Inglesez 2

Zumeta, a tribute and a commitment to painting

Carlos Martinez Gorriaran

Zumeta 98-99-00

San Martingo azoka

Donostian, 2000

WHEN people went to the first Vanguardista exhibitions in post civil-war San Sebastian in the early 60's, a series of vertical paintings of superimposed bands of colour with no apparent rhyme or reason by somebody called Zumeta, was particularly scandalous. They were, in fact, some of the first non-representational paintings ever exhibited by a Basque artist. They were works where the theme was the paint itself, that amazement of the infinite seduction of colour and of the unpredicted forms arising from the act of painting —which art history loosely calls abstract art—, and a journey embarked by the artist and the observer somewhere between the external world of experience and the intimate one of imagination.

Jose Luis Zumeta, born in Usurbil, Gipuzkoa in 1939, has remained loyal to that initial emotion of colour and action throughout the different phases of his artistic career. He is one of those elemental painters who, going beyond language and metalanguage games which have seduced their contemporaries, were absolutely essential because they did not know other than to paint to amaze themselves and us with that challenging art, constantly renewed, always the same but always different. It is that kind of work that is constant and magnificent to the game of painting Anybody with little artistic knowledge will understand Zumeta’s work because it is a transparent one and, undoubtedly, if they appreciate painting, they will enjoy his work.

 Zumeta is one of the most emblematic artists of that rapid and special evolution undergone by modern art in the post-war Basque Country, a consequence of that coming together of the latest international vanguard art forms and the need to break with the isolation imposed by Franco's dictatorship and by regional conservatism. That is why Zumeta is also one of the few artists who has had the fortune or otherwise to represent history and a transitional process thereof, despite his work being so clearly biographical.

A member of the same generation as that group made up of Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, Amable Arias, Bonifacio Alfonso and CarmeIo Ortiz de Elguea, Zumeta set out to spread the poetic possibilities of the expressionism and abstraction that he brought back with him from his 1959 trip to Paris, where he immersed himself in that indescribable emotion of the unknown and intoxicating world of Cobra, Appel, Stäel, Pollock, De Kooning, Chagall y Picasso. Zumeta's pure, vibrant, abstract and gestural colours ruptured the taciturn, grey and mediocre life at the time like an unexpected explosion. The spectator unexpectedly met a generation of painters, exceptional for their aesthetic quality and admirable in their gritty resistance to the disdain of authority and to the indifference of most. The organic forms which appear to float in a haven of infinite space, vibrant, saturated and gestural colours, gave way, in 1967-68, to more modulated colour painting, soon replaced by wood reliefs and metals painted in daring colours, a kind of object sculpture which did not fit in with the accepted dogmas of what was rigidly understood to be Basque sculpture —sober, solemn, organic or formalist but austere—  usually identified at the time as Basque vanguardism.

 Zumeta was one of the founders of the "Gaur" (“Today”) group and a reference point of Basque vanguardism. But the antidogmatism of his heterodox works offers one of the purest exercises in creative freedom in the Basque Country of the period, where the burden of ideological prejudices has always been excessive. In this line of breaking free, he produced huge ceramic reliefs between 1974 and 1976 (Usurbil, Pasajes Ancho and Zarauz), with a beautiful juxtaposition of monument, humour and vitality. Around 1976-77 his work changed totally, immersing himself in the unclear "Greys" and like a chrysalis in a spectacular metamorphosis, he was soon to enter a phase of pop-art and witty socio-political expressionism which acidly observed the "Basque-ist" appreciation of beauty and that of a middle class which, in effect, turned its back on art. Although he did not stay long with these ironies, Zumeta had discovered the virtues of painting as if telling a story. A lot of works between 1979 and 1983 completely connected with the retrospective and ironic spirit of postmodern neoexpressionism (fashionable ever since the "discovery" of the wild young people in the Westkunts in Cologne). Although Zumeta did not benefit as much as might have been expected from the fame of an art form so close to his, he persevered with his games. In 1984 he produced Papiroak (Papyruses) —an amazing series of tempera paintings on corrugated cardboard, the title of which is a reference to the narrative context of these extraordinary works, the best from a Basque painter in the XX century and a little known landmark in neoexpressionism.

