Hernando León

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Hernando León

Juan Hernando León Perez (born September 30, 1933 in Yungay ) is a Chilean artist. His work includes drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations, performances and films.

Life

Hernando León was born in the central Chilean province of Ñuble in the place Yungay. In 1939, after the house was destroyed by an earthquake, the family moved to the provincial capital Chillán . After graduating from high school, he studied wall painting and art education at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago from 1952 to 1958 and drawing and graphics with Hans Theo Richter from 1958 to 1961 at the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK) . It was here that he met his future wife Margarita Pellegrin .

In 1962 he was given a teaching position in Chile for two years at the Academia Chilena de Bellas Artes in Valdivia . Drawings and paintings were created on the subject of "Chiloé". In 1964 he took over a lectureship at the Universidad de Chile in Antofagasta . In 1968 he was a co-founder of the Chilean Artists Association in Antofagasta. In 1970 he was appointed professor at the newly opened department for architecture-related art and in 1972 he was elected director of the department. Sketches, drawings and the first larger oil paintings were created. Study trips took him to Lima, Machu Picchu, La Paz and the Atacama Desert.

In the course of the political persecution after Pinochet's military coup in September 1973, Hernando León was arrested with other colleagues at the university. With the help of friends, he managed to leave the country in January 1974. A short time later, his wife and children followed him to Peru . In order to process the experiences, he showed an exhibition in Lima during the first months of his exile and published graphics and poems together with the poet Omar Lara under the title "Serpientes" (snakes).

In April 1974 he emigrated to the GDR . Soon afterwards he began teaching as a lecturer at the HfBK Dresden. He also designed sets for Brecht's “ Mother Courage ” in the National Theater Weimar (1976), for “ La traviata ” in the opera Quito (1986) and for “ The Magic Flute ” at the Young Generation Theater in Dresden (1987). In addition to exhibitions, murals were created in Weimar, Bautzen, Schwerin and Dresden. In addition, he traveled and worked in various places in Europe and Latin America, but without returning to his home country. In 1987 he experimented with the artist Ray van Zeschau with the medium of film at the HfBK. The changes of 1989 in the GDR and in Chile (end of the Pinochet dictatorship) were again the turning point in León's life. The result was the performance “A BAO A QU” and the last installation with his colleagues and students at the Frauenkirche memorial in Dresden, an action against the first Iraq war. In 1992 he quit his apprenticeship at the HfBK in order to be able to work as a freelancer.

In 1996 he acquired the "AtelierHaus" in Pirna near Dresden and set it up as a studio and exhibition space for himself and other artists. Exhibitions followed, primarily in Pirna, Dresden and Berlin. He has also participated in the cultural life of Chile since the democratization of speech. He realized various socio-cultural projects and exhibited his pictures in Santiago, Valdivia, Chillán, Concepción and Antofagasta. He painted murals for Chillán and Yungay and founded the Museo Internacional de la Gráfica Contemporánea de Chillán (International Museum of Graphics), which he also directs. León lives in Dresden, Pirna and Santiago.

In 2004 the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Relations commissioned him - through the Embassy of the Republic of Chile (in Berlin) - to design a new United Buddy Bear for his home country . This Buddy Bear, characteristic of León's style, has since been on a “world tour” with around 140 other bears ; it has already been exhibited on 5 continents, including Tokyo, Sydney, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, and Saint Petersburg.

Work (selection)

Painting / graphics

  • 1955 Oil paintings on the subject of "The War of the Araucans"
  • 1962/63 drawings and paintings on the subject of "Chiloé"
  • 1965 series "Characters", "The War", "From Everyday" and "Superstition"
  • 1965 Publication: "Poets and Graphic Artists Northern Chile"
  • 1969 episodes "Vietnam" and "The Somozas"
  • 1974 graphics in book form on poems by Omar Lara under the title "Serpientes" (snakes); Graphics for "Joaquín Murieta" for the German-Sorbian People's Theater Bautzen
  • 1975 series "Black Drawings" and "Epic Pictures"
  • 1982 graphic portfolio "Graphics for Latin American poetry"
  • 1994 graphic portfolio "Leaves from the diary"
  • 1995 "The Message of the Cicadas" - drawings for the book by the Greek poet Dimitris Kosmidis

Murals / installations

The return , wall painting in the Mittweida University. 1984/1985
  • 1973 mural in the Museum of Archeology
  • 1978 mural in Dresden-Prohlis (mosaic, 468 m²); Beginning of a series with object installations, including "Fahrrad I"
  • 1979 wall painting campaign with Finnish artists in the Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki; Installation "Raumerlebnis" with Dresden artists for the 10th art exhibition in the Dresden district
  • 1980 Execution of three murals for Bautzen
  • 1981 mural for Weimar
  • 1983 mural for Weimar; Object "Bicycle II" for the State Museum Schwerin
  • 1986 Wall painting action at the Kemin Taidemuseum in Kemi, Finland

Theater productions

  • 1976 Stage design for “Mother Courage” by Bertolt Brecht at the Nationaltheater Weimar
  • 1977 Graphic conception for Shakespeare's "Perikles" at the National Theater Weimar
  • 1979 Graphic conception for “Die Hilfeeflehenden” by Euripides
  • 1985 Concept for the set for "Death of a Salesman" by A. Miller
  • 1986 Set design for “La Traviata” by G. Verdi in Quito
  • 1987 Set for "The Magic Flute" by WA Mozart at the Theater of the Young Generation in Dresden

Animation films

  • 1977 "Lautaro" (Director: J. Forch, Music: B. Wefelmeyer)
  • 1996 “OH! Man "(Direction: H. León)
  • 1997 "Death 13" (director: H. León)
  • 2000 "Der Blickesammler" (Direction: H. León)

Other projects

  • 1999 Project "Artists save the water mills of Yungay" with concerts, meetings, cinema screenings and donations in Germany and subsequent trip by 6 specialists to Yungay as well as handover of the design for the building of a museum for rural culture
  • 2001 Art campaign for Pirna “A Saturday with Art” (7 exhibitions, short films and music in the historic city center), from 2002 the city took over the project as part of its annual traditional city festivals

gallery

  • Serpientes , (mixed media , 2002)

  • Encounter on the banks of the Elbe (drawing, 2002)

  • The Casanova (oil, 1970)

  • The agitators (drawing, 1985)

  • United Buddy Bear for Chile (2004)

Personal exhibitions (selection)

Random self-portrait , Indian ink, 1983
  • 1964 Universidad de Chile, Antofagasta
  • 1974 Galería 9, Lima (Peru) (with M. Pellegrin)
  • 1976 North Gallery, Dresden
  • 1981 New Dresden Gallery
  • 1982 gallery in the Altes Museum Berlin
  • 1983 Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig
  • 1986 Kemin Taidemuseum in Kemi (Finland)
  • 1994 Saxon Ministry of Culture, Dresden
  • 1998 Museo Internacional de la Grafica Contemporánea de Chillán
  • 2000 Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), Santiago
  • 2002 “Retrospectiva” in the Chilean Embassy in Berlin and in the Foreign Ministry of the FRG in Berlin
  • 2003 New Saxon Art Association in Dresden
  • 2006 Casa del Arte (Pinacoteca) de la Universidad de Concepción
  • 2008 Chilean Embassy in Berlin; Pirna City Museum
  • 2010 “Persistence of the Myth” in the Pirna City Gallery

Web links

Commons : Hernando León (artist)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Leon, Hernando
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leon, Juan; Leon, Juan Hernando; Leon Perez, Juan Hernando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Yungay , Chile