We assume that the respective cultural garrisons of Concello and the Provincial Deputation of Lugo – always so diligent when it comes to promoting perfectly replaceable idiocies – will not forget that the centenary year of the painter Tino Grandío is on the point of ending. Portuguese whose work, as imitated as it is inimitable, is present in several of the most important collections in the world. The birthday falls exactly on December 31, although somewhat neglected biographies still circulate around this date of the painter’s birth, Epiphany Eve, 1925. Grandío’s deadlines are very easy to remember and both seem to be landmarks with a curious evocative intention: he was born on a new day. On New Year’s Day he died on the Days of Galegas Letters, more precisely that dedicated to Antón Villar Ponte, that is to say the year 1977.No The reader can see in this an immodesty but rather the confirmation of a certain professional baseness: I believe, without fear of being wrong, that the last interview with Grandío was carried out by the signatory above. I remember it very well: at his sister Pura and his brother-in-law Aniceto. Tino was already diagnosed and waiting to leave. This conversation was published in El Progreso, the institutional newspaper of the inhabitants of Lugo, and was filmed, at least partially, several times, always omitting the title and the author. Nothing happens. The centenary of Grandío will take place in complete safety thanks to the Creation and Contemporary Visual Arts section of the Galician Cultural Council. They were attentive. It is assumed that the provincial museum of Lugo, depository of an important “Grandío fund” – recently enriched thanks to the generous sensitivity of the painter’s family – is responsible for honoring the memory of the painter. “I’m not Tino Grandío,” he said. And he added: “And if I am, I am a Galician sieve or filter.” He knew what he was talking about.
