Manuel Léon: "I wish there were a million Sergios Ramos entering museums"

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Manuel Leon

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Villanueva del Ariscal, Seville, 1977. From his studio in his town, he exports colorful paintings to half the world.

Until November 9 he exhibits at the Yusto / Giner gallery in Marbella.

Then he will go to Dubai, Mexico...

Is there a disconnection between the street and the plastic arts? When I talk to people from the world, we always say that there is like an ice barrier at the door of the galleries that does not allow people to enter.

And it is not like that.

You can enter, they don't charge you anything and they even explain the paintings to you. Is it because there is no money? There is money.

The Seville Fair is mounted with pasta and Rocío, too.

With art, there were collectors who, in their day, bought, but stopped doing so.

Now, it seems that the new collecting is pointing a little bit.

And we are doing everything possible to get people interested because you cannot survive on aid.

I pass.

400 euros per month?

For you, I don't want that.

I want to solve my life and if I work hard and earn more money, then all the better. But do you need support? One thing is that an institution supports you,

but in other countries, people my age have three or four people working in the studio.

Liberal economies favor pasta and collecting.

In New York, you sit on a bench and it has a person's name behind it.

There is a roll of: we remove a tax and you favor the arts, an orchestra... That favors, but what is here is the other way around. How is it in Spain? Here there is a control of art from the State.

In other words, here we talk about this and only this.

For example, in the Reina Sofía Museum they talk about the Civil War, the Civil War and again about the Civil War and again... Quillo, how many times are we going to review the Civil War? people. Now, people don't have a fucking idea about this.

Before, I was very indignant when someone didn't know who Franco was,

But now it seems normal to me.

Look at the elections in Italy, there has been a record abstention.

People go from politics.

There will come a time when they will have us so fed up that people will say go to hell!

Because what you do is put spokes in the wheel.

Culture programs?

And you see it's all being spent on Chapter 1, which is the staff.

And, later, for the artists there is a million euros, of which 800,000 euros are for the cinema because, of course, nobody is going to go against the cinema.

I understand it. Is the plastic arts the poor sister? But it's a lie.

Later, you move around and you see that here, in Andalusia, you have artists like Ana Barriga, who is hitting in Venezuela, Mexico... This little girl shines. You are now exhibiting in a gallery in Marbella and commissions rain down from the middle world,

but I imagine that it would not be like that at the beginning. I was lucky because in the third year of my degree I was already working with a private gallery.

When it started, the most established painters in the city told us 'the pool is empty.

If you are going to dedicate yourself to painting, hold on!'

I worked as a taxi driver, in a bar, distributing furniture... Always with the idea of ​​painting, painting, painting, painting for stubbornness. With those jobs did you pay for the materials to paint? Of course, this is a hard drug!

The materials are very expensive.

These acrylics have cost me 400 euros.

I am registered as self-employed, but we are not a plumber who earns money all year, but rather we earn from exhibition to exhibition.

Hopefully, you do two a year;

with less luck, one;

and the normal thing is that you do one every four years.

Now, I exhibit once or twice a year.

Any solution? Instead of giving young people 400 euros to spend on culture, remove VAT from artists on painting materials.

Look how easy.

And so I can put my painting at 1,500 euros, instead of 2,000, or at 26,000 euros, instead of 30,000.

Is the world of art hard? Yes, but it is very beautiful.

That you're from Villanueva del Ariscal and you're exhibiting in Chicago... When I get down, I think 'come on, stop messing around, because you were born in a town very close to Africa and you're there in something that's very top in which there are very few people'.

And it is very beautiful to paint.

It's like yoga all day or praying all day.

When I have spent many hours in a row, without stopping or on weekends, there comes a time when you do this with a color and the mixture comes out right away.

Normally, you do three or four tests to achieve the exact color.

But when you get the first is the host.

And know?

That bullshit fills you up so much!

How is your painting?

I want to convey desire to live.

I am very ironic and humorous, once black.

I was very impressed by Magritte's painting 'This is not a pipe'.

That box still works.

The rock continues to think that it is a pipe, but it is not.

You can't smoke in there!

And now, with the

, people say 'I've seen it on television'.

Fernando Francés almost closed an exhibition at the CAC (Contemporary Art Center) in Malaga because there was a painting in which a cat appeared licking a woman's sex.

