Potters have
been making beautiful things out of clay in Ibiza and Formentera for thousands
of years.
The relationship
between clay and creation has its origins in the beginning of time, as we can
read in the Bible.
God used clay,
as the most modest and the only material, to mould what's supposed to be his
best creation, Man.
The difference
is that he then breathed life into it, but the relationship between the clay,
the religious art creation and the Pitiusas Islands also has its origins in
the beginning of our historical times.
When the Phoenicians
reached our Islands to found the city of "Ebusus" (Eivissa, 654 BC)
they were very impressed by the fact that there were no dangerous or poisonous
animals, such as snakes, scorpions, tarantulas or wild beasts, so abundant in
their countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
They saw this,
as a divine blessing for the place, especially for its soil and clay that wouldn't
support evil creatures.
Images and medallions
of their Gods, "Bes" and "Tanit" - as well as other little
objects made of the local clay - used to be worn as an amulet to protect them
against the evil and the poison of these creatures whenever they had to sail
away from the island.
There are records
of a very active industry in pottery and artistic ceramic production in the
Islands from those days, basically "terracotta." We can still see
a good collection of them in the "Punic" area of the Museum of Archaeology
of Eivissa. The tradition still goes on.
This is what
we were talking about when Gary Hardy and I had the pleasure to visit our artist
for this week.
Toni Ribas Costa,
"Toniet", was born in June 1955, in Sant Jordi, Eivissa. A real "product"
of our land and culture, a solid and confirmed artist and even a better person,
with a clear and bright look, full of harmony and serenity, like the sky and
the sea of Formentera on a pleasant spring afternoon.
Toniet started
studying painting and artistic ceramic academic ways when he was twelve, first
with the professor and painter Toni Pomar in the local Art school (Escola d'Arts
i Ofisis d'Eivissa), then in Sabadell (Barcelona) with the ceramist professor
Isidre Creus.
Later, back
in Eivissa, he also studied and worked by the side of the local pottery master,
"Toni Daifa", at the time the best ceramist in the ancestral Mediterranean
terracottas, especially in the Punic models and its techniques.
Toniet also
spent six summers of his life living and working in Formentera (in the winter
he was going back to Barcelona) by the side of another exceptional local artist
"Gabrielet." Learning from him, he increased his own creativity
and enlarged a more philosophical point of view about Art and life in general.
At the age of
twenty six, Toniet left his academic studies and started working and experimenting
in his own workshop, cultivating and developing his own very personal style.
It is a mixture
of the classic Mediterranean terracotta and the modern ceramic, done with natural
materials, colours and enamels that he prepares and mixes himself to be fired
in his own oven.
"I'm interested
in all materials, especially the ones that I can prepare myself from the original,
natural matter, because they adapt better to my artistic expression. Not so
much for the artificial materials - I'm against chemical abuse in the ceramic.
Sometimes there is a chemical abuse in it, though what really counts is the
final result. Ceramics should never be a laboratory, but a creative and free
technique."
About his preferences
as far as the style of his art pieces, he says: "Everything can have an
influence to a creator. Life by itself, everything around, can be a motive for
the artist to be translated into an art piece, though, in practical terms, most
probably I'm influenced by the traditional Eivissa ceramics, the actual modern
style and the ancestral, archaeological, Phoenician and Punic, beautiful terracotta
art pieces".
Coming from
such a rich and extraordinary background, with such exceptional teachers, plus
his own methodical discipline in his creative work, it is understandable that
there is a big variety, though also very personal, in all his artistic creations.
There are painted
tiles that form polychromatic murals, jars that could be abstract sculptures,
single painted tiles or plates with exquisite drawings, sculptures and figures
based on the Punic terracotta. And a large list of other works, most done with
home-made natural colours, mainly ochre, yellows, blues and reds.
"In my
art work, I look to create beauty, to identify myself with my own aesthetic.
My art pieces are meant to be somewhere in between the painting and the sculpture.
But, I also think that the artist can't keep steel, one can't stop investigating,
experimenting with new techniques and materials, always a step ahead. If you
don't do so, there is nothing new for the artist to say, nothing new to create".
At present Toniet
continues working methodically, with discipline, basically in commissioned art
pieces, not so much producing to exhibit, sharing his time working as an art
professor, teaching the age-old secrets of ceramics and working techniques.
Individual Exhibitions
1978 |
Galería
Roc Ginard, Barcelona |
1980 |
Galería
"Tot Art", Eivissa |
1981
|
Sala
de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa |
1983 |
Sala
de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa |
1985 |
Sala
de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa |
1987 |
Sala
de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa |
1989 |
Sala
de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa |
1990 |
Galería
Bearn, Palma de Mallorca
Galería Berri, Sant Agustí, Eivissa
Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Ciutadella, Menorca |
1991 |
Galería
Bella, Sioma & Baram, Sant Francesc, Formentera.
Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra", Eivissa. |
1992 |
Galería
Berri, Sant Agustí, Eivissa. |
1993 |
Sala
Almirall, Barcelona. |
1994 |
Sala
Almirall, Barcelona. |
1996 |
Sala
de Exposiciones "Ayuntamiento de Sant Josép" Eivissa. |
Collective Exhibitions
1991 |
Galería
Azara, Eivissa.
Galería Bella, Sioma & Baram, La Savina, Formentera.
Sala de Cultura "Sa Nostra" Eivissa. Artistas amb el poble Saharià. |
1992 |
Galería
Bella, Sioma & Baram, Sant Francesc, Formentera. |
1993 |
Galería
Art-Bar, Sant Josép, Eivissa.
Galería d'Art "Es Llimoner", Sant Antoni, Eivissa. |
Special Public Art-works
1989 |
Diosa
Tanit para la "I Semana Internacional del Film de Eivissa"
(Special Ceramic of the Punic Goddess "Tanit"
for the "First International week of the Film of Eivissa”) |
1990 |
Diosa
Tanit para la "II Semana Internacional del Film de Eivissa". |
1991 |
Murales
para embellecer las fachadas de las estaciones marítimas de Eivissa y Formentera.
(Murals for the Maritim Stations in Eivissa and Formentera). |
1992 |
"Torre
de los Vientos, con Reloj de Sol" en el Puerto de la Savina, Formentera.
("Tower of the Winds" with a Sun-Dial in Formentera's
harbour, "La Savina"). |
1994 |
Mural
para la fachada de "Sa Nostra", Eivissa.
(Mural for the saving-bank "Sa Nostra" in Eivissa.) |
Other Art-works Done In
Collaboration With Other Artists
1973-1974 |
Trabajos
sobre terracota tradicional con Joan Daifa. Taller estudio "Can Espanyol",
Eivissa.
(Traditional terracotta-art-works, together with Joan
Daifa, in the work-shop "Can Espanyol", Eivissa) |
1975-1976 |
Trabajos
escultoricos y en bajo relieve con Antonio "Gabrielet". Taller
estudio "Es Torrent Fondo", La Mola, Formentera.
(Sculpture artwork, together with Antonio "Gabrielet" in the workshop
"Es Torrent Fondo" in La Mola, Formentera.) |
1978-1981 |
Trabajos
sobre cerámica policromada con Antonio "Gabrielet". Taller
de cerámica "La Mola", Formentera.
(Polychromatic ceramic-art-works, together with Antonio "Gabrielet",
in the work-shop of "La Mola ", Formentera.) |
|