El Mundo Latino News from Toronto, Canada published in a widely circulated newspaper PERUVIAN INDIGENOUS GENIUS OF UNIVERSAL PAINTING when after so many years in journalism we believed that nothing could surprise us anymore with the characters, news, dramas or whatever event occurs daily, a figure of extraordinary artistic and intellectual contours of great proportions towards the future has left us perplexed. This is ERNESTO APOMAYTA CHAMBI, 70 years old, born in a remote village of Acora in Puno, Peru, a Peruvian indigenous like any other of the purest Aymara race who having been born on the shores of Lake Titicaca in an extremely humble home has managed to rise to the highest levels in the world of art through His extraordinary paintings now adorn the world’s main museums and his paintings are purchased at prices that only the great masters have achieved, etc. etc. https://ernestoapomayta.com www.apomaytaart.com
The Sol Latino of California, USA says on its cultural page that MAESTRO: ERNESTO APOMAYTA CHAMBI CONTINUES TO LEAVE FOOTPRINTS ALL OVER THE WORLD,
HE ARRIVES WITH HIS BRUSHES TO PAINT A GIGANTIC MURAL entitled «Mother Nature is the Creator of all cultures» at the BOWERS CULTURAL ARTS MUSEUM in Orange County and Santa Ana District, California USA. That is why I tell you, says the reporter:
IT IS PRAISEWORTHY AND TO BE ADMIRED THE WORK THAT TEACHERS DO FOR CHILDREN, BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO BY THEIR WORK ARE AN EXAMPLE FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF TOMORROW, THE MURAL WILL BRING MUCH JOY TO THE THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WHO VISIT THE MUSEUM EVERY YEAR.
Reforma newspaper of Mexico on the cultural page says MAESTRO: ERNESTO APOMAYTA CHAMBI LEAVES MEXICO HE INTEGRATES CULTURES IN HIS WORKS. Before traveling to the USA, where he will reside, the Peruvian artist will give lectures on Mexican mural painting in China and Peru.
With the self-imposed task of raising awareness of humanity with his art and brandishing the thesis of cultural integration as a flag, the Peruvian muralist painter Ernesto Apomayta Chambi leaves the Aztec country after 7 years of stay, time in which he dedicated himself to studying pre-Hispanic painting, Mexican mural while teaching at different national and private Mexican universities.
The teacher is a member of the UNESCO qualified personnel return program that allows him to reside in various nations to absorb their culture and apply it in his work. The artist will travel in the next months to Peru and China where he will paint a mural in an international institute entitled Cultural and Economic Exchange between Asia and the West, to share his knowledge of Mexican mural painting.
The artist: For me, the important thing is to use ancient techniques and models to express my own personality and character, which I then share with other painters to contribute to their worldview of culture, says the master Apomayta Chambi.
Convinced that in ancient times there was communication between artists from different continents, which we have lost because they developed on a telepathic level, Apomayta Chambi gives as an example the fact that black ink was prepared in Peru, China and Mexico with burnt pine soot hundreds of years old, oxtail and alum with rainwater or distilled water. These discoveries, he says, have made him seek the integration of different cultures in his work, as a way of achieving UNITY IN THE FACE OF DIVERSITY. The union of Aztec, Mayan, Chinese, Incan cultures, and the American Indians, a country where he resides to study his art and where he plans to create a series of murals dedicated to the 2002 Winter Olympics to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
RENUNCIATION OF VULGARITY, together with this integration, which he believes will allow art to reach a higher level in the 21st century, Apomayta Chambi highlights the importance of studying disciplines such as philosophy, which contribute to the cultural formation of the artist.
The first step to acquiring culture consists of freeing oneself from worries; the world advances in the opposite direction to that of the artist and that leaves him free to attend to universal culture. Philosophy encompasses all things in this world; those who truly know the art of painting remain silent, because those who listen to the sycophants are trapped in circumstances that prevent them from perfecting themselves.
Others may take up art as a hobby, making beautiful work, but without discipline they will tend towards eccentricity. People who studied under the guidance of some teacher have a limited vision of art, they think correctly but are not truly cultured.
Apomayta Chambi points out that before being cultured the artist must resign to vulgarity, which can be mental, tone, atmosphere or theme, etc.
Refinement in Western or Asian art can be elevated, by achieving a genuine style; classic, by the elegance of the strokes; exquisite, by suggesting beauty, or cordial, because it allows us to forget violence.
The garish colors show the neurosis of the artist… the universe is complete, ordered, that is why I follow that rhythm, says the master Apomayta Chambi.
Contrary to the abstract genre, which he defines as easy, lacking all content and commercial, the artist affirms that painting must be figurative and capture poetic themes.
The techniques will endure through the years, he believes. When an artist assimilates the old, he can achieve a personal style, one cannot innovate before having that base.
After studying Asian and Western cultures in several countries, the master Apomayta Chambi believes that the strong tonality of Western works combined with the strokes of the Asian technique could very soon give rise to a new school of painting in the world.*