, Barcelona. Spain
Signs of an angel, Bianca Pilat Contemporary Art,
Chicago. USA
1987 The angel in contemporary art, JD Carrier art Gallery,
Toronto. Canada
Sala d´Art Xipell, Manresa, Barcelona. Spain
1995 Bianca Pilat Contemporary Art. Chicago. USA
1999 Premio Nacional de Grabado, Zaragoza, Madrid,
Pamplona, Santander, Logroño, Lleida. Spain
Omaggio alla Ferrari, Frascati. Roma. Italy
2003 Galería Magiarte. Milano. Italy
Galería Catalonia. Barcelona. Spain
50 Años del Taller de Grabado Joan Barbarà. Barcelona,
Madrid, A Coruña, Palma de Mallorca. Spain
2003 Fondazione Logudoro Meilogu Onlus. Banari. Cerdeña Spain
2003 Galería Alisea. Bolonia. Italy
Galería Jorge Ontiveros. Madrid. Spain
Museo Cerdà. Puigcerdà. Spain
2003 Galería Jorge Ontiveros. Madrid. Spain
Artistes per la Sardana. Andorra
2003 Galería PIV ARTE. Bolonia. Italy
ALINKA Arte Contemporáneo. Santo Domino. Dominic. Rep.
Artistes per la Sardana. Palacio de la Diputación de
Tarragona. Spain
2008 Cumbre Mundial del Agua. Expo Zaragoza. Zaragoza. Spain
Onades.Museu de la Mediterrania.Torroella de Montgrí. Spain
Galería PIV ARTE .Bolonia. Italy
2009 ChelseaArt Fair. Excel4Gallery. London UK