His works are present in different parts of the world
by Araceli Martínez
Omar D’León, one of the most recognized Nicaraguan painters and poets of the last 50 years, passed away on the morning of August 26 in Camarillo, California at the age of 93. “My beloved uncle Omar d’León left this morning to meet the Lord,” announced Lauren Lacayo Vaisman, niece of the Nicaraguan painter and poet.
Meanwhile, the vice president of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo declared “on this day that she makes her transit to the presence of the Lord, we want to send a hug of solidarity to her entire family, to that entire family of artists as well, hugs to Magda, Gregori Lacayo and other relatives who are there and are here, but we are all united by love, appreciation, and recognition of Omar D’ León.
“We ask God to rest in his peace in his love, and in the peace and love that he projected so much in his paintings, which are extraordinary, great greetings then, and a big hug to his whole family.”
The artist was born in 1929 in Managua, Nicaragua. His parents were David Estanislao Lacayo Herdocia and Guillermina Estrada de Lacayo. He studied nine years at the National School of Fine Arts in Nicaragua where he was a disciple of Rodrigo Peñalba, who lived from 1908 to 1979, and is considered the father of modern Nicaraguan art.
His earliest inspirations were the Pompeii frescoes, where he saw the use of cross-hatching and applied this technique to his love of the Impressionist school. He is best known for his brilliant graphite paintings of magical scenes inspired by mythology.
In 1970 he founded the “Museum-Gallery 904” in Managua. The museum’s collection encompassed the arts of Nicaragua from pre-Hispanic to contemporary times.
However, during the December 1972 earthquake, D’Leon’s museum and studio were partially destroyed and later looted and robbed.
After the Sandinistas took power in Nicaragua, he moved to Camarillo, California in 1976, where he lived with his sister Magda Mynard.
In 1982, one of his paintings was reproduced in the form of a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stamp.
His works can be found in many museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Latin American Art in Washington DC, Duke Durham University in North Carolina, the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, the Institute of Chicago Art and the Cuevas Museum in Mexico.
But also in the Central Bank of Nicaragua, the Ruben Dario National Theater, in the Armando Morales and Rodrigo Peñalba room of the Palace of Culture.
In 2012 he received a tribute at the Granada International Poetry Festival. There he declared that he had little time left to live, but he was not worried. “When the end comes, let it come.” D’Leon lived another 10 years.
But in a letter addressed to the public on December 22, 2021, sent when he was unable to attend the presentation of his exhibition Omar D’ León: Color and Identity, and published on his blog the emotional state:
“I still exist in intermittent temporal reverberations: free, creative, empowered by beauty, magic and love.
“I am exempt from grudges and nefarious isms. I am not a politician. I am an agronomist, archaeologist, writer, sculptor, painter, poet, draftsman and creator. I keep a very strict discipline in creativity and in the search for art. I would like to receive in life what I deserve, because now that I am deceased, those honors and pomp will be of no use to me, because my ashes have no reason.
“I am a happy lonely hermit, with an enormous cargo of great loves, of happy memories, of beautiful muses, pleasures, of some faithful and beloved friends, of gratitude with life, with the Creator and the earthly paradise, which has exiled to deadly monsters and ephemeral global demons.
“Only true art is divine and eternal; he is in need of music and peace; and it is the fear of the barbarians… There is still time to save our planet”.
And he apologizes for not being able to be present at the exhibition, “due to unavoidable commitments to museums and galleries in the United States, but he said he was grateful for the tribute to his painting.”
Amy Jones says in The Color of Freedom that D’Leon’s work “is imbued with a mystical quality, knowing abundance in paradise and the anguish of losing it, holding the light of grace to find a way through heaven.” fear and torture to be rewarded with pure vision and the ability to engrave on canvas”.
She adds that “He infuses echoes of Pompeii frescoes and classical Greek ideas of philosophy, community, and beauty. He imprints the European Impressionist painting imported into his country by his mentor with qualities of magical realism that are quintessentially Nicaraguan.”
Some of his poetry books are Estancias del Canto (1985-1993), Tedio Terrestre (1995-1998) and Canto Inoxidable (1999).
The poetic work of Omar d’Leon has been published in different publications. One of his most remembered and appreciated poems is El Canto Nicaragüense, written between 1960 and 1961. Here are some excerpts:
Where will you go walker when
the memory still attends you and
leave you these airs
of my warm Nicaragua!
What will happen then when time passes us by and
hostels in other hostile lands?
And when the indefatigable heart
for new arrivals
lay down before eminent oblivion
your evocation of this small country,
our Nicaragua…
What will germinate you then,
because transit is always objectionable
and insidious!
May these songs be the portals that define
Our beautiful country, full of complacency
in this cloudy and fruitful, uncertain and fatal weather!
The heartfelt reactions to the departure of the painter and poet could be seen on social networks.
“My condolences. An enormous legacy leaves us. A wonderful person and Master. I met him when I was 14 years old and I was visiting his studio in old Managua. I admire and respect him. Peace to his remains and glory to his life and magnificent work”, wrote the painter and engraver Mario René Madrigal-Arcia, highlighting his artistic legacy.
“Today, Nicaragua lost one of its greatest artists and thinkers: Omar D’Leon, who passed away this morning… We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends,” wrote René González, president of the Nicaraguan Institute of Hispanic Culture. .
“Omar D’León… A pride of Nicaragua and Latin America,” highlighted the painter Maria Antonieta Lugo, granddaughter of the painter Genáro Lugo.
“National art and the Homeland lose one of the fathers of Nicaraguan painting. Our condolences to his family, especially to Lauren Lacayo, his niece and representative,” teacher Róger Pérez de la Rocha wrote on networks.
Claudia Ashby Cepeda, conocida como La China en los tiempos hippies de la Roosevelt en la vieja Managua, dijo: “Omar d León, maestro divino. Ya vuelas en el universo, dibujando y cantando a la vida”!
