De La Selva Breaking News

DE LA SELVA COLLECTION GROWS AT FELTVILLE!

This post is as close to “breaking news” as it gets in writing history. On June 8, 2023, brothers Peter, Eric and John Simonson donated a bas-relief done by Nicaraguan artist Roberto de la Selva to the County of Union, New Jersey, for display at the Deserted Village of Feltville. Roberto de la Selva is the artist who was commissioned by Edward Grassman to paint murals across all the walls of the ground floor of one of the cottages at the Deserted Village, probably around 1927. De las Selva, a significant, if not the first, modern Nicaraguan artist, is not known to have done any other murals, instead specializing in sculptural arts—mostly bas-reliefs and busts.

The Simonson bas-relief is of the brothers’ grandmother, Rebecca Simonson, who is holding their father, David Simonson, as an infant. Unlike many of de la Selva’s bas-reliefs, it has no applied paint or pigments, but is natural wood with a yet-unknown finish. Although the brothers loved it, especially for the amount of detail de la Selva put into the faces of the grandmother and infant, they understood that it was significant, and wanted to find a place where it could be appreciated. The Deserted Village of Feltville seemed like the perfect place, so John reached out on their behalf to Dan Bernier, Director, Division of Park Environmental Services, whom you met here last month as one of Feltville’s biggest supporters. Since it was done in the same time period as de la Selva’s residence at the Village to paint the murals, there is even a possibility it was completed there. The bas-relief will be displayed in the small museum at the Village for now, and eventually in the art museum that is planned for the cottage which holds the de la Selva murals. See GALLERY HERE.

In light of this “breaking news,” it seemed a good time to have a post on not only John and his brothers and their family history with the bas-relief, but also on the man perhaps most passionate about de la Selva today, Ron Burkard, of Oklahoma City, who now has more than thirty de la Selva pieces, and who traveled to the village in 2016 to be on a panel about de la Selva with me for Union County’s annual Four Centuries in a Weekend celebration. I hope you enjoy this little side trip into the lives of some fascinating people who have expanded our appreciation of Roberto. For more information on of Roberto de la Selva and the murals he painted at the Village, please see my online piece, written for Union County, HERE.

John Simonson is the third of three brothers, children of David C. and Lois E. Simonson. Growing up in Croton on Hudson, John often visited his grandmother at the small house in Peekskill, New York, where he remembers the de la Selva bas-relief prominently displayed over the mantel. He and his brothers were always amazed at how much de las Selva had captured of his grandmother, and how much detail was in the face of their infant father. They had a vague understanding that one or both of his grandparents had met the artist somehow, and had the bas-relief done. John’s grandfather, who had worked as a printer had died many years before his birth (and when John’s father was only 15), so they couldn’t ask him about the bas-relief, and none of the brothers asked their grandmother for additional details while she was living.

Rebecca Simonson may have met de la Selva through her progressive work organizing teachers, joining the New York Teachers Guild in the 1930s or earlier, and serving as its president for at least ten years, starting in the 1940s. The Teachers Guild was anti-communist, although, because many of the organizers there, including Rebecca, considered themselves socialists, accusations of communism were often made against them. Rebecca worked to bring together the inevitable different factions, navigating the challenge of organizing teachers.

The website for the United Federation of Teachers, the organization with which the Teachers Guild merged, has this to say about her:

Brilliant and articulate, no one ever doubted that Rebecca Simonson had a way with words. But it wasn’t so much poetry as strategy that led the leader of the Teachers Guild in the 1940s to compare organizing to “opening a flower one petal at a time.”

From her labor organizing mother and socialist Sunday school, she had learned “better times must come through the work at the union.”¹

John remembers his grandmother talking about a post-war mission to Europe, and after her retirement she taught classes at the New School until she was close to 80 years old.

John’s father David took the de la Selva to his own home after his mother’s death, and, like his mother, hung it prominently over the fireplace. John’s father, like Rebecca, was somewhat larger than life, growing up as an ardent Yankees fan in the Bronx (recounting his stories of getting into games for a nickel after a certain amount of innings) and how he and others had booed the Hindenburg when they saw it, because of the swastikas prominently displayed on its sides. David went to college at 16, joined the Navy, serving stateside during World War II, and then settling into a career working for newspapers, especially suburban newspapers. In Chicago for a time, he ran an entire group of suburban newspapers. Everywhere he worked, he penned cartoons for the newspapers he was working on.

From 1987, when he and Lois (by then empty nesters) moved to Arlington, Virginia, until his retirement, David worked for the National Newspaper Association. After his retirement, he worked for the United States Information Agency (now a part of the Department of State), traveling abroad to various countries to help with establishing a free press.

John lives in Brooklyn, where he is continuing a very successful career in banking, and serving as Executor for his father’s estate. He is pleased to become part of the story of the Deserted Village, bringing a forgotten artist more into the limelight.

Like John, Ron Burkard’s connection to Roberto de la Selva began with his grandmother, who, during her career purchasing Mexican art objects for various outlets in the United States and for her own private collection, began purchasing any de la Selva bas-reliefs she came across. Ron grew up in Santa Barbara and attended the University of California Santa Barbara for his undergraduate degree. Not only his grandmother, but his grandfather and an aunt and uncle had lived and worked in Mexico for some time, and Ron’s father’s college roommate was from Mexico, so Ron knew it and had an interest in it from his earliest youth. His alma mater now has a specialty in Latin American Studies, which was the field Ron wanted to pursue, but at the time he chose the closest major he could find, Social Sciences. He cobbled together the most relevant courses and was able to study for a summer in Mexico. After graduation, Ron went on to Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management in Arizona, a school which later became part of Arizona State University.

