This space is reserved to spanish famous authors of the world of art and culture.
Our first publcation is dadicated to :
Miguel de Cervantes.
We know little about the birth of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. The exact date cannot be found in any registry. Perhaps he was born the 29th of September, the day of San Miguel, for which he was named. We do know that he was born in Alcalá de Henares, a small university town near Madrid, where he was baptised in the church of Santa María on October 9, 1547. Cervantes was the fourth of the seven children born to Doña Leonor de Cortinas and Don Rodrigo de Cervantes, an itinerant surgeon who struggled to maintain his practice and his family by travelling throughout Spain.
Little more is known about the first twenty years of Cervantes’ life. He is thought to have gone to school in Valladolid and Sevilla. We don’t know any dates except that in 1567-68, he was registered in the school of the Spanish humanist, Juan Lopez de Hoyos, in Madrid.
In
1569 Cervantes travelled to Italy to serve in the household of an
Italian nobleman and, a year later, he joined the Spanish military. On
September 7, 1571, he fought bravely against the Turks at the Battle of
Lepanto where he was seriously wounded and lost the use of his left
hand. After a lengthy period of recovery, he decided to return to the
soldier’s life. In April 1572, he joined the company of Manuel Ponce de
León, where we believe his brother Rodrigo was also enrolled. Together
they participated in a number of battles.The brothers Cervantes departed Italy for Spain in 1575. They were captured during the return journey by pirates and taken to Algiers, where they were imprisoned and where they bravely jeopardised their lives trying to escape. After five years of captivity, Cervantes was liberated, thanks to the negotiations of the Trinitarian fathers. (His brother had already been released.) On the 27th of October, he arrived in Valencia, poor (his father had to sell all his possessions for the ransom) and humiliated. The experience was a turning point in his life, and numerous references to the themes of freedom and captivity appear in his work.
Cervantes came back from Algiers deeply in debt because of the ransom paid to release him. To earn money, he decided to reenlist in the army. He went to Portugal and took part in the battle of “Las Azores” in 1582. One year later, he returned to Spain with the manuscript of a romance, La Galatea and possibly the first part of Persiles y Segismunda. He also brought some notes for his biography. During this year, a child named Isabel de Saavedra was born to Cervantes and a lady of Lisbon’s aristocracy.
On December 12, 1584, 37 year old Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra married Doña Catalina de Palacios Salazara, a woman almost twenty years younger. The marriage obliged Cervantes to look for a job and in 1588 he secured a position as a government official in the south of Spain, requisitioning wheat and olive oil for the campaign of the Invincible Armada.
His new position gave him the opportunity to learn the customs and habits of Sevilla, traditions he described in Don Quixote. He was arrested twice in Sevilla for taking possession of merchandise belonging to the deacon of Sevilla’s Cathedral. These experiences justify the legend that the first part of Don Quixote was written in jail.
His stay in Sevilla was a period of calamities for Cervantes. His luck was not better in literature. In 1595, he won first prize (three silver spoons) in a poem competition and, three years later, his song El entierro del Rey Felipe II en Sevilla received some attention, although the rest of his poems were to remain unpublished.
La gitanilla, Rinconete y Cortadillo, La Galatea, and Persiles y Segismunda are among his lasting works, but without a doubt his most famous creation is don Quixote, El Ingenioso Hidalgo de la Mancha, considered the first modern novel. The first part was published in 1605, when Cervantes was 57. This is why we can say that this work is the experience of his entire life. A few weeks after its publication, three falsified editions appeared in Lisbon. Although Cervantes became an overnight success, his economic problems didn’t disappear. That same year, he was accused of participating in a fight, and he and his family were arrested and held in jail for more than a week. It is rumoured that he spent the following three years in hiding.
From 1609 to 1616, Cervantes lived again in Madrid. In 1609, he was invited to become a member of the new fraternity “Los Esclavos del Santo Sacramento” and his wife entered the convent of the order of San Francisco. In 1612, the author became a member of a new literary club: “Academia Salvaje”.