His style of painting, controlling the uncontrolled and abandoning the extempore, came to a climax with his works of 1992. Zumeta is today a classic artist thanks to his coherence, the secret of which is encapsulated in his statement of 1979: "The commitment is to oneself, if you are not true to yourself you are not true to anyone".

Zumeta: 1-2-3
José Luis Merino

Zumeta 98-99-00

Uribitarte in Bilbao, La Brocha, 2000

1                     
IF I write the word “painting”, I can see it run, long and free, over Zumeta's body. Out of all the painters I know, he is the one with the greatest passion for painting. This passion takes him to open everyday the doors and closets of his childhood and mature manhood. He takes the canvas like the mason takes a brick in his hand, like the carpenter takes a tool to fix the jamb. From that moment on, everything changes. Compulsively he draws forms and colours, He expands gestures here and there. He leaves a thin color line on the canvas, as if it were a sigh in the midst of all the commotion. In a sudden dash he changes again and returns to the racket of the dauntless forms and the multiplicity of pigments. It seems as if colour itself went along thinking. Spots run among joys and dissatisfactions. Suddenly, sharp and unexpected forms turn up. They are not pure gestures, but simple babblings that resemble uncreated symbols. This changes the nature of what has been done up to now. The impulse of  the gesture starts again, but now it takes into account those uncreated symbols, aiming to make them live in the creation of the painting. Yet once again, the tom graphs surface, trembling, shaking, swinging. Each new formal stroke brings along new colours. It is as if everything had been prepared to undertake a long trip beyong the painting, one does not know where to.

2
In his attitude as a human being, there are no convulsions nor swings. Each step of his life has been guided by modesty (what in social sciences words would be called “stocking up on disadvantage”). He has put ahead of anything else the honesty of coherence; interrupted only by an insatiable curiosity for silence. Since the begginings he has rejected trying to obtain a prviledged place in society. He knows that if he looked for it he would lose his independence as a painter. This fact would not be remarkable, if it weren't for the many artists around us who climb up the ladder like monkeys, attempting to find a spot among the chosen ones. They do not care to live the daily history in terms of their art. Their highest ambition ends in "hanging" their work inside some famous museum. In their imagination, this transports them into Art's paradise, and they do not know that in doing so they are witnesses to their own corpses' funerals. They do not want to know that museums only guard what is already known, while art is a trip to the unknown. Real and living art has always fought not to be locked up.

3

But let us leave aside symbols, chilhood, museums. For Zumeta, what counts is the tenacity of work, which is to say, the profound obsession to create, even not knowing what the outcome might be It is others who will show the work to the people. During these last years, two passionate admirers of his work entered Zumeta's life, They are Emilia Epelde and Mikel Mardaras. Both of them have used great amounts of imagination and courage to work on the idea of turning the ruins of the construction works in the “Depósito Franco” and set up a colosal exhibition space Beyond the damp walls, and the insensitive concrete, the works of Zumeta rise powerfully, specially the ones that fill one big room. It is there that Zumeta accomplishes a transformation of the space, and turns what was originally ruined waist into a formidable cathedral, majestic, incredibly welcoming and full of artistic echoes. What was once misery and oblivion has turned into a shinning present of new colours and forms. Driven by a determination springing from some original duty to himself, Zumeta creates a happy metastasis, inoculating his most joyful delights into the hearts of all of us.

