Original woodcuts and woodblocks by
Julio Camino Sánchez
(Trujillo 1914 - Lima 2007)
Work from the 40s to 60s
“Julio Camino Sánchez is trujillano, within the walls of Trujillo, born within the old and plastic heart of the old city. He is chronologically and numerically one of the few artists originally from Trujillo” (José Eulogio Garrido).
At a young age and on his own, he learnt to hold a pencil and draw his environment, the coast of Huanchaco, its people, and the bare and earthy landscapes of the surrounding mountains. At the age of 12, he started to use watercolors, then he took up woodcut, a technique he also learned on his own, by carving woodblocks on timber boxes for apples and gouges he made by himself with sharp nails. During the 30s, these engravings illustrated several articles of the "La Industria de Trujillo" newspaper, where he worked along with his father. In 1934, at the age of 20 and still self-taught, he presented his first solo at the Convent of San Francisco in Trujillo. Due to his performance in this exhibit, he won a scholarship to study at the School of Fine Arts in Lima from 1936 to 1942.
At the School of Fine Arts, JCS met José Sabogal, who was his teacher. It is important to note that when Camino Sánchez studied at the School, the school didn't have an actual engraving workshop. The engraving workshop was later implemented by Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru in 1948 and JCS taught there. When he entered the school, Camino Sanchez already mastered the woodcut technique and his work had its own language and discourse that tuned in to the plastic and cultural discourse of his master. However, his interest went beyond just portraying the Indian. In a large part of his engraving work carried out in the early 40s and later, there is an exploration looking for a contemporary Peruvian iconography, result of the reinterpretation of the northern rock art, the pre-Columbian art, the popular Peruvian art, which is the result not only of fusion, but also of its landscapes and its people.
We have not found engraving works from the 50s probably because he spent most of his time teaching. In addition to the aforementioned schools, he began, in partnership with José Patiño, the principal of the school "Cristobal Colón" in Lince and Rafael Barraza Monterrosa, the then Ambassador of El Salvador in Lima, an arduous campaign for free education of art in that school, which was later named after the ambassador. The success and acceptance of this initiative gave rise to the Pedagogical Caravan of Painting in different poor areas of Lima of that time, aiming to apply the constructive pedagogy of children's painting, which allows children to raise their creative qualities and interest in plastic arts. Likewise, this Caravan, which was also carried out thanks to the collaboration of the private enterprise, toured over different places like Ciudad de los Niños, Ciudad de Papel, the barrio de Santoyo in El Agustino, Pájaros Fruteros in Magdalena del Mar, the barrio de Pedregal in San Martin de Porres, among others, for nearly a decade.
In 1968, Julio Camino Sánchez was awarded the First Acquisition Award (Premio Adquisición) in the 4th Engraving Show (Salón de Grabado) by ICPNA for his work “Batan Chico”. The judges were Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, Adolfo Winternitz, Edgardo Pérez Luna, Arturo Kubotta and Carlos Bernasconi. Subsequently, JCS was a judge in the Shows held in 1970, 1977, 1984, 1985 and 1988.
Camino Sánchez was a trained observer, a sober person just like the landscapes he draw. He was a discreet man and keen on poetry. This is demonstrated by the choice of those who extended his files (Cecilia Bustamante, Luis Fabio Xammar, Antenor Orrego, among others).
Through this exhibit we want to share with today’s generations not only the work of this little known Peruvian engraver, who recorded many traditions, landscapes and popular art of his time using the woodcut technique, but also place him in a time line along with other artists to whom he shared the Peruvian artistic and intellectual scenario, so that we can understand him from a broader perspective.
In an interview dated August 4, 2005 published by La Republica newspaper on the occasion of the last living retrospective of JCS when he was 91 in the on-site museum of Parque Reducto, the artist said: “I have tried out all the techniques and all artistic movements: the Indigenism of Sabogal, the Indigenism of Vinatea Reynoso, Cubism. In engraving I was inspired by the Mexican movement. I have also made an incursion in pop art and abstraction; therefore, I don´t consider myself an Indigenist painter.”
Despite the undeniable cultural advances of our time, there are some aspects of Peruvian identity remaining to be solved. Some kind of “shyness” is noted when addressing the “topic”. Racism, classism, male chauvinism and other –isms are the inheritance we received from a local unsolved history; they are not ghosts but facts living with us every day; they drive expensive cars, they use the “Metropolitano” bus system, the electric train or walk.
Indigenism was a milestone in the long and tortuous process of building a local speech to integrate our plurality. It tried to balance our ill-looking reality at the beginning of the last century, but it was insufficient because, among other matters, it did not represent our huge diversity. In the current stage of such process, it would be healthy to start talking about Peruvian identity, cleaning the term from obsolete and limiting concepts, because talking about Peruvian identity today means talking about integration and equality, a different paradigm to that used currently, which is more related to differences and hierarchical organizations. This fact is more restorative in the broadest sense of the word.
I believe that this was JCS’ interest and pursuit. Many journalists of his time attributed him the title of Peruvianist. In his home town Trujillo he was never considered an Indigenist. Raul Rosales, son of the Bolivian painter by the same name based in Lima, used to say: “Peru will be a better place when we all became Peruvian and we no longer are cholos, indios, mestizos, mulatos, chunchos and serranos”, tags divide and claim for followers. We have been in this situation for almost five centuries, maybe it is time to agree with Peruvian journalist Javier Lizarzaburu (Lima Milenaria) and others who suggest changing our paradigms regarding this topic and changing the roadmap towards our integration, choosing to leave behind Independence, which carries us directly into the vicious circle of our past, contaminated by injustice, shame, lament and racial segregation to celebrate this two hundredth anniversary, 200 years of Republic and look forward, accepting, acknowledging, appreciating and understanding our past and the process which has brought us here today to think about the future.
08
Gabriela - Galería Del Barrio
Una parte del camino – (“A Part of the Way”)