During his Madrid years, Cervantes was a very prolific writer. He wrote his Novelas Ejemplares (1613), the burlesque poem Viaje del Parnaso and a prose version of the poem (included in El Parnaso, 1614). In 1614, another author, Alonso Fernández de Tordesillas, published a second part of Don Quixote, before Cervantes had done so. This convinced Cervantes to continue his work (1615). Cervantes’ second part of Don Quixote was published in Brussels (1615), in Valencia (1616) and in Lisbon (1617). The first translation was made in 1618, to French. Since 1617, the novel’s two sections have been published as one volume.
Close to the end of his life, Cervantes became a member of the order of San Francisco. The Franciscans buried don Miguel de Cervantes, by then called “the prince of the ingenious”, in Madrid, April 23, 1616, the same day another literary giant, William Shakespeare, was put to rest in England. The Franciscans buried Don Cervantes in a Trinitarian monastery in Madrid.
Sources:
http://www.donquijote.org/vmuseum/biography-cervantes
http://www.donquixote.com/cervantes.html
http://www.cyberspain.com/year/index.htm
http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8006/station1.html
Macaco (band)
Prior to his singing career, Carbonell had dubbed over Sean Astin's character Mikey Walsh in the 1985 film Goonies.
The members, from different countries such as Brazil, Cameroon, Sweden, Venezuela and Spain, give to its music a mixed color, with electro accents of Latin music and rumba.
Carbonell sings in Spanish and Catalan, but also in Portuguese, French, English and Italian. Their song "Hacen Falta Dos" appears in the EA Sports Game FIFA 10 and "Moving" appeared in Fifa 09, their most recent song to be played in a FIFA game is "Una Sola Voz", that is part of the FIFA 12 soundtrack.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
María Dolores "Lola" Flores Ruiz
(21 January 1923 – 16 May 1995) was a
Spanish singer, dancer and actress.
Professional career
Flores was born in Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz (Andalusia, Spain). Although not a Gypsy herself, she is strongly identified with the Spanish gypsy culture.[1] She became a famous dancer and singer of Andalusian folklore at a very young age, performing flamenco, copla or chotis and featuring in films from 1939 to 1987. Her greatest success was in folklore shows with Manolo Caracol, who was her artistic partner until 1951.Personal life
In 1958 she married Antonio González el Pescaílla, a guitarist from Cataluña Spain who was gypsy. She had three children: Dolores (singer and actress Lolita Flores); rock musician, singer and actor Antonio Flores; and singer and actress Rosario Flores.Lola Flores died of breast cancer in 1995, aged 72, and was buried in the Cementerio de la Almudena in Madrid. Shortly after her death, her distraught 33-year-old son, Antonio Flores, committed suicide by overdosing with barbiturate and was buried near her.
In 2007, the biography Lola, la película was made. The movie describes her early life, starting in 1931 until 1958.
Sources: Wikipedia
Pablo Ruiz Picasso
Picasso was baptized Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad, a series of names honoring various saints and relatives.[8] Added to these were Ruiz and Picasso, for his father and mother, respectively, as per Spanish law. Born in the city of Málaga in the Andalusian region of Spain, he was the first child of Don José Ruiz y Blasco (1838–1913) and María Picasso y López.[9] Picasso’s family was middle-class. His father was a painter who specialized in naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. For most of his life Ruiz was a professor of art at the School of Crafts and a curator of a local museum. Ruiz’s ancestors were minor aristocrats.
The family moved to A Coruña in 1891, where his father became a professor at the School of Fine Arts. They stayed almost four years. On one occasion, the father found his son painting over his unfinished sketch of a pigeon. Observing the precision of his son’s technique, an apocryphal story relates, Ruiz felt that the thirteen-year-old Picasso had surpassed him, and vowed to give up painting,[11] though paintings by him exist from later years.
In 1895, Picasso was traumatized when his seven-year-old sister, Conchita, died of diphtheria.[12] After her death, the family moved to Barcelona, where Ruiz took a position at its School of Fine Arts. Picasso thrived in the city, regarding it in times of sadness or nostalgia as his true home.[13] Ruiz persuaded the officials at the academy to allow his son to take an entrance exam for the advanced class. This process often took students a month, but Picasso completed it in a week, and the impressed jury admitted him, at just 13. The student lacked discipline but made friendships that would affect him in later life. His father rented him a small room close to home so he could work alone, yet he checked up on him numerous times a day, judging his drawings. The two argued frequently.
