"Horses and children. Fat women, beautiful women and old ladies. The magicians and poets. Dogs and cats sleeping. Bulls and Spanish bullfighters. The processions of Seville and Malaga. The crucified Christs filled with blood and prayers. The saints. A Virgin for each village. The sun and the rain of Biscay. The sea, the passion, love and art of the Mediterranean. Painting and older architecture. And the most modern. The dances and dances of the villages lost. Literature issued by the Spanish world. Deep red, purple, black and olive. The balance between the sun, moon and stars: this is the Spanish art. " Jose Manuel Merello


"How will be the art in 2011 and in the near future? Freedom defines contemporary art. International art fairs are fun and intriguing, are challenges for thought and human emotion. Walking through a contemporary art fair like ARCO in Madrid, is now a mental release. You may think that what we are seeing is not "art", you may think that some artistic creations are not moral and then deduce that they are not art. But you are wrong. The art does not ever depend on morality. Any work of art owes nothing to any form of thought or ideology. The human spirit is free. Art is free. The art is beyond good and evil. What is necessary is to prevent some forms of art that are violent, dangerous, dictatorial. We can not allow them because we need rules for coexistence or because it is ethically unacceptable. For example, we can turn the Amazon into a garden empty, naked, with only a tree. Sure could be a work of conceptual art, but it would be really stupid. The savagery and brutality can be handled with great skill. It would not be moral, it might be art, but should not be allowed.
Another common mistake for many visitors to ARCO is to think that there can be only paint. No. The painting is a very important part of art, but only a part. Many artists complain that there is very little paint on the contemporary art fairs. They have a point, perhaps the art galleries with paintings should be more exposed there. Modern painting or classical paintings are wonderful, a highly evolved form of art ... but Art does not need paintings for being Art. Of course, many current creations are just ephemeral art, art to think and meditate during a few minutes. And now that's a very interesting difference." Jose Manuel Merello

Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart and Marilyn. Matches.
"More nonsense. Now it's up to Van Gogh. Just a new book that speculates about his last days of life, whether he committed suicide or was accidentally killed.
I don't have read the book, but I have read some notes like one where someone asks Vincent, who was bleeding in his bed, if he had wanted to commit suicide and he said "I think so". And for some persons this is a enough reason to write a book because this answer might indicate that he did not pull the trigger.
This nonsense, and others cited in the book, justifies, without shame, to raise a new plot that will surely give a lot of money, because it is likely to be after converted into a film. Tangle and dig no matter what it takes, without the least respect in the life of someone who gave everything for nothing. It's disgusting this hobby to create a hieroglyph which gives morbid fascination and money for a long time. It seems to me outrageous disrespect to the generous genius.
This is the same with Leonardo's Mona Lisa. Come and see what we invented now or what we can discover in the hackneyed, heavy and nothing enigmatic smile of Donna. Hey, look, I think this hair of his hair is like a cross of a rare sect and this union of points that I see is the trail of a powerful secret means that Leonardo knew, even then, the existence of neutrinos. And on and on, nonsense after another, no matter if the Mona Lisa is a mediocre picture (beyond the use of "sfumato" as innovation), mediocre, yes, in its historical context and others it can have a bit interest but plastically is not too good. Never mind. They have already managed to become it an icon based in chatter and nonsense, and then it begins to have an interest, quite apart from its true quality. As the image of Marilyn in pop art. Nothing more. Poor Marilyn, how many people are still profiting from his image and his death. I am convinced Da Vinci would be saddened about all these matters.
Or Mozart. He and his death. Salieri and Mozart enmeshed in a tangle mesh tarnishing forever the image of the great man, making him look like drivel, like a clown in the, otherwise extraordinary, film of Milos Forman's, "Amadeus". It is always the same: to make art or intrigue whatever it costs. I always say that art does not know morality but that does not entitle us to crucify dogs or to make intrigues and cabals on humans who only made to magnify our spirit giving it all they've got.

I am very sad about people do not stop to remove the ears, bones, misery and privacy of these martyrs of art.

Please, leave them all alone."

Jose Manuel Merello