Pepe Donate

Pepe Doñate, born in 1949, lives and works in Maestrazgo. Painter, he is also an art historian and, as such, a member of the IAIS. Currently he is totally dedicated to painting. “Although I have little belief I have faith in art. Its mysterious nature frequently forces us to use this dilemma: to believe or not to believe. I think nothing is important and therefore neither is art. But be careful because this is the best toy we have. What is an artist? If I have to answer I would say: he is a player. On the contrary, I would say that he is an actor or an ingenuous. However, there is nothing wrong with believing in this role as long as you know you are playing it. Playing more or more badly is simple. We must enter into the creative spiral that will last as long as our species exists, because this is the most specific quality and it is also the best response to its anxiety to be transcendent. This is our best placebo ever. While waiting for time, which also plays, with impunity establishes the rules of the game that only him knows. He puts everything where he wants by designating those who will win or those who will lose; nothing more. If I paint for myself I must not cheat and (… ..) consequently I paint without artifice. For two reasons in which I believe: on the one hand because in this way I experience great satisfaction when the painting is being born, even if it represents the expected, as if I started without knowing what I was going to do, and on the other hand it is only after childbirth that I digest life better. The time that this sensation lasts is the time that separates me from the next session with the brushes. I never needed to show my work. I do, but reason and good taste take me away from any illusion of notoriety, and the fact that art can be sold and bought adds another riddle to all those around it, and complicates it for me. Finally if sometimes my work is able to teach, move or maintain someone or if he finds that these outgrowths of my obsessions or my fantasies move him, I will be satisfied. If not, as Pessoa would say, I will also be happy. Provoke? Even if we are capable of it, why provoke? »Culla, fall 2001