Inauguration "Els colors del blanc"
Published on 6 February, 2009
On February 4th the inauguration of Lluís Ribas’ “Els colors del blanc” exhibition took place in the cloister of the Royal Monastery in Sant Cugat de Vallès.
The inauguration was hosted by the city mayor, Mr. Lluís Recoder, who summed up the artist’s relationship with and involvement in cultural matters in Sant Cugat, while also highlighting him as the city’s most international artist. Next, Mr. Josep Ma Cadena, art critic, spoke of Lluís Ribas’ career as an artist. Santiago Montobbio, the poet and writer of the book “Els colors del blanc”, presented the collection. Finally the artist expressed his appreciation for the collaboration he has always had from the city council; and his delight at presenting the collection to his customers and friends before leaving for the United States.
From there the entourage moved to the Cultural Centre, where the paintings making up the collection can be seen until 2nd March.
Lluís Ribas was delighted with the great number of people and friends who attended the opening, and he thanked those who travelled from other locations on the peninsula and the Balearic Islands in order to be with him for this event.
Presentation of "Els colors del blanc" by the poet Santiago Montobbio
Art is a radical expression of freedom; and from this Lluís Ribas has painted these pictures using a new style. In this style his painting has been purified, it has found its essence, and it has become more psychological and more spiritual, since it comes from the depths of the being: we find ourselves now always on the inside; his paintings are mental landscapes, landscapes of the soul. The evident presence of the idea gives it more conceptual importance and significance, and it also becomes more mysterious, containing more meanings. Fruit of this introspection, in these paintings the artist has carried out an investigation into the meanderings of existence, into its deepest truths, and into its essence. He has marked his territory and he has reduced it to a few elements (a body, a sheet, a flower), from which he takes unforeseeable depth, to grow inwards and express himself and paint himself and others. Because these bodies give us a body. These bodies are us. They are in their most private intimacy and they are anonymous; their faces cannot be seen, and as a result, they become universal and for sharing. The body’s movements here are also the movements of the spirit, because in them the soul is painted too. The sheets are a mask, necessary and inherent to the person and also to art, and we can consider them as an emblem of art. The way in which these solitary creatures are laid out with each other is like music and its mysterious roots, and they and their bodies are at the same time signs of time. In them lies life in all its depth and entirety, using the strengths which run through it, life and also death, symbolic death (of illusion or of love) and final death. The artist’s authenticity is confirmed by the phrase printed on the back of the pictures (“No he sabido más” – “I have known nothing else”), which expresses a state of consciousness and an attitude towards art, which we can link to St. John of the Cross’s “knowledge through uncomprehending”. The painter gave his everything to these pictures; he painted them with passion and absolute dedication. At the same time, he has related to each and every one of us in a personal and unique manner, as displayed by the absence of titles: he allows us to take part in the adventure of creating, allows us to finish it, and we can have the freedom to feel them, love them and interpret them in our own way. They light us up and fulfil their particular meaning within us. Thanks to these pictures, our lives will be more profound and more true, more intimate, and as well, more ours.
Santiago Montobbio