Picasso’s father and uncle decided to send the young artist to Madrid’s Royal Academy of San Fernando, the country's foremost art school.[13] At age 16, Picasso set off for the first time on his own, but he disliked formal instruction and quit attending classes soon after enrollment. Madrid, however, held many other attractions. The Prado housed paintings by Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya, and Francisco Zurbarán. Picasso especially admired the works of El Greco; elements like the elongated limbs, arresting colors, and mystical visages are echoed in his later work.
Career beginnings
By 1905, Picasso became a favorite of the American art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein. Their older brother Michael Stein and his wife Sarah also became collectors of his work. Picasso painted portraits of both Gertrude Stein and her nephew Allan Stein.[16] Gertrude Stein became Picasso's principal patron, acquiring his drawings and paintings and exhibiting them in her informal Salon at her home in Paris.[17] At one of her gatherings in 1905, he met Henri Matisse, who was to become a lifelong friend and rival. The Steins introduced him to Claribel Cone and her sister Etta who were American art collectors; they also began to acquire Picasso and Matisse's paintings. Eventually Leo Stein moved to Italy, and Michael and Sarah Stein became patrons of Matisse; while Gertrude Stein continued to collect Picasso.[18]
In Paris, Picasso entertained a distinguished coterie of friends in the Montmartre and Montparnasse quarters, including André Breton, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, writer Alfred Jarry, and Gertrude Stein. Apollinaire was arrested on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. Apollinaire pointed to his friend Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated.[20]
Personal life
In the early 20th century, Picasso divided his time between Barcelona and Paris. In 1904, in the middle of a storm, he met Fernande Olivier, a bohemian artist who became his mistress.[12] Olivier appears in many of his Rose period paintings. After acquiring some fame and fortune, Picasso left Olivier for Marcelle Humbert, whom he called Eva Gouel. Picasso included declarations of his love for Eva in many Cubist works. Picasso was devastated by her premature death from illness at the age of 30 in 1915.[21]
In 1927 Picasso met 17-year-old Marie-Thérèse Walter and began a secret affair with her. Picasso’s marriage to Khokhlova soon ended in separation rather than divorce, as French law required an even division of property in the case of divorce, and Picasso did not want Khokhlova to have half his wealth. The two remained legally married until Khokhlova’s death in 1955. Picasso carried on a long-standing affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter and fathered a daughter with her, named Maya. Marie-Thérèse lived in the vain hope that Picasso would one day marry her, and hanged herself four years after Picasso’s death. Throughout his life Picasso maintained a number of mistresses in addition to his wife or primary partner. Picasso was married twice and had four children by three women.
War years and beyond
During the Second World War, Picasso remained in Paris while the Germans occupied the city. Picasso’s artistic style did not fit the Nazi ideal of art, so he did not exhibit during this time. Retreating to his studio, he continued to paint, producing works such as the Still Life with Guitar (1942) and The Charnel House (1944–48).[23] Although the Germans outlawed bronze casting in Paris, Picasso continued regardless, using bronze smuggled to him by the French Resistance.[24]Around this time, Picasso took up writing as an alternative outlet. Between 1935 and 1959 he wrote over 300 poems. Largely untitled except for a date and sometimes the location of where it was written (for example "Paris 16 May 1936"), these works were gustatory, erotic and at times scatological, as were his two full-length plays Desire Caught by the Tail (1941) and The Four Little Girls (1949).[25]
In 1944, after the liberation of Paris, Picasso, then 63 years old, began a romantic relationship with a young art student named Françoise Gilot. She was 40 years younger than he was. Picasso grew tired of his mistress Dora Maar; Picasso and Gilot began to live together. Eventually they had two children: Claude, born in 1947 and Paloma, born in 1949. In her 1964 book Life with Picasso,[26] Gilot describes his abusive treatment and myriad infidelities which led her to leave him, taking the children with her. This was a severe blow to Picasso.
