Vicente Ferrer Guasch was born in Sant Antoni, Eivissa, on the 18th
May 1917. Most probably he would have followed his father’s steps in a
military career if it wasn’t because, since he was very young, he
started to show an exceptional talent for drawing and his preferences
for the Fine Arts.
That
pushed him to matriculate in the “Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes San
Jorge” in Barcelona, in which he passed his degrees as a drawing
teacher. Since 1962, he was teaching drawing and painting in the
“Institut Santa Maria” of Eivissa, (Ibiza’s High School) until 1982,
when he retired.
Ferrer Guasch is - without doubt - one of the most appreciated and
rewarded artists of the cultural world of the Islands, one of our
greatest painters of all times. His biography and his works figure in
the pages of Spanish and the Balearic Encyclopaedia and Art-history
books.
In
his large career, he recognises he’s painted about five thousand
art-works, half of them sold on the Island; that proves the respect and
love that locals have for his art and his persona. The rest of his works
have sold all over the world.
They
form part of the private collections of Richard Nixon, Juan Antonio
Samaranch, the “Fundación Juan March” or in the U.N. Building in New
York, among other important collections. There have been around a
hundred exhibitions (he doesn’t even remember himself) most of them in
Eivissa, but also in some of the best Art Galleries of the world, such
as the Wally Findlay Galleries, in New York.
At
present and until the end of this month, we can admire a small and new
selection of his works at “Can Berri”, the art gallery run by Gastão
Herbele, in Sant Agustí, Eivissa. At the same time, Ferrer Guasch is
preparing his latest material to be exhibited shortly, once again on
their own request, after the successful experiences in the Wally Findlay
Galleries of New York.
Eivissa, always and only Eivissa, the “White Island”, this is the
life-motive of all his work. “The City of Eivissa is a real passion for
me, a challenge that never ends. Like if this town was telling me to
keep on working, keep on painting, because there is still a lot to be
done, a lot more to paint until you can show me as I really am.
“For
many years I have concentrated myself on this exclusive subject,
Eivissa, which I feel so much deep down inside.
“This is the way that I feel so sorry for what is happening at present
with it, and the worst thing is that I don’t have the strength or the
way to fight against it.
“I
never have surrendered in my battles, only now, only in front of these
Islands that we are destroying.
“The
greed of money (“por cuatro pesetas...” as he says in his own
words) is turning Eivissa, our beautiful White Island, once full of
tranquillity and peaceful harmony, into a “Heritage of Misery”, Ferrer
Guasch declared to a local journalist, in his last exhibition last year.
Being in his studio, where Gary and I met with him and his charming wife
Fanny, last Wednesday afternoon at two o’clock, a sunny apartment on the
second floor, full of light, not far from the harbour, in the Avenida
Bartumeu Roselló, the wide street that splits, or joins, the two sides
of Eivissa Town, the old and the new part of it.
Looking at his paintings, I asked him why there are no people in the
streets, or birds in its immaculate blue skies, or flowers showing by
the side of the door or the tiny windows of his paintings, no signs of
active life in them.
The
answer was: “Life is action, movement; what I am trying to reflect in my
paintings is the tranquillity, the peaceful harmony of its streets with
its cubic white buildings, the serenity that one could feel in Eivissa.”
Here, (talking about Eivissa especially in the wards of “Sa Peña” and
“Dalt Vila”, most common sides in his paintings) it’s one of the very
few places (this also happens in some of the Greek Islands, he says),
that the shadows have their own light and colours.
Perhaps it is because of the extreme whiteness of the buildings and the
different planes of its cubes, in which the light rebounds in all
directions. It is almost like they were mirrors, forming endless
kaleidoscopes through the different hours of the day.
When
the Sun is at its zenith, it is hot and the life is in the interior. It
is that light - with its bright blue skies and slightly coloured shadows
- and especially the tranquillity and intimate serenity that this town
and the entire Island inspires what I mean to reflect in my paintings.”
“Now, in my latest works, I’m trying to simplify the most. I have
stopped painting the points of colour of the doors and windows that I
used before, as a “pattern” to be able to paint some colour
transparencies in the different whites, and as a very personal way to
balance my paintings.
“At
present, I work three hours per day, and I keep doing it with enthusiasm
and the same illusion as ever. Like all art-creators, I keep looking and
re-looking for my own personal line, my personality as an artist.
“Now, at my age and after a hundred exhibitions, I don’t need to
convince anybody, and I just look for a new pattern of interior
composition, to paint just the essence, to synthesise all this just in
planes of lights, volumes and cubes of different whites, simply lights
and shadows on the Ibicenco walls. ”
This
is something that the art-critics can also notice in America; let’s see
for instance what the Wally Findlay Galleries brochure says about Ferrer
Guasch and his paintings in his first exhibition in New York.
“Guasch’s work portrays the unique beauty of Ibiza. Although not the
reality of Ibiza today, with its bustling congested streets and
multitude of tourist, it is the essential Ibiza that captivates the
artist’s imagination. In Guasch’s words... – the Ibiza that it was and
will be again. His paintings reflect the tranquillity and serenity
Guasch feels toward his subject.”
“The
paintings are clean and pure. Guasch’s palette has a prismic quality,
which he has harmoniously adjusted to the light and colour of Ibiza. As
one critic cited: “I don’t think it would be possible to portray with a
higher degree of flexibility, the atmosphere of a place, the reflective
whiteness of the walls and the cool shading on its streets, than Guasch
has done in his pictures.”