José Luis Zumeta

Annaïk Carricano

In Biarritz, 2002

Crypte Sainte Eugénie, Atlantica

FOR José Luis Zumeta, art is an adventure. His commitment as a man and as an artist shines forth on the canvas, his creative activity enables him to "Live for each instant as if it were one reality and grasp it". Interwoven shapes stamped with signs from which colour bursts out, an abstract expression in which the artist gives us a glimpse of the figurative: "In my paintings, the abstract is not without representational connotations. It’s true that I tend to suppress anything which could seem obvious in the figurative. In fact, it's a figurative suggestion which stops short of materializing." (1)

José Luis Zumeta comes from a village called Ursubil in the South of the Basque Country. In 1966, he took part in the foundation of the Gaur group, (Today in the basque language), representing the new generation of Basque painters and sculptors. Their art is part of an innovative movement and expresses itself in revolutionary changes: massive shapes, a sometimes brutal geometry and an instinctive use of colour born from movement. Arias, Oteiza, Balerdi, Basterrechea, Chillida, Mendiburu and Zumeta are members of this generation of artists who "Succeeded in involving art in the political and social events of the Basque Country under Francoism" (2). According to the words of Koldo Izagirre, "Zumeta is a Basque in the sense in which Basques define their own group, i.e. they are guardians of the Basque language and therefore he owes to no-one but himself. Like his people, he had to shape himself by trial and error, according to his own school of thought, starting from scratch lust like the people who attempted to modernise our literature... Ever attentive to his environment, Zumeta feeds on a reality which conceals, among other things, what the Basques produce. Thus he cannot be confined to any school. He identifies with his people by his language and this gives him the freedom necessary to any artist to create. Zumeta is himself and his talent”.

A trip to Paris in 1959 plunged Zumeta in the heart of modernity: he met international painters who were trying to elaborate a new artistic language. The "Art Informel" (Informal Art) presented at the Galerie Nina Dausset in 1951, exhibited the works of Bryen, Hartung, Wols, Mathieu and of the Americans Pollock, De Kooning and Kline. In a spirit of great freedom, their approach broke away from any traditional form of representation, the limits of a painting became arbitrary and colour was no longer subject to outline. At the same time, in 1962, also in Paris, Michel Ragon, an art critic, gathered together international artists for an exhibition entitled "Nouvelle Figuration" (The New Figurative) with the French Dubuffet and Lapoujade, the Italian Baj, the British Francis Bacon and the Chilean Matta. They questioned the limits of representation, stretched those of the painting, used bold colours and readjusted aesthetic values to the reality of life. The impetus of this research for new means of expression opened a vast field of free interpretation of human, political and social issues.

Zumeta's painting can remind us of Pollock, De Kooning, Klee or Picasso, but his personality is such that he stands apart. He leads us towards new shapes, a different language, infinitely distinctive colours, a direct, spontaneous style. His plastic research, conditioned by his impulses, stripped of all conventions, becomes a gestural commitment. "It's about solving the problem in hand and letting oneself be borne by the painting, without too much prejudice. This is my foremost concern because its my life... The main part of my life rests on painting. It is, I repeat, one of the foundations of my life”. (3) An abundance of colour devoured by criss-cross lines expressing the words of thought. Zumeta chooses an accident to suggest a shape. Wide or heavy touches follow one another, juxtaposing like a brief echo of reality, then the action ceases. Only the silence of the canvas remains. This silence throbs within us, a sort of dialogue begins. A line, a sign, a touch, a colour, send us back to the painting's weft and to our innermost questions. The organisation of space has no hierarchy in an asymetrical process. The idea of randomness, which is tangible in the faintly etched little figures, surely has something to do with the heart of man. The barely decipherable faces and silhouettes catch our eye.

Zumeta's painting doesn't tell a story, it is allusive. The artist discreetly scatters touches of humour and fantasy all over his paintings. Each canvas is a moving space, a fluid matter where the eye can rove, penetrating Zumeta's universe. The painter's language is direct, free from any conventions, it explodes in a wonderful display of colour. Regardless of any fashionable trend, he makes our eye waver between Figurative and Abstraction, bodies and objects, shapes and signs, based on a solid technique. With everything that makes painting possible, Zumeta offers us a pictorial vocabulary opposed to rational analysis. José Luis Zumeta is first and foremost a painter of reflection and analysis, his painting opens up the field of infinity.

(1) Interview of Zumeta by José Luis Merino, journalist and art critic, El País.

(2) Le Cahier de Biarritz Culture, Kulturaldia n°52 (Biarritz Culture magazine n°521.

(3) Interview by José Luis Merino for El País.