NEXUS CHNyiflS

"...Olí lili ¡,'¡1(111(1 lovkiiiíi (il lile .seii. tlie sen of literary productioii, published in the iVíilily. llic .si'd iíi ir/iic/i /iti.s lirrii fon lid lili- magazine Syntaxis and concerned with mldiiil oj lii.i iiili.i/ic rmilioii. " the "photomontages . [0]

Eriicsli) Pcslaiiii \iibrt'"ii Duriug the first half of the current decacle, two coexístmg facts bring about a

With the nppoaríinrc liiTe last vear ol tlu- slow awakening of interest in the painter. thiitietli voluiiie of llic Biljlioleca de Fü'st, Juan Ismael is accepted wthout Artistas Caiiai'ii)s. dedicated to Juan qtiestíon as pertaíning to the generation Ismael [1]. a half-decade has come to a of artísts who sujjplied Sjjain's most cióse iii wliicli inroi'inalioii and brilliant contribution to 20tli-centurv midersíandiiig of llie autlior of cultine. Second. the ])i'oof that his work Naciiiiienlo de lii i.fla lias lieeii is inseparable froni the artistic élite that supplemeiited with numerous tangle and imtangle llie island s art and documeiitaries, memoirs and ciitical that includes .Néstor, Doiníngtiez,

studies. They have not delineated his sponsored bv the same financia! Gramas, Millares and Manrique. image iiilo a limited and easilv institiition and was curated by E. The period began with t\\'0 compreliended l)0(h of wiirk: lhe\ have Padoi'iio [3]. This was to be virtually the exhibitions that would serve lo provide caused it lo expand and diversifv, onlv reference foi' the niajoi'it\' of an inexorable impettis for a svsleniatíc endowing his personality and his work publications dealing with tfie painter in revíew of Spanish and Canarv Island art with that cornplex weave of destiny and the years tíiat followed, sucii as Micliel of the 20th-centurv. "El surrealismo Creative will onto which Art's features I3ernier's "Juan Ismael. La constancia entre viejo y nuevo mtmdo' proposed an are projected. surrealista ' [4] or the adniii'able hislorical but non-dogmatic

hi the veai's hnmediatelv following contribulion of Lucía García de Carpí inter|)retation of the surrealist niovenient his death hi Augnst 1981, the first "La pintura siu'realista española, 1929- which would later be universalised by general studies of Juan Ismael bagan to 19.36 ' [5] which clarified one this the díaspora following the second World appear. A few of tliem would become centtu'v s obscin'er periods in Spanish War: the show was the inaugural indispensable, obligatorv references for art. In the chapter concerning the exhibition at the Atlantic Centre for all later attempts at coming to tei'ms willi Canarv Islands, and after havhig tieait Modern Art and was curated b\' Juan his work. even iip lo the present time. We witli Osear Domínguez and the Gaceta Manuel Bonet [?]. The other show, owe the principal studv to the poet and de Arte, García de Carpí pauses to focus entitled "Ladac. El Sueño de los essayist Eugetiio Padorno wliose work, on Juan Ismael as if on an exceptional arqueros'" [8], was organised by Pilar originallv ]3ui:)lished 12 years age, is now discoverv, even suggesting that "it is a Carreño Corbella for the Víceconsejería oíTered in a considerably amplified and paradox that in the bírtliplace of the de Cuhina y De])orles áe\ Gobierno de updated versión by the B.A.C., niost coherent surrealist nucjetis (Santa Canarias. This show offered the first accompanied l:)v an impoUant graphic Cruz de ), the niost worthy academicallv rigorous attenipt to stndy and documenlarv ap|jaratiis.[2] painter should be a man disassociated aiid dociimeiit an inxigoraling IVoMi the group' . movement witlñn the island s visual arts The first versión of the text which culttire, focusing as well on the sniall we will discuss below was published by IJntil the end of the 80s there are grotip of artisls who wei'e particularly the Caja General de Ahorros de Santa no fnrther contriljinions to the stiidy of sensitive to the state of ihe islands Cruz de Tenerife, in conjunction with Juan Ismael except foj- an aiticle by coiileinpoiarv arl. as was again the case tlie retrospective exhibition that was .Margarita Gómez Sierra, a sludeiil of his