The animalists complained because they said that the artist had forced the cat to lick the sex of the model and that it had to be closed.

They sank the assessment of the best valued Museum in Spain.

This is the Inquisition!

And it's still 'this is not a pipe', hey, that's not a cat.

Is a lie!

We are in a new Inquisition.

I think it never went away and it's not something on the right or on the left.

People are very fanatical, but everything with set phrases.

And now, with the culture of cancellation... In my exhibition there are a lot of winks.

I have already cured myself in health,

after having tried to set a part of Madrid on fire for a misplaced comma.

What happened? On the occasion of an exhibition, I write a three-page text about her, that text is summarized to send it to journalists and, suddenly, due to a misplaced comma, it seems that we say that feminism was a new neurosis.

After the one that was put together, yes, of course it's a new neurosis because they wanted to set an exhibition on fire for that.

It was at the end of the pandemic.

I am a feminist because I defend humanism.

The girls who have been killed in Iran are serious problems.

You are against "Coca-Cola feminism".

Please explain.

Yes, because you are playing the enemy's game.

Almost everyone who puts themselves in the front row of feminism is a fucking sexist.

They show it every day.

I speak of pharisaism.

All this stuff

In the end, it doesn't have that much weight.

In a bar, nobody says 'they' and, when you speak, nobody says 'us and us'.

You get into all the puddles and you're not very politically correct.

I make an appetizing art, but it carries another message.

With the title of this painting 'The Abduction of Europe' there is a reference to the classics, but also Europe, what is it?

If it is that of Carlos V, fine, but if Europe is going to be taking your money everywhere, then no.

Recently, with a friend I told him that I feel morally superior to the Islamist.

morally superior?

Well of course.

Our mistake, because of tolerance, is that you will end up tolerating someone who has killed a little girl because she was wearing the wrong headscarf.

What are we talking about?

He is very critical of a certain feminism. The problem is not men and women,

But you have to give people freedom.

Don't put so many obstacles.

The new feminism looks like the female section of the Falange.

They are going to end up on the Victoria beach, measuring the necklines.

Oh, you are very thin!

No, you have to be fatter to feel 'fatty-happy'.

No, sorry.

They will end up in each other's underwear.

They are already getting involved.

If you think differently from social democracy, you are a fascist.

They call everyone a fascist now.

And if you like bullfighting... I see here in the studio a bullfighter's cape.

There are people who, when they enter and see the cape, stiffen.

Because in the art world there is a profile.

Yes, there is a profile, but then everything is a lie.

As Silvio used to say, 'everyone goes about their business, except me, who goes about my business'.

Each looks after their interests.

And of course, come the cloak... I no longer hide.

I put the flag of Andalusia and the painting was sold.

I made another with the flag of Europe.

And here I have the Spanish flag to put it on another.

But if I put the Spanish flag alone first, I'm looking for a snub.

So, have you had to use the Andalusian and European flags before to be able to represent the Spanish one?

Yes, the symbol is already expired.

And I confess that the worst thing and what hurts me the most is self-censorship and I do it many times because you risk it.

For a bad sentence written somewhere, for a bad gesture, you risk being caught on social networks, it is no longer in the Plaza de la Inquisición.

They say 'this is a male chauvinist' and everyone goes at a trot.

But do you know me to say that I am a macho?

It is very strong, very strong.

Let's go to his influences.

They go from Velázquez to Disney.

Totally.

When you ask who is the most successful artist of the 20th century?

Quickly, everyone says Picasso because any little painting by him is worth four million euros.

But what about Disney?

If it's about success, reaching the masses, making money, influencing the culture... How much did Disney influence the culture?

There are people who do not know a Picasso painting and have seen a Disney movie.

From high culture this has not been viewed with respect because, as it was for the masses and everyone understands it, well, it is no longer valid for us.

The elite.

And the culture cannot be elite.

Oh Picasso!

Well now he could be a victim of the culture of cancellation.

Sure, now they want to cancel it.

Ten years ago, I joked and said, you'll see that they remove Guernica!

Now, I'm afraid they'll take it down, but if I think about it, it won't because if they do,

Nobody enters the Museum.

In the end, capitalism keeps saving us over and over again.

Picasso makes so much money for everyone that they are not going to cancel it.

