🚀 go-pugleaf

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Ooops my previous message was sort of mutilated -- my editor
is not doing its job today, sorry.

I hope this one will go through fine

About Oteiza's self-imposed exile, I'm sorry to hear that piece of
news. I think that many of us will miss him and in particular those
who worked & collaborated with him.

I love Oteiza's works, and I hope that he will continue to
produce nice sculptures, but I must say that I don't find his ways
particularly civilized. I personally agree with a couple of friends
who've had the unspeakable patience to socialize with him that he
is a rather repulsive chum.

As B. Atxaga put it quite plainly in a recent interview to
the weekly magazine `Argia', Basque intellectuals are excessively
pressurized to side various political tendencies & they often
get far too involved in politics at their career's peril.             Writers,
 artists, philosophers, scientists,... they all need
to communicate their message freely without prejudices, linguistical
or political constraints of any sort.
Culture can only grow in a
relaxed atmosphere of tolerance and rational debate.
Whatever the circumstances, this freedom must be granted
to everyone without a trace of fear of verbal abuse.
There are a few manifesto-in-hand `herriko taberna' closed-fist
enfants revolutionnaires who don't quite grasp this idea, but
who cares about these common people.. at the other side of the
spectrum there are sadly intellectuals who also ascribe too much
political weight to the words of their colleagues. I think that
Jorge Oteiza belongs to these. His tempamental public attacks
against his lifelong antagonist, the Basque sculptor Eduardo
Chillida, have taken a very undignified turn and one can see
how cheap can become the rhetoric of an angry artist.

Oteiza fails to understand that Chillida is a far more talented
and successful sculptor than himself (as an example of this,
Chillida's exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1991
was a great success & several books have been published in English
on his work, whereas I have found none on Oteiza, who to the
best of my knowledge, remains little known beyond the BC and Spain)
and criticizes the expense of Chillida's voluminuous art, arguing
that it is because of Chillida's reputation & connections that
he is commissioned expensive works of art by the Basque Government
& other institutions. These accusations are just preposterous
and I am glad that Basque politicians appreciate the genius of
Chillida and don't share the inordinately prejudiced views of
Oteiza on the subject of modern art.

As far as Basque art is concerned, Chillida is just getting
his just desserts, an appreciation of his talent. On the other
hand, I think that Oteiza has been also very much appreciated
in the Basque Country and abroad but he has to shrink his
inflated ego to the proportions of his gifts. Basque art is
certainly not family business & public money is not shared
in petit commite as a right of birth but in accordance to
achievements. And that's how it ought to remain.

The last major political venture that brought Oteiza's provincial
eloquence to the arena was the project of the Guggeheim museum
in Bilbao. I am personally glad that the project will be materialized.
There are many small museums in the Basque Country -- none of
them of the standards of the main museums of modern art in Europe.
The Guggeheim museum is an expensive project but it will attract
mainstream temporary exhibitions, it will boost the art market
in Bilbao and bring many visitors.
Initially, Bilbao will be the only place in Europe showing
the Guggeheim collection on a regular basis & in the long term this
will certainly pay for itself. Big projects are certain to be
very expensive. It is something that has to be accepted. I
don't think that it is fair to say that $120m is an extravagant sum
of money for a museum (with no permanent collection, but borrowing
parts of the NY Guggeheim collection) and Oteiza is right to
point out that this money could do much for Basque art by financing
several art schools, but the government must get its priorities
right at any given time and some sacrifices need to be made.


Mikel.