Manuel Barahona (Puente Genil, Córdoba, 1948 - ), pintor impresionista.

Paisaje de olivos y olor a membrillo... hablamos de Puente Genil, pueblo situado en el centro geográfico de Andalucía, al suroeste de la provincia de Córdoba, esta es la tierra que vio nacer y crecer a Manuel Barahona.

Nació en Noviembre de 1948, en la calle Avenida Manuel Reina “La Matallana”. Su padre Juan Manuel Barahona Delgado era ferroviario, era un hombre de sensibilidad artística, se sentía atraído por la buena música, el teatro, la literatura, el dibujo, la pintura, la poesía... Su madre Amalia Pedrosa Estrada era una mujer muy de su casa, activa, cariñosa, simpática, querida por todos los que la rodeaban y conocían, compartiendo las aficiones de su marido.

En un hogar así, con tantas inquietudes artísticas no es difícil comprender que floreciese pronto en Manuel su inclinación hacia la pintura, siendo su primera admiradora, junto con sus padres, su hermana Conchi, dos años más pequeña que él.

Su madre contaba que cuando Manuel tenía cinco o seis años le decía: "Mamá, cuando yo sea pintor te tengo que pintar unos cuadros más bonitos que esos y más grandes"; refiriéndose a unos cuadros pequeños pintados al pastel que su madre compró a un pintor que pasó por el pueblo.

Su padre al ver la facilidad que tenía para el dibujo le ayudó enseñándole perspectiva y todo lo que él sabía.

"Si yo pinto es por mi padre que era un hombre admirable. Nos entendíamos maravillosamente, él siempre creyó en mí y fue mi primer maestro. En Puente Genil donde nací, no había nadie que se dedicara a la enseñanza del dibujo y la pintura. Y mi padre, que era un muy buen dibujante, fue quien me enseñó perspectiva, a él siempre le gustó el dibujo, guardo obras suyas, que me parecen muy buenas. A él le venia de familia, su padre, o sea mi abuelo se dedicaba a la talla de madera, a la marquetería, estaba metido en el dibujo, se hacía sus propias herramientas de precisión, muchas de las cuáles aún conservo, y esto lo transmitió a mi padre y éste a mi."

Después de pasar por el Colegio Público José María Pemán comenzó los estudios de Bachillerato en el Instituto “Manuel Reina” y al mismo tiempo su padre lo inscribió en un Curso de Dibujo y Pintura del Instituto Parramón de Barcelona. En esta etapa de su vida, a los doce años de edad, sus amigos le llamaban Barahona “el pintor”. Cuentan que en sus ratos libres entre clase y clase, lo observaban haciendo “muelles” con tiza en la pizarra (haciendo ejercicios de mano). Asimismo, llegada la Navidad, los profesores del Instituto le encomendaban la ejecución de dibujos navideños, en la pizarra y zonas de la clase, colaborando con él su amigo Pablo Franco. Los profesores se volcaron con él pues aparte de su facilidad para el dibujo era un alumno trabajador y responsable. Manuel recuerda que cuando llegaba a su casa después de clase su primer impulso era coger los dibujos y ejercicios que le enviaban desde Barcelona, pero no podía porque tenía que estudiar las materias que los profesores le habían mandado para el día siguiente, y los dibujos los seguía en sus ratos libres con toda dedicación e ilusión.

“Pinto desde siempre, no recuerdo haber hecho otra cosa. Esto es algo que se lleva en la sangre. El Bachillerato me lo pasé pintando, por aquellos días gané mis primeras doscientas pesetas por un retrato.”

Acabado el Bachillerato le proponen marcharse a Córboba para pintar en un estudio con varios pintores y no lo pensó; se fue. Pero su ilusión era ingresar en la Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría de Sevilla y aprovechando su estancia en Córdoba asiste a la Escuela de Artes y oficios “Mateo Inurria”, donde recibe clases de dibujo al carboncillo del escultor Amadeo Ruiz Olmos y los pintores Rufino Martos, Antonio Povedano y Antonio Bujalance.

“En Córdoba conocí a grandes amigos, entre ellos Miguel García Vives y Carlos Ramírez de la Lastra, que siempre menciono porque han sido grandes impulsores míos, gente interesada en la pintura que me ayudaron cuando empezaba.”

Llega el momento del servicio militar y cuentan sus compañeros de la Escuela de Artes y Oficios, que era simpático ver al “soldado” pintando en la clase.

Toda esta época la pasa viajando de Córboba a Puente Genil para ver los fines de semana a su familia que más tarde se trasladaría a Córdoba definitivamente. “Siempre he tenido mucho respeto al mostrar mi pintura al público, el mismo que sigo teniendo ahora, y recuerdo de mi primera exposición que mis amigos Luis Fernando Gómez de Cisneros y el padre Bernardo Robledo, de Puente Genil, me ayudaron a celebrarla en la Galería Zalima, en Córdoba, fue en el 1975, haciéndome la presentación del catálogo Don Dionisio Ortiz Juárez, director de la Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Córdoba. La exposición se dio bien y decidí con mi mujer trasladarnos a Sevilla, donde nuestro amigo de Puente Genil José López Palomo nos ayudó en nuestra primera vivienda. Ya por fin podía hacer realidad mi sueño de ingresar en la Escuela Superior de Santa Isabel de Hungría, y aquí nos hemos quedado.”

