Can abstract (what a fallacious adjective) art stand against social and political injustice … I definitely think so. I cannot accept that only representational art may have this ability. Figurative art undoubtedly condenses the approach and directs its message …and I believe that these aspects inevitably free and even disconnect the public with their own capacity to impact and influence. To be more specific, I mean that the more open the artwork is the more it needs the public and their critical/participative mind to fulfill its inner dimension. (…) When one is young, we tend to confuse courage with energy. What really defines courage to me is the conviction and the belief that one does not have to face the new day but rather the day-after-day of a whole lifetime (…) It is clearly impossible to repeat the same things when the painting exists with its own body and flesh as opposed to when it flirts with the idea of a make-up. The relationship with the painting/body/material is so intimate that it becomes very hard to declare who is the strong and who is the weak, very hard to speculate, to manipulate, just because one faces a presence which has enough substance to stand for itself and even express itself. I believe that if we consider painting as a simple tool and not the goal to aim for then yes, it leads to a relationship of superiority and control and painting is just an instrument meant to serve. As far as I am concerned, I much more prefer the former definition, an equal-to-equal interaction, fully wanted, felt. A reciprocal echo. (…) I shall go back to my studio and feel again the true reign of freedom… Enough with pre-conceptions and welcome to utopias. The more time passes the more I realize I am made to work lonely.To finish a work implies the very idea of starting it, the idea of an original void facing a whole accomplished. As a matter of fact, not only does this not fully convince me but it does not even interest me. In art nothing is nothing.
Xavier Escribà
Douter de tout…et peindre (Question everything…and paint)
Excerpts from the artist’s studio diary, 2019
Xavier Escribà’s works give painting a true existence and elevate it from a medium to a representation. This aspect is essential in the artist’s vision : an immersive exploration into the boundaries of the colors seen as an independent territory. His chromatic layers wake up a memory of time. They invite to write new stories that originate in the deepest telluric roots and aim for the most metaphysical horizons. Like a demiurgo who catches the light and builds it up with colors, he renounces to the frames and lets them become space, volume and presence. Xavier Escribà offers a post-modernist perception of painting as he distantiates it with the narrative dimension of the frame and gives it a new freedom. Let’s explore a vibrant and visual level of poetry that speaks about colours outside he usual habitat it was locked in.
Pilar Giró
Art historian and curator
Barcelona, 2019
