The magic of artist Feliciano Bejar

The five disc-headed sculptures sat atop the table like sentries, their metal bases constructed with parts that looked like gears. Their faces were glass prisms, more like optical lens, one squeezing out the other.     

These works of art were an imposing presence and were definitely a show-stopper. They were up for auction at the Decorative Arts sale recently at one of my favorite auction houses.  

 

Their main characteristic was their ability to distort in a good way any object cast behind them. I thought that light would naturally set the prisms a-jumping, but there were no bright lights on hand to hold behind them. So, I photographed the room through the face of one of them. Instantly, I saw the effect of these series of beveled circles.     

I had to know who had made such innovative and unusual artwork. So, I checked the auction sheet and saw the name Feliciano Bejar. It was unfamiliar to me, which isn’t unusual since there are so many great – and not so great – artists out there and I can’t know them all.     

 

I later Googled his name. Bejar was a Mexican artist best known for his steel and glass sculptures called Magiscopes. And that’s what these were.    

He was a self-taught artist who was born in Jiquilpan, Michoacan, Mexico in 1920 and developed polio at an early age, according to several sites. He had his first exhibition in New York in the late 1940s, presenting works that were not your traditional sculpture. They would later end up as his trademark recycled metal sculptures with glass circles – his Magiscopes.      

He was also a set designer, architect and landscape designer, according to the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University in New York. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Dartmouth College, Museo de Arte Moderno de Mexico City and the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, among others. I came across a painting of his that was sold at Christie’s in 2009. He participated in more than 120 exhibitions. He died in 2007 in Mexico City.     

 

Here’s how Bejar described his Magiscopes, which he created in varying sizes. I came across a photo of one that was 5 feet tall with a 26″ face.    

“Some distort, some define, but always they give us a new vision. As their generic name indicates, they are instruments to see magically, to see the magic and poetry that exists all around us all the time, but that our indifferent eyes do not wish to perceive.”      

Heres’ a YouTube interview with him in Spanish apparently captured at an exhibit. Even if you can’t understand the language, you can enjoy his artwork in the video.