Gabarron in China. The Colors of Life

GABARRON IN CHINA T H E C O L O R S O F L I F E
GABARRON IN CHINA
T H E C O L O R S O F L I F E

戈
勃
朗
“Every step makes a footprint.”
popular Chinese sayings
在
中
国

GABARRON IN CHINA
T H E C O L O R S O F L I F E
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Table of
Contents
Foreword, Spanish Ambassador to China 4
Exhibition Map 5
Gabarron in China. The Colors of Life 8
Li Xu, art critic, Deputy Director of the Power Station of Art Museum 9
Jing’an Sculpture Park, Shanghai 11
PolyU - Jockey Club Innovation Building, Hong Kong 25
Dr. Sun Zhenhua, Vice President of Chinese Sculpture Society 27
China Art Museum, Shanghai 45
Shi Dawei, Director of the China Art Museum 48
China West Film Studios, Yinchuan, Ningxia 65
Today Art Museum, Beijing 75
Dr. Gao Peng, Director of Today Art Museum 79
Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou 93
Shao Shan, Deputy Director of Guangdong Museum of Art 95
Xinghai Concert Hall, Guangzhou, Guangdong 111
Dingli Art Museum, Chongwu, Quanzhou, Fujian 123
Dr. Gao Peng, Director of Today Art Museum 126
Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu, Sichuan Province 137
CIFF, World Trade Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 151
Anniversary of Tongji University, Shanghai 155
Zeng Yan, senior author of “Sanlian Life Weekly” 157
Beijing Art Fair, Beijing 165
Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Shanghai 173
Zhu Qingsheng, director of the Institute of Chinese Painting at Peking University 175
Permanent Artworks in selected Chinese Museums and Parks 192
Education: Universities and Children 200
Gabarron selected biography 212
Selected exhibitions 214
Selected Photographic Biography 215
Recent works 221
Aknowlegdements 228

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Foreword
Spanish Ambassador to China
The Spanish artist Cristóbal Gabarron had a very long career as a sculptor and is internationally renowned, which is evidenced
by his presence in several sculpture biennials, such as the ArtZuid in Amsterdam and the JISP in Shanghai.
As the founder of several cultural foundations dedicated to the promotion of the visual arts, both internationally (New York,
2001) and in Spain (Barcelona, Valladolid, Murcia), Cristóbal Gabarron has also received important recognition for his work
in supporting cultural exchange.
Over the last few years, and after thirty years of existence, the Gabarron Foundation has set an objective of promoting
cultural exchange with Asia, and in particular has played an important role in strengthening cultural ties between Spain and
China. Proof of this are the various exhibitions that the Spanish artist has held in the Asian titan, including the exhibitions
“The Mysteries of Columbus” in the China Art Museum of Shanghai, and “The Alhambra Towers” at the Innovation Tower in
Hong Kong organized last year, as well as the sculptural groups of this same series that have been exhibited since October
this year at the Today Art Museum in Beijing, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Canton. However, the projects and initiatives
of the Gabarron Foundation in China are not limited to the major cities of the country, but are also developed in other cities
such as Chengdu or Yinchuan, in an attempt to bring contemporary Spanish art to a larger public that appreciates the art
and culture of our country.
Finally, I would like to thank the Gabarron Foundation for its work in promoting Spanish art in China and strengthening the
cultural ties between the two countries, and I wish Cristobal Gabarron great success in all his future projects.
Manuel Valencia
Spanish Ambassador to China
October 2015
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Exhibitions
locations
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Jing’an International Sculpture Park
Innovation Tower
China Art Museum Shanghai
China West Film Studio
Today Art Museum
Guangdong Museum of Art
Xinghai Concert Hall
Dingli Sculpture Art Museum
Museum of Contemporary Art
Guangzhou World Trade Center
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Art Park - Beijing Art Fair
Tongji University Anniversary
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Shanghai Urban Space Art Season
Master Lectures
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Peking University
Guangzhou Fne Arts University
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Sichuan University

Permanent artwork
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Chinese Art Museum Shanghai
Guangdong Museum of Art
Hangzhou G20 Summit
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THE COLORS OF LIFE
G A B A R R O N I N C H I N A

