New Museum Hosts Guanacasteco Art

THE pastel drawings of renowned sculptor Néstor Zeledón got a new home March 10 when the Universidad Nacional inaugurated the Lola Fernández Gallery at 5 p.m. The gallery, in the administrative building, will host art and cultural pieces.

Zeledón’s collection, called “Guanacaste and its People,” is a representation of the experiences that the artist collected since his first excursion into Guanacaste in 1940.

“I still preserve in memory the adventure of traveling in a boat into the Gulf of Nicoya, entering the Río Padre, the Tempisque, Puerto Ballena and the long route to our destination,” Zeledón said.

His work reflects his deep interest in the region and the customs, words and idioms of the ancient Maya language.

“Since then,” Zeledón said, “I have sailed for years in the gulf, in the rivers and have walked through the villages and mountains. Those experiences have come through in my creative world, as much in sculpture as in paint, sketches and stories, because I’ve always nourished myself through the roots of my people.”

FELLOW artist Gerardo Martí emphasized the importance of Zeledón’s visual memory, a resource that enables him to synthesize his observations and experiences and represent them in evocative drawings.

“His work is autobiographical and each drawing is an open chapter of the book of his life. They are windows into his interior world, so honorable and true that they leave his soul open for discovery.

Perhaps therein lies, in large part, their worth – in the honesty and integrity with which the world is represented,” Martí said.

The gallery is at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia, north of San José. For more info call 277-3224.