Picasso had affairs with women of an even greater age disparity than his and Gilot's. While still involved with Gilot, in 1951 Picasso had a six-week affair with Geneviève Laporte, who was four years younger than Gilot. Eventually, as evident in his work, Picasso began to come to terms with his advancing age and his waning attraction to young women.[citation needed] By his 70s, many paintings, ink drawings and prints have as their theme an old, grotesque dwarf as the doting lover of a beautiful young model. Jacqueline Roque (1927–1986) worked at the Madoura Pottery in Vallauris on the French Riviera, where Picasso made and painted ceramics. She became his lover, and then his second wife in 1961. The two were together for the remainder of Picasso’s life.
His marriage to Roque was also a means of revenge against Gilot; with Picasso’s encouragement, Gilot had divorced her then husband, Luc Simon, with the plan to finally actually marry Picasso to secure the rights of her children as Picasso's legitimate heirs. However, Picasso had already secretly married Roque, after Gilot had filed for divorce. This strained his relationship with Claude and Paloma.
By this time, Picasso had constructed a huge Gothic home, and could afford large villas in the south of France, such as Mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie on the outskirts of Mougins, and in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. He was an international celebrity, with often as much interest in his personal life as his art.
In addition to his artistic accomplishments, Picasso made a few film appearances, always as himself, including a cameo in Jean Cocteau’s Testament of Orpheus. In 1955 he helped make the film Le Mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso) directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Death
Pablo Picasso died on 8 April 1973 in Mougins, France, while he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner. His final words were "Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can't drink any more."[27] He was interred at the Chateau of Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence, a property he had acquired in 1958 and occupied with Jacqueline between 1959 and 1962. Jacqueline Roque prevented his children Claude and Paloma from attending the funeral.[28] Devastated and lonely after the death of Picasso, Jacqueline Roque took her own life by gunshot in 1986 when she was 59 years old.[29]Children
- Paulo (4 February 1921 – 5 June 1975) (Born Paul Joseph Picasso) — with Olga Khokhlova
- Maya (5 September 1935 – ) (Born Maria de la Concepcion Picasso) — with Marie-Thérèse Walter
- Claude (15 May 1947 –) (Born Claude Pierre Pablo Picasso) ) — with Françoise Gilot
- Paloma (19 April 1949 – ) (Born Anne Paloma Picasso) — with Françoise Gilot
Political views
In 1944 Picasso joined the French Communist Party, attended an international peace conference in Poland, and in 1950 received the Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government,[30] But party criticism of a portrait of Stalin as insufficiently realistic cooled Picasso’s interest in Soviet politics, though he remained a loyal member of the Communist Party until his death. In a 1945 interview with Jerome Seckler, Picasso stated: "I am a Communist and my painting is Communist painting. ... But if I were a shoemaker, Royalist or Communist or anything else, I would not necessarily hammer my shoes in a special way to show my politics."[31] His Communist militancy, common among continental intellectuals and artists at the time although it was officially banned in Francoist Spain, has long been the subject of some controversy; a notable source or demonstration thereof was a quote commonly attributed to Salvador Dalí (with whom Picasso had a rather strained relationship[32]):
- Picasso es pintor, yo también; [...] Picasso es español, yo también; Picasso es comunista, yo tampoco.
- (Picasso is a painter, so am I; [...] Picasso is a Spaniard, so am I; Picasso is a communist, neither am I.)[33][34][35][36][37][38]
In 1962, he received the Lenin Peace Prize.[41] Biographer and art critic John Berger felt his talents as an artist were "wasted" by the communists.[42]
According to Jean Cocteau's diaries, Picasso once said to him in reference to the communists: "I have joined a family, and like all families, it's full of shit".[43]
He was against the intervention of the United Nations and the United States[44] in the Korean War and he depicted it in Massacre in Korea.