“Ferrer Guasch is a master of geometric balance. Each of his paintings
contains an order and serenity, yet there is not repetition or
similarity of composition and his forms, although life-like, are not
photographic. One might say that Ferrer Guasch is an artist of the
abstract school who still feels a responsibility towards true
representation and aestheticism.”
As
some of his most representative exhibitions and awards.
1932 |
First
exhibition, in the “Societat Cultural Ebusus”, Eivissa |
1952 |
“Real Academia de Sant Jordi”, Barcelona, where he obtains the award
of this Fine Arts School for his landscapes
“Premi de Paisaje Josep Masriera” |
1964 |
“XXIII Salón de Otoño”. Golden Medal of the “Circulo de Belles Arts
de Palma de Mallorca”
“Premi Mallorca” de la Diputació Provincial de Balears |
1981 |
Spanish Tourism Office in the U.N. Building, New York, USA |
1983
|
First exhibition in the “Wally
Findlay Art Galleries” in New York, USA
“Golden Medal of Fine Arts” For his 50 Jubilee as
painter.
“Man of the Year” Voted by the local paper “Diario de Ibiza” as most
important or popular person of the year.
In between, several and regular exhibitions in: Eivissa, Palma de
Mallorca, Valencia, Barcelona,
Madrid and Bilbao, Spain
In Vevey and Konstanz (Switzerland), Philadelphia and other cities
of the USA |
Bibliography
“Ferrer Guasch, Mestros Actuales de la Pintura y Escultura Catalana” Nº
16 Ed. La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca. 1980
“Ibiza y sus pintores” Cabot Lompart J. Palma de Mallorca. Ed. Imagen,
1970-1979
“Enciclopedia Catalana” VII. Barcelona 1974
“La
senda de los elefantes”. Mariano Planells, Ed. Antigua Imprenta Soler.
Palma de Mallorca, 1980
“Viatje a les Balears Menors”. Baltazar Porcel. Ed. Noguer, Barcelona
1974
“Diccionario de Artistas de Cataluña”, Valencia y Baleares. II, Ed.
Catalanas, Barcelona 1980
“Maestros Actuales de la Pintura y Escultura Catalanas”. Ed. Catalanas,
Barcelona 1980
“Nova Enciclopedia de les Illes Balears. V.” Palma de Mallorca
2002
Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1932
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1937
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1950
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1958
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1963
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1965
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1979
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1982
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch October 1993
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Vicente Ferrer Guasch 1997
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Self-Portrait Vicente Ferrer Guasch
65 x 54 cm 1942
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Plaza Palacio (Barcelona) Oil 61 x 54 cm 1944
|
Carrer De Sa Penya
Oil 46 x 37 cm 1952
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Plaça De Dalt Vila
Oil
31 x 61 cm 1964
|
Paret
Oil 73 x 54 cm 1977
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100 x 73 cm
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100 x 81 cm
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110 x 89 cm
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73 x 100 cm
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100 x 73 cm
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92 x65 cm
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92 x 65 cm
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61 x 50 cm
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89 x 61 cm
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89 x 61 cm
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92 x 65 cm
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100 x 83 cm
|
Ventanas con Torre
Oil on Canvas 36¨ x 25½¨
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Casa en Ibiza
Oil
on Canvas 29¨ x 39½¨
|
Calle Hacia el Mar
Oil on Canvas 29¨ x 39½¨
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Calle de Dalt Vila (Ibiza) 55 x 38 cm 1964
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92 x 65 cm
|
Puerta y Sombra (Oil on canvas) 39½¨ x 29¨
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Rincón de Dalt Vila (Ibiza) 81 x 60 cm
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Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza) 73 x 54 cm
|
Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza) 61 x 46 cm
|
Casas (Ibiza) 73 x 54 cm
|
Las chimeneas (Ibiza)
|
Calle de Sa Penya (Ibiza) 61 x 46 cm
|
Dalt Vila (Ibiza)
|
Iglesia de Santa
Eulalia (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 72 x 54 cm
|
Rincón de la Marina
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
Calle de Sa Penya
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 46 x 27 cm
|
Rincón de Sa Penya
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Casa tipica (Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Rincón de Sa Penya
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Pozo tipico (Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Rincón de Sa Penya
(Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
Casa tipica (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Calle de Sa Penya
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Calle de Dalt Vila
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
Iglesia de San Rafael
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
Iglesia de San Lorenzo
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Iglesia de Santa
Eulalia (Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Iglesia de San Rafael
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Calle de Dalt Vila
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
Calle de Sa Penya
(Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 61 x 46
|
Rincón de Sa Penya
(Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 100 x 73
|
Ventana (Ibiza)
Oil
on Canvas 92 x 65
|
Casa típica (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 55 x 33 cm
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
Casa típica (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 61 x 46 cm
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 73 x 54 cm
|
Pórticos de la Iglesia de San Miguel
Oil on Canvas 46 x 33
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
Casas del Puig de Missa, Santa Eulalia (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 92 x 65 cm
|
Balafi, San Lorenzo (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 100 x 73 cm
|
Calle de la Marina (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 50 x 100 cm
|
Rincón de Sa Penya (Ibiza)
Oil on Canvas 81 x 60m cm |
All
Pictures Courtesy of Vicente Ferrer Guasch |