The Colors of Life:
The Art World of
Cristobal Gabarron
Li Xu
Deputy Director of the
Power Station of Art Museum
Spain is among the important fountainheads of art history, and the world-famous cave paintings of
Altamira have come to be regarded as an important part of the historical heritage of global civilization.
There are many bright stars in the galaxy of Spain’s art history, including great masters such as El Greco,
Velázquez, Murillo, Goya, Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, and Dalí, all of whom used their astounding creativity to
make priceless contributions to Spain’s cultural wealth. On 16 January 2015, a six-month exhibition of
The Mysteries of Columbus, a sculpture series by the celebrated Spanish contemporary artist Cristobal
Gabarron, opened at the China Art Museum in Shanghai. This event was the first solo exhibition of Gabarron’s
work at a mainstream fine arts museum in Asia.
Born in Spain in 1945, Gabarron is a prominent contemporary artist with a multifaceted standing in the
art world due to his medium, style, and long-term work in a variety of fields. He is a painter, sculptor,
and public artist, but also a promoter of social education and a philanthropic activist. In addition to his
individual accomplishments as an artist, he also established the Gabarron Foundation in 1992 with the
mission of promoting exchange and dialog between cultures of various countries. At present, his foundation
has branches in New York, Barcelona, and elsewhere around the world.
Gabarron first fell in love with painting as a child, and he has been making art for more than half a century.
In 1961, at the young age of sixteen, he formally began teaching himself to paint. In the years that
followed, he often traveled to France and Italy to further his education, exposing himself to the highly
innovative atmosphere that characterized the European art world in those years. In 1964, galleries in
Madrid and Valladolid held solo exhibitions of his paintings, marking the beginning of his professional
career. These exhibitions were followed by shows in New York and Paris in 1967. Then, in the following
year, Gabarron bid farewell to realist landscapes and the subject matter of everyday life. Self Portrait
of Death marked the establishment of a truly individual creative style, and in his subsequent works, he
has intently explored emotions, identity, psychology, and the self. Beginning in the late 1960s, Gabarron
embarked on a more diverse creative path that has included song lyrics, illustrated books, public
lectures, and performances set in the forest. In 1972, his purely abstract works were shown in galleries
throughout Spain before traveling on to Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Switzerland, and the United
States. Gabarron’s creativity reached an apex during the subsequent two decades. He continued to
show his artwork around the world, and a series of well received solo and group exhibitions affirmed
his influence as an international artist. During the 1980s, brighter colors gradually began to replace the
more subdued palettes of his earlier canvases, and this transition reached fruition in the 1990s, when
his most colorful phase began.
In 1986, the World Federation of United Nations Associations selected Gabarron’s painting Our Hope for
Peace to serve as a symbol of international peace on a commemorative postage stamp. Among Spanish
artists, only Miró and Dalí had previously received such an honor. That November, Gabarron received
a commission from the Spanish government to create a massive, one-hundred-meter-long mural for
the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The mural would be titled History of Olympism. The 1990s proved to be
the decade in which Gabarron’s public art flourished. He received a series of commissions from various
countries for a variety of public art projects. Among his most important works from this period are
an enormous, seven-hundred-square-meter mural for the Seville World Expo (1992); Twelve European
Muses, a sculpture series permanently installed at the entrance to the European Community headquarters
in Brussels (1993); Atlanta Star--Olympic Forest, a large public sculpture commissioned for the
1996 Atlanta Olympics; A Tribute to the Spirit of Sport, a mural for the American Sport Art Museum and
Archives (1997); Dancing with the Ball, the official poster for the Paris World Cup (1998); and Dawn in the
New Millennium, a painting commissioned for the United Nations Millennium Summit and featured on
the cover of the United Nations Chronicle (1999). These internationally influential public artworks are
profound and special contributions to both art and society. Collaborations with the international organizations
such as the Olympics and the United Nations demonstrated Gabarron’s diverse creative abilities.
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While Gabarron has continued to exhibit his artworks and contribute to
public art projects in the public spaces of major cities around the world
since the turn of the millennium, he has also devoted a large part of
his time and energy to the educational and philanthropic projects of
his foundation, giving back to society with an artist’s earnest sense of
responsibility.
Cristobal Gabarron is a seminal figure in contemporary Abstract Expressionism.
A look back at the evolution of his artistic style reveals
that he assimilated and expanded the boundaries of expressionism
and abstractionism as soon as he made the transition from realism.
After beginning his creative career in Spain, he received a baptism in
the styles of European contemporary art in France and Italy, and also
subsequently developed a sophisticated appreciation of his American
contemporaries. He occasionally dabbled in realist, expressionist, and
surrealist idioms, but Abstract Expressionism has long been the primary
thread of his creative career. His artworks are appealing examples
of Organic Abstraction, with lively and fluid forms, unrestrained
approaches to line, rhythm, and space, and their own incredible logic
and gorgeous fantasies. Use of color is one of Gabarron’s focal points.
His poetic applications of vivid and resplendent colors saturate large
portions of his tableaus. His dazzling skill is particularly evident in his
outdoor sculptures, which catch the sunlight with their vigorous energy.
These artworks are celebrations of the rhythms of life, brimming
with the vital energy of cave murals and the romantic fervor of music
and dance.
Humanity and nature have long been central themes of Gabarron’s
artwork. His highly refined sense of figure and outline contributes to
the rich symbolism of his artworks, which express his passion for life
through their visual invocations of freely growing human, animal, and
plant forms. Since the 1980s, he has broadly experimented in his portrayals
of the female form and continuously explored erotic themes.
The diverse visual forms of his artworks include powerful, matador-like
figures brimming with the dramatic tension of Flamenco dancers. Over
the course of more than half a century, exultations of life, love, and
peace have been thematic constants in Gabarron’s works. In addition
to painting and sculpture, the artist has experimented with other ways
of extending art into social life and natural environments. He has synthesized
diverse materials, produced painted ceramics, planned performances
in a forest, created flying, kite-like installation works, and
painted enormous murals. His distinctive hand has decorated buildings,
natural environments, airplanes, sailboats, and even backdrops
for ballet performances, demonstrating his astonishingly abundant talents.
The artwork of Cristobal Gabarron first arrived in China in 2015, when
the China Art Museum exhibited ten sculptures from his 2006 series
The Mysteries of Columbus. The distinctive sculptures featured in this
major international traveling exhibition have been displayed at famous
landmarks in major cities around the world, including Broadway and
Central Park in New York City as well as the Paseo del Prado in Madrid.
The Mysteries of Columbus draws inspiration from the seafaring adventures
of the famous Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus and pays
homage to the adventurousness of the human spirit and the discovery
of the Americas. At the China Art Museum, these ten sculptures, colorful
and richly symbolic, are positioned in an outdoor space, brilliantly
framed by red buildings and blue skies. Their fluid forms conjure a
sense of rhythm, and they symbolically express the simple and natural
life of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Gabarron’s sculptures
are like freehand paintings in three dimensions. These visual expressions
of music and dance are not unlike totem poles, and they serve as
monuments to love and life. They are an extension of the elegant modern
Spanish art tradition of Gaudí, Miró, and Picasso. The bright swaths
of color seem to strike correspondences between the sculptures, a signature
element of the artistic language that Gabarron has developed
over many years. They are also vividly suggestive of the colorful ethnic
costumes of the Native American peoples.
As an artist who has long been concerned with the aesthetics of urban
public spaces, Gabarron seeks to combine his individual creativity with
the various cultural elements of cities. He attempts to achieve three
kinds of balance in his artworks: first, the balance of closing the distance
between the artwork and the audience while also beautifying the
residential environment; second, the balance between human needs
and efficient urban planning; and third, the balance between the modernization
of urban environments and the cultural content of urban
life. The Mysteries of Columbus fully embodies Gabarron’s extensive
consideration of these issues. He uses boldly assembled shapes and
colors to allow this series of sculptures to add vivid color to concrete
jungles while also creating an ingeniously original cultural contribution
to city life.
The year 2015 was the momentous occasion of Gabarron’s arrival in
the East. He personally expressed his great affinity for China as well as
his excitement at the opportunity to visit the country for the first time.
Gabarron stated that China “is everywhere manifesting and expressing
the vanguard of modern art.” At the exhibition opening, Gabarron announced
that The Mysteries of Columbus would be a permanent gift to
the China Art Museum. We have reason to believe that this exhibition
and gift will allow a greater Chinese audience to appreciate his artistic
achievements, and we eagerly anticipate further contributions to cultural
exchange between China and Spain from Gabarron and his foundation
in the years to come.
Li Xu
Deputy Director of the Power Station of Art Museum
May 17, 2015
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JING’AN
SCULPTURE PARK
September - December 2014
Shanghai
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS

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P O L Y U
INNOVATION TOWER
November 2014 - January 2015
Hong Kong
ALHAMBRA
T O W E R S

The Artistic World
of Cristóbal Gabarron
Sun Zhenhua
Editor-in-Chief of Chinese
Sculpture Magazine
The arrival of the artwork of the Spanish artist Cristóbal Gabarron in
China earned widespread acclaim from the Chinese art world as well
as the general public. Everybody knows that China, which is presently
in a phase of transition and transformation, is particularly sensitive to
the influence of foreign cultures. We are always extremely interested in
whatever new art we come into contact with, and Gabarron’s sculptures
and paintings were no exception. He helped satisfy the intense desire
in contemporary China to better understand the art of the world and
to heighten our interaction with international artists.
What Gabarron offered to the Chinese public was an artistic world
of riotous color. Through his unique and richly innovative artistic
language, his artworks enriched our visual culture, exposing us to new
experiences and emotions. The traveling exhibition of his artworks
through China was a major event in the recent history of Chinese
cultural exchange with the rest of the world. His artworks gave us a
fuller and more diverse understanding of the state of contemporary
art. For China, they opened a new window onto the world.
This being the case, how should we view Gabarron’s artwork, and how
should we interpret his rich artistic world?
First of all, Gabarron is an artist of the people. He understands the social
responsibility of art, and he unequivocally and perseveringly pursues
the cultural mission of art. Through art, he expresses sincerity; through
art, he disseminates good will; through art, he shares beauty. He
seeks to use art to strengthen exchange and communication between
different cultures and nations. This artistic self-awareness, along
with his positive, enthusiastic, and constructive artistic philosophy,
permeates his artworks, just as it permeates the programming of the
foundation that bears his name.
Gabarron is a master artist of international influence. Born in Spain,
he studied in both France and Italy. At present, he resides in Spain and
the United States. This rich, multinational life experience enhances his
ability to treat art as a common enterprise of humanity. Thus he uses
his work to display the role played by art in human life and express
his meditations on the interplay between art and human values and
progress.
Gabarron’s artistic practice has borne testament to these values.
In 1992, he painted a large mural for the Barcelona Olympic Games

