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| Hermenegildo “Menchi” Sábat - autoritratto |
I lost a great friend, a great master, the teacher and the World Press Cartoon, lost its Honorary President, Hermenegildo Sábat.
António Antunes
World Press Cartoon
Director
Nel suo necrologio scrive il giornale Clarìn per cui ha lavorato per tanti anni:
"Ha incontrato re, chitarristi incomparabili e premi Nobel. Ha parlato con Jorge Luis Borges , ha incrociato lettere con Julio Cortázar , ha partecipato a feste vicino a Truman Capote , fotografato il clarinettista Benny Goodman , ha disegnato Che Guevara e ricevuto un premio tributo da García Márquez ."
From The Buenos Aires Times,
Famed political cartoonist Hermenegildo 'Menchi' Sábat dies aged 85
Hermenegildo “Menchi” Sábat, the award-winning political cartoonist best known for his work with the Clarín newspaper, died peacefully in his sleep yesterday at the age of 85.
Born in Montevideo in 1933, Sábat arrived in Argentina in 1965, leaving behind a job at Uruguay’s most important newspaper El País. He began his career in Argentina contributing to magazines such as Primera Plana and Crisis, as well as the La Opinión newspaper.
In 1973 he left for Clarín and began producing cartoons and caricatures. Known for being fiercely critical of the Kirchnerite governments, Sábat regularly tackled aspects of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's presidency in his own trademark style.
Amongst his prizes, he was awarded the ‘Moors Cabot’ prize from Columbia University for his work during Argentina's last military dictatorship (1973-1986), as well as the Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI) prize.
As well as a cartoonist and caricaturist, Sábat was known for his skill as a photographer, jazz clarinetist and poet, notably compiling his caricatures with poems to produce books, the most famous being 'Al Troesma con Cariño,' which was dedicated to iconic tango singer Carlos Gardel.
Having inherited his name and talent for drawing from his grandfather, Sábat began drawing at 12, inspired by a portrait of the poet Rubén Darío.
Drawing right until the end, according to Clarín, he went into the office daily until the day of his death, Monday 1st October.
“Yesterday Menchi left the newspaper like on any other day. As always he was dressed in a suit and tie and greeted anyone who he crossed paths with, his coworkers said in a statement. "Chau Maestro. See you tomorrow.”
Tragically, tomorrow never came.
Juan Pablo II. El Papa en el confesionario y los pecados de las juntas, en 1982.
Sabat para Clarìn.
Cristina, Kafka y Juan Domingo Perón. En los laberintos del poder. Sabat para Clarìn
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| Nixon e Henry Kissinger de Sabat |
From Radio Praha
El caricaturista político Hermenegildo Sábat está de visita en Chequia para pagar una deuda de gratitud. La que contrajo en su adolescencia con Franz Kafka y Jorge Luis Borges.
Este veterano dibujante uruguayo-argentino, nacido en Montevideo en 1933, residente en Buenos Aires desde 1966, donó a la Fundación Franz Kafka diez caricaturas originales en las que aparecen tanto el propio Kafka como Jorge Luis Borges.
“Mi relación con Franz Kafka es la de un lector más. He sido lector de Kafka desde mi adolescencia. Y a Borges tuve la suerte de escucharlo y una vez almorcé al lado de él. Entonces he hecho esa donación, que tiene que ver con lo que yo llamo una devolución de atenciones. Hemos recibido atenciones de Borges y de Kafka durante muchísimos años, entonces esto es una modesta aproximación a ese estado de ánimo.
Es inevitable preguntarle a Sábat a qué tipo de atenciones se refiere.
“Las atenciones que hemos recibido son el triunfo de la imaginación y el respeto a la imaginación”.
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| Borges por Sábat |
Las diez acuarelas de Sábat pueden verse en el Centro Franz Kafka de Praga y forman parte del lanzamiento de la segunda bienal Kafka-Borges, que pronto se celebrará en la capital argentina.
