ILDEFONSO  AGUILAR,  ARTIST

ILDEFONSO  AGUILAR,  ARTIST

nominated for prestigious award.

and rightly so says Norman Warwick

An artist we have featured a number of times on these pages has been proposed by the Lanzarote Cabildo for the 2024 Canary Islands Awards.

Lancelot Digital recently reported that The Cabildo of Lanzarote unanimously approved, in the last Government Council of 2023, the proposal of Idelfonso Aguilar de la Rúa for the 2024 Canary Awards in the category of Fine Arts and Interpretation, a proposal supported by the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Michael the Archangel.

This important artist is also featuted on line on Tenerife Espacaio de las Arts (TEA) where we learned he was born in Salamanca in 1945 and has lived in Lanzarote since he was eight months old. Between 1963 and 1968 he studied and graduated from the Higher School of Fine Arts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife as a Professor of Drawing and Painting. Between 1970 and 1976 he worked as a Professor of Drawing and Modeling at the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Trades of Arrecife de Lanzarote. During this time he makes various audiovisual montages about Lanzarote, using photography, sound and video. During the years 1978, 1979 and 1980 he traveled to different countries making audiovisuals and music recordings. Between 1968 and 1985 he served as director of the Culture Area of ​​the Cabildo of Lanzarote. At that time he designed the musical setting for Los Jameos del Agua, Ruta de los Volcanes, Cueva de los Verdes and Jardín de Cactus in Lanzarote. Since 1986 he has dedicated himself exclusively to artistic activity and collaborates as an advisor on certain cultural and artistic projects with various public institutions on the island. In 1989 he created, and since then directs, the Lanzarote Visual Music Festival. In 1993, commissioned by the Lanzarote Cabildo, he participated as artistic director in the Ruta de Janubio landscape recovery project, for which he designed a light and sound installation in the Gulf crater. In 1999 he completed and finished the second phase of the Casa del Campesino Art, Culture and Tourism Center, initially created by César Manrique. In 2012 he was named Full Academician in the Painting Section of the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts of San Miguel Arcángel and in 2015 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Government of the Canary Islands. In 2016 he was named a member of the Honorary Advisory Council of the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and was awarded the distinction of Adoptive Son of Lanzarote. He has published catalogues, books and notebooks of photographs as well as music recordings. He has designed numerous original graphic works for posters, books and records. Since 1964 he has continuously held individual painting and photography exhibitions in different countries, as well as interventions in the natural environment, multimedia installations and audio-visual projects.

We have featured the work of Alfonso Aguillar (left) on these pages on several occasions. We have seen his exhibitions in Casa de la Culture in Yaiza, and at CIC El Almacen in Arrecife. In fact we saw and heard a particularly intriguing ´audio landscape that has since been published called  Ildefonso Aguillar: A Life In Music, reflecting that artist´s life of playing with the lead instruments in the volcanic orchestra: Land, Sea and Wind.

You will notice his name in other reviews of his arts exhibitions, at CIC El Alamacen  (The Warehouse) when we told of how we were guided by the wonderful, knowledge and enthusiasm of Estefania Corujo, (right) who was then delivering a series of Visitas Guiadas at Casa de la Culture Augustin de la Hoz, and other venues that are also friends of the arts..

In Lanzarote, he has worked as insular director of the Culture Area, he has designed the musical setting of the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers, and he has created and directed the Lanzarote Visual Music Festival, among other projects. An artistic reference named Adoptive Son of Lanzarote in 2016 and who obtained the Canary Islands Gold Medal in 2015.

That is why this proposal seeks to ensure that the figure of Aguilar remains a cultural reference for future generations.

editors note you can find further articles on-line  not only about Ilderfonso Aguillar but also about Estefania Corujo a Visita Guidas, and who is herself a fine artist.