and another for the Seville World Expo; in 1996, he created a group of sculptures for the
Atlanta Olympics; and in 2015, he contributed a monumental sculpture to the seventieth
anniversary celebration of the United Nations. He also designed the logo of the twelvenation
Schengen Area of the European Union and the World Peace Postage Stamp for
the United Nation’s International Year of Peace. In 2000, he received another commission
from the United Nations, this time to design a collectable poster to mark the turn of the
millennium. Today, Gabarron’s sculptures are featured in public places in major cities
around the world, and his artworks are on display on thoroughfares and plazas in a number
of major European and American cities. At the same time, his paintings and sculptures
have become topics of study in art theory and criticism. Several museums have presented
his works for further study in retrospective exhibitions.
These abundant creative experiences demonstrate Gabarron’s versatility as a master
artist, but more importantly, they also show how he uses art to transmit a message of
peace and friendship. With art as his medium, he has galvanized the will of people of
various nations to achieve mutual understanding and trust.
Why did Gabarron’s work resonate so strongly with the Chinese public? One important
reason is that Gabarron’s artistic sensibilities are highly congruent with Chinese culture.
His philosophy of art is closely linked to China’s ancient traditions of arts and humanities.
The artistic philosophy of Chinese antiquity places a strong emphasis on the societal role
of art. In this tradition, art can awaken the human heart and transform reality. Such art is
attentive to people’s lives and destinies. Gabarron’s expression of these basic ideals won
him the affirmation of the Chinese public and laid a strong foundation for his subsequent
development and collaborations within China.
Moreover, Gabarron’s artistic world is an open one, a shared space. An outstanding
characteristic of his artwork is its emphasis on publicness. His works are usually installed
in public places where audiences can easily access and interact with them, and they are
designed to facilitate participation and sharing. These are important traits of Gabarron’s
artistic world.
Should the creativity of an artist privilege the expression of their individual experience, or
should it place greater emphasis on the transformation of that individual perspective into
a public experience? Through the ages, artists and scholars have voiced many different
views and opinions on this question. Gabarron’s values clearly accord with the latter
view. His works express his individual talent and creativity, but he transforms them into
something widely accessible: artistic forms that the public can readily accept and respond
to. These forms portray a lively and exotic realm, the bright and vivid ambience of the
Mediterranean impeccably embodied in painting and sculpture such as to offer people an
aesthetic experience that is both astounding and familiar.
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As Gabarron’s artwork was exhibited throughout China, his sculptures were always
surrounded by crowds of people. Gabarron is proficient in using his distinctive forms and
colors to win over audiences. His sculptures have the power to bring people together
and mesmerize them. They allow audiences to temporarily lose themselves in their
appreciation. This is why Gabarron makes use of sculpture to realize his ideals of a public
art. It is the appropriate medium for the expression of his artistic intentions and beliefs.
Gabarron’s sculptures are always an excellent addition to a city’s public spaces and a
delight to its denizens. In the context of the rapid process of urbanization in China, his
works have a special significance. His artistic gaze is always concentrated on the public
spaces of cities; he cares for the urban public. In an age in which urban spaces are flooded
with all kinds of visual elements, Gabarron consistently uses art to seek dialogue. His
sculptures directly engage with a city’s various visual elements. By shortening the distance
between sculpture and the public, he offers urban citizens direct access to beauty and art.
In this way, he changes the relationship between a city and its residents, facilitating a kind
of balance between their spirits. His sculptures lend warmth to urban environments with
their human touch; they fend off the stifling urban tendency toward monotony. Thusly
does the artist’s work offer solace and comfort to people living in modern metropolises.
This is how Gabarron works: he uses the diverse forms and colors of his sculptures to add
vibrancy to urban public spaces, spread joy through urban environments, and imbue city
life with a sense of delight.
The most charming and appealing aspect of Gabarron’s artistic world is his creativity: the
distinctiveness of his artistic language and the intensity of his artistic forms.
Gabarron is an artist who has truly broken through the boundaries of artistic categorization.
This is due in part to his facility for painting, sculpture, and design. His artistic talent is
diverse and multifaceted. When he makes art, he faces minimal limitations; he can readily
transform himself, applying a variety of artistic languages and methods to meet the needs
of whatever project he undertakes.
Indeed, Gabarron’s ability to move between and integrate various means of artistic
expression is itself a trend within the development of contemporary art. The British critic
Lawrence Alloway, who relocated to the United States in 1960 and who coined the term
Pop Art, once pointed out that the strict delineation between sculpture and painting was
a product of a pre-industrial social order that exemplified a visual hierarchy prevalent
since the dawn of the Enlightenment. However, popular art is a primary achievement of
industrial society, and in concert with industrialism and the social changes it has wrought,
the experiments and fluid values of popular art mark a cultural improvement over the
static, rigid, and self-aggrandizing high cultural values of the past. Thus the traditional
distinction in the visual arts between painting and sculpture has today become a kind of
limitation.
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It is worth noting that, although Gabarron’s sculptures and paintings are of one piece,
their public impact is unlike that of Pop Art or Readymade Art, which made their mark by
dissolving the boundaries between art and everyday objects, and dispelling the distinctions
between art and non-art. In contrast, Gabarron accentuates the creativity and imagination
of the artist. He achieves his public art by highlighting the extraordinary characteristics of
artistic forms and colors. This achievement may be the most distinguishing aspect of his
artistic practice, and certainly, it is one of the most valuable.
Gabarron’s sculptures have strong Constructivist overtones. They seem to be composed
of diverse organic and abstract forms, each of which the sculptor imbues with a different
color. Their colors are bright; they brim with intensity, enthusiasm, and vitality. In both
urban and bucolic settings, these statues are attractive and eye-catching. They do not
present the spectator with familiar forms and colors. Rather, they transcend quotidian
habits of visual perception, proffering a psychological experience of novelty, originality,
and delight. People can be moved by sculpture in two different ways. The first is when they
see something familiar in the sculptures. Familiar forms in a different place, made from a
different material, with different dimensions, can be moving. The second way people are
moved by sculpture is when they are transported by a strange vision: something unusual
that connects to their own life experiences through its imaginative peculiarity. Gabarron’s
sculptures are like this. He is a master creator of fictive forms that inspire audiences to
think abstractly, to feel and taste the extraordinary.
Another important reason why Gabarron’s artwork resonates with the Chinese public is
that his artistic methods are in some ways related to traditional Chinese art. Sculpture
and painting have never been separated in the traditions of Chinese art, and Chinese
sculptures have featured bright colors from antiquity until the present. Moreover, painting
has long been used as a method of adding detail and texture to sculptures. So although
Gabarron’s sculptures are abstract, they share a natural affinity with Chinese aesthetics
that appeals to Chinese audiences.
Many critics have noted the distinctive Mediterranean character of Gabarron’s artworks.
What, specifically, does that mean? His use of whimsical forms, resplendent colors, organic
and harmonious compositions, and effervescent style form an integrated base tone
that calls to mind the characteristics of the Mediterranean, namely freedom, openness,
assimilation, and coexistence. This is Gabarron’s creative style: a positive, imaginative
approach that reveals to us an artistic world filled with charm and enchantment.
Sun Zhenhua, PhD, is Vice-President of the Shenzhen Sculpture Institute and Editor-in-Chief of
Chinese Sculpture Magazine. He is a professor in the Sculpture Department of the China Academy
of Art and a member of the Committee of Experts of the National Center for Contemporary Art
Studies.
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C H I N A
A R T M U S E U M
January - July 2015
Shanghai
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS

Shi Dawei
Director
China Art Museum
The Mysteries of Columbus, an exhibition hosted by the China Art Museum and the
Gabarron Foundation, is about to open in the outdoor plaza of our museum. Mr.
Gabarron is one of Spain’s most famous contemporary artists, and he created the
Mysteries of Columbus, a set of ten sculptures rich in symbolic significance, in 2006.
These works draw inspiration from the famous explorer Christopher Columbus and
his maritime mission to discover the Americas.
Spain and China are two countries with long histories, strong cultures, and a long
record of cultural exchange between them. The art of Spain has often entranced
Chinese audiences. Mr. Gabarron’s series of sculptures pays homage to Columbus’s
discovery of the Americas. The sculptures resemble brave warriors standing guard
over their homeland. Shanghai is a city of continuous progress, and it possesses a
spirit of enthusiasm for innovation and creativity. This exhibition offers Shanghai
and China a new artistic experience. We hope that this exhibition will be a seminal
occasion that further strengthens cultural exchange with Spain, promotes the
longstanding friendship between our two countries, and contributes to increased
mutual understanding between the peoples of China and Spain.
In closing, we congratulate this exhibition in advance for its great success!
Shi Dawei
Director, China Art Museum
< Left to right:
Li Lei, deputy director, China Art Museum
Rodrigo Aguirre de Cárcel, Consul General
of Spain in Shanghai
Shi Dawei, director, China Art Museum
Cristóbal Gabarron, Artist
translator
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CHINA WEST
F I L M S T U D I O S
November 2014 - January 2015
Yinchuan,
Ningxia Province
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS

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T O D A Y
A R T M U S E U M
September 2014 - January 2015
Beijing
ALHAMBRA
T O W E R S

