Inauguration of Lluís Roura (May 4th 2012)

Twenty-five years —which we have celebrated at length— plus another year (which has gone by very quickly too) add up to the 26 Years that the Rusiñol Gallery complies with today For this great occasion, we also have a great painter: Lluís Roura, with his extraordinary exhibition titled “The four seasons” (in direct reference to his four large paintings that share together this same title). Josep Mª Cadena has rightly pointed out: «The known landscapes are never-ending when they have been internalized and are carried inside us as real samples of creative identity».

Ignasi Cabanas: «We are grateful to Lluís Roura for his presence among us: an extraordinary painter, Empordà’s adoptive son. We now have the honour, and are fortunate enough to be able to celebrate our 26 Years with him. Believe me: to bring him here is something special, it has cost us tears, sweats, weeping, sleepless nights…, it has been terrible, most terrible! And then, when he finally comes, he turns everything upside down. We allow it because there is only one Lluís Roura: he belongs to that group of artists that must remain as an example of his generation, of what all the great painters of this period have made… This has to be celebrated with our door wide open!».

Josep Mª Cadena: «Good afternoon to all and good afternoon to the Empordà! for they are fortunate to have Lluís Roura there». Every day, when we get up, we shake up our sleep, we look ourselves in the mirror, and we say: —This has to be fixed! Well, I think that every morning the Empordà gets up and says: —This has to be fixed… because Lluís Roura is coming! Why? We all have places of birth, of acquaintances… and then, we also have other places that are kept inside our imagination, inside our spirit, because we may have seen them sometime somewhere. Lluís Roura has this retentive which all painters must possess: he has been absorbed by the Empordà… and in his paintings we see that he has made it his own».

Lluís Roura: «I thank the Cabanas family —Victòria and Ignasi— for they have chosen me to celebrate this significant date: the 26 Years of this art gallery. I also want to make a “special” contribution: I have brought “The Four Seasons” to Sant Cugat… I also wish to thank Mr. Cadena for his wonderful presentation. He belongs in the last saga of art critics. I very much liked his writing for the catalog, because while he talks about the external aspect of landscapes, he also speaks a lot of the intimacy of the landscape soul, by linking it a little to the spirituality I live with and which I incorporate, thanks to my many trips to the Holy Land…».

«The exhibition is based on “The Four Seasons”. Previously, Mr. Cadena was talking about things we do not value when we have them, such as health, which we praise only when it defaults. When I painted these paintings of the four seasons, I considered myself very old, but I now realize that I was only 35 years old, I was a child! I’m surprised at the strength and energy I had then. “The Four Seasons” was a kind of synthesis of the Empordà. In fact, I paint the four seasons all the year round. My job is to take the car, to make many kilometers and to set up my easel wherever I find the light… I get this energy through painting. And I am very pleased to have been able bring it here, to Sant Cugat».