Joan Castejón

Signature Joan Castejón

Joan Ramón García Castejón , (born December 17, 1945 in Elche , Spain ) known as Joan Castejón ( Catalan pronunciation : [ ioan castejon ]), is a Spanish draftsman , painter and sculptor who is known as one of the leading exponents of the New Objectivity and Art School known in art renewal in Spain after World War II. He was a member of the artist group Grup d'Elx .

Life and artistic style

His work has been exhibited in major Spanish museums such as the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), the Museum of the University of Alicante , the Martinez Guerricabeitia Collection at the University of Valencia , the Miguel Hernández Elche University , the Fundación Bancaja and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Elche .

At the age of sixteen, Castejón moved to Valencia , where he studied fine arts at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia . In 1966 he had his first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery Mateu , Valencia. This first phase of his career (1964–1967) can be described as neofigurative . The human figure, sometimes grouped, appears in the middle of undefined spaces. Works from this phase, including drawings on anthropomorphic themes, already show the special features that characterize his later works: the tense clarity of the line and strong anatomical effects that characterize him as a painter of the New Figuration .

Although not directly involved, Castejón was arrested and ill-treated during the May 1967 demonstrations against the Franco regime in Valencia and shortly thereafter sentenced to six years in prison. Until mid-1969 he was held in the prisons of Valencia and Teruel . Although his artistic career was disrupted by this traumatizing time, he was still able to paint while in prison. That year he became a member of the group of artists Grup d'Elx , which brought together painters and graphic artists from Alicante and which included artists such as Albert Agulló , Antoni Coll and Sixto Marco . In 1971 he was re-imprisoned and spent seven months in a prison in the Canary Islands . Around two thousand wax pencil and pencil drawings were made here. These works document a new phase of his art, they are tragic testimonies to his fate.

In 1973 Castejón married Paca Galván and moved with her back to Valencia, where he re-established contact with the local art scene. A year later, however, he settled in Dénia and painted in the 1970s in the style of an "explicit and shocking" expressionism . A bright, landscape-inspired abstract style followed in the 1980s . In the 1990s he pursued a virtuoso drawing style. Man and humanity became the central point in his work, albeit always as a tragic and heroic topic: In a hostile world, the human being is defeated in the fight with fate.

In 1999 he was named the adopted son of Dénia .

reception

Joan Castejón has exceptional drawing skills that have resulted in his mastery of painting. The writer José Manuel Caballero Bonald writes: "The artist draws classically and meditatively like a prophet."

After his imprisonment, he painted a series of a hundred pictures, inspired by Gabriel García Márquez 's book One Hundred Years of Solitude , which were exhibited in Valencia and Barcelona . On this occasion, Mario Vargas Llosa wrote about Castejón's art: “One of the most interesting aspects of this exhibition of Castejón's pictures shows what the art of painting can still achieve today, [...] if it takes literature as its starting point. A woman, a dream or even a crime can be a new creative driving force for an artist ... "

The film director Artur Balder writes about Castejón's work, “that an indispensable prerequisite for the total work of art is a basis of either visual, literary or musical representations. This enables his timeless state, his ability to withstand the challenges of time. "

Castejón conceived his exhibition Per a Paca in Alicante between 2009 and 2010 as a homage to his wife. The newspaper La Verdad described it as “a retrospective of historical memories of the couple, an abstract exhibition of over 50 works, including scenes of pain and surprise. A look back that gives access to various historical moments in his life. "

Work (selection)

• Maternidad gris (1969)
• Eran más de tres mil (1973)
• Personaje reducido por sus propias gestas (1974)
• La digestió (1978)
• Mutant d'águila unreal (1980)
• El día (1984)
• A Salvador Espriu (1989)
• Paisatge daurat 1993 (1993)
• El Salt (2002)
• Cavall nocturn (2004)
• La guerra (2009)

Collections

The largest public collection of works by Castejón is in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Elche . The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern owns a portfolio of drawings with illustrations of Don Quixote . Further works can be found in the collection of the Fundación Bancaja in Valencia, which belongs to the Valencian Community . The largest private collection with around two hundred works is the collection of the Lecasse Foundation in Alcoi , acquired in the 1980s and 1990s by the businessman Lionel Grau Mullur.

Awards

• Tribute to Joan Castejón. Key to the city of Mont de Marsan. France. Year 1993.
• Premi la Tardor, from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Year 1994.
• Hijo Adoptivo de Dénia (son of the city). Ajuntamiento de Dénia. Year 1999.
• Honorary member of the Institut d'Estudis Comarcals de la Marina Alta. Year 1999.
• Honorary member of the Institut d'Estudis Comarcals del Baix Vinalopó. Year 2001.
• Premio Ocell, from the Mancomunitat de la Marina Alta. Year 2005.

literature

• Roman de la Calle: Castejón: La realidad de lo imaginario. CIMAL, València 1981.
• Jordi Sebastia: La meua vocació de pintar es absoluta. In: El Temps 899, 4-10. September 2001, pp. 35-37.,
• Joan Castejón y el Quixote. IVAM Institut Valencià dArt Modern, Valencia 2005, ISBN 84-482-4218-1 . (Exhibition catalog IVAM Institut Valencià dArt Modern November 23, 2005 - January 15, 2006).

Web links

Commons : Joan Castejón  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Joan Castejón
• Official website of Elche , with a contribution to the importance of Castejón and the Grup d'Elx
• Joan Castejón in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Interviews

• Joan Castejón , Mar Menéndez, interview for the IVAM
• El Grup d'Elx regresa tras 27 años. In: El País.
• Condenado a tres años de dibujos forzados. In: El País. ("Sentenced to three years of compulsory drawings")

Individual evidence

1. ↑ El Grup d'Elx regresa tras 27 años
2. ↑ Diversidad Contemporánea. Colección del MUA.
3. ↑ Exposició “El cos maltractat”. Patronage of Martínez Guerricabeitia de la Universitat Politécnica de València.
4. ↑ Cercant la Llum Universitat Miguel Hernández.
5. ↑ Bancaixa expone la pasión de Castejón por el dibujo.
6. ↑ Lo bello y lo siniestro se found in una exposición en El Carmen.
7. ^ El Grup d'Elx y la fundació del MACE.
8. ↑ El Grup d'Elx regresa tras 27 años.
9. ^ Así era entonces. In: El País.
10. ↑ Sentenced to three years of compulsory drawings.
11. ^ Adopted son of Dénia. ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ^ José Manuel Caballero Bonald on Joan Castejón. ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa on Joan Castejón. ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ^ Artur Balder on Joan Castejón. ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF).