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La Magia de Vida: The Works of Sergio Bustamante through
August 10th Santa Fe, New Mexico - Sergio Bustamante is known
internationally for his instantly recognizable creations. He might
easily be mistaken as one of those artists who are more a legend
than an actual being. As an internationally known artist he has a
magic Midas-like touch in the wide variety of media in which he lays
his hands (from paper maché and oil painting to ceramic and bronze
sculpture). Bustamante infuses every one of his creations with such
life and love and a limitless passion for both, there’s no question,
no doubt, not even the slightest apprehension that only someone very
much connected to his ancestors, to his culture, to the cosmos and
to the unknown could be responsible for such wild, wondrous and
beautiful creations.
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Sol Enamorado |
Brasil |
Drawing #2 |
In fact, the only thing more impressive than Sergio Bustamante and
his art would be Sergio Bustamante without his art. Having grown up
in the mystical pungent world of Mexico—at a time when Old Mexico
had begun, reluctantly, morphing into Modern Mexico—it seems almost
impossible to think Bustamante and his art could’ve turned out any
other way. Born in the late 1950s into the arid region of Sinaloa,
in northern Mexico, in which his rancher-merchant father grew and
sold vegetables, where the people were as hard as the dirt itself
but just as often—and paradoxically—neighborly and convivial; where
the rugged mountains he woke up to each morning and where his
favorite books were 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island
and Journey to the Center of the Earth. His grandfather, who’d
immigrated to Mexico from China, opened up his own restaurant in
Sinaloa before dying when Bustamante was just five, and where his
mother died before he even finished second grade, resulting in a
move to live with his aunt in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in the south of
Mexico. It is a land rich with artisans and craftsman; people who’ve
been working with their hands and their imaginations for
generations. “When you’re creative, a lot has to do with Mexican
life here,” says Bustamante from his home and workshop in
Tlaquepaque, Mexico. “The colors are so vivid. Experiences abound.
The polarity of rich and poor is so extreme, the mix in the blood.
The whole context, it’s such a rich place, such a rich culture.”
Such a perfect atmosphere for an artist as inherently gifted as
Bustamante. Encouraged by his aunt to explore his creative gifts, Bustamante
studied architecture at the University of Guadalajara. Realizing
before he’d even received his degree that jobs for recently
graduated architecture students just weren’t there, Bustamante began
creating and selling artworks his junior year. After graduating, he
then began collaborating with some people who were making ceramics,
a generous bunch who shared their craft with him and let him pursue
his own vision. “I was very lucky and it was very easy for me in the
beginning,” says Bustamante. “I opened my own studio and started
selling to stores all over—Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, and
Harrod’s. I also started creating large paper maché sculpture and
other works that I’d made out of brass, bronze and silver.” Oddly enough, just when his career was taking off, in 1972,
Bustamante relocated to Amsterdam. The decision was as much personal
as professional… a challenge to himself on both levels: he went
abroad not only to expand his skills in paint and design better but
also to experience what his grandfather had gone through and to
learn from that. “My grandfather was a great man for me, and most of
the things I have—being independent economically—I owe to him,”
explains Bustamante. “Going over to Amsterdam, I learned more about
painting and design but I also learned how to be alone and
self-sufficient, the way my grandfather had been. I didn’t feel so
insecure after living over there by myself for two years.” In 1975, not long after his return to Mexico, he established his
Family Workshop Studio in Tlaquepaque, where he’s lived, worked and
created ever since. “Tlaquepaque is the ideal place for working and
having a studio,” gushes Bustamante. “People here have been working
with their hands for generations. They’re true artisans. When you’re
talking about dreams, they understand exactly. It’s like working
with your family. You start to think together.” Ever curious and ever ready to create—anything—Bustamante’s greatest
challenge comes in choosing what it is he wants to create next, and
in what medium. “I’ve been switching from one medium to another all
my life,” laughs Bustamante. “I’m always asking, ‘How can a similar
piece be fashioned in another medium?” More an artist than a craftsman, “because I’m always continuing with
my designs,” he says, Bustamante puts his all into every piece: his
face, his love, his wealth of stories. “You always tell stories with
your work,” says Bustamante, who still loves to read (he’s just
finished Philip Roth and Orhan Pamuk’s latest books). “I’m so
obsessive with my work. There are stories behind all my pieces. And
so much love in them too—I put a lot of love into everything I
create.” One of the more compelling forms he continues to explore is his
bronze and ceramic sculptures. Often cast of the same strange and
surreal creatures who inhabit his paintings (fish-headed humans,
mystical figures draped in heavy dresses, and plenty of half-moons
and half-suns), Bustamante has grown to love his bronzes and
ceramics more and more. “Colors are more poetic,” he says, “but the
bronzes and ceramics are more abstract.” Although, only as abstract
as Bustamante’s imagination will allow—and Bustamante’s imagination
allows for almost everything. He also likes to put a heady dose of playfulness—and magic—into his
work. His monumental bronze sculpture, “In Search of Reason,” along
the malecon (the boardwalk) beach at Puerto Vallarta stands sixty
feet high and has a ladder that visitors can climb. “I like getting
people to interact with it, with my art,” says Bustamante of the
sculpture, which features one of his internationally known figures
at the bottom of the staircase-ladder reaching up toward two smaller
triangular-headed figures who are about halfway up the ladder that
reaches into the sky. “It’s about freedom.” Other public works by
Bustamante are installed in the Guadalajara Zoo, a fountain in
Puerto Vallarta, and a large permanent installation in Tlaquepaque Many of Bustamante’s works are as magical as they are known. “Magic
is something in your mind, something you help to create,” emphasizes
Bustamante, who uses colors and design the way a poet uses words.
“The magic in some of my things is because you chose to show these
worlds, shapes, these atmospheres that maybe other people haven’t
imagined. I try to impact people and seduce them. It’s like trying
to make them love.” Trying. And succeeding. Through 8-10-07 Opening
Spanish Market Weekend. Meyer-Munson Gallery
225 Canyon Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico
www.munsongallery.com
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