Exploring
Gabarron
Dr. Gao Peng
Director of
Today Art Museum
An artist attracts his audience through different virtues: his talent, creativity, diligence, as well as the
value of his work throughout art history. After over 50 years of hard working and chasing excellency in
art, Cristobal Gabarron has become internationally famous for his master-level paintings and sculptures,
where the typical Avant-garde features of Abstract Expressionism can be found. Gabarron plants in his
artworks plenty of symbols, fantasies, and metaphors. He is a master of integrating various artistic
elements and exploring the value and emotion inside each piece of work. In his professional life, he has
worked in close collaboration with international organizations including the United Nations. In this way,
he has shared his great ideas and creations with audiences all over the world and thus made a great
impact in the global art world.
Spain, as an important root of civilization, possesses diverse artistic elements resulting from its
location and history. This passionate and charming nation has proved itself as the cradle of great art
masters, including Velazquez (Baroque), Picasso (Cubism), Dali and Miró (Surrealism). The creativity and
enthusiasm of the Spanish artists has undoubtedly contributed to the development of Western art.
Benefiting from the wonderful environment and artistic tradition of his home country, Gabarron was
born with a uniquely Spanish talent and imagination. In his art work, fantastic dreamlike figures and
skillful painting techniques are perfectly combined. He uses delicate lines and colors that are clearly
influenced by Cubism to portray his Surrealist images of memories and dreams.
Influenced by Spanish folk art, Gabarron’s art is free and passionate. His painting series such as
“Naturalezas’’ and “Nina que no pudo alcanzar la Luna’’ give examples of the transformation from
reality to fantasy. Instead of using specific figures, Gabarron prefers the use of lines, pixels, and random
freeform doodles to create complex compositions that express feelings. He intends to demolish the
dominance of reality and logic, and liberate unconscious illogical impulses by applying weird, tortuous,
and humorous forms, as well as odd geometric structure. Through abstract forms, points, lines and
explosive color, the imaginary world has been built with a kinetic rhythm. The created forms, endowed
with life, lead the audience to explore the invisible and visual art worlds. Thanks to his humor, his works
are usually delightful, filled with freedom and a sense of innocence.
On the other hand, probably because Gabarron lived in Spain and America, in terms of color use, he tends
to use more primal and wild colors, just like those of Spanish Flamenco and Native American culture. He
likes to use natural colors, like red, yellow, green, blue, black, and white to paint blocks in paintings and
sculptures. Those blocks are bright, bold, colorful, simple and regional. This unique aesthetic feature
was influenced by the Mediterranean, a place that is visually simple and comforting, and reminiscent of
ancient civilization. Depicting the Mediterranean does not require exquisite technique; one can maintain
simpicity, using bold and free colors from nature, and catching light. The beauty of the Mediterranean is
built on nature’s bright colors and light.
Mr. Gabarron started to create the series of “The Mysteries of Columbus” in 2006, combining sculpture
and painting; this series of works is representative work of Gabarron’s creativity. The inspiration of this
series came from the famous explorer and navigator, Christopher Columbus’s logbook. All the works
were made in colored glass fiber; the figures are smooth and meaningful. The blocks with different colors
are naturally mixed and interactive, providing the audience with different visual experiences in different
light environments. Color, environment, sky, light and other objective conditions give his sculptures
unlimited brightness and style. All the colors freely move between sculptures. However, those colors are
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not randomly created. Mr. Gabarron hopes he could use
those sculptures to rebuild the scene when Columbus
found the new world, “When Columbusarrived, Indians
never saw people in cloth nor this large scale of boat.”
Before the artist built the sculpture from his sketch, he
first built a model to experiment with potential colors
and forms. After thousands of experiments and changes,
he locked in one combination connected to sailors and
Indians’ feelings and inner thoughts, which are described
in the logbook. The artist got inspiration from Native
Americans, from animal shapes in America, an even the
ocean. He use smooth style, simple lines and colors to
express primitivism, each color represent a meaning, a
label. It includes the colors of the ocean and the sky, the
boat soaked by the ocean, empty and deserted muddy
yellow, flowers behind the road, historical ancient totems,
as well as yellow and red color combinations from local
civilization. Those sculptures present the primitive life
instinct and human being’s adventurous spirit in the
documenting of the great discovery of the New World.
For an art master like Gabarron, his priority is beyond the
pursuit of artistic technique. Unlike other avant-garde
artistic theory, Gabarron’s works have always been about
connecting with everyday life. He has collaborated with
international organizations, such as the International
Olympic Committee and the United Nations, to create
public art installations including the fresco for Sevilla
EXPO, the statues for the Atlanta Olympics, and the
official posters for the Millennium World Peace Summit.
Through these, Gabarron passes on to his audience his
thoughts on the meaning of art to society, of life, and of
the human relationship to Nature.
Gabarron realized that in the 20th century, art can no
longer be confined in museums and private collections,
but instead should be understood by the public. For this
reason, Gabarron began his exploration in urban public
spaces. In order to spread his concept of art to the public,
he made his own sculptures into public installations on
the streets of international cities. These artworks have
integrated into their cities, which are also made more
charming by their presence. Some cities even preserve
his large scale sculptures for permanent demonstration.
Dr. Gao Peng
Director of Today Art Museum
Left to right:
Alex Gao
director Today Art Museum
Cristóbal Gabarron
Artist
Manuel Valencia
Ambassador of Spain to China
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GUANGDONG
M U S E U M O F A R T
September 2015 - January 2015
Guangzhou
ALHAMBRA
T O W E R S

