My biography is based on observing, observing and observing.
I was born in Begur in 1945 in unfortunate circumstances: without light, with candles delivered by the hands of a deaf and partially blind elderly midwife, an overwhelming birth from all angles.
“After having overcome the shock of birth admirably, I became in love with cinema. From the first day my grandparents accompanied me to see all genres of film on the big scree, I remember my childhood as being Western enthusiast, which is still with me today. I also spent long periods of time at the ‘traffic lights’ of ‘Cabo de Begur’, where my grandfather was in charge of operation of the lighthouse, a solitary but very special place. In fact, it felt as if you were in another world. A world where storms and gale force winds were so striking they seemed to come from the devil himself. Later on able to reminisce of those fantastic yet complex occasions as a boy.
After that, my parents went through economical difficulties due to work and for reasons of employment they relocated to Palafrugell and three more children were born. The move and communal living with five siblings was rather fun.
From Palafrugell onto ‘Moncada i Reixach’. I went to school, where i was able to show ease effortlessness when drawing ( I was then 11 years old), in fact the headmaster showed my drawings to ‘La escuela de arte’, and I was offered a scholarship (something which was extremely difficult in those days).
My father told me that that sort of thing was for Bohemians and refused the offer (something which looking back in retrospect, I am grateful for as a school may have made me biased to my form of interpreting painting. From that moment onwards, I promised myself to never hold a pencil, or anything similar (so, I self harmed my spirit and soul in the cruelest form).
After some years had passed, my father forced me to attend ‘La Escuela Técnica Industrial’ in Barcelona. A vibrant city, living with my aunt and uncle in a small flat in the suburbs of ‘Sant Andreu’. But these things always have a solution, instead of going to class, I preferred to dedicate my time to watch films of my choice in the nearby cinemas.
As a spectator I was thrilled being a hypothetical director is a passion I have been unable to develop in a professional sense, only having done experimental film in 8m/m. I have procured to have composed more stories, which together with the small screen were my true artistic support in my way of perceiving people.
After my time in Barcelona, I returned to Palafrugell to join my father in his business. It was chaotic for a number of reasons, fundamentally because I start to frequent poker joints becoming a worthy player and won a generous sum of money by reading the players and retiring from the game at the precise moment. Until one evening with a great hand of cards I successfully beat various players of a certain entity and I, Victor Dolz, continued to play the same game until I was mentally and physically exhausted and lost it all. It was something insane, I left that those tiny venues in tension recriminating myself. Such bad luck was real frustration for someone who was used to winning. After deeply analyzing what had just happened, I arrived at the conclusion to abandon this way of life and take another course.
As for my oath to never create art painting ever again, that oath after witnessing the exhibition “Autores de la escuela de Londres”, which was exhibited in ‘La Pechera’ gallery along with pieces by Lucien Freud, Kitaj, Auchenbach, Francis Bacon… The impact of those images in the paintings had on me, opened my eyes and the need to put on paper in painting myself expression.
What was this conviction, one day with my partner in a bar whilst waiting to go into the cinema there was a sad looking man drinking beer. With a felt tip and a pad of paper I could capture and reflex a close up portrait reflecting his sadness. She said: ‘draw him, he is extraordinary’. It was like a gunshot to start painting compulsively and draw strength and pull out everything that had been dormant inside so long without it, all because of a totally stupid oath."
Víctor Dolz