By Héctor Díaz
Published in El Economista on September 8, 2022:
“My work is the confluence of a current moment, the material I have, and my abilities, and that is unrepeatable and new, and it may seem to someone that they are discovering something new, otherwise they would pass by.”
–Javier Arizabalo, painter.
For a visual artist, belonging to the IBEX Collection is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Arizabalo has achieved it.
If winning the Nobel Prize in Literature is the highest distinction for a writer, belonging to the IBEX Collection is the equivalent for a realist or hyperrealist visual artist. Javier Arizabalo, a master of masters, has achieved it. If it could be defined with a single idea, it would be with a phrase by Gabriel García Márquez: "I have learned that the world wants to live on the mountaintop, without knowing that true happiness is in the way you climb the steep slope.”
The Spanish artist Javier Arizabalo (Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France, 1965) enjoys worldwide fame as one of the most prominent in his style, realism. Despite this, his humility and nobility as a person continue to characterize him.
"I have never been, nor have I tried to be, a storyteller or a narrator; instead, I want the story to be the image itself. After some time, the work is no longer yours; it is alien to you. You don't know how the material came to be that way. It is the material that has organized itself. We resignify or turn reality—the image, time, space, volume, color—into an intelligible sign through art; we could say we would not have consciousness of life without it," the artist shares.
His work invites reflection on the fragility of the human being and the importance of time, but it also provokes deep sensations about the innate beauty in almost imperceptible daily moments, which Maestro Arizabalo immortalizes with exquisite mastery.
He perceives himself as "a person who has been defined in relation to art, or to the image. His friendships, his hobbies, and what he has done with his hands and his head."
–Héctor Díaz
1. What was your childhood like? It was a normal childhood; from primary school, I already took refuge in manual work. Spanish society at that time, the truth is, was difficult, a little dark, and it permeated everything. It was in my adolescence that I began defining myself regarding my abilities, and it was also the moment when Spain was taking off from its most negative recent period.
2. Does an artist make a work or does a work make an artist? What is a work and what is an artist? At some point, we define their perimeters, but it is the artist who is made in the moment of action with the material.
3. Does it require madness to be an artist? Stories have been created around characters; they have been novelized, they have been mythologized. Crazy artists are useful for having an entertaining time in a reading or a movie.
4. Why is art important in our lives? We resignify or turn reality—the image, time, space, volume, color—into an intelligible sign through art; we could say that we would not have consciousness of life without it.
5. Why does your work contribute something new to art? What is novelty? It is difficult, with all the past interactions of people with matter, to say that something is new. It is enough for it to contribute something to me—a small thought—and to find the person or people who feel reflected in front of the work. I want to continue thinking that there are people who, in front of a painting of my authorship, recognize the exceptional nature of the moment, the space, the person, the light, and who value them. My work is the confluence of a current moment, the material I have, with my abilities, and that is unrepeatable and new, and it may seem to someone that they are discovering something new; otherwise, they would pass by.
Cristina, Mar. 2010, Oil on Canvas, 73 x 55 cm, “Cristina” Sessions, “Women” Series © Javier Arizabalo
6. What has been your greatest satisfaction in the art industry? Art is something that arises separately from industry; whether there is an industry or not is another matter, art is not for it. The best thing I have been able to have is meeting people and establishing bonds with them; it's not even about making a masterpiece or not.
7. What is your goal as an artist? To keep surprising myself every day that I paint or draw, where things just happen. Awards, resumes, or money are aspects that interest society; as a person, my experiences interest me.
8. What advice would you give to someone who wants to be an artist? As with anyone, I wish them to make the best decisions in their life, and to seek the best way to be a moderately balanced being, to balance as much as possible their emotions and what they desire, with what they think, with what they are allowed to do, and from there to work and strive, since personal formation will not be given to them.
9. What do you consider your legacy will be? My goodness, what a question! I picture myself there in a 19th-century bronze sculpture with pigeons defecating on my head. My legacy will be small, but it does make me curious. It makes me want to look through a peephole, a hundred or two hundred years from now, to see where some paintings are located and how people will behave around them.
10. How would you like to be remembered? I would like to be remembered for a little while, to serve as inspiration for someone—it's a pity that we are nothing more than an atom in the infinite, where everything that matters to us will be lost and everything will change.
Hand II, 2021, Oil on Canvas, 116 x 73 cm, “Hands” Series © Javier Arizabalo
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