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Golucho: An Artist's Exploration of the Human Condition

 

GOLUCHO'S BIOGRAPHY

 

Miguel Ángel Mayo, known as Golucho, (b. 1949 in Madrid) is a Spanish painter and poet. Nonconformist painter and very difficult to classify, whose works denote a great personality.

He learned painting in a self-taught way studying the pictorial collection of the Prado Museum and the Casón del Buen Retiro.

From May 1968 to 1973 he settled in Paris, where the bohemian lived: "More than for the artistic quality, for the model of life, the bohemian model interests me a lot ..." After these five years of absence for the peninsula, returned in order to explore the expressive relationships of realism, initiating together with painters such as Andrés García Ibáñez and Dino Valls the new Spanish figuration or new realism. Together with these two painters, Antonio López and Noé Serrano among others, they have created the contemporary manifesto La Gallina Ciega where the aesthetic and evaluative criteria of contemporary art are analyzed as well as a return to art of intellectual quality is demanded without leading to contempt of artisan processes in art. In the words of the painter: "Painting, drawing needs hands, if you don't have hands you don't do it. The painter has to have a quality of trade, of a craftsman" The work of this painter has been exhibited in cities such as Paris, Brussels, Philadelphia and New York and, since he won the II Figurative Painting and Sculpture Contest in 2007 with the work Portrait of Isomnios, his work has also been enjoyed in Spanish cities such as Barcelona, ​​Córdoba, Melilla, Almería and Alicante.

Currently residing in the Alicante city of Alcoy, the painter, also a poet, continues to develop his personal artistic manifesto through the new realism.

 

GOLUCHO'S TECHNIQUE

 

Golucho's work is part of the currents of the new realism. He likes to represent the human figure, in his paintings the nuances of color harmonize in a coherent way with technical resources such as washes, the superposition of layers or the torn ones in the support.

His finished technique as a painter and draftsman stands out. Golucho is part of the classical tradition of Spain and chiaroscuro. His works are generally torn and disinherited anonymous characters represented in portraits of realistic tone, extremely meticulous, exalting their individuality.

 


 

GOLUCHO'S VIDEOS

 

GOLUCHO'S ARTWORKS INSIGHT

 

ABOUT "HANDS"

 

«I had this picture of the hands for a year without finishing. I half finished it, and one day I decided to sign it, and I was signing it, without knowing that the same day the model was dying. It was a Friday at six in the afternoon. His son told me that. He said "you know my father died", I said "when?", he said "Friday at six o'clock he died". I was stunned, because the thing was delayed, the signature of that drawing was delayed until that moment.»
 
 
 

 

«The lighting here are scraped with a circular saw of mason, a big one, because I tried to do it with the rubber and it doesn't work, and if you tried to sand it, it would be more stained. However using the circular saw, and as it goes with so much speed it was cleaner. You can note the direction of the radial in some areas. And there are also gouache and other things.»

 

ABOUT THE LONELINESS OF THE LIMIT

 

«I had this idea for a long time, years ago, and I never found the model. One day a friend told me: "It turns out that Paco was put in the asylum, he was screaming in the street ..." He spent ten days in the asylum, and one day I find him drinking a beer on a terrace. Then I said: "This is the moment." And I said: "Paco, drink that beer and let's go to the studio." After a month, or two months, I found him again and had recovered. He was no longer useful as a model for me. If he had not had that attack, that took him to the asylum, and that I found him later, I maybe would have this picture still in my head. I have several pictures in my head that, until I find the sitters, I can't paint them.»

 

GOLUCHO'S QUOTES

 

"What's good about a painting is never painted."

«He who does not see beauty is condemned to destroy it. Beauty is not what those for whom it is not something vital believe. He who does not see it does not miss it and confuses it. He who does not see it will destroy it without knowing what it is.»

«The problem with realism is that everyone believes they understand it. One thinks before a realistic picture that its mission is the mere representation of the daily thing. The advantage that abstraction has is that people become humble and say "I do not understand" and that way of not discovering that picture puts them closer to the testimony of that work. But when it comes to quickly "understanding" the painting, there is realism. The conclusion is that the viewer slips on the surface of the represented and this work can be left in mere appearance and in technical ability.»

