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Baldomero Pestana

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Baldomero Pestana
Baldomero Pestana in 2012 in front of his portrait painted by his friend, the Peruvian painter Herman Braun-Vega in 1978.
Born(1917-12-28)December 28, 1917
Castroverde, Galicia, Spain
DiedJuly 7, 2015(2015-07-07) (aged 97)
Bascuas, Province of Lugo, Galicia, Spain
NationalitySpanish
Occupation(s)Photographer, painter, figurative artist
Known forPhotography, painting
SpouseVelia Martínez

Baldomero Pestana (Castroverde, (1917-12-28)December 28, 1917 – Bascuas, Province of Lugo in Galicia, (2015-07-07)July 7, 2015) was a Spanish photographer, painter, and figurative artist.

Biography[edit]

He emigrated in his childhood to Argentina[1] and began studying photography there as a teenager.[2] He married Velia Martínez in 1951 and remained with her until her death in 2003.

In the 1950s, he started working as a photographer in Buenos Aires, where one of his first photo sessions was with Dizzy Gillespie at the Teatro Casino. In 1957, he moved to Peru where he worked as an advertising photographer for the weekly Caretas and the cultural magazine Fanal.[3] There, he met numerous personalities of the great Latin American literary boom such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Jorge Luis Borges, and Sebastián Salazar Bondy. During his years in Peru, he published for magazines like Esquire, Time, and Life. He also took photos of the Villa Miseria for the United Nations.[4]

In 1967, he moved to Europe and, after a brief stay in Madrid, finally settled in Paris where he continued photographing not only Latin American artists such as Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes,[5] but also artists like Man Ray, Roman Polanski,[6] and Fernando Arrabal.[7] By the mid-1970s, he began to abandon photography to focus on painting, working in a style close to hyperrealism.

In 2008, he returned to live in Galicia, where he had spent brief periods throughout his life. He dedicated himself to drawing and painting.[8]

Exhibitions and recognitions[edit]

Pestana regularly exhibited his painting and photography, both in America and Europe. He exhibited works in Peru, Argentina, France, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, South Korea, the United States, among others. Notable is his solo exhibition in Brussels at the Fred Lanzemberg gallery in 1979.

In Galicia, there were no exhibitions of his work until his return to Lugo. There was one in Vigo in 2010, featuring only painting and drawing, at the Garcia Barbon Theatre.[9]

In 2012, he was declared an Honored Son of the town of Castroverde.[10] The Museum of the Galician People[11] organized an exhibition of photography and painting in 2013.[12]

In 2015, the director from Vigo, Andrea Vázquez, created the documentary A imaxe reb/velada featuring Baldomero Pestana.[13] It premiered at the Lima International Film Festival. That same year, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lima organized an exhibition of his photographs.[14] Also in 2015, the book "Retratos Peruanos" was published.[15]

In 2018, the Gaiás Center Museum in the City of Culture of Galicia paid posthumous tribute to him with Baldomero Pestana: The truth in the hands, an exhibition focused on the photography of the artist from Lugo,[16] which was also presented at the Instituto Cervantes in Paris[17] along with the book of the same name.[18]

In July 2022, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru issued a new 20-sol banknote featuring a portrait of José María Arguedas based on a photo taken by Baldomero Pestana.[19]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Fietta Jarque (9 July 2015). "Baldomero Pestana, retratista de la cultura latinoamericana". El País (in Spanish).
  2. ^ Silvia R. Pontevedra (12 July 2015). "Baldo Pestana, the photographer of artists who became an artist". El País (in Spanish).
  3. ^ Jacqueline Fowks (19 August 2015). "The portraitist with Lima's light". El País (in Spanish).
  4. ^ "Baldomero Pestana, the photographer-fan who collected Peruvian writers". En Lima (in Spanish). 20 November 2018.
  5. ^ "Truth in the hands of artists: Baldomero Pestana – in pictures". The Guardian. 15 February 2018. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
  6. ^ Manuel, Darriba (13 December 2009). "The Galician who portrayed Roman Polanski". El Mundo. Madrid. At the request of the painter Herman Braun, Pestana had a session with the film director in Paris: "Polanski was kind, but only as necessary", says the artist.
  7. ^ Gloria Crespo MacLennan (9 March 2018). "Baldomero Pestana: a life through many faces". El País (in Spanish).
  8. ^ "Baldomero Pestana". peroni.com. Retrieved 2024-06-28.
  9. ^ "Caixanova inaugurates an exhibition of Baldomero Pestana's drawings". La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). 1 December 2010.
  10. ^ "The photographer Baldomero Pestana will be an honored son of Castroverde". El Progreso (in Spanish). 2 April 2012.
  11. ^ "Exposicións. Museo do pobo Galego". museodopobo.gal. 2013-06-05. Archived from the original on 2020-05-27. Retrieved 2024-06-28.
  12. ^ Silvia R. Pontevedra (6 June 2013). "Photographs in pencil: The artist Baldomero Pestana exhibits his work at the Museo do Pobo Galego". El País (in Spanish).
  13. ^ "A IMAXE REB/VELADA". Play-Doc (in Galician). Retrieved 2024-06-28.
  14. ^ Sam Jones (15 February 2018). "Stars of 'El Boom' celebrated in Madrid show for forgotten photographer". The Guardian.
  15. ^ Baldomero Pestana (2015). Retratos Peruanos (in Spanish). Lima: Fundación BBVA Continental. p. 136. ISBN 978-6-124-68321-3.
  16. ^ "The exceptional portraitist Baldomero Pestana, in Gaiás until September". Correo Gallego (in Galician). 30 April 2018.
  17. ^ "Exposition Baldomero Pestana: La verdad entre las manos" (in French). Archived from the original on 2020-05-27. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  18. ^ Baldomero Pestana (2018). La verdad entre las manos (in Spanish and English). Madrid: Instituto Cervantes. p. 322. ISBN 978-84-453-5286-1.
  19. ^ República, La (3 October 2022). "BCR used Arguedas' photo for 20 soles bill without asking permission from the author". larepublica.pe (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 June 2024.

External links[edit]

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