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Bernardo Federman

Bernardo Federman was born in Poland, at 4/4/1909. At 1913 immigrated to Argentina, with his mother, Dora Wasserstein, and his elder brother, Samuel. His father, Morris, was already settled in Buenos Aires and waiting for his family. He started to draw and never stopped since was 9 years old. An anecdote of his elementary school: the children had to draw a map of Argentina, all handmade, at class, from memory. The teacher didn’t believe that it was really handmade and punished him for cheating! At age 14 he needed to work to help the family incoming, in an advertising atelier. It was his unique art guiding learning in his entire life, so we can say he was a purely autodidact. At the end of the 20`ies, all the family moved to Mendoza, were he lived until was married to Rosalia Wainshtein, at 1940. He rapidly integrated to the local artistic scene, a group of literates and plastic artists: Ricardo Tudela, Americo Cali, Reinaldo Bianchini, Ramponi, Don Juan Draghi Lucero, the sculptor Cardona, Fidel de Lucia (who sells him the single one “tortulo” or print machine that was in Mendoza) and other more… He started his artistic career trying all the possibilities, from writing and painting, sculpting and architectural design, but at 1935, after illustrating with engravings linoleums an Isaac Burstein book, he started seriously to dedicate himself to xylography, inventing his own tools. He buys hardware tools and transforms them in burins of all sizes and formats. With them he becomes the first xylographer in Mendoza, improving his skills and acquiring his unquestionable style that causes admirations to maestro Delhez. Being still single, started support himself working as attorney at law, which will gave him the bread until 1980, when he is retired. The plastic arts, oil and xylography becomes to be his real love but second place in his life, obviously because time consuming. During 1938/9, he made a series of xylography’s in ingenuous style, between them, his “Crib songs” for what he receives Mendoza Governors Award; and many more in this romantic époque, still at Mendoza City. But at 1940 everything is changing: he has a wife who is assigned to teach in San Rafael, so he moves and stays there 40 years. The world becomes cruel, and his ancestors’ suffering causes him to feel the universal pain and his black and white works has a murky thematic. After the Exhibition of Argentinean Xylographers at Bogota, 1940; and his personal exhibition in San Rafael, at 1942, he becomes anonymous. Hre works in the solitude of his atelier and also develops his public -man skills for the benefit of San Rafael Community. He served a few years at San Rafael Municipality as selectman. With Rafael Mauleon Castillo, Hortensia de Vazquez, Felix Arnedillo, Luis Scalise and other valuable citizens, is establishing the Public Bibliotheca and Arts Gallery Mariano Moreno of San Rafael. He participates in some Springs Salons, but generally as a jury, and sometimes contests in other places, acquiring important awards, like Salon Almafuerteano, in La Plata at 1952, first price with “The Missioner”, par example. His palette starts to feel other needs and his work moves away from the mountain views to his own language, intimate soul, oils that he saves until 1978, when he exhibit them in Galleria Signo, Mendoza, and San Rafael Bibliotheca. His engravings illustrate the artistic meditations of others, like the book “Salmos” by Serafin Ortega; “Carta a la Abuela” (Letter to Gradma) by Covarrubias; “Alejandro Aguado” by Luis Karduner; “Las Brigadas Liricas” by Rafael Mauleon Castillo; and the Poem “ In the Massacre City” by Jaim Najman Bialik, among 17 others. Between 1960/1970 he travels to foreign countries and exhibit in Italia, Johannesburg and Israel. In those trips he collects lot of fruits of his experiences and hundreds of sketches which remains in his atelier without final realization. At 1980, he retires and coming back to Mendoza, full of plains to do all that he dreamed for so long. But sadly, this spring is the end of his artist life, as suddenly he lost his eyesight, leaving the majority of his “Portraits” and his daughter`s book “Labyrinth” unfinished and unpublished. In 1983 the writer Raul Silanes started to work in his book “The brain of the cloud” about Maestro Federman`s work. Bernardo Federman died in 1996, in San Rafael, Mendoza.