Irreducible peleonas, Juana de Aizpuru (Valladolid, 1933) and Elba Benítez (Las Palmas, 1952) have been protagonists and witnesses of the transformation of Spanish contemporary art. Vendors of creativity, a product that few consider necessary, have survived the economic crises and the fluctuations of the market imposing their sense of smell and personal taste. Both participate in Arco with the same enthusiasm that Aizpuru showed when the fair was invented in 1982.
QUESTION. How did you think of starting in the contemporary art business?
JUANA DE AIZPURU. I lived in Seville with my husband [Juan de Aizpuru, an engineer, whom he married at age 21] and my three daughters were already going to school. He had studied Philosophy and Letters, but until then, in the late 1960s, he had had a conventional life. I felt that one stage was closing and another was beginning in which I was going to be the protagonist of my life. Through the gallery La Pasarela had relationships with all the artists of that time. With my friend, the painter Carmen Laffón saw Zóbel, Rueda, Antonio López, Luis Gordillo, Pepe Soto or Teresa Duclós. Then Hamilton, Hockney, Man Ray, Rauschenberg would join ... By that time he had been an intermediary selling the work of young Sevillian artists to the American ladies of the Morón base. As soon as La Pasarela closed, in 1970, I opened my own gallery, determined to reach infinity. Without anything I got ahead.
ELBA BENÍTEZ. I landed in Madrid in the seventies to study Political Science and Sociology. In the eighties I went to work in Germany and there came a time, already separated from my first husband, in which I decided to return to Spain and become a gallery owner. Without experience, with an intruder complex, my reference was always Joan of Aizpuru. The only thing I was clear about was the concept of the international gallery I wanted. But it was the nineties, there was the economic crisis and nobody knew me. I wanted to sell that idea to the critics who at that time had power in Barcelona (Gloria Picazo, Miquel Molins) and Madrid (Juan Manuel Bonet, Francisco Calvo Serraller) and I asked them one by one appointment. I opened in April 1990 with Ignasi Aballí and it took me a whole year to get a criticism in a newspaper.
Q. Were they aware that they were also becoming entrepreneurs? Did they have financial help from their respective families?
JA My husband didn't get in the way, but it didn't help either. I requested a loan of half a million pesetas from Banco Coca, did some work and opened the doors. I have always measured my budgets very well, so I have never borrowed crazy. I had a good advisor, Javier Benjumea, who was also one of my first clients and the best businessman I have ever met. Being a gallery owner involves relationships with artists, collectors and public administrations, as well as permanent research work. Now I have seven people working with me, but I started with one and I had to multiply.
EB To what Juana explains, I would add the job of saving, preserving and producing. We are such peculiar businesswomen that we cannot make an income forecast because every time you sell something it is a miracle. The crisis in this sector is permanent or, at least, I have not known anything else. You have to do calculations constantly, because it depends on you artists, suppliers and families.
P. Both work with Spanish and foreign artists, and have been pioneers in formats such as video and photography. How is the relationship with the artists? How is your contractual relationship?
JA The relationship is very good in general because I have always worked with people whose work excites me. At the beginning, I asked Juana Mordó one of her contracts to do the same. They used to be monthly salaries, but there are other formulas. The most widespread is that you take care of the production and divide the sale to 50%. There are few problems with the artists. And there are those who prefer not to mention them ...
EB I also usually go to the same percentage. We must bear in mind that we exhibit, produce and advertise. When discounts are made in a sale, we assume them. This is not a business to become a millionaire.
Q. Is the Spanish market as poor as it is said?
JA I would like to remember that, in the seventies, my Sevillian gallery was a place where the most modern people and the aristocracy agreed to see contemporary art. And besides, they bought. They had taste and curiosity. Then, already in the eighties, in the gallery of Madrid met many interested people who were making their small or medium collections. So until the slowdown of the nineties, from which we have not recovered. There is money, but it is in very conservative hands. They do not spend it on contemporary art. On the other hand, I think there is a general state of discouragement that goes against us. I understand that there are collectors who have run out of money and cannot buy, but where is the curiosity? They have stopped coming. The galleries are empty.
EB They were those new rich people who knew a lot about cigars, wines and restaurants. Now, those who have a lot of money seem to prefer spending it on a hunt rather than a work of art. It is a cultural problem. That is why I believe that the great galleristic firms such as Gagosian or Saatchi have not come here. For what?
Q. If the picture is so bad, how do you explain the phenomenon of the many European galleries that are opening local in Madrid?
EB They are branches of German or British galleries, aware of the many Latin American fortunes (from Venezuela, Mexico, or Brazil) that are being established in Madrid and do not want to miss their share of the cake, if there is one.
JA For me, the more galleries there are, the better. I am glad, and I am aware that we are moving in a world of high competition in which we sell a product that is not known and is not essential.
Q. In what spirit do you face Arco 2020?
JA Arco is a social event to which more than 100,000 people come. Many save all year to pay three days in Madrid and tour the fair. It is like that from the first moment. I don't know if it sells a lot, but it doesn't get lost. It is a party, more than a fair.
EB I also think it's like an artistic mecca that you have to be because, if not, you're nobody. But it is a parenthesis of enthusiasm in what is really the life of the galleries.
Q. I don't see them very optimistic.
JA Of that nothing. Zero Negativity While I have strength, I go for all, as in my beginnings.
EB I also keep the enthusiasm. Miracles happen.