Art
| “ | Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. | ” |
— Pablo Picasso[45]
|
In 1939–40 the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, under its director Alfred Barr, a Picasso enthusiast, held a major and highly successful retrospective of his principal works up until that time. This exhibition lionized the artist, brought into full public view in America the scope of his artistry, and resulted in a reinterpretation of his work by contemporary art historians and scholars.[46]
Before 1901
Picasso’s training under his father began before 1890. His progress can be traced in the collection of early works now held by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, which provides one of the most comprehensive records extant of any major artist’s beginnings.[47] During 1893 the juvenile quality of his earliest work falls away, and by 1894 his career as a painter can be said to have begun.[48] The academic realism apparent in the works of the mid-1890s is well displayed in The First Communion (1896), a large composition that depicts his sister, Lola. In the same year, at the age of 14, he painted Portrait of Aunt Pepa, a vigorous and dramatic portrait that Juan-Eduardo Cirlot has called "without a doubt one of the greatest in the whole history of Spanish painting."[49]In 1897 his realism became tinged with Symbolist influence, in a series of landscape paintings rendered in non naturalistic violet and green tones. What some call his Modernist period (1899–1900) followed. His exposure to the work of Rossetti, Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch, combined with his admiration for favorite old masters such as El Greco, led Picasso to a personal version of modernism in his works of this period.[50]
Blue Period
La Vie (1903), Cleveland Museum of Art
For more details on this topic, see Picasso's Blue Period.
Picasso’s Blue Period (1901–1904) consists of somber paintings
rendered in shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by
other colors. This period’s starting point is uncertain; it may have
begun in Spain in the spring of 1901, or in Paris in the second half of
the year.[51]
Many paintings of gaunt mothers with children date from this period. In
his austere use of color and sometimes doleful subject
matter—prostitutes and beggars are frequent subjects—Picasso was
influenced by a trip through Spain and by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas.
Starting in autumn of 1901 he painted several posthumous portraits of
Casagemas, culminating in the gloomy allegorical painting La Vie (1903),[52] now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.[53]The same mood pervades the well-known etching The Frugal Repast (1904),[54] which depicts a blind man and a sighted woman, both emaciated, seated at a nearly bare table. Blindness is a recurrent theme in Picasso’s works of this period, also represented in The Blindman’s Meal (1903, the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and in the portrait of Celestina (1903). Other works include Portrait of Soler and Portrait of Suzanne Bloch.
Rose Period
For more details on this topic, see Picasso's Rose Period.
The Rose Period (1904–1906)[55] is characterized by a more cheery style with orange and pink colors, and featuring many circus people, acrobats and harlequins
known in France as saltimbanques. The harlequin, a comedic character
usually depicted in checkered patterned clothing, became a personal
symbol for Picasso. Picasso met Fernande Olivier, a model for sculptors
and artists, in Paris in 1904, and many of these paintings are
influenced by his warm relationship with her, in addition to his
increased exposure to French painting. The generally upbeat and
optimistic mood of paintings in this period is reminiscent of the
1899–1901 period (i.e. just prior to the Blue Period) and 1904 can be
considered a transition year between the two periods.African-influenced Period
For more details on this topic, see Picasso's African Period.
Picasso’s African-influenced Period (1907–1909) begins with the two figures on the right in his painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,
which were inspired by African artifacts. Formal ideas developed during
this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows.Cubism
Classicism and surrealism
In the period following the upheaval of World War I, Picasso produced work in a neoclassical style. This "return to order" is evident in the work of many European artists in the 1920s, including André Derain, Giorgio de Chirico, Gino Severini, the artists of the New Objectivity movement and of the Novecento Italiano movement. Picasso’s paintings and drawings from this period frequently recall the work of Raphael and Ingres.During the 1930s, the minotaur replaced the harlequin as a common motif in his work. His use of the minotaur came partly from his contact with the surrealists, who often used it as their symbol, and it appears in Picasso’s Guernica. The minotaur and Picasso's mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter are heavily featured in his celebrated Vollard Suite of etchings.[56]
Guernica was on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art for many years. In 1981, it was returned to Spain and was on exhibit at the Casón del Buen Retiro. In 1992 the painting was put on display in Madrid’s Reina Sofía Museum when it opened.
Later works
Picasso’s final works were a mixture of styles, his means of expression in constant flux until the end of his life. Devoting his full energies to his work, Picasso became more daring, his works more colorful and expressive, and from 1968 through 1971 he produced a torrent of paintings and hundreds of copperplate etchings. At the time these works were dismissed by most as pornographic fantasies of an impotent old man or the slapdash works of an artist who was past his prime. Only later, after Picasso’s death, when the rest of the art world had moved on from abstract expressionism, did the critical community come to see that Picasso had already discovered neo-expressionism and was, as so often before, ahead of his time.