yW CINTCO AtlíNlICODI AfTi MODffNO witli llie íiciK-ration of íivant-Karde familiai'itv witli mosl of the works iiuinerous conversatioris concerning his arlisls 30 yeai's ago. pioduced from 194.5 unlil llie ciid of unconsumaled projecl. ¡t sliould bear." Juan Ismael s participalioii iii llie .juaii Ismael s hfe. The importance resides in the virtuallv creatioii aiicl developineiil ol LADAC^s "Dado fie lado", a rediscovered unknown character of Juan Ismaels activities would inspire a flourishing oí' volunie of impiiblished poetrv by Juan ])oetical work, with the exce]jtion of a new infoiiiiatioii and documents Ismael, appeared in the lasl months of few poems published here and therc in concerning his artistic activitv during aii 1992, sponsored by the Caja Insular de magazines and catalogues, such as the extraordiiunilv lirli and complcx Ahorros de Gran (Canaria [12]. The '^Anlhología de la poseía eaiKiria" nionicm. wlien he was nlilising dií'fei'enl felicitous underlaking was carried oiit l)v (19.52) and in "Faceióit siirreaisla de (echiiic|ues in various series or varialions. Eugenio Padorno w itli the collaboration Tenerife" (1975), both of Domingo At tile requesi of ilic of Antonio de la Nuez. E. Padorno tells Pérez Miiiik, and in a pair of collections Viceconsejería de Cultura I liad llie US in the introdtiction that "no attempt publislied by the painter during his oppoitunitv to prepare a show of Juan has been made to offer a critical edition lifetime: "/?/ aire qne me ciñe" (1946) Isinael's |)aintings in 1991. The show of Juan Ismaels poetrv. A lew texts that and %:halel de O'Coniian" (1977).

(lid uol aílenipt a relrospeclive rail the risk of being lo.st were broiishl Tlie exhibition in late 1994 entitled approach. w liich would have been together, oiilo which we have broiiglil "El surrealismo en España in the Reina difficull witli lile liniiled nuinber of ihe title that, as the author repealed in Sofía National Museum and Centre for works in our jjossessiuu at the time. 143 Instead, it aimed lo be an invitalion or introdiiction lo his work, represented bv 40 painlings made during nearlv -^0 years of luiimerrupted aclivitv between 1932 and 1980 [9]. Viaiiy of the works exhibited were vhtuallv iniknown. especially those dated earlier dian 19-iO and which had been considered losl. The exhibition made clear ihe inipoitance of the avant-garde period for an understanding of the bill laler developinenl of ,[uan Ismael s paintiiig.

A few months aftcr the exhibition I returned to the same subject in a seminar "CaiHiridn: his rdiigiid/rlids Ititilóricas" [10]. organised bv Andrés S. Roba)na for CAAM.

