Empordaguia

On a cold and clear winter morning, by the large, straightforward fireplace of his house in Garrigàs, Xavier Serra de Rivera (Barcelona, 1946) talks about painting and photography, ephemeral and conceptual art, about memories, and emotions. He respects all forms of creative expression, yet declares his unconditional love of painting. He means painting at its purest, when he sets up his easel in reality and captures all that surrounds him in the exterior and interior world with figurative brush strokes.

Serra de Rivera needs to settle physically and emotionally into the landscape that he transfers to the canvas, he needs to touch all that he brings to life in his painting, and he has to breathe the presence of the people he portrays. He cannot work from photos as many of his colleagues do. He feels a photograph is poor, because he needs to feel the skin and the touch of his subjects, and all that transcends between each brush stroke. Quoting David Hockney, he reminds us that a photograph is taken with a simple click in a fraction of a second, whereas a painting consists of many many clicks. To see and understand a painting, you need at least as much time as the artist took to paint it.
Emotions
As to conceptual art, he declares: I develop my ideas with my brushes. I cannot become a conceptual artist, because I am still a painter, the whole artisanal aspect of painting attracts me a lot. He ads that what also attracts him to painting is its infinite capacity for representing. The subject represented is no secret, it is evident and well known; the mystery, the key, lies in lies in the way it is represented. This is what allows us to see a painting time and again and experience different emotions at each viewing.
Portraits
For the last few years Serra de Rivera has been painting human figures; before, he had used figures as means or symbols, but never as a main subject. When he was teaching at the Escola Fina, making students paint with live models, he decided to concentrate on this. I try to go beyond the simple figure and to make the presence of the person portrayed as strong as possible. It’s a question of perception, and therefore hard, if not impossible to describe. He paints until the figure appears in the painting; then he leaves it there for the viewer.
Their daily

Xavier Serra de Rivera lives in Garrigàs and Barcelona, but usually works in Barcelona. He came to the Empordà by chance, without any family or emotional ties. He used to live in Paris and spent summers in Menorca. The Empordà was foreign to him. He had visited Cadaqués during its most splendid epoch, but wanted to leave as soon as he arrived, feeling oppressed, boxed in. But one day a friend from Vilajoan showed him the house in Garrigàs, the one with the fireplace and an interior garden tended to by his wife. The artist’s daily life is marked by discipline and routine in the studio, although at present he is preparing his next exhibitions. His work can be seen in two places in Barcelona: From April 15th to June 26th at the Fundació Vila Casas and at the Artur Ramon gallery after April 25th. He recounts that he had trouble coping with the solitude of the studio, and that is why he started teaching. But he revels in his condition as painter and exclaims: It’s the greatest profession there is!// TINA CASADEMONT FOTOS ANDREA FERRÉS