Cristina Santander: "What I seek is constancy, a method, investigation."

       Cristina Santander'’s art gallery invites the curious minded to rid themselves of their prejudice, open up their senses and prepare for a unique and never-to-be repeated experience. Cristina says: “I am a painter: I express myself by means of colour.”           

     True. On glancing at the paintings which hang at the entrance of the atelier, the visitor gets the feeling that Cristina adds warmth to the colours that flow from her brush.  Rosa, the maid who kindly opens the door, tells the visitor that Cristina is busy but he can wait over there by that table nearby which a student is carefully working on some sketches. While he waits, the journalist examines some of Santander’s paintings. His attention is drawn by the powerful glances that he receives from the figures on the canvass, as if there were a dialectical relationship uniting form and content…Steps can be heard from the stairs…  

     “What a beautiful house!”     

     “It goes back to 1930, when it belonged to the Moneta family. I bought it three years ago to set up my painting and drawing atelier, really an ideal place to work because there is a lot of natural light and the high walls facilitate the exhibition of my work. I work a lot, but when I return home I have this special feeling.”      “At what age did you realize that painting would be your vocation?     

     “At around five, I believe. At 12 I began with my first teacher, Chola Dantiacq. When growing up Alicides Gubellini was my neighbour; I met many artists who visited him. I was enthralled watching Gubellini paint and model. My family was perceptive to art. But actually I come from a family of musicians. My uncle, Manuel Santander, was a composer, my father a director and jazz trumpet player; my uncle was also a director; my mother’s sister, Helen Jackson, was known as a ‘Lady-Crooner.’  I entered from primary school directly into the Buenos Aires School of Fine Arts and then concentrated on painting and engraving. I had great teachers, including López Anaya, Aída Carballo and Ideal Sánchez.. Later on I studied at the legendary “Atelier 17” under Stanley William Hayter, an English artist who experimented with simultaneous colour stamping. He was also a true innovator in engraving.     

       “At what age did you begin showing your work?”     

      “In my teens. When I was 15 Romero Brest, the Director of the Di Tela Institute, organized an exhibition called ‘From Prilidiano Pueyrredón to our days.’ I was the youngest expositor. I was lucky enough to begin my artistic career when Argentina was going through a period of euphoria in painting.    

      “ ¿When was that?”    

       “ We’re talking about the decade of the 1960’s, a very productive period. When I entered the Fine Arts school there was an a movement in favour of innovation among the students, in which I participated. In fact, I even became vice-president of the Student Centre.    

      “Oh.”   

      “And if I wasn’t president it was because of being a woman! Anyway, that experience allowed me to mature as a student and also in terms of my social awareness. The problem of the plastic artist is that he or she works cut off from society. That is not the case of theatre, nor is it of dance where you work in a team with a director, a choreographer and in the case of music there’s the director. It is impossible to create without social sensitivity. I’m not talking about socialist realism but rather of Pablo Picasso and Guernica, without a doubt the most socially compromised work of the XXth century.    

     “How did your career continue?”    

      “In 1968 I won the ICIZA Bienal, a very important prize that open the doors of Spain for my artistic work. Later I won the Julio Le Parc, one of the internationally most well-known awards. Later I was mentioned as one of the 10 most outstanding Argentine painters, and Jeanette Arata de Erize, president of the Mozarteum, was a member of the jury. It was thanks to that entity that I was able to stay at the ‘Cité des Artes,’ and adroitly the Mozarteum supported André Malreaux’s project aimed at creating a building housing the artist’s Ateliers bringing together artists from all over the world.  Argentina was represented in the initiative.    

      “But not officially, I suppose.”    

      “No, unfortunately, it was not invited at the official level. But I was able to work for the Atelier 17. I deeply hope that the governments in power recognize how important culture is for the country. We need economic backing, budgets for purchasing works of art, that artists not have to donate the results of our efforts to the museums, that the Law of Patronage enable businesses to invest in art. It is a cultural rather than a political problem. It is necessary that people in power have a cultural background.”     “Could you explain that idea in more detail?”    

      “What is lacking is artistic pride. We should imitate Brazil, a country that is not only proud of its soccer players but also provides funds for creative activities. When Argentina’s numerous presidential delegations travel, does an artist accompany them? They take hairdressers, advisors, sportsmen, friends, neighbours but artists…not a single one! We artists travel alone and with the wink of God!     

      “Nevertheless, there seems to be much artistic activity in the country.    

       “You might say there is hunger for art, but no money for it. The important international expositions do not come to Argentina because there is not Money to finance them.”    