Commemoration and legacy
The Museu Picasso in Barcelona features many of his early works, created while he was living in Spain, including many rarely seen works which reveal his firm grounding in classical techniques. The museum also holds many precise and detailed figure studies done in his youth under his father’s tutelage, as well as the extensive collection of Jaime Sabartés, his close friend and personal secretary.
Several paintings by Picasso rank among the most expensive paintings in the world. Garçon à la pipe sold for US$104 million at Sotheby's on 4 May 2004, establishing a new price record. Dora Maar au Chat sold for US$95.2 million at Sotheby’s on 3 May 2006.[60] On 4 May 2010, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust was sold at Christie's for $106.5 million. The 1932 work, which depicts Picasso's mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter reclining and as a bust, was in the personal collection of Los Angeles philanthropist Frances Lasker Brody, who died in November 2009. Christie's won the rights to auction the collection against London-based Sotheby's. The collection as a whole was valued at over $150 million, while the work was originally expected to earn $80 million at auction.[61] There were more than half a dozen bidders, while the winning bid was taken via telephone.[62][63] The previous auction record ($104.3 million) was set in February 2010, by Alberto Giacometti's Walking Man I.[64]
As of 2004, Picasso remains the top ranked artist (based on sales of his works at auctions) according to the Art Market Trends report.[65] More of his paintings have been stolen than those by any other artist;[66] the Art Loss Register has 550 of his works listed as missing.[67]
The Picasso Administration functions as his official Estate. The U.S. copyright representative for the Picasso Administration is the Artists Rights Society.[68]
In the 1996 movie Surviving Picasso, Picasso is portrayed by actor Anthony Hopkins.
Recent major exhibitions
Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, an exhibition of 150 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs from the Musée National Picasso in Paris. The exhibit touring schedule includes:- 8 October 2010 – 17 January 2011, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA.
- 19 February 2011 – 15 May 2011, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
- 11 June 2011 – 9 October 2011, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, USA.[69]
- 12 November 2011 – 25 March 2012, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.[70]
- 28 April 2012 – 26 August 2012, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Camaron de la Isla
Camarón de la Isla (December 5, 1950 – July 2, 1992), was the stage name of a Spanish flamenco singer José Monje Cruz. Considered one of the all time greatest flamenco singers, he was noted for his collaborations with Paco de Lucia and Tomatito, and between them they were of major importance to the revival of flamenco in the second half of the 20th century.[1]
Contents |
Early life
He was born in San Fernando, Cádiz, Spain into a gypsy family, the second of eight children. His mother was Juana Cruz Castro, a basket weaver ("La Canastera"), whose gift of singing was a strong early influence. His father, Juan Luis Monje, was also a singer as well as a blacksmith, and had a forge where Camarón worked as a boy.[2] His uncle José nicknamed him Camarón (Spanish for "Shrimp") because he was blonde and fair skinned. When his father died of asthma, while still very young, the family went through financial hardship. At the age of eight he began to sing at inns and bus stops with Rancapino to earn money. At sixteen, he won first prize at the Festival del Cante Jondo in Mairena de Alcor.[2] Camarón then went to Madrid with Miguel de los Reyes and in 1968 became a resident artist at the Tablao Torres Bermejas where he remained for twelve years.[1]Musical career
During his time at Tablao Torres Bermejas, he met Paco de Lucía, with whom he recorded nine albums between 1969 and 1977. The two toured extensively together during this period.[3] As Paco de Lucía became more occupied with solo concert commitments, Camarón worked with one of Paco's students, Tomatito.In 1976, at the age of 25, Camarón married Dolores Montoya, a Romani girl from La Línea de la Concepción whom he nicknamed "La Chispa" (The Spark).[4] At the time La Chispa was only 16. The couple had four children.
On December 5, 2000, the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía posthumously awarded to Camarón the ´Llave de Oro del Cante´, the Golden Key of Flamenco.[8] This was only the fourth key awarded since 1862.
