Jean Charlot - Kei Viti 1978

Jean Charlot

Kei Viti 1978

Colección de Arte Cantú Y de Teresa

JEAN CHARLOT 
(París, Francia, 1898 - Hawái, EE.UU., 1979)

Kei Viti melanesian images, 1976

French-born muralist, painter, and book illustrator who was known for monumental frescoes that show the influence of Mayan art.

 In Naiserelagi Fiji. There is a mission church dedicates to Saint Peter Chanel, martyred on the small island of fortune. In 1962, its pastor Msgr. Franz Wasner invited me to decorated its interior walls in true fresco.

Living off the beaten track, Naiserelagi’s settlers are Melanesians, direct descendants of the pioneers who, over a millennium ago, beached theirs  canoes on these islands. Theirs a mysterious race, muscular black bodies shaped for jungle forays, their gestures softened by an ancestral code of politeness.

Subjects and sights that failed to become parte of fresco mural remained perforce dormant, but far from forgotten. Now after fifteen years, some of them acquire shape and color in these five lithographs.

The title of the portfolio Kei Viti , may puzzle the onlooker. I chose it however because it alone ties together the lay of the land with what aboriginal traditions still make a visit to Fiji a unique esthetic experience.

Jean Charlot

En Naiserelagi Fiji. Hay una misión de la iglesia dedicada a San Pedro Chanel, martirizado en la pequeña isla de la fortuna.

En 1962, su pastor Mons. Franz Wasner me invitó a decorado sus paredes interiores con la técnica del fresco.

Vivir fuera de los caminos, los colonos de Naiserelagi que son melanesios, descendientes directos de los pioneros que hace más de un milenio se establecieron llegando en canoas ah estas islas.

Esta raza misteriosa de cuerpos negros musculosos que habitan la selva, con sus gestos suavizados por un código ancestral de cortesía.

Los sujetos y lugares que no lograron convertirse en parte del mural al fresco permanecieron forzosamente latentes en mi recuerdo, pero muy lejos de ser olvidados.

 Ahora, después de quince años, algunos de ellos adquieren forma y el color en estos cinco litografías.

El título del portafolio Kei Viti, puede desconcertar al espectador. Lo elegí sin embargo porque sólo ella une la disposición de la tierra, con lo que las tradiciones aborígenes todavía hacen recordar la visita a Fiji  que siempre será para mi una experiencia estética única.

Jean Charlot

Kei Viti 1978

Colección de Arte Cantú Y de Teresa

a) Tuki Derua: bamboo pipe player

b) Qaravi Yaqona: Kava ceremony

c) Tali Ibe: weaking mats

d) Vakatagi Derua: musical bamboo

e) Tagane Dauravuravu: ancient warrior

JEAN CHARLOT   Kei Viti melanesian images

Charlot, whose mother was of Mexican descent, moved to Mexico City in 1920. There he painted frescoes for the Mexican government with artists such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. From 1926 to 1929 Charlot was the staff artist for a Carnegie Institute archaeological expedition in the Yucatán. Moving to the United States in 1929, he taught at many schools—including the Art Students League in New York City

The contemporary (in 1930) painters included in this exhibition were Abraham Angel, Abelardo Avilar, Federico Cantú, Pablo Camareno, Julio Castellanos, Jean Charlot, Joaquin Clausell, Dosamantes, Maria Izquierdo, Agustin Lazo, Manuel Rodriguez Lozano, Ignacio Marquez, Carlos Merida, Pablo O’Higgins, Carlos Orozco-Romero, Maximo Pacheco, Everardo Ramirez, Fermin Revueltas, Miguel Covarrubias, Rufino Tamayo, Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Roberto Montenegro and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Lynton Richard Kistler was born August 30, 1897 in Los Angeles CA.

From Los Angeles Times: Obituaries - Lynton R. Kistler; Modern Artists' Lithographer

Lynton R. Kistler, a pioneering California lithographer who printed the work of 20th-Century artists from Jean Charlot to Millard Sheets and Wayne Thiebaud, has died. He was 96. Kistler died at his home in Laguna Hills Nov. 9, Tobey Moss of the Tobey Moss Gallery said Monday.

A native of Los Angeles, Kistler attended Hollywood and Manual Arts high schools and served in the Army during World War I. He began his career in his father's letterpress printing shop and quickly gravitated to the new offset lithography, a printing process using grease and water on flat stones and, later, on metal plates.

Kistler met Charlot, Edward Weston and other artists through a friend, Merle Armitage, who was a modern art collector and manager of the Los Angeles Grand Opera Company. Soon Kistler became known as the best stone lithographer in the country. Other artists whose work Kistler printed included Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg, Beatrice Wood, Hans Burkhardt, Eugene Berman, Clinton Adams, Palmer Schoppe and Joe Mugnaini. He also printed work by June Wayne, and inspired her in 1960 to open her Tamarind Lithography Workshop, now at the University of New Mexico.

In 1981, the Heritage Gallery exhibited 70 works by various artists printed by Kistler. At the time, he modestly told Times art critic William Wilson that the work had no particular Kistler touch. But, he said, he took pride in printing as the artists wanted and in technical expertise. Kistler taught lithography at UCLA Extension and, in 1950, published the book "How to Make a Lithograph." A collection of his lithographs and one of his earliest presses are in the Smithsonian Institution.