Hermenegildo Sábat aprovechó su estancia en la República Checa para ofrecer una conferencia sobre la caricatura política en el Instituto Cervantes de Praga, el lunes por la tarde.
“Yo soy un periodista que dibuja, nada más. Tengo que estar atento, leer todos los días. Es fundamental la libertad de expresión y el sentido del humor. Yo trabajo de una manera muy especial. Yo pienso en el diario y en este trabajo cuando estoy en el diario. Cuando estoy fuera del diario no pienso en esto”.
Sábat trabaja desde hace 36 años en el diario Clarín, el más leído de Argentina. Ha sobrevivido distintos tipos de gobierno, tanto demócratas como dictatoriales, de izquierda y derecha, militares y civiles, sin perder nunca la chispa. ¿Cuál es su secreto para estar tanto tiempo vigente?
“Y bueno, yo creo que por un lado, no uso palabras. Y por otro lado hago lo que los compañeros que escriben no pueden hacer, ese es el asunto. Yo trato de no rozar el trabajo de los demás. Y trato de no ponerme por encima de las noticias. El trabajo mío es un trabajo de interpretación, sin duda”.
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| Carlos Gardel por Sábat |
Hermenegildo Sábat sostiene que es más difícil ejercer de caricaturista durante un gobierno demócrata que durante una dictadura, al contrario de lo que pudiera creerse.
“La democracia hay que defenderla. Entonces no podemos ironizar demasiado sobre la democracia porque siempre puede haber alguna persona con ganas de derrocar a los demócratas.”
De las miles de caricaturas políticas que ha publicado en vida, Sábat recuerda solo una, que representaba una imagen de los cuatro dictadores militares argentinos.
“Ese dibujo fue publicado una semana antes de que abandonaran el poder los militares. Pero fue una imagen de los cuatro dictadores militares, vestidos de negro, con polleras y con sombreritos y con flores en la mano. Entonces eran viudas del proceso”.
Y por eso, por el valor que tiene la libertad de expresión, solidariza con su colega danés Kurt Westergaard, amenazado de muerte por extremistas islámicos por una viñeta sobre Mahoma. “En ese caso, el problema no fue el dibujo, sino las palabras que lo acompañaban”, asegura, con conocimiento de causa, Hermenegildo Sábat.
Rául Alfonsín, Isabelita de Sabat para Clarìn
Oscar Grillo: "Uno de los tangos favoritos de Menchi era "Cachirulo", de Fancisco Cafiero por Anibal Troilo y su orquesta, grabado en 1941. La pulsacion ritmica del piano de Orlando Goñi es sencillamente fabulosa...El dibujo que acompaña es de Troilo y yo, sin barba dibujado por Sábat en el 2009....
Cliquee aqui para oir... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vqt84ioeM4"
Jorge Luis Borges por Menchi Sábat. (Clarin)
Estación Lima - Línea A - mural ceramico
Músicos de Buenos Aires por Hermenegildo Sábat
Esta obra recrea a los artistas Carlos Gardel, Julio de Caro, Astor Piazzolla, Aníbal Troilo, Homero Manzi y Enrique Santos Discépolo. En ella, los colores atraviesan a los personajes reflejando la pasión que le imprimieron al tango.
From The Buenos Aires Times,
Menchi the incomparable: A lesson in personal integrity
Sabat’s legacy, for Argentine society and for journalists specifically, is the value of personal integrity.
Saturday 6 October, 2018
Robert Cox
Before the Buenos Aires Herald made its name battling the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, I thought that if the newspaper ever got a mention in the history books, it would be because of the time it helped bring two geniuses together, namely Jorge Luis Borges as writer and Hermenegildo Sábat as illustrator of The Book of Imaginary Beings.
The two worked together because a young American, Norman de Giovanni, was translating Borges’ stories and poems into English, seeking a wider international readership for an author who was considered difficult and obscure at the time. Sábat had resigned from Primera Plana, which was then Argentina’s leading news magazine. And so ‘Menchi’ had the time to bring his extraordinary talents to the fore, blending his and Borges’ imagination. And, for a few glorious months, Menchi was illustrating events exclusively for a small English-language newspaper in Buenos Aires.