«I often break many paintings, even paintings, for making a living. Although I paint very few, sometimes you are forced to do them, and sometimes I have spent three months working, and I have not delivered the work. And when you make to make a living, it is interesting to charge them ... Even sometimes you regret being painting a picture for seven months, or a drawing, and for a nonsense, you crush it. But hey, that goes inside each one. You take risks ... »

“There are many [painters] that I like, living and dead. There are plenty. Dead can be Velázquez and Vermeer. Alive, well, now Freud does not live, but there was a German that I like. Antonio [López] within Spanish realism, and there are people in South America too. "

«There are many [painters] that I like, alive and dead. There are plenty. Among dead ones could be Velazquez and Vermeer. Alive, well, now Freud does not live, but it was a German that I like. Antonio [López] in Spanish realism, and there are people in South America too.»
 
«You realize that there are pictures of people who paint very well, but consciously, or unconsciously, they intend to look good before the public. At least in the painting, that is necessary to leave it a little. You have to be more "I", you have to be more "the artist" and not worry so much. In the contests, there are people who only paint for contests. If there is a certain jury they paint ... as if a gallerist were asking for it, the same thing.»
 
Everything is water from the same spring, music, poetry, its rhythm, its why, all of this influences everything you do. Like an unconscious self-portrait. "

 

GOLUCHO'S ARTWORKS

 

Obras de 1990
Colchón atado
La urna
Desnudo con careta
Janinne
Alma durmiendo
Amanda
Paisaje inventado de Gorga
Desnudo en el caballete
Marie
Haris
Irene
Amaya
Manos II
1998 – Culo
1998 – Xumé (lápiz 102 x 103 cm)
1999 – Alma en el estudio (lápiz 110 x 109,5 cm)
1999 – Jesulín (lápiz 167 x 102 cm)
1999 – Rostro de Paco (lápiz 117 x 147 cm)
2001 – Lara rojo 1 (óleo sobre tabla 103x106 cm)
2001 – Hombre sin título (mixta 152 x 45 cm)
2002 – Lara rojo 1 (óleo sobre tabla 103x106 cm)
2002 – Pepet (lápiz 85 x 48 cm)
2002 – Hombre sin nombre (lápiz y acrílico 115 x 79 cm)
2002 – Manos (lápiz 87 x 192 cm)
2002 – Rojo 2 (óleo sobre tabla 70 x 50 cm)
2002 – Un lugar incabado (óleo sobre tabla 70 x 50 cm)
2002 – Rojo IV (óleo sobre tabla 157,5 x 97,5 cm)
2003 – Alicia madre (lápiz 110 x 85 cm)
2003 – Rojo 3 Irene (óleo sobre tabla 150 x 70 cm)
2003 – Inacabado (óleo sobre tabla 150 x 150 cm)
2003 – Desnudo de espalda (lápiz 79 x 177 cm)
2003 – La abuela de Gabriela (lápiz 110 x 85 cm)
2004 – El mundo de Alicia (óleo sobre tabla, 81 x 73cm)
2004 – Melón francés (óleo sobre tabla, 34 x 37cm)
2004 – Lara (lápiz 70 x 50 cm)
2004 – Alicia madre (mixta 280 x 150 cm)
2004 – Cuatro poses (mixta 280 x 150 cm)
2004 – Alicia madre en el estudio (óleo sobre tabla 98 x 71 cm)
2004 – Mujer III (lápiz 77 x 198 cm)
2006 – Retrato de insomnios (lápiz 104 x 140 cm)
2006 – Soledad del límite (lápiz 189 x 60 cm)
2006 – Alma vuelve hacia la sombra (óleo sobre tabla, 98 x 98cm)
2007 – Alicia Rosana (óleo sobre tabla 42 x 33 cm)
2007 – Emilia (óleo sobre tabla 52 x 120 cm)
2007 – Retrato desde la penumbra (mixta 149 x 198,5 cm)
2007 – Díptico (mixta 80 x 190 cm)
2008 – Luminta (óleo sobre tabla 29,5 x 24,2 cm)
2008 – Alma dormitando (óleo sobre tabla 81 x 120 cm)
2008 – Dibujo número 1 y 2 (mixta 190 x 160 cm)
2009 – Ana (óleo sobre tabla 30 x 30 cm)
2009 – El pasillo (óleo sobre tabla 87 x 110 cm)
2009 – Objetos (óleo sobre tabla 78 x 90 cm)
2009 – La Cañada verano del 85 (óleo sobre tabla)
2009 – Mariantonia

 

 

GOLUCHO'S BOOKS

 

The book "Pozo de carne, poemas y otros intentos" (Editorial Biblioteca Nueva, 2014), brings together all his poetic work.
You can buy the book here.