August 17, 2007, Bellas Artes turns 45!, By Jesús Ibarra, ''Mexcavations'' combine art and archaeology, By Anita Middleton, Daniel Rueffert in Santa Fe with a one-man show, By Catherine Cooper Long

Tuesday, August 21, 7pm
Chamber Music
Capella Guanajautense

Wednesday, August 22, 7pm
Piano Concert
Markus Stange

Thursday, August 23, 7pm
Theater
La diatriba del amor (The Diatribe of Love)
Based on a play by Gabriel García Márquez

Friday; August 24, 7pm
Literary workshop
Book presentation: El largo vuelo del canario (The long flight of the canary) by Antonio Rodríguez Simón

Manuela Sáenz, la insepulta de Paita (Manuela Sainz, the unburied of Paita) by Lía Mantilla Tanzi

- El perfume de la pólvora (The scent of powder)
By Mercedes Arteaga

Shangri-La a dos kilómetros (Shangai-La, two kilometers Hawai) by María Luisa Rullán

Nauf y otros cuentos (Nauf and other tales) by Dalel Cálela

The Cultural Center Ignacio Ramírez, commonly known as Bellas Artes, celebrates its 45th anniversary during August with a variety of cultural events.

Recently appointed Director Ernesto de la Peña Folch discusses new projects and the direction of the Cultural Center, and culture in San Miguel with Atenciòn.

Jesús Ibarra: Mr. De La Peña can you tell us something about your background?

Ernesto de la Peña: Well, I was born in Mexico City, and although I studied communications my main focus has been in the plastic arts. I worked for a short time as an advertising art director then I began studies at the Bellas Artes Art School. A few years later I moved to Canada working as a painter and art designer in several projects including theater and videos. Nine years ago I came to San Miguel where I continued my painting. I joined Bellas Artes as a teacher in contemporary painting.

JI: What are the main subjects of your work?

EP: I am drawn to the Expressionist spirit, figurative expressionist related with German expressionist, but with a different emotional content, and also personal issues, with a little social criticism. My current work encompasses playful and mystic elements. Although it may be a sarcastic game there is always a playful element.

JI: Do you consider your work realistic or abstract?

EP: Neither. It may have some reference to the works of artists like Rufino Tamayo, who may paint a human figure as for example a piano player, who may not have nothing to do with reality, but with his own personal world and in his own personal conception. He transforms the figure and makes it one of his own. This refers somehow to my own work. I am not interested in recreating a normal anatomy of a figure, but in investigating shapes and creating them, not in reproducing them.

JI: What do you think about culture in San Miguel?

EP: The culture available in San Miguel is quite a fascinating world. One of the motivations to relocate my family here was because I knew already that it was a very active cultural site, with a great tradition in plastic arts from the 50’s and 60’s. Moreover, San Miguel is home to important festivals such as Expresión en Corto, which gives wonderful promotion to Mexican and international movies. Also the Chamber Music Festival, created by the late Bellas Artes director Carmen Massip, holds concerts at this center.

San Miguel is a unique town where popular traditions are being protected and this is also an important part of the culture. There are about 18 other smaller festivals celebrated in town. It is not easy to have so many activities in a place as small as San Miguel, so I think it is an exemplary site.

JI: Do you think culture is only for the privileged?

EP: No, definitively not. I think the concept of culture has been misunderstood. Culture is any manifestation by human beings; it includes the wonderful popular traditions, arts and crafts and even the modern music which attracts young people. Sometimes people get confused and believe that only the fine arts are culture. But it is not true. As head of Bellas Artes I would like to break this myth and for people to realize that culture is not boring, as many believe, and that it belongs to all of us, from a string quartet to a Mozart piece, or even the pop singer Shakira.

JI: What kind art courses do you offer in the Centro?

EP: Plastic arts, dance, music and in September we will begin with a course in literature.

JI: Are they accessibly priced?

EP: Yes, of course. Art courses in Bellas Artes are accessible to anybody. For Mexicans fees are between 250 or 300 pesos a month and for foreigners 1,000 or 1,100. There is also an inscription fee of 350 pesos.

JI: What kind of official recognition or academic value do the Bellas Artes courses have?