From the Alhambra Towers
to the Lighthouse Mosque
Shao Shan
Guangdong Museum of Art
On the stage of history, the performance of each act is filled with thought-provoking
symbolism, and the plays are woven together by subtle connections. When the story of the
Arabian people is enacted, the theater splits into two stages: one, in Guangzhou, China, the
southeastern part of the Asian continent; the other, the Andalusian region of Spain, in the
southern part of Europe. Although these two places are separated by thousands of miles,
they are connected by the same story.
In the year 610 AD, the prophet Muhammed founded the religion of Islam. In the year 627,
four disciples of Muhammed arrived in Tang Dynasty China to spread their religion. They
traversed the Maritime Silk Road and landed in Guangzhou. On a site beside the Pearl River,
they built China’s first mosque. For this mosque, they chose the name Huaisheng, which
means “to remember the prophet.” One feature of this mosque is its single minaret, from
which the muezzin would make the call to prayer, or adhan, prior to each religious service.
Because the Chinese words for adhan and light were pronounced similarly in the local
dialect, and due to the Arabic tradition of lighting fires in towers to guide seafaring ships,
this minaret became known as the “lighthouse.” Thus did the so-called Lighthouse Mosque
become a home away from home for the Arabs of China, and also a foothold in the new
land for the Islamic religion, which itself derives its name from the word for “submission”
and “peace.”
From left to right:
Luo Yiping, Director and Exhibition
Director of Guangdong Museum of Art
Manuel Pombo, Consul General of
the Spanish Consulate General in
Guangzhou
Cristobal Gabarron, artist
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In the year 661, the first Islamic empire, the Ummayad Caliphate, was
established.
In the year 711, the Ummayad Caliphate led a Muslim army across
the Strait of Gibraltar to the Iberian Peninsula. This army stormed
and captured two thirds of the territory of Spain, subjugating
the Germanic peoples of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom, and
implementing Islamic rule.
In the year 750, the Abbasids defeated the Ummayids and established
the second Caliphate. Five years later, the last surviving member of the
Ummayid clan established a post-Ummayid Caliphate in Andalusia,
which became the center of European Islam. Subsequently, Islam
dominated this region of Europe for nearly eight centuries, a period
in which Arabs, Jews, and Christians lived together in harmony. Then,
in 1492, Catholic soldiers stormed Granada, the capital of the last
Arabic Empire on the Iberian Peninsula. Islam was banned, and Jews
were expelled. For this reason, the city of Granada possesses great
symbolic significance.
Another major historical event occurred in 1492: Christopher
Columbus embarked from Andalusia in hopes of traversing the
globe. He discovered the Americas, and a new curtain was lifted on
the world stage...
In the year 2015, in Guangzhou, the only major port in the world with more than
two thousand years of uninterrupted history, the Lighthouse Mosque is now
hidden within the lively old city, separated from the Pearl River by centuries of
erosion. On the new banks of the river, in the plaza of the Guangzhou Museum of
Art, there are ten sculptures in the form of towers, rich in dynamism and riotous
color. The “towers” are abstract and varied; the word is unfamiliar and warm;
their character is passionate, yet unaffected. These towers don’t need voices to
tell their story. Imbued with nostalgia for history and a profound understanding
of human life, they honor the passage of time. Like the Alhambra itself, which
was destroyed and then restored to glory, the towers represent the layering of
civilization, and the rebirth and assimilation of wisdom.
Spain is a magical land where the tumult of history coexists with extraordinary
art. Here, Christianity came into conflict with Islam, Catholics contended with
Protestants, and Socialism rebelled against Fascism. Perhaps as a result, Spain
has also produced numerous master artists of great philosophical creativity,
from Velázquez to Picasso, from Gaudí to Dalí.
We thank Mr. Cristóbal Gabarron for sharing these ideas with us!
Shao Shan
Deputy Director, Guangdong Museum of Art
16 April 2016
In the year 2015, the Islamic State destroyed ancient cultural relics
in Iraq, and a Russian passenger plane was shot down in Egypt.
Terrorists attacked civilians in France, leading to contentious debates
over Islam around the world. And one Spanish artist brought his
ideas and his Towers of the Alhambra series to China. Specifically, he
brought them to Guangzhou, the home of the Lighthouse Mosque,
and he brought a message, as well.
The Alhambra, the palace of the Sultan in Granada, is a site that
unites politics, religion, art, everyday life, and military affairs. This
palace exemplifies the essence of Islamic culture and the surpassing
architectural skill of the Moors. The peerless beauty of this Islamic
palace is profoundly moving, and the courage and insight of the
Catholics who maintained and restored it is also admirable! Today,
the Alhambra bears many marks of its long history, and it also exudes
an aura of tolerance and cultural integration.
This aura, like the light in the tower of the palace, is bright, piercing,
and serene. It shines through the dense fog of time and penetrates
the cultural barriers between East and West. And it also shines
through the creations of this Spanish artist.
From right to left :
Deputy Director Guandong Museum Shao Shan , Cristobal Gabarron, Consul General of Spain in
Caton Manuel Pombo, Gabarron, Director Guangdong Museum of Art and chief curator Luo Yiping,
Director of the Cultural Exchange and Cooperation Division of the Guangdong Provincial Culture
Department Li Zaiyan, Gabarron Foundation Asia President Juanma Gabarron, and General
Manager of Guangzhou Tram Co Mao Jianhua
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X I N G H A I
C O N C E R T H A L L
January - February 2016
Guangzou
ALHAMBRA
T O W E R S
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D I N G L I
A R T M U S E U M
November 2015 - March 2016
Chongwu, Quanzhou
Fujian Province
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS
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Dr. Gao Peng
Director of
Today Art Museum
Cristobal Gabarron is an artist who possesses talent, creativity and diligence, and has gained
renown throughout the 20th century. Ding Li Art Museum is honored to introduce this talented
Spanish artist’s solo exhibition to Chinese audiences. People will be able to see those
magnificent works of this Mediterranean artist in “The City of Chinese Stone Carving”.
Over 50 years of working hard and chasing excellency in art, Cristobal Gabarron has become
internationally famous for his masterful paintings and sculptures, where the typical
features of avant-garde Abstract Expressionism can be found. Gabarron plants in his art
works plenty of symbols, imaginations, and metaphors. He is a master of integrating various
artistic elements and exploring the value and emotion inside each piece of work.
Gabarron is influenced by Spanish folk art, and his art is highly expressive. Gabarron prefers
to use abstract lines and shapes to emphasize emotion over form. The blocks with different
colors interact with each other naturally, providing the audience with different visual experience
in different light environments. This unique esthetic feature was influenced by the
Mediterranean, a comfortable visual space formed by simple colors. Color, environment,
sky, light and other objective conditions give his sculpturesunlimited brightness and style.
Unlike his more theoretical contemporaries, Gabarron’s works has always been connected
with everyday life. He has collaborated with international organizations, such as the
International Olympic Committee and the United Nations, to create public art installations
including the fresco for Sevilla EXPO, the statues for the Atlanta Olympics, and the official
posters for the Millennium World Peace Summit. Gabarron realized that in the 20th century,
art can no longer be confined to museums and private collections, but instead is meant
to be understood by the public. This is why Gabarron began to explore public spaces for
his creations. He wanted to disseminate his ideas about the public nature of art to cities
all over the world, by creating sculptures in public spaces. These works of art, in turn,
beautified the cities they were a part of. Some cities even chose to maintain his sculptures
permanently.
Dr. Gao Peng
Director of Today Art Museum
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First row: Spanish contemporary artist Mr. Gabarrpn (middle), Spanish ambassador to China, Mr. Manuel Valencia (seventh from left), Spanish Cultural Counselor in China Ms. Gloria
Minguez (sixth from left), China Master of Arts and Crafts Mr. Lin Xueshan (fifth from left), Director of Today Art Museum, Mr. Gao Peng (fourth from left), Chinese master of arts and
crafts, Mr. Lu Sili (first from left), founder of Dingli Art Museum, Mr. Wang Xiangrong (right, seventh) Mr. Gu Zheng Zheng (sixth from right) Mr. Chen Guodong (fifth from right), deputy
head of the People’s Government of Huian County, Professor Long Xiang (fourth from right), director of the Sculpture Department of China Academy of Art, Professor He Zhongling
(third from right) , Professor Jiang Tieli (second from right), Department of Sculpture, School of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, and Mr. Huang Yongqun, director of Hui’an County City
Association (first from right).

