Antonio Garcia Villaran and “El arte de no tener talento”

His videos on YouTube, where he analyzes and gives his opinion on what he calls “hamparte”, have set a trend. Now, the artist and doctor of Fine Arts gathers his content in a surprising book.

Cover of the book and photomontage of Antonio Garcia Villaran. At thewatmag.com

No artist escapes his critical reflections: neither his own nor strangers’. Antonio Garcia Villaran makes one of the most powerful modern communication tools his own, his YouTube channel, to call into question the analytical criteria used to evaluate art. Although it also contains some reflections on classical artists, his hilarious videos focus above all on contemporary creators: from his sharp tongue neither Damien Hirst, nor Jeff Koons, nor Yoko Ono is safe… Garcia Villaran has just launched his tenth book, which, as could not be otherwise, bears the title El arte de no tener talento (Editorial Martinez Roca). In its pages, the painter, sculptor, youtuber and art teacher provides well-founded opinions on different artists. We may agree with him, or not: but his analytical capacity, his training, his critical level and his communicative skills are incontestable. After reaching the stores, sales have soared: El arte de no tener talento remains week after week on the list of the best-selling art books.

Antonio Garcia Villaran comments on the work and figure of Yoko Ono

In its pages Antonio Garcia Villaran breaks down the concept of “hamparte”, a term invented by him that designates those works that are not really art, but that are “sold” to us as such. To define these works, the artist and writer created at the time a Manifesto with seven points: if they fulfill any of them, the pieces automatically become works of hamparte. The last of the points makes Garcia Villaran’s opinion very clear: “the art of having no talent is hamparte”. Let it be clear that the criteria and opinions of the book’s author are not absolute, nor can they be adopted as truth: many other theorists defend contrary concepts and ideas, equally respectable and with similar authority. But what cannot be denied to Antonio Garcia Villaran is the sharp analysis he makes of the market, his ability to break down concepts that are complicated to understand and his love for art. Thus, his book El arte de no tener talento constitutes a fully current reflection, that pushes us to question the established and to form our own opinion on any kind of art. Even if it is part of Olympus.

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