Manolo Gómez Romero
Manolo Goméz . Ya es hora - Now is the hour
8 Sep – 30 Nov 2022
About
Ya es hora - Now is the hour is the title of the last, the 80th picture in the graphic series Los
Caprichos - The Incursions by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. In this series, which is
considered a masterpiece of art history, the painter Goya turned to printmaking for the first time. In
aquatint etchings, some of which seem almost surrealistic, the artist, who had long been a
recognised court painter in Spain, created a bitingly critical panopticon of Spanish society. Now,
almost after eighty prints, the artist proclaims the hour of the now with this painting. Grotesque and
dubious-looking monks jump startled out of their twilight state of lethargy. And one can understand
the artist: It is the revolution of art, of the new age that is dawning - the age of the Enlightenment,
which had long since brought about the end of the French monarchy in neighbouring France.
Goya, the court painter of the Spanish aristocracy, does not openly proclaim the revolution, of
course, but in his painting, in his own ambiguous manner, he shoos a group of monks who, for
Caprichos - The Incursions by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. In this series, which is
considered a masterpiece of art history, the painter Goya turned to printmaking for the first time. In
aquatint etchings, some of which seem almost surrealistic, the artist, who had long been a
recognised court painter in Spain, created a bitingly critical panopticon of Spanish society. Now,
almost after eighty prints, the artist proclaims the hour of the now with this painting. Grotesque and
dubious-looking monks jump startled out of their twilight state of lethargy. And one can understand
the artist: It is the revolution of art, of the new age that is dawning - the age of the Enlightenment,
which had long since brought about the end of the French monarchy in neighbouring France.
Goya, the court painter of the Spanish aristocracy, does not openly proclaim the revolution, of
course, but in his painting, in his own ambiguous manner, he shoos a group of monks who, for
him, symbolised the torpor of society.
In Goya's time, flamenco as we know it did not yet exist. Nevertheless, the artist, who was so close
to the court, moved in the environment in which flamenco was to develop in the following decades
as a resistant culture of the people and the Gitanos. Dances that seem like precursors of flamenco,
musicians and the notorious Mayas, who were often Romnja, are frequent subjects of Goya's
painting, who unfortunately had already lost his hearing by this time and had to live in the eternal
loneliness of deafness.
to the court, moved in the environment in which flamenco was to develop in the following decades
as a resistant culture of the people and the Gitanos. Dances that seem like precursors of flamenco,
musicians and the notorious Mayas, who were often Romnja, are frequent subjects of Goya's
painting, who unfortunately had already lost his hearing by this time and had to live in the eternal
loneliness of deafness.
And so Ya es Hora is a call that seems to have sprung from flamenco culture. Now is the hour! The
grito, the cry, of the cante of flamenco. The moment becomes a resistive momentum in this culture,
and thus we find ourselves in the midst of the art of Barcelona-based Andalusian artist Manolo
Gómez. Gómez is actually an abstract painter whose artistic roots can be found in the art of
ceramics and precisely in flamenco culture. In his abstract painting, he has found a congenial
translation of the flamenco of the Gitanos into a pictorial language of forms and has made it
famous in numerous exhibitions in Spain and Europe. Like Goya with his Caprichos, Manolo
Gómez, in his homage to Francisco de Goya and above all to the Sevillian Gitano and avant-garde
artist Helios Gómez (*1905 Seville - d. 1956 Barcelona) - with whom, as far as we know, Manolo
Gómez is not related - turns for the first time to prints with his exhibited series. Around the graphic
of the same name by Francisco de Goya, the exhibition Ya es Hora thus presents 18 prints by
Manolo Gómez, with which he has found a unique, fragile and sensitive, mostly black-and-white
condensation of his art in recent months. Three-dimensional structures of the prints recall the
beginning of his career as a ceramist. But Gómez presents a new artistic world, he offers us a
world of freedom, of creative momentum, which, full of aesthetic richness, skilfully knows how to
overcome all hurdles. Far away from ethnically determined attributions, from nationalisms, from
war and its consequences. And so we want to pay homage to Helios Gómez with this exhibition.
We remember this unique political artist who fought for a world different from the one he lived in,
for a world in which everyone should participate. We remember him who subordinated his own art
to the political cause, to the anti-fascist struggle. For Helios Gómez actually envisioned an art that would convey an emotion to its audience with purely abstract forms, just as Manolo Gómez
succeeds in doing today.
grito, the cry, of the cante of flamenco. The moment becomes a resistive momentum in this culture,
and thus we find ourselves in the midst of the art of Barcelona-based Andalusian artist Manolo
Gómez. Gómez is actually an abstract painter whose artistic roots can be found in the art of
ceramics and precisely in flamenco culture. In his abstract painting, he has found a congenial
translation of the flamenco of the Gitanos into a pictorial language of forms and has made it
famous in numerous exhibitions in Spain and Europe. Like Goya with his Caprichos, Manolo
Gómez, in his homage to Francisco de Goya and above all to the Sevillian Gitano and avant-garde
artist Helios Gómez (*1905 Seville - d. 1956 Barcelona) - with whom, as far as we know, Manolo
Gómez is not related - turns for the first time to prints with his exhibited series. Around the graphic
of the same name by Francisco de Goya, the exhibition Ya es Hora thus presents 18 prints by
Manolo Gómez, with which he has found a unique, fragile and sensitive, mostly black-and-white
condensation of his art in recent months. Three-dimensional structures of the prints recall the
beginning of his career as a ceramist. But Gómez presents a new artistic world, he offers us a
world of freedom, of creative momentum, which, full of aesthetic richness, skilfully knows how to
overcome all hurdles. Far away from ethnically determined attributions, from nationalisms, from
war and its consequences. And so we want to pay homage to Helios Gómez with this exhibition.
We remember this unique political artist who fought for a world different from the one he lived in,
for a world in which everyone should participate. We remember him who subordinated his own art
to the political cause, to the anti-fascist struggle. For Helios Gómez actually envisioned an art that would convey an emotion to its audience with purely abstract forms, just as Manolo Gómez
succeeds in doing today.
Venue: ERIAC European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, Reinhardtstrasse 41 - 43,
10117 Berlin
10117 Berlin
Opening: 8 September 2022, 7pm
Duration of the exhibition: 9 September 2022 – 30 November 2022
Opening hours: Mon to Fri 10 - 17.00h Sat & Sun closed.
Duration of the exhibition: 9 September 2022 – 30 November 2022
Opening hours: Mon to Fri 10 - 17.00h Sat & Sun closed.
Contact: Andrea Wierich, email: presse@kaidikhas.com
The exhibition "Manolo Gómez . Ya es hora - Now is the hour" is part of the project "Dias
de Ira - Days of Rage - Helios Gómez returns to Berlin" by Álvaro Garreaud and Moritz
Pankok, funded by HKF Hauptstadtkulturfonds , IMPACT Förderung 2022 and Stiftung Kai
Dikhas and in cooperation with ERIAC European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture and
Stiftung Kai Dikhas.
de Ira - Days of Rage - Helios Gómez returns to Berlin" by Álvaro Garreaud and Moritz
Pankok, funded by HKF Hauptstadtkulturfonds , IMPACT Förderung 2022 and Stiftung Kai
Dikhas and in cooperation with ERIAC European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture and
Stiftung Kai Dikhas.