I found these videos on youtube and thought people would want to see these. Only the first video has the english translation, where he talks about his monumental show at the Boston MFA last year. The next video is in two parts of him talking about his work – make me want to pull out my dusty Rosetta Stone Spanish DVD’s. The last video is a kind of a goofball video of him painting his quince trees. For anyone who may not know there is a DVD of the film about him painting these trees, El Sol del membrillo (The Sun of the Quince) by Víctor Erice (Sadly not now available on Amazon but you can read some interesting reviews of the movie here) There are also a couple of videos of him critiquing some student work that you can watch especially if you are fluent in Spanish.
One of the best sites to see Antonio López García work is Tim Lowly’s links (while you’re there check out his amazing list of links of other figurative painters if you haven’t already seen them.
Painting Perceptions was started in 2009 by Larry Groff to promote the ideas, practice and experience of painters working from observation in a modernist vein from around the world through interviews, essays, videos and community. It later evolved to include imagination-based and abstract painting as well.
Such a tremendous artist, one for which I believe we have yet to reckon as a major influence on the history of art, certainly since he put brush to canvas things are just “influenced”. He of course has his influences also, but I cherish greatly his love for painting nature as honestly as you can; this is something you understand seeing his work, but even more obviously displayed in the filming. I have the DVD set of El sol del membrillo, and am wondering if I can upload some clips of it. The actual film is great, but so is the second of the set, which includes a very insightful interview of Lopez Garcia and Victor Erice. Truly profound, even despite the poor translation into English. Thank you for sharing these others!
Hi Rebecca, sorry to be so long in responding. I didn’t know about the interview with Victor Erice – was that part of the actual movie or a second DVD with a separate interview? I watched the movie a few years ago from a copy of a DVD and wasn’t a set so the interview was probably missing. You could try uploading to youtube but you will probably risk copyright issues – not sure how that really works with things like that.
He also gave a talk at the MFA during his show (regretfully, I missed it) and answered questions from the audience. I wonder if someone video taped it? I bet it would be good.
Hi Larry,
It is a second DVD of a set, and in it there is the interview along with several more clips of Garcia at work on other paintings, large landscapes in various sites. I missed the talk at the MFA, even though I managed to be there at the exhibition; I bet it was fabulous.
As for uploading, I know of course that there would be copyright issues, but I wonder if clips, or sections are okay…there seem to be quite a lot of those.
Seeing the 2nd DVD or select excerpts would be fantastic. If you do upload it there will certainly be lots of people like me who will be forever grateful. If there is anyway you can do it so you are are in less risk of legal trouble -all the better. Maybe someone else here might know more about it. If you do get it up please let me know and I’ll put a link here.
Dear Rebecca and Larry,
I spoke with Alex Kanevsky at an opening about the opening and talk at the MFA (which I also sadly missed) and he said that there were some real translation difficulties – the translator was not up to the task/topic so if it was taped I would imagine you would need to be a Spanish speaker to get the real gist of the his talk.
I own the video of the tape (which doesn’t have the interview) and am very happy to hear that it is out on DVD but I’m sure that if it is out of print it will be in the realm of the Rizzoli Lopez-Garcia book (in the realm of $2000). Rebecca, I hope that you can upload the interview on that second disk.
Larry – Thank you very much for your fantastic blog! It makes me feel like there are others out there who want want to remain relevant and contemporary and yet still keep our work tied to the lineage of great painters that have come before us.
Hi Rebecca,
Any chance you could steer me to where you bought the dvd? I saw the movie on VHS years ago and loved it, but haven’t been able to find it on DVD anywhere. Inspirational to see someone paint like they have all the time in the world, and not seeming to strive too much. He doesn’t seem upset when he has to make big changes or give up on the painting. He’s doing it just to do it, or to ‘spend some time with the tree’ as he says. I could see how it could be the most boring movie in the world to the uninterested, but that just makes me all the happier that it got made.
The show in Boston was just fantastic, i was fortunate enough to catch it, and i went twice and spent about 5 hours there the second day. I think his work is really exceptional in so many ways, so it was a great privilege and a joy to get to see so much of it, spanning such a period of time in one place. It’s also really wonderful to see how loose the big cityscapes are in person–there are all these places where he has scribbled notes about the number of floors in a building…i love the combination of such rigorous looking and such simple, matter-of-fact paint handling, and i think you lose that when you see those paintings in reproduction because of their size.
Hi Gage,
I’m not Rebecca but here is a link to the full movie that someone just put up on Youtube (in 13 parts) not ideal I know but at least it’s a start. I would put it up here but they disabled embedding. It’s fascinating to watch his process, rigorous looking would be putting it mildly – anyone who draws plum lines on a Quince tree takes their fruit very, very seriously!
Here is the link to El Sol Del Membrillo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnTQHf1E74c enjoy!
thanks Larry! i had come across that before, but hadn’t found any evidence it was available on dvd–so it gives me hope.
serious looking for sure–i have to say, serious almost to the point of absurdity–but that’s one of the things i find fascinating about it i guess, that painters like Lopez Garcia or Uglow can get such beautiful paintings out of a method which, in the hands of lesser artists, could result in something boring or sterile. since there is far more to making a beautiful painting than just accurately transcribing reality, it seems like the thought and planning before even setting up to paint must be pretty exceptional, and then to be open to unsparing revision…well, there’s many reasons i think those two are amazing, and those are just some of them.
congrats on the trip to Italy, by the way, I am sure it will be great! i met Stuart Shils probably 5 years ago at a residency at Vermont Studio Center, and he was great to talk to–of course he’s a great painter and very happy to share what he’s passionate about.
Hi Gage,
I found my dvd set thanks to an insiders guidance in Tel Aviv and it was the only one available, so I am sorry I cannot be of help. In Israel, Lopez-Garcia is greatly admired; many Israeli painters spent a couple years saving up in order to fly over to the Boston show! I was there too – just so marvellous to stand in front of them for a good long time.
I just purchased the VHS of A Dream of Light on ebay for $24.95. Apparently it’s just been rereleased here in the states.
Good to know Bill, thanks