EP: The courses are recognized by INBA (National Insitute of Fine Arts) with a certificate of completion but have no academic value. I am in negotiation with Corcoran College in Washington to offer recognized courses, but this is still a project.

JI: Are most of your students Mexican or foreigners?

EP: We have both of them in the same proportion. There is a lot of interest from the foreign community, but we also have a lot of Mexican students. In my classes I have more Mexicans than foreigners. We currently have more adults than young people but we want to give the opportunities to young high-school students to come to have courses at Bellas Artes, by offering afternoon schedules, since usually our courses are during the mornings.

JI: Does Bellas Artes promote reading among sanmiguelenses?

EP: Sometime in September or October we will open a CONACULTA (Federal department of Culture) bookstore “Educal” which will offer many cultural publications.

Another project for next year is to bring famous figures of movies, theater or television, to read books or stories to motivate reading among young people.

Bellas Artes, the building

The impressive building that is the home to Bellas Artes was originally a convent belonging to the “Conceptionistas” who still occupy the neighboring church. In 1755 Sor María Josefa Luna de la Canal founded the convent; financing the first construction from her dowry. Originally known as the Royal Convent of Conception it was officially inaugurated on December 28, 1765.

The convent was in daily operation until 1859 when it began its use for educational purposes. During the last decades of the 19th century the building became a primary school, in 1912 it was used as a school for girls, managed by Spanish nuns. Then, after the revolution, from 1914 to 1936 it was used a military headquarters.

Finally in 1938 the Mexican government leased it to open the University School of Fine Arts founded by the Peruvian artist and art critic Felipe Cossío del Pomar. The School functioned until 1948, with one of its main objectives to teach painting to American ex-soldiers. Students worked under the guidance of great muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros and the reputation of San Miguel as an artists colony began.

Later the government ceded the building to the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA). In 1961, it was restored and space for galleries, an auditorium, classrooms and art galleries were added.

In August, 1962, the Cultural Center Ignacio Ramírez El Nigromante opened to the public. The directors of Bellas Artes have been Miguel Malo 1962-1972; Carmen Massip 1972-2002, Francisco Vidargas 2002-2007 and Ernesto de la Peña 2007.

Courses offered at Bellas Artes

Art
Ceramics
Drawing
Engraving
Lithography
Painting
Papermaking
Photography
Sculpture
Stained glass
Textiles

Literary workshop

Music
Guitar
Piano
Singing
Performing Arts
Ballet
Dance
Puppets

Art exhibition
“Mexcavations”

Jul 27–(N)Sept 16

Tues–(N)Sat, 10am–(N)5:30pm

Sun 10am–(N)2pm

Bellas Artes, Sala Principal

Hernández Macías 75

“Mexavations,” an exhibition of new paintings by Merry Calderoni, began July 27 at the Bellas Artes Sala Principal. Texas native Calderoni now lives and paints year-round in the state of Guanajuato. Her previous “Walls Series” explored texture and color; the new work is inspired by the optic possibilities of historic surfaces unique to pre-Columbian and colonial Mesoamerica.

Over two years in the making, her new “Mexcavations” reflect the art of ancient muros (walls) in Mexico. A companion video documents the artist’s project. “Much like the history of Mexico, each wall has many layers and can tell a multitude of stories,” the artist explains. Working at such sites as Cañada de la Virgin and Querétaro’s own magical El Pueblito pyramid, Calderoni draws on her impressions of the murals and the handmade and time-made markings of the structures of our nearby archaeological heritage.

As an artist, Caleroni felt challenged to use ancient techniques and materials. After returning from working at an active archaeological dig, Calderoni observed, “We artists of today have extraordinary teachers and superb examples to follow. I used clays and plaster in methods developed centuries ago by Mesoamerican crafts-people and artisans.” She produced handmade paper for the project, an art form practiced by Querétaro’s original settlers, the Otomi. (Her painting for the show invitation is entitled “El Pueblito.”)