In the Faculty of Fine Arts, he was misunderstood.

Sure, he is age.

He couldn't stand it when they said that Sorolla was not a modern painter.

It is the thing that we have in Spain, which is also very black legend, saying that everything that is done outside is hell and what is done here, no.

And it's a lie.

And there are also many artists who have not passed through the University.

Yes, heap.

In Spain there is a lot of 'titulitis' and a complex with that of 'you have to read, you have to study'.

But, with their hearts in their hands, who goes to libraries nowadays?

And I already know that for saying this they are going to burn me.

Is right.

Kids go to libraries to study.

Yes, they are used as study rooms.

There has been a very big change.

Now, you can take a race from your home through the Internet.

I spend all day studying, listening to lectures, reading... You can do a doctoral thesis from the computer.

And in Fine Arts, you learn from others, from experiences... A teacher cannot teach 70 students to paint;

that's impossible.

Among his clients is the soccer player Sergio Ramos. Yes, he has bought several paintings from me.

He is a great art collector.

He is to support you a lot and lift your morale when you are bad.

The one that was put together when he and Pilar Rubio went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville hurts me a lot. What happened? Taking them there is crazy during normal hours and the guards waited for them.

They made a visit, were photographed and uploaded to the profile of the Museum.

And the insults rained down.

Art elitist, hick...

But do you know him?

Are you laughing at someone who hasn't been able to study because they've had another life, while you're studying with money from your dad? Visits like this to a museum attract many people to the exhibitions. I wish there were a million Sergios Ramos entering the galleries and in museums.

He, at least, uploads art stuff on his profile and people lose their fear of him.

After this, there were massive visits to the Museum.

You do not see?

That's how it is.

He takes advantage of the wave, instead of trying to stop it.He has exhibited in Asia, the United States, throughout Europe and continues in his workshop in Villanueva del Ariscal.

I have a deep love for my people.

It has a trick because it is very close to Sevilla and I am less than four hours from the center of Madrid.

I walk to the train station, from there to Santa Justa in Seville and, on the AVE, to Madrid.

I don't even have to take the car.

I am living without the pressure of sky-high rent and raising my children in a village.

Through the Internet, I connect with people from all over the world.

That is wonderful.

They wanted to sign him to work in China.

But there is neither Macarena nor Parras street... I am very fond of our culture.

In China you could be rich.

What is a rich?

I consider that I lead a rich life.

I have hot water in my house.

That must be valued.

There I have the entire discography of Mozart, Haydn, the Beatles, or anyone.

Spotify is amazing.

You don't have to go to any country to be happy or do what you like.

Yes, thank God, we have a globalized and interconnected world.

Through the Internet, I connect with people from all over the world.

That is wonderful.

They wanted to sign him to work in China.

But there is neither Macarena nor Parras street... I am very fond of our culture.

In China you could be rich.

What is a rich?

I consider that I lead a rich life.

I have hot water in my house.

That must be valued.

There I have the entire discography of Mozart, Haydn, the Beatles, or anyone.

Spotify is amazing.

You don't have to go to any country to be happy or do what you like.

Yes, thank God, we have a globalized and interconnected world.

Through the Internet, I connect with people from all over the world.

That is wonderful.

They wanted to sign him to work in China.

But there is neither Macarena nor Parras street... I am very fond of our culture.

In China you could be rich.

What is a rich?

I consider that I lead a rich life.

I have hot water in my house.

That must be valued.

There I have the entire discography of Mozart, Haydn, the Beatles, or anyone.

Spotify is amazing.

You don't have to go to any country to be happy or do what you like.

Yes, thank God, we have a globalized and interconnected world.

What is a rich?

I consider that I lead a rich life.

I have hot water in my house.

That must be valued.

There I have the entire discography of Mozart, Haydn, the Beatles, or anyone.

Spotify is amazing.

You don't have to go to any country to be happy or do what you like.

Yes, thank God, we have a globalized and interconnected world.

What is a rich?

I consider that I lead a rich life.

I have hot water in my house.

That must be valued.

There I have the entire discography of Mozart, Haydn, the Beatles, or anyone.

Spotify is amazing.

You don't have to go to any country to be happy or do what you like.

Yes, thank God, we have a globalized and interconnected world.

Manuel Léon, before one of his paintings.GOGO LOBATO

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