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Javier Escudero

Javier Escudero

Guillermo Coll, Illustration, scale replicas
Javier Escudero When I first met Javier I was only twenty-one years old. It could be said that he adopted me. He has always been generous and so really patient, he is the one who has taught me more, the one who has mostly influenced me. He was a sort of magician and he still is a holder of so many and so strange knowledges. I remember the first time I paid a visit at his place, a penthouse with a large terrace located in one of the best districts in Madrid, full of books, paintings and scale models… That place soon became my refuge so I used to come on any pretext, just to talk about how things were going, to seek advice.  In this cosy place I was…
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Das Boot

Das Boot

Illustration, vessel
In the middle of the digital area, it is increasingly difficult to find good pieces of paper or illustration cardboard, specifically made for airbrush tool. When making this profile of a German U-boat I thought of working onto a DM plank, whose measurements were 30 x 110 x 0.5-cm, previously applying a few layers of gesso (plaster), smoothly sanding down each layer and waiting patiently for each coat to dry in order to get a perfect white and levelled surface.  Acting like this, the pencil drawing can be as much precise as required and adhesive masking tape can be used. In any case, I needed a while to get accustomed to a material less absorbent than paper. The usual pressure of the airbrush absolutely needs to be slightly reduced in…
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Fernando Zóbel

Fernando Zóbel

Painting
I went to Fundación Juan March to see the exhibition El principio Asia, devoted to influences of Eastern Art on the contemporary Spanish art, but more particularly to closely watch El río IV (River IV), a big format painting by Fernando Zobel (1924-1984). Throughout my life I have felt a constant admiration for a number of painters and Zobel is among these few ones. I have read so many times his short Diario de un cuadro (painting diary). His labour as patron and collector has deserved recognition everywhere, with his support for the building of the astonishing Museum in the Casas Colgadas de Cuenca (Cuenca – Spain), but at the same time, I somehow understand that his paintworks have been underestimated by aristocratic and conceptual circles. In an environment that…
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