With the new show, the artist promises to “offer my interpretations of their colors and textures…I present a sense of the essence of these historic treasures, in a new and exciting way….to ignite a fire in the souls of historians, art lovers and all future archaeologists, Mexican or foreign, young or old.” Archaeologist Gabriela Zepeda observes that the 22 large acrylic paintings “speak to us of Mexcavations, Mexabstraction, Mextradition” and of Mexico’s bloody “red dawns of the East and the blue turquoise jades…the obsidian black of the North, the whites of the West of Quetzalcoatl.”

Calderoni and art can look forward to Mexico’s ongoing creative renewal with, as Zepada notes, “the work of the past [as] the guiding force.”

For many of us, Daniel Rueffert needs no introduction—(M)not here in San Miguel, not in Pozos, nor in Puerta Vallarta. After having spent 38 years living and painting in Mexico, he’s become something of a celebrity.

His work is unmistakable and well known, not just in the cities where his artwork is shown. (Here in San Miguel, it is Galeria 19 on Jesús.) Daniel Rueffert also has begun to develop a following of serious collectors in the United States and around the world. His one man, 30-day show opening September 21 at the Gary Farmer Gallery in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a confirmation.

Rueffert’s work is a visual narrative of a long, exquisite affair between the artist and the country he loves. Like the man himself, his paintings are unapologetically bright and bold as most San Miguel locals and regular readers of Atención are aware. He has an uncanny ability to convey—(M)through bold strokes of a palette knife and occasionally a brush—(M)the essence and dignity of the Mexican culture in ordinary, everyday scenes.

In addition to the often-depicted and elegant views of San Miguel’s iglesias and jardines, he gives us a stolen glimpse into the life of a young girl with her leña-laden burro walking an old mountain road. Often-rendered and breathtaking views of the Parroquia and San Miguel’s picturesque cobbled lanes are supplemented by a tour of the historic roads of southern Oaxaca, the llanos and fincas of Michoacán and the seaside pueblos of Jalisco or Nayarit. One is captivated by the feeling, the sense that, “I’ve seen that girl with the burro. I was there that day,” or, “I’ve been on that hillside…we were precisely there, where the artist was standing.”

Like his artwork, Rueffert also has become renowned and, in a delightful and charming way, somewhat notorious. He’s daring, audacious and downright different, one of the town’s ‘colorful characters.’ Many locals have gotten accustomed to and, perhaps, even grown fond of, his outspoken quirkiness and nonconforming politics; his casual-chic (a lot more casual than chic), complete with his signature baseball cap and rumpled shirt; his seasoned and sometimes off-color sense of humor and irreverence.

But there is also a generous and soft side to Rueffert that compels him to give back to the country and the community he loves so much. And give back he has, in the form of countless donations of artwork and decades of work with numerous local charities in their fundraising efforts.

But in Santa Fe, he’s not quite as well known. Not yet, anyway. That virtual art Mecca, known for its discriminating international patrons, has seen a lot of artists come and go over the years, but probably never anyone quite like Rueffert. So, when his one-man show opens September 21, the locals in Santa Fe are probably in for a few raised eyebrows when they meet Rueffert and numerous pleasant surprises when they see his artwork for the first time.

The international art-literati is in for a true cultural experience: 30 just-released ‘snapshots’ of a Mexican-American love affair that began in 1969—(M)and is stronger than ever in 2007. “I’ve been here so long,” Rueffert says with a grin, “it just seems natural.”

He will, of course, be on hand for his opening in Santa Fe, complete with his 1984 motor home. “I feel like a hippie again,” he told me, pausing thoughtfully. He also said he would love for some familiar, friendly faces to show up in Santa Fe. So, consider this your invitation and a great opportunity to see some of Rueffert’s most recent work. And who knows? Rueffert might actually dress up for the occasion; that alone may be well worth the trip!

To see his paintings here in San Miguel, or for more information concerning the Santa Fe show, contact Galería 19 (Jesús 19, 154-9980, galeria19sma@yahoo.com, www.galeria19.com) or The Gary Farmer Gallery (131 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM 67501, 505-988-1171, garyfarmergallery@gmail.com ).

Catherine Cooper Long is a freelance writer who resides part time in San Miguel. An award winning journalist and television news writer/producer, she has published numerous articles in periodicals in the southeast US.