Sorolla

In Valencia, I finally managed to see the exhibition of Joaquin Sorolla, "Visions of Spain", the huge paintings depicting the various Spanish regions which he created for the Hispanic Society in New York circa 1911. This exhibition toured Spain the whole of last year, drawing huge enthusiastic crowds. It is easy to understand why. Sorolla was a virtuoso and he depicted Spain, in a blaze of color and sunlight, in a kind of late impressionist dash pompier style far removed from the modernist trends already current in Paris. Even then, he was a hugely popular painter, who accumulated a vast fortune. He may not have secured for himself a proeminent place in art history, but his paintings, always verging on - if not downright splashing in - kitsch can, nevertheless, be hugely attractive and enjoyable. What an amazing capacity he had to capture light and water - see his amazing painting on tuna fishing - and to draw characters with simple, fluid brushstrokes! As a painter friend of mine said, how is it possible to be so good and so bad at the same time!