JOAN COSTA, PAINTER OF MYTHS
Josep Piera

Joan Costa’s paintings not only fascinate but also unsettle; they not only attract our gaze but draw us into their interpretation. I mean to say that this is not painting solely meant for decorative contemplation; rather, upon scrutiny, it captivates attention, holds it and is moving. It is painting that evokes, attracts, communicates and feels. It also playfully engages with the fragmented memories of the past and the ephemeral ghosts of desire. Joan Costa paints with the mastery of a classic, yet more than depicting the plain reality of the present, more than portraying what we see, more than painting the nature of the things around us, he paints the fantasies of a time that is or has been ours. I mean cultural time, that is, the myths of the generation that both he and I represent—the generation born in the mid-20th century, children of the European avant-garde, raised with the dazzling stars of American cinema and matured witnessing the tragic, orgiastic flames bringing down the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001. A true fallen symbol, a powerful temple disappeared, which suddenly made us apocalyptically ancient; it transformed us, if you will, not just into postmodernists (followers of modernity) but into post-ancients (ironic recreators of antiquity). Jean Cocteau said, “History transforms truth into falsehood, while myth is the falsehood that becomes incarnate”. Paraphrasing the master, I would say that Joan Costa’s current painting visually embodies the fantasies of our virtual world (painting, literature, sculpture, photography, film…), transforming the delusions or desires of our time into timeless truths of art; I mean, it eternalises the ideological and aesthetic dreams of an era that is already history: ours, the 20th century.

Constellations, appropriations, tributes… Art does not mimic reality; it reshapes it. In the early 20th century, some painters traded their brushes for cameras, seeking a more intimate, intellectual and erotic connection with their objects of desire—explored by Wilhelm von Gloeden or Man Ray, among others. In the previous century, photography accomplished with the human body and still lifes what sculpture and painting did in classical Greece and Rome, skilfully illustrated by Mapplethorpe. Now, following or appropriating these cultured references, akin to Andy Warhol’s approach with banal or sublime consumer objects (from a tin of tomato soup or a bottle of Coca-Cola to a portrait of Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe), Joan Costa reintegrates photography—now an icon or relic of the past—into painting. This transformation unfolds as a play of mirrors and wonders: pasts present and presents past, where life and death, beauty and drama, ideology and religion intermingle in a tense harmony of forms, symbols and lights. It captivates, ensnares and prompts simultaneous feelings and thoughts. As we have noted, Joan Costa’s current art not only fascinates but also disturbs, because everything and nothing simultaneously defines its essence; or perhaps, nothing, which embodies everything, is what it appears to be. Appearances? Icons? Relics? Photos? Paintings? Or is it a baroque irony, as sophisticated as it is pop, showing us a youthful and divine Elizabeth Taylor transformed into a Veronica in silks, revealing the face of Che Guevara akin to Jesus of Nazareth on Calvary?

With this exhibition, Joan Costa displays and demonstrates that he is the most vibrant and imaginative painter in La Safor. Or at least the most daring, evocative, mature and provocative artist among the Safor generation that, in our youth, aspired to transform the world around us—from the dullest grey to every shade of green imaginable.