In mid-1992 a collection of Ijiographical essavs ealled La era ele gacela de arte |3iiblished a book entitled "Juan Ixiiiael" [11] bv the writei' and ])sycli¡atrisl Carlos PiíUo (¡rote. The work was accompanied bv importaiit and unknown documents, both graphic and epistolary, as well as bv anthologies of texts by and about the painter. Pinto Grote's suggestive contribution i'ests on direct aceoimts of his long-lerm relationship witli the aiMÍst. iuid in his Sin lihilii. I')77. 01! on caiuas. ()4 x .")4 ciii. Prívale (iollcclion. TeMciifc. l'lioKi: l'Jiaiii Pililos. Art. curated by Lucía García de Carpí "...Juan Ismael never abandoned is a departure from references to reality. and Josefina Alíx Trueba, corroborated his fidelitv to the female figure and the which instead is poeticallv transformed; the existence of a group of artists whose feniiiiine identity as a vehicle for the third, which extends and accentuates expectations and influence before the revealed truth and for myster\'. A the essential mode of the second. sees a (^ivil War were among the most faithfulness that penetrates into the detour into abstract expressionism; in promising ín tlie sense of renovating and irreplaceable commiinícation between the fourth there is a return to poetical inoderiiisíng S[)anish paintíng. Some of woman and nature." With these words J. painting.'' At this point E. Padorno these artists recommenced their creative Alien begins his essay "Juan Ismael: los establishes a chronology which, despite efforts after the war; they endiired desnudos en el jardín ". published the claim of a merely orientalionai conlroversial vears and their poetics had toward the end of 1995 [15]. At this nature niade in the introduction. to evolve independent of inainstreaní — stage of our knowledge of the painter. it constitutes the basic structure for his ^ in other words, silenced if not annulled. is bevond question that the "feminine critical biography. T L Despite all this, they continued striving identitv' is both aura and marrow of his The first section, gathered under * in pictorial space with the same fervent art. even to the point where on occasion the title "La obra primera (1927- N j anxiety [13], there is no difference whatsoever 1933) . studies the hfe and work of ' Before 1994 had ended 1 edited a between the art and the "penetration Juan Ismael in the period between his c into its earthly nature. The stimulating arrival in de ^ collection of letters that had been text by J. Alien fertilises the field, which to the death of his father in 1933, which IJII dehvered to me in 1990. together willi is perhaps wider thaii we supposed, of coincides with the exhibition held in i other keepsakes and documents, by the fi essays speficically addressing the contení May in the Ateneo in Madrid. [16] The < painter's widt)w. The letters had been e of Juan Ismaels paintings, in this interpretation of landscapes is one of the ' sent to Juan Ismael between Mav and n instance elaborating his commentary on avant-gardes favorite themes, and in " October 1929 bv his inother, EmiÜa t the paintings of 1934. soine ways we might eonsider it an ' Mora. The letters were sent from o Finally, we arrive at the 30th title example of the wider reading of the " , the island where she was a in the series of the B.A.C. publications locas to which it is a kindred spirit; at born and which she had left nearlv 20 which, as I pointed out earlier, brings to the same time it aided in the slow years earHer and to which she finally a cióse a necessary and fortúnate period: regeneration of his formal principies returned, tired and defeated, to spend it has not, however, monopolised all that during the years