The Great Campechada – Francisco Oller

For the second time, squares, parks, museums and streets of Old San Juan will become the scene of theater billed as the most important of the decade, The Great Campechada – Francisco Oller, now dedicated to the famous painter Francisco Oller y Cestero.

The event will be held on 12, 13 and October 14, 2012 with free activities for the whole family.

While referring to the life and work of this artist, this year this event will honor one of the best impresionims artist int The Great Campechada Francisco Oller in 2012. Oller began on the island to take interest in the Puerto Rican reality canvas, capturing the beauty of the landscape, our tropical fruits and aspects of our society. He was the first Latin American painter who influenced the development of Impressionism.

The event, with an investment of about $ 700 mil-integrated elements to the ancient city of great innovation and creative media, in tune with the latest trends of the arts in all its forms.

As in the first edition, Oller in Campechada gathers artists, artisans, public and private organizations dedicated to the cultivation of the arts, culture and conservation. The music, theater, literature, gastronomy, humanities, and of course, the visual arts, will be represented in the most emblematic places and spaces of the old city where Oller painted “The Maestro Rafael Cordero School” (1890 – 1892).

El Velorio by Francisco Oller

The director of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, Mercedes Gómez Marrero noted that those attending the event will enjoy recreations of life in the nineteenth century, concerts, readings of stories and poems, artists painting live, performances, parades, crafts, exhibitions art and workshops, among other activities.

Who was Francisco Oller

Oller was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, the third of four children of Cayetano Juan Oller y Fromesta and María del Carmen Cestero Dávila.^[2] When he was eleven he began to study art under the tutelage of Juan Cleto Noa, a painter who had an art academy in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, Oller demonstrated that he had an enormous talent in art and in 1848, General Juan Prim, Governor of Puerto Rico, offered Oller the opportunity to continue his studies in Rome. However, the offer was not accepted as Oller’s mother felt that he was too young to travel abroad by himself.

When Oller was eighteen, he moved to Madrid, Spain, where he studied painting at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, under the tutelage of Don Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz, director of the Prado Museum. In 1858, he moved to Paris, France where he studied under Thomas Couture. Later he enrolled to study art in the Louvre under the instruction of Gustave Courbet.^[3] During his free time, Oller, who had a baritone type of singing voice, worked and participated in local Italian operas. He frequently visited cafés where he met with fellow artists. He also became a friends of fellow Puerto Ricans Ramón Emeterio Betances and Salvador Carbonell, who were expatriates in France because of their political beliefs. In 1859, Oller exhibited some of his artistic works next to those of Bazille, Renoir, Monet, and Sisley.^[3] For a short time, Paul Cezanne was one of Oller’s students, although their professional relationship deteriorated with time. By 1865, Oller was known as the first Puerto Rican and Hispanic Impressionist artist. In 1868, he founded of “The Free Academy of Art of Puerto Rico”.

Programming in Campechada Oller

The event program includes the second Discovery Fair with over 100 artisans who will be deployed by the Plaza del Quinto Centenario. Remarkably, this time, the artisans will include pieces with elements that characterized the work of Francisco Oller. Also includes concerts with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Puerto Rico Arturo Somohano, the Concert Band of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Youth Orchestra Music: 100 x 35, the Choir of the University of Puerto Rico, Carolina, the Youth Choir Municipality of San Juan, among others. There will also be arts performances with musical groups which include Plena Libre, Los Pleneros of 21, the Pleneros of Ponce, Los Rebuleros, The Sons of Agüeybaná, Stunt and Zaperoco and New Sonidero.

The celebration will take place Friday, from 12:00 to 11:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm.

This great celebration is made possible by the Government’s main sponsorship of Puerto Rico, San Juan Municipality, Museum of Art of Puerto Rico Tourism Company, PRIDCO, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, National Park Service, State Historic Preservation Office, Foundation Architecture, CODEVISA, Conservatory of Music, Musical Arts Corporation, Puerto Rico Corporation for Public Broadcasting, School of Visual Arts, Art Students League of San Juan, San Juan Museum, and the Museum of the Americas.

For this edition, Puerto Rican musician and artist Henry Cole composed the theme music El Camino, inspired by the life of Francisco Oller y Cestero. This theme was commissioned as an official theme song. The piece joins flamenco of Spain, the French classical music and jazz in America, and uses all colors to aggrandize a framework Rican Caribbean and completely represented by La Bomba.

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