Antonio Pomar Juan was born in Vila, Eivissa's capital, in 1929 and started working as an apprentice jeweller in the family business at the age of fourteen.
Even then, Toni was doing his own designs for the Ibicenco jewellery created by The Pomar family, especially Toni and his brother José, who had a lot to do with a new reconsideration and a much better value for the local Emprendades, the famed ancestral gold and silver works of art.
At the same time, Toni started his studies at the local Art School (Escola d'Arts i Ofisis d'Eivissa), with Tarrés and Agudo Clará as his first teachers, two remarkable artists of the first half of the 20th century, especially in landscapes and portraits, from which he learned the oil-painting techniques, improved his own drawing techniques, and developed his love and respect for the correct design through long and hard drawing sessions.
Toni keeps good memories of those years. "Tarrés, as he was my first teacher, had a big influence on me; his drawings were really excellent. Agudo Clará was an extraordinary professor, always helping and backing, he used to explain everything, all the little details; it was easy and pleasant to learn with him."
In 1975, after becoming an art professor in Madrid, Toni came back to Eivissa to be a professor of modelling and engraving in the same school, where working and helping with his talent and knowledge he taught new and exceptional artists until 1992.
But, before this happened, in the middle 1950s, Toni also studied and passed his Arts degrees at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in Valencia. From this school he discovered the power and the poetry, all the artistic possibilities of the Mediterranean light. He was deeply impressed by the masterpieces of Joaquin Sorolla, the most representative artist of this High-Art-School from the Eastern part of Spain, full of Mediterranean shining light.
In 1962, Toni Pomar and other three local painters, Ferrer Guasch, Vicent Calbet (see our Artist on Ibiza, Saturday 5th January 2002) and Toni Marí Ribas, Portmany, formed an artistic group known as Grupo Puget, in memory of the Ibicenco photographer and painter, Narcís Puget Viñas. For some, he was the first painter to put the name of Eivissa into the world of the Arts, and for the most, with no doubt, the best of his time, at the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century.
"This group only lasted for about two years. Everyone went their own way after exhibiting in the Circulo de Bellas Artes and in the Sala Pelaires, both in Palma de Mallorca, and in the "Caja de Pensiones de Ibiza".
Pomar remembers Narcís Puget from his early years. "I used to see him painting in the street, in front of the Pharmacies (one of the main streets in Vila by the old market). He always had fifteen or twenty people behind, watching him working. Sometimes he stopped at our jewellery or the home door and looked at my drawing. He was always encouraging me to keep on working hard with it. "Draw, draw a lot, keep on drawing Toni," he used to tell me."
"I went twice to his studio to see the master paintings: they looked to me very advanced for the times. I was gratefully and deeply impressed. It was a time in my life that I was very interested, almost intrigued, for everything that could offer me new matters to learn, and his paintings caused a big impact on me."
As the art critic Mariano Planells says in one of his articles about Toni Pomar: "It is not casual, there is nothing casual in the great technique of his fluid design and the enormous artistic quality of his drawings."
Toni Pomar and the Sea
One of Pomar's favourite and most successful motifs in his paintings is the sea (though he also features the local people, landscapes and churches, and our ancestral folklore). The seaside and the local coast, people on the beach, swimmers, fishermen repairing the nets, little boats sailing away. The sea, always our illuminated Mediterranean Sea, painted in a very personal style with oils, acrylics, and pastels. His Marine's paintings are exclusive and very much appreciated by art collectors.
Toni's life has always been somehow involved with the sea. In his young years he was sub-champion of Spain in the 100 metres backstroke swimming style. In the 1940s there was a group of exceptional swimmers from Eivissa, Pedro Pons, Spanish champion in 1,500m free style, Juan Roselló, also Spanish champion in 400 metres free style, Escandell, Pereria, Basetes, etc. Toni Pomar was one of them.
Also in this decade, 1943, Toni Pomar had his first exhibition, together with Adrian Rosa (see our "Artist on Ibiza" Number Eleven in the series, Weekly Edition 055 Saturday 16th March 2002) at the local Art School (Escola d'Arts i Oficis d'Eivissa).
Since then, Toni Pomar has been exhibiting his work regularly, at least every two years, mostly in the Sala de Exposiciones de Sa Nostra, in Eivissa, and in the best galleries of the Islands, though his works have sold to many different countries all over the World.
At the beginning of his career, Pomar presented his artworks to several concourses, winning awards in all of them. But he also has the genuine modesty of the real talented artist, and a big heart as a person. He knows the quality of his artistic creations, with the public and the critical acceptance of his work without need of promotions, as well as the fact that he likes to stay on the Islands, doing his methodical, but inspired, creations close to the sea and his loving family.
So soon he left the competition to younger artists, some of them his own pupils, dedicating most of his time to his task as Art-professor. This is the reason why, at present, Toni Pomar is considered a master of master's by a lot of our artists.
At the end of our meeting, I asked him his opinion about some of the actual paintings. Pomar started gently explaining his point of view for a painting to be considered as an Artwork. He pointed to me several details, little curves of the drawings, the quality of it, the way that the figures are displaced within the painting, the correct harmony of the colours, the proper use of the pencil and brushes in every painting technique... Nowadays, he says, "There is a lot of painting that looks pretty, decorative, and even sells well, but all this technical hard work is missing in most of this painting."
"It takes time and a lot of effort to have a good command of the painting techniques; it is not just the inspiration or a good eye, it's also the time and the hard work that forms the real artist. Without it, it can't be called Artwork, and I'm sorry, but I don't have the time for it."
I could have been there, listening to him for hours, but unfortunately our time was over, and we all had to go.
Awards, Premio Felix Costa in the Salón Internacional el Corsario, 1971.
Silver medal in the I Exposició Internacional de Pintors d'Eivissa, 1971.
Premio Tito Cittadini 1972 in the XIII Certamen Internacional de Pollensa" Mallorca. (Since then, his paintings have been wanted regularly in all the best galleries of Mallorca, and his popularity in this Island, is as high as in Eivissa).
Some of the Art galleries where Pomar has had exhibitions during his long career:
Circulo de Bellas Artes, Palma de Mallorca.
Galería Xarc, Eivissa.
Sala d'Exposicions de La Caixa d'Eivissa.
Sala d'Exposicions de Sa Nostra d'Eivissa.
Galería Vallribera, Sant Antoni, Eivissa.
Several collective exhibitions in Lausanne, Switzerland. Etc., Etc.,
In 1998, the MAC. (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo), of Eivissa, honoured him with a retrospective exhibition of his works done throughout his career.
Also in 1998, another retrospective exhibition, exclusive of his marines in the Sala de Exposicions de Sa Nostra, Eivissa.
Hopefully, Toni Pomar will exhibit his new creations at the same gallery, Sa Nostra in September 2003.
All Pictures Courtesy
Sa Nostra
Obra Social i Cultural
Museu d'Art Contemporani d'Eivissa
Ajuntament de la Ciutat d'Eivissa
José P Ribas