My name is Jose Higuera. I was born in Germany, purely by accident, since my mother was working there at the time. I'm 49 and I've spent practically my whole life painting. My hobbies are going out for walks with my children, and one day I'd love to find the time to make a dream come true... to have a little autogyro and spend as much time flying as I possibly can.
When and why did you start painting?
I started painting early on. Even as a child, all my presents had something to do with it. At 16 I felt that this pastime would take up a good part of my life. One summer I took classes with a local painter, but my training is practically self-taught. Visiting lots of exhibitions, reading lots of art books and working non-stop through every hour of daylight for many years is what gave me the craft I needed. My family's support at the beginning, especially my grandmother Antonia's, definitely helped turn an early hobby into not just my profession and my way of life, but my real passion.
How do you think a gallery and its artists should help each other?
A gallery's job is to make the artwork of the artists it works with known. Let's not forget this is a business and, as such, galleries should build up the right client lists for the kind of artwork they show. Lately there's been a boom in galleries and gallerists with very short careers who, rather than promoting their artists, are trying to live off them. There has to be full synergy between those two worlds, where artists can show their artworks but where the gallerist's role is essential as a go-between with investors and contacts who give the artist the means to keep working.
What advice would you give to artists who are starting to show their artwork?
Advice is easy to give. Perhaps the best I can offer is that work and perseverance are the only way. Staying true to yourself and to what you believe in is also something you have to defend at all costs. You need to be very clear about what you're after, while sometimes leaving the door open to improvisation, which can lead to great ideas.
Be like a selective sponge, letting everything soak into you so you can then choose what to add to the path you already know is going to be yours. Be brave when it comes to making decisions, professional or personal. Set yourself simple, achievable goals, and be ambitious only about your own artistic growth and learning.
How did you sell your first artwork? Is there one you feel a stronger connection with?
My first artwork was bought by a relative. I remember it perfectly because it was a mix of sadness and satisfaction. That artwork still hangs in their house.
I'm very fond of my series of artworks Crecen, whose main subject is the figure. It's based on an attempt to capture behaviours and feelings I was discovering as my sons José and Miguel, who aren't so little any more, started getting to know themselves. Maybe the fact that they're my children made me pay more attention to those behaviours and pushed me even harder to try to put them down on canvas. I particularly like the artworks La voluntad and Miguel y el Hijo.
Right now I'm very focused on a new series, Shopping, whose subject is reality reflected in the shop windows of the big brands. The way we shut ourselves off from that reality by looking inside the glass, searching for what makes us feel good straight away and turning our backs on what's genuinely real, which unfortunately isn't as beautiful and yet is hard to leave behind.
What is art to you? What role does it play in your life? Do you make a living from art?
For me art is the language of the soul, the kind of communication that can convey feelings and impressions, that can move our minds into other situations in other parallel worlds you could never reach without it. And to move you, of course. But careful! Not to move you in just any way, not everything goes. Moving people through empty provocation isn't art, it's getting people talking… That's something else!!!
Yes, I make a living from art. Luckily I've managed to make my great passion my way of life as well.
How would you define your style?
Reality in all its forms is what attracts me most at the moment. You never know what paths your personal development will make you take, so I've never ruled anything out for my professional future.
What are your sources of inspiration? Do you identify with any other artist?
The work of Edward Hopper and Antonio López fascinates me.
In your creative process, do you have any habit, practice or quirk that's peculiar or curious?
I think the process of artistic creation is what really gives my life meaning. It isn't easy, but when there's only the artwork and me in the room for hours on end, a total abstraction of the self happens, where nothing in this world makes sense or matters, where there are no problems and no memories, and it's in those long moments that I feel completely myself.
In each case, artistic creation starts from an initial idea you want to get across, and that first idea generally has to evolve until it becomes what you're after.
This past April you had an exhibition at the Galería Zúccaro in Madrid. How did it go, what can you tell us? What projects are you working on now?
Even though the current moment in Spain isn't the best one. I'm very happy with the result, the reception was very good and so were the reviews.
Este mes de diciembre participo en una exposición colectiva en la Galería San Marco 1958, en Venecia. Para 2016 tengo varios proyectos como Art Dubai y quizá una nueva exposición en Miami.Could you recommend us:
- Un artista: Edward Hopper.
- Una obra: Como elegir una obra entre millones de ellas. Hay cientos que me apasionan, pero quizá, en mis comienzos descubrir El aguador de Sevilla de Velázquez fue algo importante.
- Un libro: Todo lo que haya escrito Julio Verne.
- Una película: Me encantan las comedias francesas como Bienvenidos al Norte, Intocable,…
Thank you very much, Jose.
We invite you to visit Jose Higuera's gallery on Artelista.
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