In November 2014 the government approved a lifetime achievement for Jordi Teixidor. The National Plastic Arts Award recognized the Valencian painter for a path that the jury described as uniquely demanding, a journey chosen with clear conscience and independence in the art world.
That path has endured for more than six decades. Teixidor stands as a towering figure in contemporary Spanish abstraction, always looking ahead while honoring what came before. His recent retrospectives began with the 2022 IVAM show titled End of the Game, gathering works from the Nueva Generación and Hasta del Arte groups from their beginnings to the present. A documentary retrospective follows, scheduled to premiere on January 26 at the Valencian museum, with Teixidor centered as its sole and complete protagonist.
He notes aloud before Lift-EMV that the documentary includes no reproductions of his paintings. From his perspective, the film breaks conventional ground by focusing on the painter and his work without showing any of the artworks themselves, a surprising approach that highlights intent over illustration.
When Jordi Teixidor joined the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in 2002, a moment captured in a photograph serves as a reminder of his early beginnings.
Simple, white and unlimited
Teixidor often frames action within a stark, white space with precise boundaries that could easily be mistaken for the painter’s own canvas. The actual paintings, however, remain elusive in imagery while the artist recalls a youth spent studying at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts. The documentary’s producers Miguel Álvarez Fernández, Bruno Dozza, and Álvaro Oliveros del Castillo encouraged Teixidor to discuss not only his work but also the context surrounding it. The filmmaker team previously collaborated with the musician Luis de Pablo, aiming to reveal not just form but the ideas behind the art. Teixidor agreed, believing that talking about painting can illuminate it without arrogance and that the film serves as a measure of intellectual maturity for anyone who wishes to understand his trajectory.
A literary painter
Valencia, 1941. Teixidor grew up as the eighth child in a house full of books, a background that helped shape his artistic sensibilities. The retrospective opens with the painter acknowledging literature as a lasting influence. Reading formed the core of his ideas about culture and creation, and he notes that reading can become painting in the mind’s eye. Though novels have receded lately, poetry continues to guide him toward a medium beyond painting.
Exposure to Central European culture influenced his sensibilities, marking a departure from a purely Mediterranean or provincial painting education. He credits the San Carlos School of Fine Arts with shaping his approach, drawing a line to Sorolla in his work while conceding that the essence of painting lies beyond mere representation. He describes a lifelong struggle to balance modernity with the traditional expectations of his homeland. In his view, abstraction was a means to adapt to modernity in a country where the concept faced resistance on both left and right.
The sacred versus the humorous
Teixidor observes that his retrospective includes political undercurrents and a faith inspired by art itself. He suggests that the sacred once embedded in art has been displaced by contemporary notions that often resemble spectacle more than meaning. He maintains that painting can still carry a sacred quality, even as the broader culture gravitates toward performance and event-driven experiences. The point, as he sees it, is that sacredness may emerge within painting itself, provoking thought and even seriousness in a way that resonates beyond fashion or trend. His method favors subtraction, aiming for a purity that resists the ordinary or the merely decorative.
In the film Retrospective, the scene ends with Teixidor recalling an interview in which Curro Romero discussed slowing down his approach to bullfighting. The painter reflects a similar wish: to paint slower, more deeply, and with greater intention.