Sábat follows in the tradition of Henri Daumier, whose caricatures were a commentary on politics and society in 19th-century France, as well as the great British cartoonists, from Rowlandson to Searle, and the Spanish visual journalists known as dibujantes. And he may even be likened to Pablo Picasso, whose painting Guernica was a commentary on the Spanish Civil War. Sabat’s greatest work, in my opinion, was when he reported graphically (he never used words in his drawings) what was happening during the military dictatorship. The silence of the major media was broken by Sábat. He drew devastating portraits of the military murderers. I remember seeing a caricature in Clarín of military junta member Emilio Massera, at the height of the terror. Menchi drew Massera smiling at his reflection in a mirror. The essence of the evil admiral was there for all to see: a killer shark in love with himself. I trembled at the thought of what might be the reaction. Yet incredibly, Massera saw no criticism in this depiction of him. His vanity had made him impervious to the message. He requested the original drawing and Sabat obliged.
In an interview last year with Pablo Calvo for Clarín, Sabat recounted the day when another military killer, Carlos Guillermo Suárez Mason, sent him a tape recording warning him that he would be thrown into the river (from one of the death flights employed to dispose of people kidnapped by the death squads) if he continued publishing his “little drawings“ of the military commanders. Sabat recalled the cartoons he drew during the dictatorship. He wondered how it was that he was still alive.
Sabat’s association with the Herald came about in the early 1960s when, having newly arrived in Argentina, I saw Sabat’s drawings in Primera Plana. Menchi, who was born in Uruguay, moved to Buenos Aires in the mid-1960s and worked in advertising, contributing illustrations to magazines in his spare time.
I was enormously impressed by his drawings. But I also was surprised that he did not touch on politics, dealing only with personalities in the art world. Ramiro de Casasbellas, the editor of Primera Plana, told me that Sabat refused to depict political figures because he had suffered an unfortunate experience while working as an editor of a daily newspaper in Montevideo. I cannot vouch for it, but my insistence with Casasbellas that Menchi’s critical eye was essential for full national coverage may have helped to lift his self-imposed limitations.
Menchi did maintain the selfdiscipline of never using words. His genius was such that he was able to capture reality with a few strokes of his pen. After surviving the ire of the military, Menchi was armoured enough to withstand any attempt by governments to intimidate him.
He was tested again by then president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who objected to his depiction of her and accused him of sending mafia-like messages and of misogyny. Behind the scenes, however, the ex-president sought reconciliation. While Menchi did not reject her request for a meeting, he did not pursue the opportunity to ingratiate himself with her.
Here, for the sake of journalistic form, I am required to write that the incomparable Sabat died on Monday night (October 1, 2018) at the age of 85. But I do not believe it is so. His talent was so incandescent that he is everywhere. His influence can be seen in advertising, throughout the media, in museums and art galleries. I am sure that the loss of Sabat’s continuous output of drawings for Clarín since 1973 will be more than compensated for by the discovery of his work as an artist. His prolific production of canvases will emerge and yet another perspective of his genius will be seen.
Sabat’s legacy, for Argentine society and for journalists specifically, is the value of personal integrity. His personal life and his public persona were one and the same. He was an exemplary human being who deservedly lived a good life, to which his wife, Blanca, sons Rafael and Alfredo, friends and colleagues bear witness. He died peacefully in his sleep. The treasure of this multi-faceted genius – who embraced poetry, photography, music, teaching and friendship – has yet to be fully revealed.
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Il sito di Sabat: http://www.hermenegildosabat.com.ar/cast/index.htm
QUI SOTTO ALCUNI OMAGGI DEGLI AMICI ARTISTI:
Pablo Lobato
Sciammarella
Gio
Oscar Grillo
Grazie, Raffaella.
RispondiElimina