Lifeline of an artist

Torus Tammer

“You have to train your mind, your eyes, your hand for at least 20

years to start to give life to a single line.”

These are the words of the Maestro, otherwise known as Mexican mural

artist Raul Anguiano.

Considered a national living treasure, Anguiano, 85, stands alone as

the last remaining member of the so-called “third generation” of Mexican

artists, all known for being unorthodox, and associated with politics and

art. Diego Rivera started the movement and is considered the first

generation.

Anguiano has been a Huntington and Sunset beach regular since the

early 1970s. He grew to love the area so much that he and his wife of 26

years, Brigita, maintain a home here, where they live for part of the

year.

An exhibition of Anguiano’s work -- including paintings, etchings and

lithographs -- is on display at the Anderson Art Gallery in Sunset Beach

until Sunday.

“In this particular exhibit, we tried to hold it around the time of

Aguiano’s Mayan murals at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, which opened in

July,” said Bill Anderson, the gallery’s owner.

Anderson said Anguiano, who was Rivera’s colleague, is considered to

be a living master.

Anguiano remembers being fascinated by a black and white reproduction

of the holy family by Rafael Sanci that sat in his grandmother’s house

when he was 4.

“That was my first aesthetic inspiration,” Anguiano said.

Anguiano started studying seriously when he was 12 in Guadalajara,

attending the Free School of Art, where children were encouraged to

express themselves. At 13 , he took private lessons from a tribal artist

named Jose Vizcarra.

“He was my real professor because I learned the techniques, the

composition, the color, oil, drawing -- everything from him,” Anguiano

said.

Anguiano soon left Guadalajara and ventured to Mexico City, where he

taught, studied and lived art for many years.

But the definitive moment of his life came in 1949, when he

accompanied the American Charles Frey on an expedition to the Mayan ruins

of Bonampak in Chiapas, Mexico. The purpose was to study the Lacandon

Mayans, an indigenous people who were on their way to extinction.

Anguiano was chosen as the artist to document the journey, which he

did via paintings, poems and sketches. The artwork from this journey

later became world renowned.

As goes with the territory of a legend, Anguiano is draped with

accolades too numerous to list. A notable mention must go out to his 1963

oil painting titled “Crucifixion,” which was accepted into the Vatican

collection by Pope John Paul II. Many of his other pieces sit in places

such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Royal Museum of Art

and History in Brussels.

Even with such esteemed achievements, Anguiano is humble, insisting

that everybody is born with the ability to draw; a point he addressed

recently while giving lessons to elementary school students in Santa Ana.

“Every child can draw. Sometimes they draw before they walk or even

before they write,” he said. “Graphic expression is a universal language

that 99% of children lose when they become teenagers and adults. In my

case, I never stopped drawing since I was 4 years old.”

Anguiano said he loves the process of creating.

“For an artist, it is the reason for living,” he said. “He revels in

the delight of studying the masters, talking about Paul Cezanne, Picasso

and Renoir.

“I have studied the masters by visiting all museums around the world.

One time, I spent 13 straight days in the Louvre in Paris from opening

until closing. I know the art there by memory.”

Anguiano describes himself as a classical or neoclassical artist for

whom the most important thing is the discipline of drawing.

He is planning a new exhibit of watercolors and sketches of bridges.

He expects to have it off the ground by January.

FYI

Raul Anguiano’s work will be on display at Anderson Gallery, 16182

Pacific Coast Highway, Sunset Beach, through Sunday.