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MoCA CHENGDU
S O U L O F P A P E R
January - April 2016
Chengdu,
Sichuan Province
ALHAMBRA
T O W E R S
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C I F F
WORLD TRADE CENTER
March 18-21, 2016
Guangzhou
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS
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T O N G J I
UNIVERSITY ANNIVERSARY
November - January 2017
Shanghai
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS
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The Spanish
Heritage of the
Art of Cristóbal
Gabarron
Zeng Yan
Senior Editor at Sanlian
Life Week magazine
Early summer, 2005: having been assigned a series of reports for the “Year of Spanish Culture,” some
colleagues and I embarked on a long journey through Spain. We began in Barcelona, in the northern
region of Catalonia, and traveled south from there, passing through Madrid before ultimately arriving
in the Andalusian cities of Málaga and Ronda. I had been tasked with learning as much as I could about
two seminal twentieth century Spanish artists: Picasso and Dalí. I devoted myself to investigating the
origins of their art. Picasso spent most of his life in Paris, but I traced his progress backward from
Barcelona, the last place he lived in Spain, to Málaga, his birthplace. The moment that I arrived in that
city, I felt that I suddenly and fully comprehended his paintings. Amid that strong and omnipresent
Mediterranean atmosphere, sweet and astringent, pure and wicked, aggressive and accommodating—
all contradictions were transformed into decipherable secrets, like a photograph gradually developed
from a negative. At the same time, a description of Picasso by the Russian author Ilya Ehrenburg helped
me complete the picture:
“Sometimes people ask me, ‘Picasso,’ this name, how is it pronounced correctly? Is the emphasis on
the last syllable or the second-to-last? In other words, is he a Spaniard or a Frenchman? Of course, he
is a Spaniard. This is demonstrated by his appearance and personality, his severe realism, his great
passion, and his profound and dangerous sense of irony.”
I presently mention this experience of discovery because when I first saw the sculptures of Cristóbal
Gabarron, my memories of that trip ten years earlier sprang to the front of my mind. In Gabarron and
his art, I see the same irrefutable Spanish heritage.
Gabarron was born in a small town on the southern coast of Spain, about twenty kilometers from
Murcia. At the age of six, his parents relocated the family to the country’s north. When we spoke of
his hometown, he recalled that it possessed a dry but favorable climate where the majority of people
made their living as vegetable farmers: “Perhaps due to the climate and the environment, people in my
hometown liked to spend their time outdoors. Bars, plazas, in nature—there were always people out
and about. So there was a lot of contact and exchange between people. This is a special characteristic
of people from Murcia.”
Gabarron also told me that the townspeople were quite diverse: there were Arabs, Jews, and Christians.
All of them, to his recollection, were on good terms with each other. Perhaps this amalgamation of
peoples influenced Gabarron’s way of seeing the world, for he now exhibits a clear preference for
heterogeneity. He also likes change and movement, both in life and in art.
When it comes to art, Gabarron sees himself as someone who is “never satisfied with the status
quo.” The themes and forms of his art are multipolar. He first became famous for his murals, but he
also does ceramics, sculptures, and even set design. He never stops trying new things. He has even
undertaken an extraordinarily complex urban renewal project in the city of Valladolid, rebuilding an
impoverished neighborhood in an artistic way. He transformed a residential area into a work of art
with his characteristic approaches to line, volume, contrast, color, and rhythm. I was astounded to
learn the scope of his artistic enterprises. The city of Valladolid is the artist’s present home and also
the place where he lived from the age of six to sixteen. It is the capital of Castilla y León, Spain’s largest
autonomous region, located about two hundred kilometers north of Madrid. Those who understand
Spain’s politics, geography, and history know that Valladolid is a world away from Gabarron’s small
hometown on the coast in terms of cultural temperament. As for Gabarron, his creativity seems at ease
between the two, and he never fails to find means of expression that suit him.
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Anyone who’s seen The Mysteries of Columbus, Gabarron’s set
of ten sculptures on public display at the China Art Museum
in Shanghai, must have their own assessment of his artistic
style. As I see it, color and story are the most salient aspects
of his artwork—and both are absolutely Spanish. There are
so many famous Spanish historical personages, so why did
Gabarron choose Christopher Columbus? When it comes to the
presentation of an artwork, one must bear in mind that being
excessively literary, narrative, and figurative to the point that
anybody can easily apprehend the material is a dangerous
pitfall that can bury an insufficiently intrepid artist.
According to Gabarron, he was attracted by Columbus’s highly
contradictory legacy. He was world-famous, but to this date, no
scholar of history has definitively pinpointed his place of birth. So
where was Columbus from? Nobody knows. Columbus was also
reputed to hold contradictory views of maritime exploration:
he was at once in love with and tormented by sailing the seas,
and even ended up in prison for his glorious exploits. As an
artist, Gabarron sought to fill in the gaps in Columbus’s story,
and use art to express his understanding of Columbus for a
contemporary audience.
But as I see it, Gabarron was in fact using the vessel of Columbus
to abstract his own psychological scars and gaps: that which
he seeks to understand, that which he cannot understand, his
doubts, his loves and hates, the vicissitudes of human life.
Gabarron describes his own understanding of abstraction
thusly: “When I paint the delightfulness of an apple, I paint what
it is to smell an apple, rather than paint the apple itself.”
So what, in the end, are his priorities? Not vision, but touch,
breath, the faintest contact between skin and skin. This is
why many of his artworks contain objects that do not exist in
reality. These are “my colors,” he says: “my perspective.” He
gives an example: as a very small child, perhaps you abruptly
smell your own odor. It is an elusive smell, but you remember
it quite deeply, and moreover, the memory has a color, or
perhaps several colors, or perhaps no color at all. To express
this memory—that is what creativity means to Gabarron.
The intensity of the collisions of color in Gabarron’s sculptures
inevitably brings to mind the modern Spanish master Miró.
On this subject, Gabarron says that rich use of color is indeed
typical of the Spanish temperament. Colors are particularly
dense in southern Spain, a region with a long history of passion
and conflict, love and death. “Spain’s environment is sunny and
magnificent, and there are lively colors everywhere you look, a
bright fullness that seems to derive directly from the sky, the
ocean, the soil, the verdure. However, even if the color is the
same, every artist will use it in a different way.” Miró generally
sought to paint from the perspective of a naked child, says
Gabarron, “Whereas I clearly do not.” Gabarron’s colors are
never simple: in his artworks, red is a kind of passion, but also
a kind of death.
At seventeen, Gabarron decamped to Paris, where he stayed for
a year. At nineteen, he traveled to Rome and Venice, where he
lived another two years. Then it was on to the United States, and
then back to Europe in the 1970s, where he moved from place
to place. At present, he spends much of his time in New York.
He lives about eight months of the year in the United States
and spends the remaining four in Spain. This itinerant spirit
is consistent with past generations of Spanish master artists:
departing and returning, departing and returning again in an
endless cycle.
I ask Gabarron: is the concept of leaving home an important one
to Spanish artists? “One must go absorb that which is outside of
oneself,” he replies.
Every artist has their own art history. Gabarron’s art history is
Giotto and Michelangelo of the Italian Renaissance period, as
well as his compatriots, Velázquez and Goya. There’s nothing
exceptional about this. Some have described his artworks as
abstract. Others see them as conceptual. His journeys have been
fully independent and carefree, though the numerous highprofile
commissions he has received, including collaborations
with the Barcelona Olympic Games and UNESCO, lend him
something of the air of an official salon artist of the nineteenth
century. But Gabarron says that he never considers these
questions while he’s working. “I just act based on my state of
mind in that exact moment,” he says.
Public sculptures sometimes dissolve the boundary between art
and commerce, and I was curious to hear Gabarron’s views on
that boundary. “A good artist must be consistently creative, and
doing so requires money. Choosing art means choosing reality.”
His candid answer departs from the norm and leaves a deep
impression.
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ART PARK
A R T B E I J I N G
May 1-3, 2016
Beijing
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS
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SHANGHAI
U R B A N
SPACE ART SEASON
October 2017 - January 2018
Shanghai
THE MYSTERIES OF
COLUMBUS
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Gabarron’s incison
into China
Zhu Qingsheng
Director
Institute for Han Arts Study
