Don Quixote is one of the most illustrated books in the world. The best-known images capture episodes of Cervantes' work that are deeply rooted in the popular imagination: how the character loses his mind while reading; the adventure of the Mills; the episode of the galley slaves; the theft of Mambrino's helmet or the government of Sancho in Barataria.
The second part of the novel, published in 1615, concludes in Catalan lands. The Catalan section opens with the interview with the bandit leader Roque Guinart, after Don Quixote and Sancho rested for a long time in the shadow of a line of hanged men, and closes with the protagonist's defeat at the hands of the Knight of the White Moon. on the beach of Barceloneta, a scene in which many have seen the victory of enlightened common sense over the idealistic fantasy of the spirit of chivalry.
The Catalan chapters are not among those that have generated the most visual expression. Although there is something: Gustavo Doré depicted the entry of Don Quixote and Sancho into the city, and their first contact with the sea; Luis Paret y Alcazar, his visit to the printing press. The most ambitious series, six paintings by the 18th century painter Pedro Pablo Montaña, decorates one of the halls of the Barcelona Customs Palace, closed to the public since 2008 awaiting restoration works that never arrive, and it is not visible to the public. Dalí also addressed these chapters in his extensive work with the novel.
For many it will be a surprise to learn about the series that a contemporary painter has produced in the prime of his career. The anthological exhibition “La costa dels mosquitos” dedicated to Santi Moix (Barcelona, 1969) at the Fundació Vila Casas allows, among its various sections, to contemplate for the first time in Barcelona the graphic series that the New York-based artist dedicated to the subject.
Of the twelve engravings of which it consists, six portray Catalan episodes: the encounter with the hanged men, the first vision of the sea, "which seemed to them very spacious and long"; the entrance into the city; "Don Quixote was amazed to see that all who looked at him named and knew him"; the episode of the talking head at Don Antonio Moreno's house; the vision of the galleys from the beach, and the final defeat in Barceloneta, when “they lifted up Don Quixote, uncovering his face; They found him colorless and sweating. Rocinante, purely battered, he could not move at that time ”.
We meet Santi Moix in his studio in Gràcia, where he moves among combinable ceramic pieces placed next to elaborate layout schemes; cut out and painted cardboard; long tables with tubes of paint and thinner; small figurines that he makes almost without realizing it in his spare time and later uses as motifs in ambitious projects, and black sculptures of octopuses made of tires that hang eerily from the ceiling.
“One day -recalls the artist- I was summoned to New York by Richard Salomon, director of Pace editions, and Paul Kasmin, in whose gallery I exhibited regularly. They wanted me to do work on paper, and they suggested that I choose a literary theme. I told them that I would like to do something based on Mark Twain, to thank the good reception that American culture had given me. But they objected: 'No, no, you're Spanish, you have to illustrate Don Quixote'. I thought about it a bit and in the end I agreed: 'This was not what I expected, but hey, I'm going to do it'”.
First he read intensively, taking lots of notes and looking for “the passages that could motivate me the most. I wanted to understand the essence of Don Quixote well and find where I could connect it with my own dream world”. He acquired different editions, among them the one from the Royal Academy and the one by Dalí. “Cervantes' Spanish was not easy for me, but I got patient. And I also spoke with Edith Grossman (famous translator of Cervantes, García Márquez and Vargas Llosa), who had translated it into English”.
The painter considers that the life of Miguel de Cervantes is a novel. "Without understanding it, and without understanding his time in prison, the novel is not understood." Through the mediation of his friend, the late publisher Jaume Vallcorba, he visited the great historian and philologist Martín de Riquer on several occasions.
The author of To read Cervantes and one of the best-known editions of the novel, also an expert on troubadours and Joanot Martorell, explained to him, he recalls, “very interesting things. Like his thesis that Don Quixote has three parts: in the first, the character disfigures reality; in the second, he distorts reality for her; in the third, he meets reality. Jaume and Riquer were very close friends. On the last visit we went with Luis Revenga, a writer and documentary filmmaker, who filmed our conversation." Revenga is the author of a text from the Pace catalogue.
The promoters of the project asked for drypoint in black and white “a difficult system. Luckily I was able to count on the team of Aldo Crommelynck, Picasso's favorite engraver in the 1960s; he was obsessed with black and white work and shades of gray. I added gouache (color) in some versions”.
The series took Moix eight months and left his neck “in shambles” from the stress of inscribing his intricate drawings on a plate.
"What did it give me? An internal wealth of attitude towards life and important things. In the engravings I decided to strip Don Quixote and Sancho naked to show that they were free people, without complexes, and that was how they went through life”.
“Over time it is difficult - reflects Moix - to work without being guided by the fastest and most comfortable solutions; You have to know how to say no. Like Mark Twain and Tristram Shandy, Don Quixote helps its readers to go outside, be faithful to their own shadow and not be afraid ”
The artist has introduced small anachronisms into these pieces, such as Santiago Calatrava's tower on Montjuïc or the Columbus monument, and iconic references that are very characteristic of his work, such as the immense octopus that hangs from a ship and that the artist has reproduced in large numbers. scale on a wall of Espais Vol Art with the Flashe technique on Tyvek, a lightweight and resistant high-density fabric that allows it to be easily detached and rolled up, making it easy to transport.
He received the commission in September 2007 and finished it in 2008: twelve engravings -those with a non-Catalan setting collect episodes such as an intervention by the priest, or the gentleman's goodbye- with a print run of 50 copies, "drypoint has a limit. I went to see Riquer with the work and my recognition; he told me that he had 'nailed it'”.
Pace organized an exhibition of the prints, plus a large drawing on a gallery wall. “It had a good echo, it was in the New Yorker and in Harper's. But the folder sold poorly. I made a donation to the Institut Ramon Llull because it financed part of the catalogue. (It is the folder that is now exposed in Espais Volart). The Instituto Cervantes in New York was not involved: Eduardo Lago, then director, came to the inauguration and that was the end of the matter. They did not promote, nor did they take advantage of Edith Grossman's offer to participate in any event, ”he recalls with slight bitterness.
“Cervantes,” Martín de Riquer told him, “described Barcelona in great detail, and praised it like no other city. It can be said that he liked the site ”. And Santi Moix, without a doubt, has liked to revive the passage of his character.
Santi Moix The mosquito coast
Curator: Enrique Juncosa VolArt Spaces Until July 16.