       “How did your studied abroad influence your work?”    

       “France made an exception of me in granting me a scholarship to study in Spain and I stayed at the Velázquez palace, which belongs to the French Ministry of Culture. It is a magnificent place and includes people of the highest artistic level; also well trained investigators. Art grows when it is seen.”    

       “Is it true that there are several tendencies in the Argentine plastic arts?”    

        “I really don’t know. Sometimes the Río de la Plata school is mentioned, but it is based on the school of an Uruguayan, Torres García. There are many good artists here but in general they follow the international artistic tendencies. Without a doubt globalization has brought with it depersonalization and lack of local focus. A category that has lately become popular is the ‘Art Market’ and its concomitant Art Fairs. That brings up the question of prices. How much are Mexican paintings worth, works that have achieved the governmental backing? What is the price of a Frida Kahlo painting? More than three million…and a good Argentine painting…? No Argentine painter—not even deceased artists such as Berni—get such high prices.”   

       “Are there important centres of artistic activity outside Buenos Aires?”    

      “Yes. Last year, for example, I found a marvellous nude by Victorica in the new Neuquén Museum Fine Arts Museum. The director, Oscar Smoljen, rescued it from the basements of our Buenos Aires Fine Arts Museum. Sometimes a confused director converts the Museum in his private feud and artist’s painting are hung or taken down in accordance to personal taste or the going fashion.  In art it does not matter what one’s personal taste is, whether one likes Picasso or not.     

     “Is it difficult for an artist to become known?”     

      “Where? In Argentina? Abroad? That has always been and will continue to be difficult. Sometimes those who ‘arrive,’ the best known, the most popular or market blessed painters disappear into oblivion. Who were the well-known artists when Van Gogh whined away in cafés? Who won the Venice Bienal two years ago? Twenty years ago Televisión Española interviewed me for the program “300 million” which was broadcast to Latin America. So was Sábato. But this does not happen in Argentina. There are interviews with artists on cultural channels but they don’t get to homes, to housewives, to maids, the man in the street. I’m sure that more than one would very happily go to see ‘Big Brother’ or ‘Tinelli.’ Those who are obsessed with the ratings should dedicate themselves to more than just filling their pockets; they should do something for others.”    

      “You began painting nearly 50 years ago? How do you see your work in retrospect?”    

      “I don’t look back. I don’t want to be Lot’s wife. What I seek is constancy, a method, investigation. I have enriched my roots by studying the great Spanish artists.”    

      “Do you use any particular technique, Zen concentration…?     

       “It takes deep concentration. I don’t use incense, I don’t breathe deeply, I don’t put myself in Alpha, I don’t meditate day and night…is that Zen? The mechanism of creation cannot be explained with words. Some people are gifted from birth. One is born an artist. You don’t become an artist: there is raw material which is worked, developed, polished and an attitude which bears fruit only after a lot of work. Since I was a child I have spent hours drawing, painting. Nobody forced me to, it was in me. What is important is to follow one’s own feelings. I love fashion but that is something else. One must seek one’s own image, identity; we Argentines must try to find our own artistic identity. But you can’t do that just painting a poncho!” 

       “Hmmm…”   

      “The thing is the world is alienated and alienation is incapable of balancing things. So if the critics tell artists what they should do it would be as if the egg were to tell the hen when to cluck. Another problem has to do with the schools, the crisis in the system of education. As a teacher, I have discovered that students can scarcely handle the spoken word. Language is of fundamental important. It is an abstraction which allows us, by jeans of a word such as ‘table’ to think about style, wood, iron…    

     “How do subjects appear?”    

      “There are several subjects I love: the figure, movement, plants, a flower, how the Chinese plant, imitation of Nature, not Nature itself. I am very much interested in the subject of space, for example, light. Modern painting tends to be more conceptual than formal. I’m not saying that is good or bad. Everyone has his own  taste. But be that as it may, a work of art cannot be obvious. It must contain mystery, something which attracts…something which must be revealed rather than shown.”    

     “You mean art must provoke?     

      “And something else: move. If one wants to provoke it is not necessary to walk on the streets as Adam and Eve. I don’t want people to say I am a woman of the Middle Ages, indeed a marvellous period in which also many inventions were made. If you don’t believe that, go ask Leonardo!”    

     “Has one of your paintings marked a turning point in your career?”     

      “I cannot speak of only one. I believe that should be left up to those who see my paintings.”

      Contacts:  Cristina Santander:  Fax: [phone]   /  4803-5561     

 e-mail: [e-mail]     Web:    http://www.cristinasantander.com.ar