Pekin University
Spain may not be China’s most prominent
international partner in every realm, but in terms
of art, Spain has been extremely important. This
importance lies not in the exchange between
the two countries, but in the contrast. These two
traditions of art seem to represent two extremes:
one mild, the other striking; one dispersed, the
other passionate; one as tranquil as ripples in a
pond, the other as intense as a wildfire; one as
eternal as the cosmos, the other as imminent as
a pounding heart. This contrast is one indication
of the resplendent diversity of the cultures of the
world.
In recent years, a main thread in Chinese
contemporary art has traced the legacies of the
Spanish artists Picasso and Miró, and earlier
figures such as Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya are
also highly esteemed.
El Greco was of Greek descent, but his distinctive
style drew not on his Greek roots but on his
adoptive homeland of Spain. El Greco was a
passionate portrayer of the human form, and he
used his peculiar deformations, distortions, and
elongations of surfaces to frame the irrepressible
grace that lies therein. In this way, he transformed
the particularities of the human soul into visual
forms and molded human desires into the pious
intention to escape the human world and devote
oneself to holiness. El Greco’s influence among
Chinese artists is universal; any artist who has
studied in the art academies must be counted
among his admirers and interpreters. One cannot
truly reach Greece through El Greco, for the Greek
spirit is deconstructed and modified in El Greco’s
art, which instead became a building block of the
Spanish tradition. He adapted the Greek rational
spirit to the impulses and emotions of Spain,
making it more enjoyable and mesmerizing. And
all of this returned to the front of our minds and
memories when Cristobal Gabarron’s art arrived in
China.
Gabarron’s art is Spain’s latest mature cultural
product. It continues Spain’s distinctive artistic
tradition: an inherited rationality, forms burnished
by the flames of passion, and the teleological
sensibility characteristic of Western art. If it may
be so, then it will be so! Although we do not see
Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Miró, or Tàpies in
Gabarron’s paintings, we do perceive the consistent
assimilation of Western artistic traditions since
antiquity. Like the meridians of Chinese medicine,
these traditions may not have apparent physical
forms. We cannot see the marks of this heritage, but
we know that it contains energy and personality,
and we can tell when works of art within a tradition
are “cut from the same cloth.” So when Gabarron’s
artworks arrived in China as part of a group
exhibition, the China Art Museum immediately
decided to show them again in a solo show. What
made these works stand out? Was it the Spanish
character, the distinctive aspects of the Western
art tradition, or the distinct contrast with Chinese
art that figured most prominently in the curator’s
decision?
Both Gabarron’s sculptures and his oil paintings
communicate a strong sense of corporeal form as
well as the scars and lesions generated by the stimuli
and pressures of human life and society. These
artworks seem to manifest the exact measure of
the present degree of human cultural progress. In
such artworks, we no longer see symbolic meaning,
but rather, signifiers of life. These signifiers express
the various diseases, anxieties, entanglements, and
fractures that afflict the mother body of society;
even our cancers are embodied and displayed
within these portents. They are vivid indeed. They
are the wicked blooms of modern capitalistic
society, delicate and charming beauties shot
forth from moments of dejection and failure, vile
perfumes released at the transition from twilight
to dusk, the tremulations of sleepless figures in
red candlelight. Yet they are also obscured by the
harmonious veil of the artist’s gentle, romantic and
maternal love. The appearance of such portents at
a certain moment reveals the depth of our society.
They reflect our humanity, but their inferences are
unified within the intense character of their forms
and emerge as a beautiful work of art or series of
works.
What sort of place is best for these artworks,
individually or as a group, to be installed? This
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question has been a source of much equivocation. In today’s China,
what kind of effect can we expect to be created by placing artworks
of such intensity in public parks and plazas? The placement of
Gabarron’s artworks produces a new and unexpected sensation.
This sensation is an effect produced by the combination of
China’s treatment of spaces and the particularities of the object
in question—an effect that may have nothing to do with Spain,
but still offers us a means of understanding Gabarron’s work,
and a glimpse into its power. That power lies in the capacity of
the artwork to fundamentally transform a massive space that
seemed to already possess a stable and fixed character. The
function of the structure and surfaces that compose a sculpture
are not restricted to that sculpture’s image, and they may not
directly produce a pictographic significance or portray an explicit
meaning or narrative. Perhaps they have another function: to
make the space move. The fluctuations of the sculpture’s lines
produce dynamism in the spectator’s mind, provoking thoughts
and arousing feelings. In the courtyards of ancient China, a hushi
or “lake stone” played the same role. A hushi is a large stone
filled with holes and pores that serves to add dynamism to the
clean, elegant, complete, and stable environment of a courtyard.
According to tradition, they were recognized for four important
qualities: thinness (shou), openness (tou), perforations (lou),
and wrinkling (zhou). These same qualities offer insight into
Gabarron’s sculptures.
So-called “wrinkling” refers to the texture and undulations of the
stones often deployed in Chinese gardens. As for thinness, this
quality refers to the fineness of the variations of the edges of the
stone. Thinness is a measure of changes in shape. Perforations
are the cracks, canals, and cavities in the stone, which lend it a
more mysterious air. Sometimes these perforations hide fossils
of ancient life forms where light and water have created the
conditions for life. The hidden dangers and secrets they conceal
lend a stone its awesomeness. “Openness” refers to the larger
hollow portions of the stone’s shape, voids through which our
gaze, like light, can pass. Gazing at the seemingly random state
of a rock’s wrinkles, cracks, canals, holes, and hollows, one may
view them as a symbol of human history and life. Numbers were
often part of the Confucian precepts of Chinese antiquity, such as
“The Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues” (the three
cardinal guides are that the ruler guides the subject, the father
guides the son, and the husband guides the wife). These precepts
reinforced social stability and integrity, but the realities of human
experience and the fates of individuals were rarely as simple as
Confucian doctrines implied. Moreover, a society of conformity
may overlook or persecute the individual or disadvantaged
groups. Even a pillar of society who sanctimoniously follows all the
rules may feel internally oppressed and contorted, with no voice.
Someone like this would find some relief and consolation in the
wrinkling, thinness, perforations, and openness that disrupt the
uniformity and regularity of a Chinese courtyard. Unlike statues,
stones do not reproduce a certain form or assume a particular
geometric shape.
The rationality and simplifications of the machine age have
deprived people of the imagination and interpretative power
that natural objects can inspire. Such objects offer viewers an
opportunity to express their inner selves without forcing them
along a path dictated and preordained by the artist. This is the
richness and dynamism of the four qualities of lake stones.
Gabarron’s statues create the same sort of special relationship
with the audience. He uses his peculiar twists, turns, creases,
textures, veins, colors, shapes, distortions, and hollows to offer
self-expression and imagination to audiences in public places. He
accomplishes this without compelling the audience to experience
and understand his works in a way predetermined by himself.
The wrinkles in his statues are folds in the material that disrupt
any suggestion of human form. Their thinness comes from
the artist’s elongation and reassembling of various forms that
make them difficult to discern and utterly surprising. As for
perforations, Gabarron conceals distinctive shadows and deep
seams amid the colors and shapes of his statues. He also uses
openness to allow viewers to look through his statues and see
the scenes and the people that form their setting. To best view
his sculptures, one should see them from afar as well as up close,
and look through them. That marvelous sensation arises from
the way the artwork seems to constrict one’s vision and even
one’s breath. Although he usually portrays nude human forms—
often entangled members of opposite sexes—our eyes perceive
these forms as unique shapes wrought from the intense interplay
of the natural forces of Yin and Yang, so much like the wrinkling,
thinness, perforations, and openness of a lake stone.
Through this kind of cultural correspondence, Gabarron uses his
work to cut into a quiet, reserved, and ancient culture. At the
same time, he cannot avoid being observed and appraised by the
gaze of such a culture.
Zhu Qingsheng
Director, Institute for Han Arts Study, Peking University
Editor in Chief, Yearbook of Chinese Contemporary Art
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PERMANENT ARTWORKS
in selected Chinese
Museums and Parks