In 2005, director Jaime Chávarri released the biopic Camarón in Spain starring Óscar Jaenada as Camarón and Verónica Sánchez - star of popular Spanish TV series Los Serrano - as La Chispa. The film, produced in consultation with Camarón's widow, was subsequently nominated for several Goya Awards.
In 2006, Isaki Lacuesta directed La Leyenda del Tiempo (The Legend of Time), in which a Japanese woman visits the place of Camarón's birth to learn to sing exactly like him.
Source: Wikipedia
José Antonio Domínguez Banderas
(born 10 August 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer. He began his acting career at age 19 with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar and then appeared in high-profile Hollywood films, especially in the 1990s, including Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, Desperado, The Mask of Zorro, Spy Kids, the Shrek sequels and Puss in Boots.
Early life
Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalucía, Spain, in 1960, to Ana Banderas, a school teacher, and José Domínguez, a police officer in the Guardia Civil.[1] He has a younger brother, Javier. Although the family name is Domínguez, he took his mother's surname as his stage name.[2] As a child, he wanted to become a professional football player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of fifteen. He went on to enroll in some drama classes, eventually joining a theater troupe that toured all over Spain. His work in the theater, and his performances on the streets, eventually landed him a spot with the National Theatre of Spain.[3]Career
Early work, 1982–90
His acting career began at the age of 19,[citation needed] when he worked in small theatres during Spain’s post-dictatorial cultural movement known as the 'Movida'.[4] While performing with the theatre, Banderas caught the attention of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who cast the young actor in his 1982 film debut, Labyrinth of Passion. Five years later he went on to appear in the director's Law of Desire, making headlines with his performance as a gay man, which required him to engage in his first male-to-male onscreen kiss. After Banderas appeared in Almodóvar's 1986 Matador, the director cast him in his internationally acclaimed 1988 film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The recognition Banderas gained for his role increased two years later when he starred in Almodóvar's controversial Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! as a mental patient who kidnaps a porn star (Victoria Abril) and keeps her tied up until she returns his love.[3] It was his breakthrough role in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, that helped spur him on to Hollywood.[5] Banderas' having become a regular feature of Almodóvar's movies all throughout the 1980s, Almodóvar is credited for helping launch Banderas's international career.[6]Breakthrough, 1991–94
In 1991 Madonna introduced Banderas to Hollywood in the documentary film Madonna: Truth or Dare. In the film, Madonna says she wants to seduce Banderas even though she knows he was married.The following year, still speaking minimal English, he began acting in U.S. films. Despite having to learn all his lines phonetically, Banderas still managed to turn in a critically praised performance as a struggling musician in his first American drama film, The Mambo Kings (1992).
Banderas then broke through to mainstream American audiences in the film, Philadelphia (1993), as the gay lover of AIDS-afflicted lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks). The film's success earned Banderas wide recognition, and the following year was given a role in Neil Jordan's high-profile adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, which allowed him to share the screen with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.[3]
Worldwide recognition, 1995–present
He appeared in several major Hollywood releases in 1995, including a starring role in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film Desperado and the antagonist on the action film Assassins, co-starred with Sylvester Stallone. In 1996, he starred alongside Madonna in Evita, an adaptation of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and in Tim Rice in which he played the narrator, Che, a role played by David Essex in the original 1978 West End production. He also made success with his role as the legendary masked swordsman Zorro in the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro.In 2001, he collaborated with Robert Rodriguez who cast him in the Spy Kids film trilogy. He also starred in Michael Cristofer's Original Sin alongside Angelina Jolie the same year. In 2002, he starred in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale opposite Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and in Julie Taymor's Frida with Salma Hayek. In 2003, he starred in the last installment of the trilogy Once Upon A Time In Mexico (in which he appeared with Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek). Banderas' debut as a director was the poorly-received Crazy in Alabama (1999), starring his wife Melanie Griffith.[7]
In 2003, he returned to the musical genre, appearing to great acclaim in the Broadway revival of Maury Yeston's musical Nine, based on the film 8½, playing the prime role originated by the late Raúl Juliá. Banderas won both the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and was nominated for the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.[8] His performance is preserved on the Broadway cast recording released by PS Classics. The following year (2004), he received the Rita Moreno HOLA Award for Excellence from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA).
