ΧΟΣΕ ΠΕΡΕΘ ΟΚΑΝΙΑ. ΕΝΑΣ ΕΚΠΡΟΣΩΠΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΣΠΑΝΙΚΟΥ ΘΡΗΣΚΕΥΤΙΚΟΥ CAMP

Spanish drag artist and painter José Ángel Pérez Ocaña was a fixture of the counter-cultural scene in Barcelona in the 1970s. He was the subject of a milestone film in Spanish cinema, Ocaña, Retrat intermitent, by Ventura Pons.
In the 1970s Barcelona became a center of counter-culture, and Ocaña established himself as a player on the scene. He gained a following in the gay community, and gay cartoonist Nazario featured him as a character in his comic books. Especially during the "transition" period following Franco's death in 1975, he was a highly visible figure in the city, strolling along Las Ramblas, the main street, in extravagant costumes and staging "happenings" or procesiones.
The procesiones combined camp with the traditions of his native Andalusia, in particular the parades of Holy Week, for which the region is famous. In these, cofradías ("brotherhoods") of Catholic men carry huge, elaborately-decorated floats containing large statues of saints, often the Virgin Mary. Groups of penitents march behind them.
Ocaña created his own version. Using papier-mâché figures of virgins and little angels that he had exhibited in a leading underground art gallery, he led a procession throughout the city, causing a sensation.
Ocaña's paintings are modern in style and show the influence of Chagall, Modigliani, and Matisse. In his earlier work he favored themes that reflected the Andalusian culture in which he grew up. Among these are paintings with religious content, such as angels and images of the Virgin.
Although Ocaña was aware of the complicity of the Church in the oppression of homosexuals, he was intrigued by the color, pageantry, and emotion of religious rites, as well as by the sensuality often found in religious art.
His later work included paintings of urban subjects.

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Shortly before his death, Ocaña painted Premonición (Premonition, 1978), which shows him lying on his bed in Barcelona while friends hold a wake.
Ocaña died in Cantillana on September 18, 1983, of an AIDS-related disease. After his death, his family established a small private museum of his paintings.
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Διαβάστε επίσης: Bajo el Signo de Libra: Ocaña

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