Inauguration of Manel Doblas (9th January 2015)

Manel Doblas had his first individual exhibition at the Rusiñol Gallery in 1992. From then, this painter has always been the same, but we have realized a certain change of interests in him…In 2010 —his last exhibition at our Gallery— the tracks of the trains and the trains themselves were the main topic in his work, aside from the skyscrapers. Now, interiors of the bars have become more prominent, without people, but with a lot of light… Why is that?

Mr. J. Cadena, as always, uses the paintings in order to “read” the real life which is around us. «This exhibition is premonitory of the change that will happen in our country. You are saying —he said to the artist— that in bars there is no one, that houses are closed…, but you also explain that there are tracks which lead us to the future».

From the art critic Josep M. Cadena’s comment: «With the first lights, the shadows coming with the creeping crack of dawn, the deliberate oblivion of the bright midday, this is how Manuel Doblas portrays time going by; a time that, deep inside, he would like to go by as fast as the train of his plastic imagination that flows».

Manel Doblas explains that his paintings collect experiences… The tracks are ways of life: the tracks are like a metaphor, but inspired in real places. But this exhibition is not only the output of the brush; Manel reveals to us that he has been away from painting for sometime and this was the time for thinking. So, this exhibition is the result of thinking and painting.

—What about the bars?, someone asked the painter. —«I have been to many bars: I like them! I have visited many villages and, when I arrive there early and the weather is very cold, I go into the bar and I have a coffee. They are beautiful premises; now there are fewer. They have been for me a useful “weapon” in fast painting contests». —What does this brightness in the bars mean, without persons within? —«It happens because I arrive early to these places and I focus, above all, on the lights: the dawn, the lights of the bar… Quite sufficient for me!».