Khipuz Peruvian Contemporary Art and Culture - Oct 2016 | Page 9

Khipuz -Article

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That was in an important time for Camino because he promisingly entered the local art scene through two proposals: the depiction of his time and his environment and the search for a contemporary Peruvian iconography. Nevertheless, it was also the time when he entered the School of Fine Arts as a teacher and simultaneously started to give art classes in the schools "José Granda" and "Ricardo Bentin" in Rimac, and "Pedro A. Labarthe" in La Victoria.  This is a little known but important detail in the artist's life because he is convinced, due to his own experience, that freedom given by the creative process and the technical mastery conferred by the trade are tools that complement an individual’s comprehensive knowledge.

 

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 that decade, JCS prepared two books for teaching drawing in public schools in Lima, one including the Mochica culture themes and the other "mates burilados" and other Andean themes. Both books were prefaced by the writer and historian Arturo Jimenez Borja, who along with Luis Fabio Xammar and José A. Hernandez, gave life to "Revista 3" magazine, voice of the Cholista Movement in poetry. In the 60s, Luis Fabio Xammar prefaced one of the engraving folders of Julio Camino Sánchez with a beautiful text dated 1946. 

 In the 60’s, Camino Sánchez resumes his creative and productive work and prepares a series of woodcut files inspired by the religious imagery from Ayacucho, the churches from the town of Quinua, mates burilados from Junin, bulls from Santiago de Pupuja, masks from various typical dances and the pre-Columbian art from the northern coast of Peru. Such files are a rich contribution to the documentation of his natural surrounding and of the main manifestations of popular art produced in the departments of Junin, Cajamarca, Cusco, Puno, Ayacucho and his home town Moche.

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.