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CHINA ART MUSEUM
Kronos
Shanghai
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Dingli Art Museum
White Lady
Chongwu, Quanzhou, Fujian
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Guangdong Art Museum
Implaled XIII
Guangzhou
GUANGDONG MUSEUM OF ART
Liang Jieying
Deputy Director,
Preservation and Collection Department
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G 2 0 S u m m i t
Qianjiang Century Park
China Dream
Hangzhou,
Zhejiang Province
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E D U C A T I O N
UNIVERSITIES AND CHILDREN

Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Sichuan University of Art
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Pekin University
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G A B A R R O N
SELECTED BIOGRAPHY

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Cristobal Gabarron
(1945. Mula, Murcia, Spain
An internationally-recognized artist known for his production of public art,
as much in paint as in sculpture or monumental montage. His installations
in parks, streets, and squares have contributed to redefining the essence
of cities and communities all over the world.
Born on April 25, 1945 in the town of Mula, (Murcia) Spain, Gabarron’s
first educational experience in art was in Valladolid. Following that period
of study, he continued his career in France, Italy and the United States.
Gabarron’s work is focused on his interest in humanism, people who live
in harmony with their natural surroundings, their peaceful coexistence,
and the development of human values. During his career, which accounts
for over 50 years of experience, Gabarron has collaborated with public
and private organizations from around the world to create noteworthy
works of art for special occasions, for example, the mural for the Barcelona
Olympics (1992) and the set of murals for the Universal Exposition of
Seville (1992), or the group of sculptures for Atlanta Star (1996). His
collaboration with the United Nations has been a constant in his career
ever since 1986, when he designed the commemorative stamp for the
International Year of Peace based on his work, Our Hope for Peace. This
work was followed by Dawn in the New Millennium, which commemorated
the UN Millennium Summit (2000), the Millennium Chapel (2001) and most
recently Enlightened Universe, which was inaugurated by the secretary
general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, on October 24, 2015 in New
York City’s Central Park to mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations.
Gabarron’s collaboration with international organizations, such as the
International Olympic Committee or the United Nations, have given rise to
a very productive period that endures to this day through the Enlightened
Universe exhibition in Rond-point Schuman, Brussells, which is meant to
celebrate United Nations Day and the celebration of the 70th Anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Cities around the world have embraced Gabarron’s vision by exhibiting his
monumental sculptures. Prominent museums and European, American,
and Asian institutions have exhibited Gabarron’s works in iconic streets
and squares. Additionally, several cities have publicly and permanently
incorporated his large outdoor sculptures as part of their cultural heritage.
His work has been the subject of analysis in retrospectives, such as those
held by the Chelsea Art Museum, IVAM (Valencia Institute of Modern Art),
the Gdansk Museum of Modern Art in Poland, or the National Museum
of Art of China in Shanghai. In all, critics and historians with the authority
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of Donald Kuspit, curator and professor at New York University (NYU),
or Kosme de Barañano, curator and professor at Universidad Miguel
Hernández de Elche, have carried out careful analysis and studies of
Gabarron’s professional career, which are included in the abundant
literature published during the last several years.
In 2016, the city and museums of Cannes dedicated a major retrospective of
his sculpture with over 200 works made of various materials representing
several periods, as well as the debut of the public and private sculpture called
Mille formes à la conquête de l’espace (One thousand forms out to gain
space). In 2017, the city of Amsterdam, through the ARTZUID Foundation,
showed a selection of 28 monumental works placed in emblematic enclaves
throughout the city, like the Museum Plein (Museum Square), between the
Stedelijk and Van Gogh museums up to the Gershwin Plain. In late 2018,
the Palais des Nations Unies in Geneva held the exhibition The Color of
Human Rights, the world premiere of the 30 paintings created by Gabarron
in tribute to the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which in 2019 travelled to the Kanal Centre Pompidou in Brussels.
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Selected Exhibitions
1964. Galería Castilla, Valladolid, Spain.
1970. École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France.
1972. Galería Macarrón, Madrid, Spain.
1974. Galleria Fiamma Vigo, Rome, Italy.
1974. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
1980. Galeria Rayuela, Madrid, Spain.
1985. Space and Cube, London, UK.
1986. United Nations, New York, USA.
1990. Palais de l’Europe, Strasbourg, France.
1991. Galerie Bodenschatz, Basel, Switzerland.
1991. Tecla Sala Art Center L’Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain.
1992. American Sports Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) – Daphne, Alabama, USA.
1992. Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid, Spain.
1999. Musee Olympique, Lausanne, Switzerland.
2003. Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain.
2005. Museo del Barrio, New York, USA.
2006. Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA.
2006. IVAM – Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia, Spain.
2006. Hugieia Art Gallery, Belgium.
2006. Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain.
2006. Guy Pieters Gallery, Saint Paul de Vence, France.
2006. Palacio Almudí, Murcia, Spain.
2007. National Museum of Modern Art of Gdansk, Poland.
2009. Mal Maison, Cannes, France.
2011. Niemeyer Center, Avilés, Spain.
2012. Bokrijk Open Art Museum, Genk, Belgium.
2012. American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington DC, USA.
2013. ARTZUID, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2014. Shanghai Jing’an International Sculpture Park (JISP), Shanghai. China.
2015. China Art Museum of Shanghai, and Today Art Museum, Beijing, China.
2015. Enlightened Universe at Central Park, New York, USA.
2016. MoCA Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
2016. Mille formes à la conquête de l’espace. Cannes, France.
……… (Villa Domergue, Espace Miramar, Centre d´art La Malmaison, la Croisette,
……… Port Canto, Port de Plaisance, Le Suquet, ...)
2016. Enlightened Universe at Rotonde du Mont-Blanc, Geneva, Switzerland.
2017. ARTZUID, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2018. Enlightened Universe at Rond-point Schuman, Brussels, Belgium.
2019. Kanal Centre Pompidou, Brussels, Belgium.
2020. Huellas, Evolution Museum, Burgos, Spain.
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Selected Photographic Biography
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2020
Huellas, Evolution Forum
Museum Complex, Burgos, Spain
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Recent Works
“Color of the Air”, Polychrome Granite, 210 x 140 x 100 cm.
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“Silent Stone 5”, Polychrome Granite, 130 x 120 x 77 cm.
“Color of Time 10”, Polychrome Granite, 235 x 100 x 100 cm.
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“Tao 10”, polychrome steel, 235 x 100 x 100 cm.
“Potential”, Polychrome wood, 197 x 43 x 35 cm.
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“Both sides”, polychrome wood, 229 x 60 x 50 cm.
“Tao 12”, polychrome steel, 235 x 100 x 100 cm.
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The Gabarron Foundation Asia would like to express its gratitude to all persons and institutions that made possible this
catalogue and our presence in China. This catalogue is the result of the intersection of exhibitions, events, lectures, interviews,
and workshops developed in China during these last years.
First, we would especially like to highlight the cities of Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, and its representatives:
Spanish Ambassador to China Mr.Manuel Valencia Alonso, Chinese Ambassador to Spain Mr. Lyu Fan, Consul
General of Spain in Shanghai Mr. Gonzalo Ortiz Diez-Tortosa, Consul General of Spain in Shanghai Mr. Rodrigo
Aguirre de Cárcer, Consul General of Spain in Canton Mr. Manuel Pompo Bravo, Consul General of Spain in Shanghai
Mrs. Carmen Fontes Muñoz, Cultural Attaché of Spanish Embassy in Pekin Ms. Gloria Mínguez Ropiñon, Cultural
Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Madrid Liu Wenqiu, Spanish Consul General in Hong Kong Mr. Juan Manuel
López Nadal, Director of the Visa Section of the Spanish Consulate General in Shanghai, Mr. Ramon Marti Ripo,
Cultural Attaché of Spanish Embassy in Peking, Cultural Attaché of Spanish Embassy in Pekin Mrs. Maria Salcedo,
and Secretary of the Party Committee of Zhoupu Town, Pudong New Area Mr. Zhang Changqi.
Secondly, we would like to recognize the important support of all of the museum directors, curators and art critics (in alphabetical
order):
Chang Chen, Fang Zhenning, Claudio Feijoo, Alex Gao, Gao Yun, Jenny Heung, Huang Wenjuan, Rennie Kan, Lan
Qingwei, Li Lei, Li Mingzhen, Li Xiangning, Li Xu, Li Yuxiang, Luo Yiping, Mao Wencai, Jay Lu, Shao Shan, Shi Da Wei,
Sun Zhenhua, Pierre Tam, Wang Xiangrong, Wu Weijun, Zeng Yan, Zhang Gongfu, Peter Zhao, and Zhu Qingsheng.
And last but not least, all of the individuals that have contributed to welcoming artist Cristobal Gabarron to the Great Popular
Republic of China (in alphabetical order):
A Chong, Kattia Cheng, Luis Cheng, Rafael Cañas, Victoria Cao, David Chen, Evan Chen, Yayi Chen, Chen Zhengguo,
Dai Wei, Crystal Deng, Freda Ng, Fei Wei, Kris Gao, Tom Guan, Guo Zongwei, Han Lu, He Jiyang, Natasha He, Hua Yi,
Huang Zijun, Huang Wei, Jiang Bijun, Jiang Xiaoyao, Jin Suizi, Jin Tian, Li Deying, Lian Fang, Liao Shani, Liu Nao, Liu
Ying, Professor Long Xiang, Alex Camprubi, Lu Qixia, Lu Yiwen, Juan Jose Morales, Ou Zuqin, Rita Tang, Teng Yuning,
Shen Chaolei, Shi Yuling, Teng Yuning, Jack Tian, Jenny Wang, Wang Shan, Wang Ying, Sandra Walters, Yvette Wu, Wu
Yang, Wu Yanping, Linus Xiao, Yan Yan, Yang Cui, Yang Fan, Yang Hongbo, Yang Yuli, Yang Zhen, Jean Yu, Yu Shuting,
Zhang Changqi, Jeffrey Zhang, Zhang Xuelin, Zhao Yin, Zhao Yajing, Zhao Jiaqi, Zhou Jun, and Zhou Qunxiong.
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Copyright © 2020 by The Gabarron Foundation
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission
in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.
ISBN 9781714606153
Cover Illustration Copyright © 2015 by Taojun Photography
Book design and production by Jay Gaar
Translations by Daniel Nieh
Proofreading by Olga Desyatnik
Photography Copyright:
page 49 © 2015 by Taojun Photography
page 211 © 2016 by Enrique Martínez Bueso
Printed in the Netherlands
Published by Editorial Alto Duero
The Gabarron Foundation
99 Wall Street #969
10005 New York, NY. USA
Info@gabarron.org
+1.212.573.6968
www.gabarron.org

GABARRON IN CHINA
T H E C O L O R S O F L I F E