Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
Facultad de Bellas Artes de San Carlos
Departamento de Pintura



EL PROCESO DE LA CREACIÓN EN LA OBRA DE ARTE 
INDIVIDUAL PICTÓRICA Y SU VINCULACIÓN CON 
LA PLURALIDAD REFERENCIAL



Tesis doctoral presentada por
Rafael Sánchez-Carralero Carabias
Dirigida por
Dr. D. Constancio Collado Jareño


Valencia 2009










SUMMARY. ENGLISH VERSION 


This project aims to research the variety of issues which can affect the process - from its very inception - of creating a singular work of pictorial art, one that can be described as being highly personal. The study will delve into how the evolution of art is influenced by the reigning artistic, social and cultural references and conditions. An artist is an individual who, within a specific and influential environment, chooses to define the dialectic process between the capacity for doubt and the capacity to choose the past, present or future. 

The 19th century, and especially since the Romantic period, witnessed the rise of the notion of the value of individual personality. This later became one of the main characteristics of 20th century art. In painting, the most direct influences stem from Impressionism and the highly individualistic artists who became the pillars of the styles which were formed within the chronological arch between the end of the 19th century and the present time.
 
Pictorial and conceptual processes are valuable material transmitted from one generation to another and are the foundations on which pictorial language is built. This process is shaped and supported by the artist’s thought, the vitally important impulse of the creative process. This  paper presents the notion of individuality and process as the main elements of creation in visual arts and focuses on the study and selection of thoughts, statements and theoretical expressions of a number of important and influential artists from the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century whose influence stems not only from the quality of their work but also from the fact that they acted as catalysts for their contemporary artists and also consolidated the essential foundations of modern art. 

The exploration by an artist in search of pictorial creation is a process of continual movement and change. The act of painting is not in linear relationship with the painter, but evolves, producing outcomes which cannot be predicted with certainty.  Its vitality constantly generates multiple changes in reference and gaze, uncertainties in direction, choice and action which go beyond the limits of prediction. The painter’s every fragmentary idea tends to become the centre of his or her thinking and can act as the impulse of artistic work. In many instances, an isolated reflection has becomes a decisive engine of creation. Using this inquisitive spirit as a starting point, the artists’ writings have been approached bearing in mind the fragmentary nature of artistic thought. As Edgar Wind pointed out, the German philosopher Friedrich Schlegel questioned the notion that thought should lead to logical conclusions, preferring to collect fragmentary thoughts that kept the mind in a state of effervescence. Schlegel was advocating what would become one of the defining traits of 20th century painting.

In taking on a problem as complex as individual and personal creation, and the endless details that may shed light on the production of a pictorial work of art, the aim is to research a plurality of thought from a diverse range of painters, to give this project as wide a scope as possible and to open possible research avenues while developing this important field. The study of art and the work of artists from a specifically pictorial perspective takes into account the reflexive process involved in theoretical statements and manifestations. This open selective methodology has studied the thoughts expressed by different painters but which can still be considered as belonging to the world of individual creation.

In covering these subjects, this project has strived to delve deeper into highly relevant questions which directly affect the pictorial process, and more specifically affect the open, undefined and unbounded space that exists between an idea and the execution of a work of art. With this in mind, the work has been structured into four general areas, preceded by the chapter “An approximation to the transformation of conceptual reality into visual terms which recognises the vital importance for painters of the complex web of thoughts, emotions and ideas which live on and coalesce within the conceptual reality of the individual”. The general areas relate to the following subjects: Nature as object, place and reference / Pictorial references / On the idea of abstraction / Between abstraction and figuration. The subjects explored in these chapters are intended to be significant and relevant to the creative process as portrayed in the writings and texts of the artists studied. 

This inquiry into the thought of artists regarding these subjects through their own words, confirms that the creative process is constantly activated by mechanisms of change and by interaction with the environment, the multiplicity of references and the evolution of pictorial medium itself. A painter is constantly on an intellectual journey in search of images, ideas and ways of conceptually and technically resolving the artwork. Art is a process, it is alive, constantly mutating, and its reality is always made up of an interaction of ideas. There is no system that can ensure creation, nor an exact and stable definition of what art is. It is as if the concept of art had no reason to exist if it were not for those specific instances where it is activated by an inspirational concept, so that it is always subject to the constant debate inherent to the creative nature of any painter.
All this multiplies the effect of diversity and expressive freedom, and reinforces the value of the individual character of the artist, approaching the idea that as many artistic possibilities exist as there are different phases in the creative processes of each and every artist. 

The subjects and cultural manifestations that have been selected for this study make up the core of the Thesis, and are intended as a contribution to the understanding of artistic processes in general, through an approximation to the key processes within individual painting practices and through a plurality of references.