following the Civil War. the rest of her days. Emilia Mora is Juan Ismael holds for us. L'nless we In this first stage there is a link almost unknown to us today, but the allow an immobilising skepticism to between the initial cvcle — represented letters and the singular occurance that delay us — for which there are reasons by Gráficos marinos" (1928) with its they have been preserved tells iis that enough, if one considers the lack of eclios of Néstor [17] and ^Fragmento de there is soinething exceptional about parents, the war, the post-war period, poema marino-gráfico'" (1930) — with them. In fact, as we delve into them bit emigration — the appearance in recent the works painted in Madrid between by bit, the main characters that inspirad years of paintings of which we had 1931 and 1933. Quoting Padorno on them begin to be outlined, telling inuch reports but which had not been located these latter works, "the artist is not of the story that preceded and even the nurtures the hope of a slow enriching of motivated by the desire for a faithful hopes which fostered them. The his known body of work, which in the rendering of landscape but rather by the recipient of the missives, Juan Ismael, end will indeed allow us to sketch the materialisation of a visual tlieor\''\ which was the true artífice of this custody, enduring image of his art. has a literary embodiment in the text since the packet containing the letters Eugenio Padorno structures his ""Indagación de las islas" published by accompanied hím like a talismán until study in four sections that correspond to Juan Ismael in 1934 [18]. hi it he wrote he died 52 years later. Familiarity with Juan Ismaeles artistic chronology and "1 began to see the Canar\' Islands and to these letters lends a new and which are based on the stages that the understand what its landscape was like unprecedented slant to the solitary, artist himself established in 1974 at the when I began to reinember it." But the sílent and pain-ridden presence of urging of Ventura Doreste: "Landscapes ""Indagación de las islas " is more than women throught his pictorial and abound in the first: in the second there just the epitome of an entire essencialist poetícal work. [14] ])hiloso|jliv concerned willi islaiid Ismael, voii are leaving./.luan Ismael 1 Rey, Lugo. Alter a vear devoid of any landscapes. lí we coii.sider its statenieiil íiiid voii./l p and dowíi./ln and oiit... ' news, we find liim again in Santaneler in that "meiiioi'v hold^ dic ¡II1C1I(M-I S W e know tlial he was in Madrid March and May of 1938. and at tlie end grealest poetic pntciitial . we iiiiist iiot on Novemijer 2?. 1933. froni ílie letlers of the same year in Bilbao, where he consider jiisl a mere valué jiidíreiiieiii huí sent diiring that periüd, mainly to signed various works in 1939 and rather a coinpiicit refognilioii — liue. Antonio Dorta and his sister Catana, hnl exhibited in 1941. He later spent some Juan Manuel! — oi a creative |)rine¡])lp alsü those sent to E. We.sterdalil. lime in Madrid, pailicipaling in llie to which Juan Ismael «oiild hi" íailliliil. On August 6, 1934, he is in Exposición NdcioiKil (le lielUis Alien in eonscioiislv oí' unc'ünsei()iisl\. iiiilil al Sexille. where he will s|)end nearly two 1942 and the following vear in the least tlie earlv 50's. monihs en route to the Canarv Islands. Primera Exposición de Artistas de la The second seetion of tlie bdok is 1 le ¡s in Tenerife iii October. November Prorincia de Tenerife held in the entitled "La realidad transfigurada: and Deceniber of that vear. planning to Museum of Modern An. luán Ismael arrives in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in ihe summer of 1944.