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 6801 Hollywood Blvd. in 2005.
In 2011, the horror thriller The Skin I Live In marked the return of Banderas to Pedro Almodóvar, the Spanish director who launched his international career. The two had not worked together since 1990 (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!). In The Skin I Live In he breaks out of the "Latin Lover" mold from his Hollywood work and stars as a calculating revenge-seeking plastic surgeon following the rape of his daughter. According to the Associated Press Banderas' performance is among his strongest in recent memory.[6] He again lent his voice to Puss in Boots, this time as the protagonist of the Shrek spin-off family film, Puss in Boots. This film reunited Banderas with Salma Hayek for the sixth time.[10]
Business activities
He has invested some of his film earnings in Andalusian products, which he promotes in Spain and the US. He owns 50% of a winery in Villalba de Duero, Burgos, Spain, called Anta Banderas, which produces red and rosé wines.[11]He performed a voice-over for a computer-animated bee which can be seen in the United States in television commercials for Nasonex,[12] an allergy medication, and was seen in the 2007 Christmas advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer, a British retailer.[13]
He is a veteran of the perfume industry. The actor has been working with fragrance and beauty multinational company Puig for over ten years becoming one of the brand's most successful representatives. Banderas and Puig have successfully promoted a number of fragrances so far – Diavolo, Diavolo for Women, Mediterraneo, Spirit, and Spirit for Women. After the success of Antonio for Men and Blue Seduction for Men in 2007, launched his latest Blue Seduction for Women the following year.[14]
Personal life
In 1996, Banderas appeared among other figures of Spanish culture in a video supporting the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party lists in the general election.[16]
He is a longtime supporter of the Málaga CF.[17]
He is an officer (mayordomo de trono) of a Roman Catholic religious brotherhood in Málaga and travels, with his wife and daughter, during Holy Week to take part in the processions,[18] although in an interview with People magazine, Banderas had once described himself as an agnostic.[19] In May 2010, Banderas received his honorary doctorate from the University of Málaga in the city where he was born.[5]
Source: Wikipedia
CAMARON DE LA ISLA
He was born in San Fernando, Cádiz, Spain into a gypsy family, the second of eight children. His mother was Juana Cruz Castro, a basket weaver ("La Canastera"), whose gift of singing was a strong early influence. His father, Juan Luis Monje, was also a singer as well as a blacksmith, and had a forge where Camarón worked as a boy.[2] His uncle José nicknamed him Camarón (Spanish for "Shrimp") because he was blonde and fair skinned. When his father died of asthma, while still very young, the family went through financial hardship. At the age of eight he began to sing at inns and bus stops with Rancapino to earn money. At sixteen, he won first prize at the Festival del Cante Jondo in Mairena de Alcor.[2] Camarón then went to Madrid with Miguel de los Reyes and in 1968 became a resident artist at the Tablao Torres Bermejas where he remained for twelve years.[1]
Musical career
During his time at Tablao Torres Bermejas, he met Paco de Lucía, with whom he recorded nine albums between 1969 and 1977. The two toured extensively together during this period.[3] As Paco de Lucía became more occupied with solo concert commitments, Camarón worked with the flamenco guitarist Tomatito.In 1976, at the age of 25, Camarón married Dolores Montoya, a Romani girl from La Línea de la Concepción whom he nicknamed "La Chispa" (The Spark).[4] At the time La Chispa was only 16. The couple had four children.
On 5 December 2000 the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucía posthumously awarded to Camarón the ´Llave de Oro del Cante´, the Golden Key of Flamenco.[8] This was only the fourth key awarded since 1862.
In 2005, director Jaime Chávarri released the biopic Camarón in Spain starring Óscar Jaenada as Camarón and Verónica Sánchez – star of popular Spanish TV series Los Serrano – as La Chispa. The film, produced in consultation with Camarón's widow, was subsequently nominated for several Goya Awards.
In 2006, Isaki Lacuesta directed La Leyenda del Tiempo (The Legend of Time), in which a Japanese woman visits the place of Camarón's birth to learn to sing exactly like him.
Source Wikipedia .
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