Our Honolulu
Frescos draw top restorers
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist
Social realism in art is under repair at the ILWU building on Atkinson Drive with the full cooperation of the government of Mexico.
Since this is something of which the art community in Our Honolulu should be aware, let me tell you about it. A team of four fresco-conservation experts from Mexico City are at work restoring the mural by Pablo O'Higgins on the walls of the labor union building.
Their leader is Eliseo Majangos, of the Centro Nacional de Conservacion y Registro del Patrimonio Aristico Mueble, a pioneer in the restoration of the social-realism art for which Mexico is famous. Included among Majangos' restorations is a mural by Diego Rivera in the New York Museum of Modern Art.
What possessed the Centro Nacional to send one of its top conservators to scrub the walls of the ILWU building?
Majangos explained that O'Higgins, who worked with Rivera and became a Mexican citizen, is considered an important Mexican artist, and O'Higgins' fresco in Hawai'i is an example of the school of social realism that the Centro Nacional is dedicated to preserving.
Another reason is that the Hawai'i Labor Heritage Council spent about $20,000 to bring the Mexican conservators here.
The mural is on view from a three-story staircase and depicts the hardships and struggles of dock and plantation workers to a better future by uniting in the labor movement. When the fresco was painted in 1952, it was considered decidedly left wing.
But it pales as social commentary in comparison to the work of Rivera and Orosco.
"Why isn't anybody painting revolutionary murals anymore?" I asked Majangos. He said he didn't know. I asked him if it was because the muralists had turned into video photographers. He smiled.
Majangos said he worked under O'Higgins in Mexico and met the late Jean Charlot, fresco master at the University of Hawai'i, who also worked in Mexico.
Restoration of the mural in the ILWU building presents problems, Majangos said. For one thing, it's very dirty, and the conservators have to find the right chemical solution that will take off the dirt without harming the painting.
Also, the mason who mixes and applies the plaster for a fresco plays a major role in its success. The mason who helped O'Higgins "was not an expert," Majangos said diplomatically. Not all of the plaster has the same texture.
The 60-year-old restoration expert said he wanted to be a muralist but decided that interest in the art form had waned. However, he saw that the frescos in museums needed attention. He made one of the pioneering attempts at restoration that led to the Centro National, a national restoration program.
Call Paul Zarate at 349-1248 to contact the Mexican conservators. They will be here until October.
Reach Bob Krauss at bkrauss@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8073.
