Feliciano Béjar Ruíz (1920 – February 1, 2007) was a Mexican artist and artisan, best known for a style of sculpture called "magiscopios" which involved various materials along with crystals and/or lenses to play with light or create distorted visions.
In his later life, Béjar withdrew from the art world for about sixteen years, disillusioned with it and retreating to his ranch in the State of Mexico.
Béjar was born in 1920 in Jiquilpan, Michoacán,[1][2] between the Sierra Madre Occidental and Lake Chapala, which was a very small and rural town when he was a child.
He was sent to middle school at the Colegio Salesiano de Artes y Oficios in Guadalajara, where he learned various trades such as carpentry and metalworking, but he was there only two years before the government shut that down too.
[3][4][6] After he return from Guadalajara, he worked with his father, who made a living selling notions, make up, perfume and other items on the street.
[3] During this time in New York, he was put in touch with English painter Arthur Ewart who encouraged him to get back to art, particularly painting.
[2] He also met socialite Frances Colman, while copying paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who helped him get started selling his work.
[3] His interest in ecology was also spurred by his time in Mexico City, when he lived for a while near Paseo de la Reforma, seeing how its trees and old mansions were deteriorating.
[3] From the 1990s to a few years before his death, Béjar was withdrawn from the art world, secluding himself on his ranch and returning to his religious roots.
His agricultural activities on his ranch kept him connected with his rural roots, creating artificial lakes, planting trees and crops and raising bees.
After he created his first one, he invited Paco de al Maza, Justino Fernández, Salvador Novo and others for dinner.
"[3][10] When Béjar exhibited these magiscopios at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1966, he signified a break for a generation of avant garde sculptors, and from traditional Mexican sculpture.
[2] The magiscopios brought Béjar fame and many of them were copied and reproduced; however, their popularity meant that no one wanted to see his paintings, which bothered him.
[5][9] His last exhibition was as the House of the First Print Shop in the Americas in Mexico City shortly before he died,[2][10] and his last public work was a pair of colored shoes which were auctioned off for charity for 10,000 pesos.
[4] He was a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana[12] Béjar was a prolific creator and while much of his production has been acquired for permanent collection, much is in the possession of his longtime friend Martin Foley.
[2][3] When he thought about his works, he always referred back to his creation of toys, and the fireworks castles his Uncle Jesús created in Cotija and even continued drawing on cardboard as he did as a child.
[3] He worked with various techniques such as painting, drawing, engraving and sculpture in wood, ceramic, soldered metal, bronze, stone, stainless steel, crystal and plastic.
[1] The sun images first appeared in his paintings, then moved onto his sculpture, where they evolved into the use of crystals and lenses to distort or sharpen the effect of light or the onlookers sight.
Martin Foley titled his autobiography of Béjar El recolector de soles (The gatherer of suns.)
He also built houses, stage sets, a semi-circular Greco-Roman theaters and created a ranch to be close to nature, with gardens, water works and an orchard.
[6] His wide range of interests attracted some negative criticism for not specializing[3] while others depreciated his work because of his frequent travels, calling him "bohemian.