Peter Leventhal

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Peter Leventhal was born in New York City in 1939 and grew up in Brooklyn. His father was a textile designer. Peter loved the museums and libraries of the city, loved his father's studio, and taught himself to draw from old masterpieces in the New York Public Library print room. His first show was of drawings at Martin Reimart's drawing shop on Christopher Street in 1959. He went to Paris in 1960, and later returned to New York and lived in Chinatown. 

One of his greatest influences was German artist Max Beckmann. His early work is very polished and carefully rendered, though he gradually loosened into the expressionist exuberance he demonstrates today. One of the highlights of Peter's career was being invited to exihibit several pieces from a series dealing with Mexican history at the Alhondiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato. He's had more than forty solo exhibitions in New York, France, Florida and Mexico. 

Sadly he is no longer with us, he passed recently this year of 2019.

“One of the things that made me want to be an artist was on my 10th birthday he took me to the Metropolitan where they had a huge Van Gogh show. Looking at those paintings just sealed it for me. That was when I said, "I don't know how to do this. I don't even know how to live the life of an artist, but that's what I'm going to do." I knew then that that was my direction in life and maybe as glib and as erudite as my father was, I was as obstinate so it may have been the ancient Oedipal struggle, writ small.” (Peter Leventhal)

Luis Filcer

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LUIS FILCER: EXPRESSIONISM WITH A LONGING FOR LIFE

(Ukraine-Mexico-Holland 1927-2018)

For many of us who knew him, the name Luis Filcer is instantly connected to a rare human quality: authenticity. His passion for art and his unquenchable thirst for creation led him to experience a life in which luxury was always understood as human connection, depth of feeling and the permanent longing for a world where truth and justice might prevail. This he portrayed in countless works as rich and varied as his much preferred themes. Whether he reflected the intensity of a gambler’s night at the casino or a fiery flamenco dancer bedazzling her audience; or the silent effort of fishermen pushing their boats to face the awesome wildness of the sea. Whether we find ourselves witnesses to an unfair Kafka- styled trial or the unexplainable ambition of those in power, it was life that drenched his brushes with an unfulfilled dream to see humanity express their utmost wisdom, love and creativity and, above all, that compassion and solidarity may be able to override society’s inclination towards injustice, hypocrisy and indifference. These battles against the dark side of humanity, along with his celebration of its everyday wonders, including the simple and unfathomable miracle of the Earth’s landscapes are all part of what he wished to portray and leave behind as a legacy in his childlike ability to feel amazed (or deceived) throughout his entire human journey.

He said so himself: “I paint what I feel, not merely what I see. I cannot imagine life as a mere portrayal of reality as is, for existence is not a photograph, a moment in time: it is constant movement and, above all, the ever-changing impression based on how we feel about reality.” He was inspired by Van Gogh to accept his “Lust for Life”; in fact, it was Irving Stone’s unforgettable depiction of the artist that initiated Filcer in his desire to make painting his life’s mission. He was also a great admirer of  Francisco Goya, Toulouse Lautrec and Rembrandt; every once in a while, these geniuses appear as characters in the artist’s imagination as they ride together on a train, followed closely by their own fantastic creations.                                       

With over 300 exhibitions worldwide and his master works on permanent exhibitions in more than 60 museums around the world, it is more than worthwhile to become familiar with an expressionist and humanist such as him. The Filcer Studio, now in San Miguel de Allende, is open to visitors who wish to collect and or be immersed in his world, his thinking and his work.

Alex Slucki 

Kunsthaus Santa Fe art collection

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Founded in 1997 by Lothar Müller, German artist and cultural promoter, Kunsthaus Santa Fe began operations as a non profit contemporary art space, is interested in exhibiting emerging Latin American artists and international artists with new visual proposals. 

In order to decentralize the exhibitions and the contemporary art market, Kunsthaus operates from San Miguel de Allende, on the outskirts of a quintessential centralized country like Mexico.

Today it is one of the most important contemporary  art collections on the Bajio Region.

Leigh Hyams paintings

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Leigh Hyams (1926 – 2013) 

 Over the years, Leigh’s painting subject matter ranged from European megaliths and Mayan temples, Brazilian rain forests and Yosemite waterfalls, to giant images of imaginary flowers, Mexican folk art, dogs, cows, and her family. Her work was distinguished by an edgy line quality and luminous color. She said she was driven by “a passion for what frees us, makes us aware of a deeper reality, and brings us closer to the universe around us and the one inside ourselves.”

Her drawings, paintings, and artist’s books are in the permanent collections of the Achenbach Foundation in San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California Art, Des Moines Art Center, Joslyn Art Museum, Palácio Imperial in Curitiba, Brazil, and University of California at Irvine, as well as private collections in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Her museum exhibitions included solo shows at the Paco Imperial Center for Contemporary Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at El Museo de la Ciudad de Santiago Querétaro in Querétaro, Mexico.