The exhibition “Quan la nit es trenca en mil sons. Alfaro i el jazz” (“When the night breaks into thousands of dreams. Alfaro and jazz”) is a collection of sculptures and drawings which the Valencian artist Andreu Alfaro (Valencia 1929-Godella 2012) did about jazz music, most of which come from a series called “Jazz” (1994). Organised by CMR Peset, the exhibition forms a part of the celebration of Jazz Eñe in our city, which is an internationalisation initiative of peninsular jazz promoted by the SGAE Foundation with the collaboration of Culturarts-Música and Universitat de València. The title of the exhibition is taken from a poem by Marc Granell inspired by one of the works of the Valencian sculptor which made a reference to music.
Andreu Alfaro (Valencia 1929-Godella 2013) was a huge music lover. From all musical genres, he felt a true passion for jazz, and especially for the legendary artists of American swing from the 30s and the 40s. But a place where he most enjoyed listening to music was in the intimate, warm setting of jazz clubs. Every time he travelled to New York he went to some concert and drew from nature, beaming with joy.
For Alfaro, jazz was not only a particular musical style or the best expression of Afro-American cultural identity. It also represented, as he pointed out, a certain spirit able to “sing the sorrow and turn it into joy” which reminded him of the difficult post-war years when “I heard songs of the servants, as they were called back then, with voices which answered each other, singing from the patios while they cooked or were hanging laundry”
In 1994, having been recognized at the international level as one of the main figures of Spanish sculpture of the second half of the 20th century, he wanted to dedicate a series to “Afro-American music which has given me so much passionate joy, has made my heart and feet alive, throughout my whole life”. He was not the first artist to portray jazz; it is enough to remember the works of Man Ray, Matisse, Mondrian, Lee Friedlander, Pollock, or in the case of our country, Tàpies, Guinovart or Tharrats, among others. However, getting to know jazz with the help of sculpture is a new and unexpected perspective. Hence, Alfaro´s works, a collection of sculptures and drawings which he put together under the name “Jazz”, apart from being absolutely brilliant, are complementary to this exhibition.
This exposition is a selection of works which belong to the series, together with a collection of drawingswhich come from the artist´s travel journals and which were not meant to be shown to the public. All of them show some of the most important traits of the work of the artist such as “the interpretation of sculpture as drawing in space”, as critics have commented. From this perspective, using iron and, not unintentionally, polished brass, a material present in some of his first sculptures, Alfaro evokes motives and instruments used in jazz music, including voice and the body, whose expressive possibilities were taken to the limits by this musical style.
The same energy, liveliness, simplicity and elegance of his sculptures can be noticed in his drawings on paper, in some of which the sonority of jazz seems to have found refuge, among black people who compete for space on the paper´s surface. Other drawings are a product of an in-depth listening session to a musical piece; it is a visual exploration presided by improvisation and individual expression - concepts closely linked to jazz music.
Hardly ever shown to the public, the works dedicated to jazz are an extraordinary and autonomous collection which shows Alfaro at his happiest and most playful, while at the same time lucid and inspired.
Toni Picazo
