Original and unique,
mystical and straightforward, charmingly shy and enthusiastic
communicator, hard worker and contemplative procrastinator,
Antonio Pessoa's nature lives up to a rich controversial
personality which indeed has beed the heart and soul
of his cinematic adventurous lifesyle.Fact. A "no
two alike" myth, this artist, jazz-blues musician,
art curator and positive-thinker, remains an up to date
phenomenon after all these years of experiencing systematically
the leading role of a nail-bitting motion picture which
could be eventually titled "Antonio Pessoa the
One and Only". I'm positively sure, his aristocratic
background and super-protected privileged childhood
education, let alone his unquestionable genetic talent
he possesses, have been the seeds for him to grow and
become a premature prodigy, even featuring the performance
characteristics of a dazzling skilled in any field sort
of teenager. Therefore Antonio Pessoa throughout the
years has been leading a kind of life we only see in
the best and most exciting Hollywood productions, from
ever since the time he was twelve years old up to now.
Very probably, that's why all his art is so deliciously
eclectic, exciting and new, that's definitely why his
whole oeuvre is what it is. An awe-inspiring universe
of wonder, genius, complexity and over the edge overwhelming
content. Since the time, me, Jacob Kotsky, with the
valuable assistance help from Luis Santiago, Nancy Igartiburu
and Pierre Fontanals, started writing and publishing
online all about an artist named Antonio Pessoa, back
in 2005, we've been receiving hundreds of letters from
people from all over Europe and United States, on a
punctual weekly basis asking us an impressive great
deal of extra information related with this mysterious
artist. More than enough to provide us with substantial
motivation to carry on with our reviews and general
interest arousing biographical articles about Pessoa's
life and work. Being all the four of us close friends
of the artist, public relations and global collaborators,
references and accurate reliable information sources
hasn't been a problem for very obvious reasons, moreover
I'm happy to report that this process on the whole has
been and it is mostly truly stimulating, enjoyable and
rewarding.Fact. All this takes place precisely when
Pessoa, mind made up, decides to break up with his traditional
figurative paintings to embrace exclusively contemporary
fine art, surprising us all as he systematically comes
up with a totally different line of work, Pierre Fontanals
named New Era, in which Antonio Pessoa once again proves
to be indeed a unquestionable gifted talented innovator,
by so originally starting to produce a series of canvases
and watercolors clearly reflecting a no way back personal
commitment and response to the latest contemporary art
tendencies, where not only a striking chromatic miscellaneous
brilliance invades his canvases space, but also where
his drawing skills astonishingly accomplish the cutting
edge and beyond of today's art expression, all so intelligently
combined, so unpretentiously aesthetically elegant and
glamorous in such a manner of a highly inventive visual
writing of a kind of emotional fiction that captures
the viewer's sensations at first sight. One of the most
frequently asked questions about the artist, still concerns
his somewhat cloudy past, namely the late eighties and
the super productive golden years of the nineties. Being
Antonio Pessoa the paradigmatic straightforward sort
of person, it's not always that easy and simple to make
him talk about his past, let alone twenty years ago
today. However, since I've met him, from the very first
time back in the year 1997,I've been having plenty of
time to, shall we say, solve the big puzzle, bit by
bit, tip by tip, step by step. Therefore, as I became
ritualized in Pessoa's hidden secrets, and the flipping
schemes involving his outs and abouts of his past, private
life, work and lifestyle, solving the riddle the best
way I knew how, the complexity of the whole endless
process actually turned out to be indeed a truly challenging
and rewarding experience, a delicious hard brain teaser,
solving the enigma wrapped in mystery, adventure, night
life, studio performance, love affairs, glamor and the
inevitable unexpected drastic changes. During the mid-late
eighties, long before the first Gulf War, Antonio Pessoa
is a night-life legend, a jazz-blues musician skillfully
playing the grand-piano and singing, performing to perfection
new versions of songs by The Beatles, Elton John, Simply
Red, Prince, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, The Doors,
The Eagles, James Taylor, Police, Television, Roxy Music,
David Bowie, and even Elvis, Sinatra, plus tunes by
John Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Gershwin. Cherished
by an excited nightly audience he often took the tonight
programme a whole lot further on into the morning light
by using his sketching and drawing skills overwhelming
his celebrating fans club community by painting live,
on stage, under the spotlight. According to many of
his soul mates, show biz agents, all time friends and
audience inocent bystanders years later we've been stumbling
upon, here and there and everywhere, the magic of these
daily live art shows animated entertainment, was one
of Pessoa's most clamouring and most enjoyable periods
ever, where fine art was a dancing all night away live
play in which Antonio Pessoa besides having the leading
role, was also indeed having the time of his life, let
alone the inevitable great improvement concerning his
artistic performance mastery and expertise. Being by
then already a truly experienced live performance veteran,
it's no big deal and no wonder the artist was definitely
able to handle the situation with that effortless stunning
ravishing easy-to-do know-how which made him step on
the stage and thereby become the prototype unique symbol
of live art action of our times. Even during the nineties,
right at his career apotheosis, as he successfully turned
and strode toward the top of the hill of his striking
worldwide reknown Romantic Period, Pessoa now and then
breaks through the boundaries of his art studio and
goes back to the night life yet for another display
of fine art action live performances, both in the sunny
cosmopolitan glamorous mediterranean zone and in celtic
inspired Vigo city Atlantic frantic weekends lively
night life. Unpredictable as he is, it seems only the
future will be able to actually show us whether or not
Pessoa's live art action is over for good. The answer
for this frequently asked question for the time being
remains in the holy secret of the Gods, for in my humble
opinion, anytime, anywhere, anyway, anyhow, definitely
it wouldn't be the surprise of the century if the artist
made up his mind to return to that lively dimension
of his life where painting live eventually might bring
him that kind of magic, that sort of rewarding inspiration,
thrilling excitement and inner satisfaction, we all
so desperately need from time to time, here and then,
once in a while, in order to make us feel meaningfully
alive to such an extent in which we come once again
to that delicious point where life once again makes
absolute perfect sense, people is beautiful and this
planet a wonderful place to celebrate life and arts!