Given lilis mobilitv, confusión is inevitable when studying the known works, especially since, apart from the lliree works exhibited in Exposición 151 Logicofobisla. we onlv know of the existence of woi'ks daled 1939 oiiward, and even these were scarce until 1945 w lien he was already settied in Tenerife.

After this proof of intineranl inquietude, let us now return lo Pad(.)rno s book. He indicates three developments between 1934 and 1955. The l'irst is the conversión to and practice of Siirrealism from 1934 to 1941, corresponding to his

Sin líliilo. 10()7. Nli.xcil media. 32..") x -+8..") crii. stay on the península. The second, from 1944 to 1947, pertains to lus years in Tenerife where he contributed to the

19.3-+-19.55." The melhodieal miity retui'n lo .Vladi'id al the end of the vear. [lublishing of the magazine Mensaje and applied to snch an e.xlended period in lüelween March and April 193.'3 he wriles pressed l'or the formalion of F.I.C llie lile and work oljiían Ismael is from Oporlo. where it seems he was wilh (Pintores Independientes Canarios). The jnstilied. hi part. bv the l'act lliat we are a theatre companv; in November he third refers to the years from 1947 to still scarcely familiar with the works inaugurates the second exhibition of his 1956, which he spent in Las Paknas de from manv of these complex years, years painthigs in Madrid, this time in the Gran Canaria where he participated in marked bv eireumstances as adverse as (dentro de Exposición e Información the founding and contimiing aclixilies of lliev were unforeseealjle. Permanenle de la (-onslurceión, LADAC. The "an.vioiis pilgi-jmage in s]3onsored by ADLAN (Amigos de las Eugenio Padorno devotes nearly whieh. aecording lo l'adorno. .huui Artes Nuevas). By February 1936 he is half his text to dealing with the aspects Ismael converts his vacation in 1936, writing to Westerdahl from Madrid, and and details of this instructive period, in should perhaps begin to be eonsidered as in Mav he mav have attended the a lem|joral as well as a creative sense, in soniething inborn in his character, His l'ivncid Exposicióit ilel (ínipo lile lile of Juan Ismael, leadiiig lo ihe íiiend l'.meH'i-io (¡utiérrez Albelo, in the Loííirofobisla. in l^arcelona. Í\I the end "recoverv of subjects, specifically related poem "RoiiiiinlifiíiiiKi y viiviila iiiicrd"., of Juní'. bareh' ihree weeks bel'ore the to the Canarv Islands. cullisaled in 1950 gives the following porli-a\al: •.luán militarv conp, he wriles from Castro del and 1951." .Mlhougli il is |)ossil)le to eiicounter trealmeiiT of islaiid subjerls iii Eugenio Padorno. Juan Ismaels the fullest and inosi up-to-date ihe yeai-s ¡iiuiiediately preceding ft'ieiid and biograjílier. was present at the bii)liogra|:)hy available. /Vil of this is Padoriio's dates, il is belween 1950 aiicJ artist's deathbed. As he recalls in the accompanied by photographs that 1952 llial Juan Ismael paiuls a gioup oí" emotional sentences that cióse the text: provide more tlian 120 illustrations of works that revive tlie niytliic iinage of "He dies in a room filled with the artist's paintings and drawings. this island, showing a cohesión and anonvmous, wisecracking oíd people. "kn artist s life," savs E. Padorno, intensity similar to that of the "recalled Befóte the bed where the painter lies is a "contains the range and profundity of laiídsoapes" of 1932. [19] window. and bevond the window stand dreams, and thal territorialitv offers The ihird section of Padoi'no s the square cottages, painted in capricious access that at times cannot be jjtit into work is entitied "Desvío hacia \a colours, of Risco de San Nicolás. It is tlie practice bv the memoirist' . Without a abstracción informalista, 1956-1966" same final visión tendered to Jorge doubt, the air of a "|)ure and and deals with the artist's Venezuelan independent artist that surroimds ,luan period. These ten vears are not terribly Ismael springs from this "territorv.' His prodtictive [20]. althoiigii the piclorial "pliilosophy of a marginahsed man " that prodiiclion a((|iiii'es a dislinct character »S accentuates the caustic sense of ironv in in its tise of sandv lines and surfaces and ^.^SH&SS^üm"-^ the last years of his life — "Otra pobre" a sober sclieniaticisni that i'caches the [21]. "Dado de lado —remains a point of producing compietely abstract conseqtience of the sum of serious compositions, at times similar to the circumstances that influenced it, which austere. essential work of Patil Klee. Hs determined the formative iiigredients of abstract tendencies abathig. the coin-se the contemporary artist. which have of this work extended into the earlv 70''s. transformed art into a pi'olession that "Juan Ismaels final crealive phase "will never abolish chance : this is the centres around drawing, and it might be same chance that spread a tragic destiny said that the lyricism and lentitude of over the life of Juan Ismael perhaps only in order to leave his work "in a his line reorders the rest of his artistic La mujer del cántaro, 1952. Encauslic, cliaracter'. With these words Padorno 65,5 X 54,5 cm. Prívale Collection, La special sky, like an island on the opens the section entitied "Retorno a la Laguna, Tenerife. horizon.' [22] Photo: LlVain Pintos. pintin-a poética: 1970-1980'' which concludes the book. NOTES The final years of Juan Ismaers [1] Ed. Viceconsejería de Ciiltin'a y Deportes lile are niarked bv his return (with his Gramas, the renegade barber s del Gobierno de ('.anaiias. Socacin. ISBN familv) to the Canary Islands, his final apprentice. The light was the hard and 84-7947-187-5. settling in Las Palmas de Gran Ganaria iniractable light of an August 24th.'' [2] It is a shanie that the spiendid B.A.C. collection continúes lo he hleniished bv and the gradual arraiiging of the civil To cióse this smnmary of the meelianical <'irors that rednce its ulilil\. aspects of his life until his death on thirtieth volume of the Biblioteca de In this case we can point to the ver\- lirsl reprodnction of the liook, on the book August 24, 1981. His last paintings are Artistas Canarios it should be pointed jn(l