Manuel nos recuerda que cuando llegó a la Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes, los colores que todos pintaban eran grisáceos, él llevaba la paleta colorista, luminosa, y los compañeros de su clase le decían: “Como no cambies los colores de tu paleta, no te van a aprobar nunca” y él contestaba, “que no sabía hacerlo de otra forma”.

Durante sus años de carrera realizó varias exposiciones en Córdoba, Cádiz, Almería, etc.

Ya en 1979 acaba sus estudios obteniendo el Título de Profesor de Dibujo y rápidamente le ofrecen una plaza para dar clase en un Colegio Privado del Puerto de Santa María. Debía ejercer su labor docente durante toda la mañana y parte de la tarde, ante esto Manuel se preguntaba: "¿y yo cuándo pinto?. Y decidió renunciar a la plaza.

Por aquel entonces, le propusieron realizar una exposición en Sevilla, y su éxito fue tal que junto con su mujer, decidieron colgar su Título y seguir pintando y exponiendo sus cuadros.

En 198O, participa en la LXXXV Exposición de Primavera, organizada por el Excelentísimo Ateneo de Sevilla, donde le conceden la Beca “Bartolomé Esteban Murillo”, para viajar a Inglaterra y permanece una temporada pintando los paisajes de Londres y Canterbury. Al final presentaría una exposición con dichos cuadros en la Escuela de Bellas Artes. En este viaje deja concretada una exposición en el Instituto de España en Londres que celebraría tres años más tarde, allí conoció al escritor Gonzalo Torrente Ballester.

Al regresar de Londres, Manuel prepara una maleta con ruedas como los viajantes, con algunos cuadros (ya en esta etapa había descubierto el “CAMPO ANDALUZ”, el gran tema que aún lo tiene atrapado), se recorre toda la costa mediterránea y Madrid, y en todas las galerías que visita le dan fecha para exponer (Valencia, Castellón, Barcelona, Madrid). En Barcelona, Doña Carmen Ensesa, directora de la Sala Llorens, gran entusiasta de su pintura, ya empieza a venderle obras.

Y Manuel sale a la palestra como pintor que conecta rápidamente con el público, dando un eterno homenaje al hombre del campo.

Puedes ver su pintura en www.mbarahona.com

---

The painter Manuel Barahona Pedrosa was born in Puente Genil (Córdoba) on November 29, 1948, in a house in Avenue Manuel Reina "La Matallana", to his parents Manuel Barahona Delgado and Amalia Pedrosa Estrada.

His vocation for painting was soon apparent and, in spite of the lack of artistic background in his family, his grandfather, according to the painter, was very good at modelling and his father, who worked for the Railway Company RENFE, was very fond of music, drama, literature, drawing and painting and did paint as a hobby. His mother would say that, when the child was five or six years old he used to tell her: "Mummy, when I am a painter I must paint bigger and nicer paintings than those", thus referring enthusiastically to some little pastel paintings acquired by his mother a few years earlier from a painter who happened to visit the village. The painter himself, three decades later, in 1984, would remember his beginnings: "If I do paint at all it is because of my father, and I am so sorry he passed away ignoring how things have developed for me. My father was an admirable man, we understood each other wonderfully. After his death I was unable to paint for four months...Well, my father always believed in me and he was my first teacher. In Puente Genil, where I was born, there was nobody who could teach painting. My father, who was a very good sketcher, taught me about perspective, he always liked drawings, and I keep some of his works, which I think are very good. He had a family background in this, his father, which is my grandfather, was a wood carver, devoted to inlaid work. He was also into drawing and sculpture. He transmitted this to my father, and my father to me. I have always painted, I cannot remember doing any other thing. It is something you carry in your blood, I spent all my Secondary education painting...".

After finishing his education at the State school José Marca Pemán he started his secondary education at the state secondary school Manuel Reina, at his birthplace, Puente Genil. By that time, his father, convinced of the pictorical talent of his son, enrolled him in a distance learning painting course from the Parramón Institute in Barcelona. His classmates at school would call him "Barahona the painter" since he was twelve years old, as he spent all his free time painting. He will recollect these years much later (1984): "I must admit that I owe everything to painting. The first money I ever earned was two hundred pesetas for a portrait, way back when I was barely a boy".

When he was only sixteen, he exhibited his first work called Nightfall—a landscape of Palma de Majorca, pastel— at the youth section B ( 13 to 16 year olds) of the Sixth Junior Art Contest 25 Years of Peace, which was held by the Provincial Delegate for the Youth of Córdoba from the I st to the 10th of June 1964, at the Town Art Hall. Two years later, he would take part in the Póster Contest for the Sec.urit Campa¿gn, which was organised by Central Body for Security in Traffic, belonging to the Spanish National Railway Network (RENFE) and was held in Madrid in December 1966. Barahona would take part again in the Junior Art Contest organised by the Provincial Delegate for the Youth of Córdoba. That was the ninth edition, where he exhibited, in august 1967, a still life which, in such occasion was included in the Junior A Category ( 17 to 21 year olds).

