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. He also worked as an assistant to a carpenter, sweeping out the shop in exchange for wood scraps. He used these to create toys and even large imaginary cities.
When he was eight, he came down with polio, and had to use crutches until he was thirteen. Later in life, this affected his work, generally creating his pieces on the floor with one leg folded under for comfort.
When he was fifteen, he began to teach himself art using various scrap materials. At this time muralist José Clemente Orozco was in his town to paint scenes of the Mexican Revolution on the town library. Orozco was aloof and although Bejar brought him some drawings to show, he did not want to see them. Later in life he stated that he did not think well of the muralists and considered them false and frauds. He said that their work was supposedly for the people but they could not be understood without interpretation and the main ones (Rivera, Siqueiros and Orozco) shut out other artists.
Béjar spent a number of his younger years traveling. When he was little, his grandmother Jesusa took him with her to other towns and even to Acapulco which let him know there was more out there. He came across a book called "Around the World" which impressed him, describing New York City in glowing terms. He saved the bus fare to travel there, but nothing more. When he got to New York in the 1940s, he was disappointed and thought it ugly. He wanted to return but had no money so he had to work menial jobs and live in Hell's Kitchen. During this time in New York, he was put in touch with English painter Arthur Ewart who encouraged him to get back to art, particularly painting. He also met socialite Frances Colman, while copying paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who helped him get started selling his work. In 1947, he returned to Mexico. Coleman helped him have an exhibition in New York and in 1949, Béjar traveled to Paris and bicycled through Europe to study the art in the museums there, sponsored by UNESCO and Coleman's husband. He returned again to Mexico in 1950.
He returned again to Europe in 1956, where he painted and worked as a movie extra and radio announcer.
In 1960, Béjar met Englishman and historian Martin Foley, who had come to Mexico to study. They remained friends for over forty years and lived together at Béjar's ranch until his death, with Foley writing Béjar's biography. Foley never entered Béjar's studio because he was concerned with stepping on something.