Feliciano Béjar

Feliciano Béjar Ruíz (1920 – February 1, 2007) was a Mexican artist and artisan, best known for a style of sculpture called "magiscopios" which involved various materials along with crystals and/or lenses to play with light or create distorted visions. He was born in rural central Mexico and was completely self-taught as an artist. He was creative as a young child, drawing and creating his first sculpture like pieces from papier-mâché. His art career began in New York, where he had travelled and lived for a time in Hell's Kitchen. His drawing the attention of Arthur Ewart and Frances Coleman, with the latter helping him have his first exhibition and whose husband helped sponsor his time in Europe. The magiscopes arose from an intense interest in light and the sun, which began when he saw a boy in Italy playing with reflections of the sun in puddles. Images of the sun appeared in his painting and sculpture, developing into the use of crystals and lenses. In his later life, Béjar withdrew from the art world for about sixteen years, disillusioned with it and retreating to his ranch in the State of Mexico. He returned in 1998, with a retrospective of his work in Mexico City and continued to show his work until shortly before his death.

Life Béjar was born in 1920 in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, between the Sierra Madre Occidental and Lake Chapala, which was a very small and rural town when he was a child. He came from devout Catholic parents, who were not native to Jiquilpan, but instead arrived very poor there. For this reason, he and his family were considered to be outsiders. As a boy, Béjar was an acolyte and wanted to become a priest.

The Cristero War took a toll on him. Members of his family were abused and killed by the army during the conflict and his primary school was closed down by authorities. He was sent to middle school at the Colegio Salesiano de Artes y Oficios in Guadalajara, where he learned various trades such as carpentry and metalworking, but he was there only two years before the government shut that down too.

After he return from Guadalajara, he worked with his father, who made a living selling notions, make up, perfume and other items on the street. Foley never entered Béjar's studio because he was concerned with stepping on something. He bought and developed a ranch in the municipality of Jilotepec, State of Mexico. His house there had flooding problems, with one major flood in 1981 severely damaging the house and gardens and destroying most of the artwork which it contained. However, he considered himself an artisan first, valuing his skills as a carpenter, metalworker and bricklayer, rebuilding the house and gardens himself. He created the first of these with waste metal and other scraps. After he created his first one, he invited Paco de al Maza, Justino Fernández, Salvador Novo and others for dinner. After seeing the work they thought about names with Jorge Hernández Campos coming up with "magiscopio."

He received a number of awards but stopped accepting when the Bank of Mexico asked him to purchase the medal he was awarded because they lacked resources. He also became disenchanted with the attention given to him by politicians including Mexican presidents.

Béjar was a prolific creator and while much of his production has been acquired for permanent collection, much is in the possession of his longtime friend Martin Foley. There have also been efforts to create a formal museum in Béjar's memory. His former home in Michoacán has been opened to the public and contains a collections of his paintings, sculptures and handcrafts.

Artistry While best known as a sculptor, he was also a painter, artisan and a tradesman, not seeing differences between artist and artisan, instead considering them inseparable.

As he did not consider the arts and crafts separate, he is also noted for the making of rugs and tapestries. He also built houses, stage sets, a semi-circular Greco-Roman theaters and created a ranch to be close to nature, with gardens, water works and an orchard. His wide range of interests attracted some negative criticism for not specializing while others depreciated his work because of his frequent travels, calling him "bohemian." His art has also been classified as "handcraft" but that did not bother him, instead took pride in it.