In 1968, he took part in the First Puinting Contest held in august by the Town Council of Puente Genil to celebrate the Royal Fair of Puente Genil and sponsored by Monte de Piedad (Stateowned pawnshop) and the Savings Bank of Córdoba. In this contest, he would get the third prize for his painting called Still Life, which consisted of two hundred and fifty pesetas, and he was awarded the prize by the Town Council on the 1 8th of august.

In 1969, now living in Córdoba, he was admitted to the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Jobs Matro Inarria, located in the Plaza de la Trinidad, where he would continúe to acquire an artistic education and would have the opportunity to learn from prestigious masters such as the sculptor Amadeo Ruiz olmos, from whom he would receive lessons of charcoal sketching, and from the painters Rufino Martos, Antonio Povedano and Antonio Bujalance.

His learning soon yielded a profit, for a year later, while he was doing his military service in Córdoba, he father submitted—without his knowing about it—one of his paintings to the Third Painting Contest held in august 197O by the Town Council of Puente Genil with the sponsorship of Monte the Piedad and Savings Bank of Córdoba, to celebrate the Royal Fair of Puente Genil. In this contest, he would win the first prize for his painting called MarN,mona, an award which would be received by his delighted father. In the following edition, 1971, the young painter Manuel Barahona would not take part as a contestant, but as a member of the jury, a fact, which shows the respect his home town, did already pay the artist and his work as a winner of the previous edition.

He did again participate in the contests held by The Town Council of Puente Genil, under the sponsorship of Monte de Piedad and Savings Bank of Córdoba in order to celebrate the Royal Fair. In the Fifth Painting Contest, held in august l972 he got the third prize for his painting In the san, and in the Fourth Contest, in 1973, he would, as he did thrce years earlier, oblain the first prize for his work The first f7ights.

In addition, in 1973, he took part in two more art contests in Seville and Córdoba. In the capital of Hispalis (Seville) he took part with a painting about skiers, in the First Nuional Contest of Sports i,' tle Arts, held by the Provincial Department for Physical Education and Sports of Seville' which took place in January and February in the Mudéjar Pavillion. His painting Muietillas, bullfighting theme, was selected for the First Nutional Pu¿nting Contest "CordoPu ", organised by Monte de Piedad and Savings Bank of Córdoba in order to celebrate the 49th Universal Day of Saving (october, 31).

In 1974, he took part, again in his hometown, in the same contest that had given him so much success; this time he would get the second prize for his painting, BoN. with a hoop, in the Seventh Pai'tin,, Co, test. organised by the Town Council of Puente Genil and Monte de Piedad and Savings Bank of Córdoba. During the same year, he would show his work in a collective exhibition at Hostal Tanya in Seville.

Manuel Barahona married María del Carmen Rosales Aranda on the 22nd of September 1974, in the Church of our Lord Jesus Penitent in Puente Genil. Some time later he would have thrce children of this marriage; María de la Luz (1975), Juan Manuel (1981) and Antonio Angel (1984.

The first individual exhibition of his works—for which he had the help and support of his friends Luis Fernando Gómez de Cisneros and Father Bernardo Robledo, from Puente Genil—will be held from the 15th to the 3Oth of April, 1975 at Zalima Gallery in Córdoba. In this extibition, he shows rural themes, seascapes and boach scenes, apart from two portraits, one of them of his father. Dionisio ortiz Juárez, Director of the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Jobs wrote in the catalogue of the show about the paintings exhibited that they "show a huge artistic personality, a great temper and potential" also saying: "He is a painter with an authentic inclination to painting. For him, the canvas is not a rostrum, nor a pretext tor untimely relief but his contact with the world around him, a kind and beautiful world which he admires and contemplates with Franciscan condour and which he reflects in the language of painters; shape, light and colour". About this first individual exhibition, Juan Latino would write in the D¿ario de Córdoba: "A strong and precise vocation' encouraged by a transcending determination".

In may 1975 he includes one of his works in the Painting Auction Exhibition Pro-end of Degree trip for the students of the fifth year at the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Jobs "Mateo Inurria" of Córdoba.

The undoubted success obtained by his first individual exhibition helped the young artist consolidate his will of improvement and become interested in completing his learning, to serve this purpose he entered the Fine Arts College Saint Elisabeth of Hungary in Seville, where he moved with his wife and a few months old daughter in 1976. Barahona recollects an odd anecdote. When he started the course. he noticed that all his classmates painted in grey shades while his palette was full of colour and light; his fellow students would tell him: "Either you change the coleurs of your palette or you will never pass" to this he would reply: "I cannot paint in another fashion". Needless to say, that he did not change. He found his first home in Seville with the help of his friend and fellow countryman José López Palomo and he settled his study there.

www.mbarahona.com -->