A Riveting Conversation with Joan Bueno
Photo Credit: Rafael Tirado C.
Joan Bueno is an internationally renowned Spanish painter. His art has been exhibited for decades both in his native country and around the world. I had the honor of asking Joan about what keeps him productive, his current documentary, and how he makes buildings a work of art.
UZOMAH: What are some things that you have learned the most from doing art?
JOAN: I create art to satisfy myself, it is all internal for me. It helps me to keep my pulse alive, moving and being in the middle of people, drawing, and not feeling shy. I find myself in these moments when I am working. I also know that I can make some money from it.
Barcelona Oil Series La Boqueria Oil on Canvas 2000
U: How is making art for the canvas different from making art on the sides of buildings?
J: Basically, the size is the biggest difference. When I am on a paper or canvas, my eyes are prepared to see 30º, and my arms are as short as they are. One line goes to the other and I do it at the moment. The big size creates problems, you lose your perspective, and you have to paint blindly, you only have your technique. The scale is completely opposite. I prefer murals more because to me they are more satisfying, but because of my measures, I need to paint small. My arms just aren’t long enough.
Covid Poster Series Joan Self Portrait During Covid Pandemic "Help!" "I'm an old 88 year old man" Acrylic on Paper 2020
U: What decade in your career has shown the most of what your art has to say?
J: I’m not exactly sure because I think I always have something to tell. Possibly the UFOS were the most expressive. With the UFOs I had to face an unmade world, a world that I had created, where I was able to be the God of this place, it was very creative. But it was even more addictive - to be God was powerful and I devoted a lot of my time and energy to this series. When I decided to end it, I was free from this responsibility of creating this world, so I could then devote myself to street geometry and drawing Barcelona.
Barcelona Guay Series Sagrada Familia Acrylic on Colored Paper 2008
U: What keeps you productive?
J: I want to tell new stories. I always have something to tell. The feelings are a necessity to paint, it’s like an addiction. It fulfills me. I don’t want to know how it works, I don’t want to know the formula of it; this unknown is a major incentive. Let the day give me the emotion to make me paint. This is the beast. Everyone has a beast inside that is motivated or not, but I mean this is the secret of whether you are ready to be creative or not. It is known already from birth.
U: What makes art special to you in terms of how it helps one understand themselves and how art has an ability to reach others on a deeper level?
J: What I like is to surprise myself. If I have to know that my paintings have an effect on everybody that sees them, I don’t know how I could live with myself and that pressure. I paint for me, myself; To release what I have inside. What others see is in their mind and is not my responsibility.
Human Figure Series Colorful Woman #4 Oil on Canvas 2005
U: What is the most important thing an artist can strive for in their art, and what they create?
J: It is a difficult path, but difficulties are another incentive. For it to be fruitful and bear fruit, it has to be a lot of sacrifices. The more sacrifice you make along the way the better memories you will get out of it, the better memories you will have left. Artists are obliged not to obey anyone, that is, not to obey the laws of our master. The best artist is the one who deviates from his master and contradicts him in everything. I paint for myself. I get carried away.
I don't want to have formulas to paint because then I would get used to it and paint on the formula one way or another. I’m creative. Every time I do something I do it for the first time. I don't care about failing.
Barcelona Street Painting Series Sagrada Familia Chinese Ink on Paper 2021
U: Having a career as an artist that has spanned decades, what is something that art still teaches you about yourself and about people?
J: I don’t paint to create philosophical thoughts, I paint for my personal satisfaction and to tell my stories. I really only think about painting as an animal thinks about surviving. I’m very primitive, very animalistic, simple. I only paint to survive.
Barcelona Oil Series Las Ramblas Oil on Canvas 2000
U: How can we use art to be better people and know more about who we are as people and how to coexist?
J: If you have food to survive, you have time to think. I don’t have time to make philosophical conclusions. I’m like the caveman, my goal is to survive, and to survive I must be out there painting. They went out to hunt the animal of the day. I go out to paint the painting of the day that hopefully will help me survive.
Extraterrestrial Series Extraterrestrial #24 Pen and Ink on Paper 1985
U: How did the documentary of your life come together?
J: The idea was from Rafael Tirado Corbacho, a photographer. We were both working on the same subject of Encants in Barcelona; he was a photographer and I was a painter. We were in different families of art but were there at the same time and the same place and we met each other. Years later he photographed me painting in the street and he approached me with the idea of the documentary; An idea of following me and explaining my story. He should have seen that I was malleable enough to bring his idea to life.
Photo Credit: Rafael Tirado C.
U: How important is it for an artist to use art to describe the current times they are living in?
J: Every morning I have my coffee and I read the newspaper, and I start drawing against all the negative news I have read. It helps me react to everything that is negative. The positive stay inside me and gives me ideas to face what has to come, the future. My paintings will depend on how I feel and what I read, those feelings will give wrath or calm to my paintings. Now, if you have a cultural revolution in your home, in your city, it is a different representation of the city. The Process gave me different points of view, motivations that mentally I could not have created. I'm telling you, I'm a forger. I can falsify reality and at the same time I can get the juice out of reality and, for example, in the moments of the political unrest here in Barcelona, I was getting the juice out of a reality and telling the story on the canvas.
U: What does creating art mean to you?
J: For me, it doesn’t have any meaning. It’s the necessity that every addict has to fulfill… It’s an addiction, no philosophical meaning, an animalistic answer. Inspiration comes from within me. For example, with color, people tell me "and you paint the color of a sunset"? None of this motivates me too much, or I would say nothing. Motivation is internal, it is mental. And the creations I create are a part of me that must come out for my life. Creating art for me is my life.
To find more information about Joan’s artwork please visit his website. Also please follow Joan on Instagram. For further inquires about Joan’s art you may contact his legal art representative Spencer Moore Landvater here.
