Once again we approach the artistic community of meseon to chat and get to know better Pablo Schugurensky (blog), an Argentinean painter living in Madrid.


Pablo Schugurensky:

“I wish to convey nothing; at least, nothing specific that can be translated into the spoken language. Rather, (art) is the terrain on which I formulate those questions which humankind has been forever asking: What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?”




Q. Hi Pablo, to begin our interview it would be interesting to hear about yourself, your childhood and your life in Argentina.
A. I remember my childhood as “happy”. I was born in Catamarca (1954), a city in the North of Argentina, where I lived for only two years. My family, composed at that time of my parents, my older sister and I (later on, two other siblings would arrive) moved to Buenos Aires where we lived until 1962. My 9th birthday took place on a ship while immigrating to Israel where we lived for three years. I finished elementary school in England, and returned to Buenos Aires a year later (1966). That is to say, I got my elementary education in three different languages: Castilian (Spanish), Hebrew and English. I guess it marks you. My father is an Architect, educated in the atmosphere of the XX century vanguards such as Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Gropius, etc. Picasso’s paintings, Stravinsky’s music and Jazz. My mother was an Opera singer (never wanted to go professional) with a more classic and conservative taste but with enormous sensitivity.

Q. When did you decide to move to Madrid?
A. My wife and I moved to Madrid in 1988.

Q. When did you realize that you had the disposition towards the world of art?
A. My disposition was “always” there. The music, the paintings, the architecture. I remember that as a young child I used to look “hypnotized” at the self portraits of Van Gogh and a thick book of Picasso we had at home. Without knowing why, I suspected that that would be the terrain on which I would formulate my questions.

Q. Tell me Pablo, what is art for you?
A. It is difficult to define art. For me, art and life have always been one. (Still,) I do believe that in order for art to exist there has to be, in addition to the talent and sensitivity of each individual, a mastery of the craft. The art of children, of the “insane”, always so inspiring, has been a part of my learning process. But that’s another matter.

Q. How did you start painting?
A. I always drew and painted. Yet, perhaps it was at 18 when it became an exclusive and almost excluding activity. Not that there weren’t other things, there were and still are, but the “vertebrating” element is painting.

Q. Why did you choose painting as a means of expression?
A. Do we really choose? Or are we chosen? There in lays the question.


Q. We see in your work great humanity. The faces, the expressions in the eyes of your characters transmit and tell different and complex stories. What do you want to transmit with your art?
A. Truthfully, the answer should be “nothing”. I wish to convey nothing; at least, nothing specific that can be translated into the spoken language. Rather, (art) is the terrain on which I formulate those questions which humankind has been forever asking: What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

Q. Could you tell us about one of your works in particular?
A. I understand my work as a totality, a process in which each painting is conducive to the next. I can not speak about one in particular. The effectiveness of a painting is in its capacity to promote the next one, not in its possible level of achievement.

Q. Are the characters in your work important?
A. I believe that their importance resides in their being the vehicle for my emotions rather than in themselves. Nevertheless, I suppose that the selection of the character is not casual, but subject to the “creative restlessness” of the moment. In that sense, the portrait is first a “Schugurensky” and then a character.

Q. In your “Fashion” series, women are androgynous; their grotesque and fierce portraits speak of their world and lives. What do you want to tell us with these works?
A. The world is complex. The image that we have of it (that we are presented with) and this includes runway models, fashions, trends, and ‘glamour’ is, to say the least, unilateral if not false. For me “beauty” is something else, something in the ways of an Aleph (as Borges would have it) where sensuality and the squalor, refinement and the grotesque, life and death merge together... As I said before, I do not wish to tell anything. The pictorial language says and expresses things that can not be told in any other way.


Q. I suppose that before reaching the style that characterizes you, there must have been many phases, stages, along the course of your life. Would you tell us about them?
A. There certainly is a journey. I started copying the painters I like with the idea of learning a craft. I copied many drawings: from Rembrandt to the Guernica of Picasso, by way of Ingres and without ignoring Delacroix, and so forth. The first series I dared sign with my name without major remorse was called “Schugujeres” (Schuguwomen); that was in the 80’s. Paradoxically, it developed inversely to what could be expected. I started drawing stick figures, and almost got into realism. It was an “evolution” that came naturally, without me forcing anything.

Q. Have you had or currently have influences that are manifest in your paintings?
A. We all have Mother and Father -and I started copying. But, as someone once said, the History of Art is the heritage of humankind and I have always believed that I had the right to borrow whatever I needed. I still do.

Q. Among your favorite artists, which are the ones that have contributed the most to your life and career?
A. To mention but a few I will say: Rembrandt always, then Soutine, and more recently Bacon and Freud.

Q. Now let’s talk about your technique a bit. Do you conduct any investigations before starting a piece?
A. I always investigate. What happens is that between the investigation and the pieces there is no direct relation of cause-effect. For example, for a whole year I took notes at the Borda -a mental institution in Buenos Aires- with the idea of making a series about “madness” which I never did. Many years later, and as a distant echo of this experience, the “insane” started to appear in my paintings, in “Contrapunto”, a series on which I have been working for the last four years. For the “Tango” series (on the other hand), I got plenty of documentation and worked based on the photographic archives of the personalities depicted – most of whom are deceased.

Q. What procedure do you employ in your work? Preparation, development, conclusion...
A. I prepare my canvas on raw cloth, prime it and then apply a color foundation that sets the tone of the palette. Sometimes, I start from a sketch, other times I don’t. Sometimes I know exactly what I want, and other times I wait for it to appear along the way (or I should say “from within the stain”). In any case, the best bet is that be there a previous idea or not, something unforeseen, unexpected, necessary, will emerge. The finishing touches are just workmanship.

Q. What do you feel when you finish a painting?
A. Julio Cortázar used to say: “I do not write tales, I get them off my back”. Switch story telling for oil painting and the phrase could be mine. The sensation is of relief, and normally deception. I always expect something more, and that, impels me to continue; maybe next time I will get it.


Q. Have you had any bad artistic moments in which you might have considered giving up?
A. No, never

Q. Do you have challenges or goals you reach for?
A. To paint better every day, to continue learning always.

Q. Some quick questions, tell us:
An artist: Rembrandt, miracles cannot be explained.
A city: Buenos Aires, I love it.
A dream: to die as I live, painting.

Q. Of all your production, which is your favorite piece or which do you care for the most? Why?
A. I care for (I should say love) Painting. The pieces, once painted, may live their own lives.

Q. Could you give us a heads up about what you are working on now?
A. I keep on working on the series “Contrapunto” (Counterpoint) which I first exhibited in the United States and more recently in Chile (Matthei Gallery). As the theme is Age or how time leaves its mark upon us, I make one or two portraits of Gabriela (my 7 year old daughter) per year, self-portraits each birthday, young women, old ladies, etc.
Concurrently, I am working on a series of portraits of painters -a theme that I have already boarded on another occasion, only this time the emphasis is on the workmanship, the workshop, the palette, etc.

Q. To conclude, do you have an anecdote that you would like to share with us all?
A. It happened not long ago, in London, visiting an “important” art gallery. The person that attended me and looked closely at my “dossier” started the interview by apologizing for his poor knowledge of the “Spanish” language. Quite a detail, upon which, our gallerists ever so “important” and “busy”, should ponder.

Thank you so much for your time, Pablo. From meseon we wish you the best.