Page 18 - Studio International - October 1966
P. 18

A statement by Mompo



     Mompo is a Spaniard, a painter whose work is gay and   attracts his curiosity, my work notices that which
     yet serious in intention. The exhibition of Spanish   serves for painting.
     Painting at the Tate Gallery in 1962 presented an aspect   A grey window next to a red shirt.
     of Spanish painting that has tended to be accepted as   A brown shoulder against a  white wall.
     representing all that is interesting in contemporary   A purple woman selling under an umbrella.
     Spanish painting; large textured surfaces with severe   The spectacle of the street is in constant change and
     and sombre shapes and colours. Mompo is of the same   motion.
     generation as many of these painters and he presents   I want my work to have the same restlessness.,
     another, more intimate facet of the Spanish imagina-  I give great importance to colour because I feel that
     tion. The scale is smaller, the colours warm or bold and   colour establishes the given mood. I want my colours
     never oppressive.                        to be clean, legible, condensed. I always insist on:
      His own very interesting account of his work (given   Calculating the visual weight of the entire picture.
     below) records his interest in 'the magical world of the   On balancing the total.
     street', in light, and that his point of departure is the   On each tone or colour having a life of its own.
     paintings of children. The account is-  clear and helps us   On variety.
     to come to a quick understanding of the paintings. The   On measure in terms of colour.
     images that illustrate the original text are similar to   On matching mood to colour.   Hernandez Mompo, born in Valencia in 1927,
     those of a child of five or six. Already at this age a child's   On using colour not learnt but known.   studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes in
     drawing is complex. The figure paintings usually repre-  On having one of the colours, purer or more impor-   his native city. He visited Paris in 1951, and later
     sent some incident that has captured the child's   tant than the rest, in command.   spent a year in Italy. In 1958, a year after returning
                                                                                        to Spain, he won the Juan March Prize
     attention, the incident may be real or fictional, and the   I prepare my canvas in luminous greys, like tarnished
     drawing is how the child represents it; but even while   silver-subservient tones.
     doing so the child may modify the drawing to make it   Over this base I paint in oils, thinly, broadly, minim-
     more interesting as a complete image. Mompo takes   ally, leaving areas untouched. I never insist on a
     this process a great deal further and the original   colour once it has been laid down. I want to see with-
     incident is usually unrecognizable as more than an   out effort where the stroke begins and where it ends—
     atmosphere or feeling, so that the final painting may be   how it was done. I also use charcoal, pastels and dry
     abstract. These paintings represent another and success-  pigments;  honest materials that serve to  indicate
     ful attempt to develop the emotional potential that is   what I want.
     hidden in the simple forms of a child's drawing.
                                  A. P. Carter   What I paint
                                               Bands, dogs, balloons, suns, moons, umbrellas.
     I base my work on reality. On the life that surrounds   Ragpickers, Vendors
     us, that stands before us.                Buyers,  markets,  carts, hurdy-gurdies, windows,
      I want it to be the reflection of what we see. I am not a   bars, donkeys, doors, musicians, store-windows,
      dealer in anecdotes; I deal in scenes without import-  trees, birds, roads, bicycles.
     ance.                                    People who talk
             A greeting.                       Who laugh, who gossip, tables, chairs.
             The shadow of a hat on a wall,    Peasants
             the way someone runs.             Dances, processions, joys, rich and poor,  stalls,
      That element of reality, hidden from the observer,   shops, pilgrimages, roosters, wheels, shouts, hats,
     that unconsciously remains, seen, but not captured,   people waiting in line.
     existing in terms of light and shape. . . . I want these   Streets and Squares
      painterly sensations to belong to the viewer.   Open mouths, fruit shops, street lamps, transistor
      I want to interpret the entire magical world of the   radios, canopies, umbrellas.
      street,  underlining  moods and situations for the   People Rushing About
      pleasure of the viewer. On a flat surface I want to   Women in long skirts and aprons, scooters, clouds,
      display all that is alive  in the humdrum of everyday   light...
      life. I want to build a world both positive and healthy.   Those confused almost-words that I hear in the street
      In the same way that a stroller only notices what   without managing to understand Them find their
                                                       place, sometimes, in my pictures in the
                                                                shape of single letters
                                                        'I paint rapidly.
                                                        I like the liveliness in the spontaneous,
                                                       the direct.
                                                        I like what is said well and with purpose.
                                                       I destroy the dull and the clumsy.
                                                        I want a finished picture to hold a con-
                                                       stant discovery of detail.
                                                        I want to suggest, never to teach.








                                                       The drawings by Mompo illustrated
                                                       on this and the facing page are
                                                       reproduced by courtesy of McRoberts
                                                       and Tunnard Gallery
   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23