Before Ron had even graduated, he had secured a job with CARE, which has worked since the 1940s to fight poverty and social injustice, and to respond to disasters and emergencies across the globe. His first assignment, to which he traveled with his wife and his young son, was in Mexico, where CARE was building an anti-hunger program around the innovative idea of working through prominent women at many levels. The program was designed to get surplus food from the United States Government to more than three million food insecure children. The program worked first through the wife of the Mexican president, and on down through first ladies at every level—wives of the governors of each of the states, and wives of the mayors of each town and city (Mexico had no female officials at that time). In each town or city where the food was distributed, there was a committee of women organized to take the donated food and make cooked dishes to be distributed to the children in need. Ron did trouble shooting throughout the entire program, traveling from town to town making sure that the food was not diverted to private use, but landed in the hands of those for whom it was intended.

In the 33 years of his time at CARE, which started with that assignment, Ron and his family moved 17 times, landing in many hot spots. Ron was on hand in South Africa as Nelson Mandela was elected in his first historic election; Ron had worked with others from CARE to provide voter education to the 85% of the population—mostly black—who had never before voted. In South Africa, CARE leveraged partnerships with local NGOs for their voter education programs and CARE employees served in the role of international observers for the election.

In Nicaragua for an assignment, Ron notes that CARE was fortunate that the dictator there, Anastosio Somoza Debayle, the third of three Somoza family dictators, simply didn’t pay attention to their work there. CARE worked through the Ministries of Education and Health to create water systems and gardens for schools across the country, allocating $500 for each school. CARE employees organized the rural villages where they were working so that the community provided the labor and some of the materials needed to complete the school projects there.

In the meantime, Ron was becoming more and more interested in the art of Roberto de la Selva, to which he had been introduced by his grandmother, Gladys Feiger. Gladys Felger and her husband Val had three daughters and then a son, and were living in Santa Barbara, California, where Gladys had a dance school. When her son developed asthma, Gladys took him to Arizona to improve his health. From there Gladys discovered the thriving folk art culture in Nogales, Mexico, and starting in the mid-1930s became enthralled with buying this art, which was experiencing a major surge in popularity in the United States. Gladys, now in her thirties, traveled by train and other local transportation with her son, whom she was home-schooling, to purchase clothing, jewelry, art and baskets, both in small curio shops and from artists themselves. Ron believes his grandmother actually met Roberto de las Selva in her travels, and purchased some of his artwork; regardless, she considered him one of her favorite artists, and purchased his pieces wherever she saw them. Some of the de la Selva pieces and other art were sent back to her husband’s music store, but most were sold through other retail connections or kept by Gladys or distributed to various family members.

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Powers Cafe was a rest stop in Sabinas Hidalgo, Mexico, owned and operated by an American for travelers on the road. Mr. T. S. (Tom) Powers collected and sold curios along with the cafe food. He eventually had a sizable collection of large de la Selva bas-reliefs, which can be seen in this undated postcard, hanging on the walls.

Now it was many years later than Gladys’ many de la Selva purchases. Ron wanted to know more about Roberto de la Selva, and thought he might actually be able to find the artist in Mexico. CARE no longer had a program in that country, having abandoned its original programs—the ones Ron had worked on—when the US Government suddenly decided not to provide any more surplus food to be distributed there. Ron was successful in convincing CARE to return; when he got there in 1983, one of the things he tried to accomplish, along with his CARE work, was to find Roberto de la Selva. He called all the de la Selvas in the telephone directory, then hit on the idea of advertising in a local newspaper dedicated to arts and culture, Tiempo Libre. He was able to get in touch with two of Roberto’s nephews, both sons of Roberto’s brother Salomon de la Selva, a famous poet who had been the first Latin American nominated for the Nobel Prize. After a massive earthquake hit Mexico City, leveling buildings, including that in which one of these nephews, Juan de la Selva lived, Ron traveled from Bolivia, where he had been transferred, and did not rest until he located Juan in a camp for survivors. He provided Juan with money to allow him to buy a taxi and make a living. In gratitude, Juan gave him one of two busts by Roberto, of the Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto C. Sandino. Ron refused to take the bust that Roberto had done of his brother Salomon, Juan’s father, since it had sentimental value to Juan.

Ron’s Tiempo Libre advertisement also led him to Ernesto Mejia Sanchez, a former college professor, whom Roberto had befriended after Ernesto came from Nicaragua to Mexico as a student in the 1940s. Mejia Sanchez had a beautiful carved headboard with a scene of Adam and Eve. Believing he was near the end of his life, he passed on his self-chosen mission of restoring some of Roberto’s importance, both in Nicaraguan art in his own right and as a colleague and friend of Diego Rivera.

Ron took this charge seriously. Eventually, he was able to connect with the San Antonio Museum of Art, which already owned five large de la Selva bas-reliefs, and arranged Roberto’s first show in 85 years, loaning many of his own pieces to be displayed in the show, which took place in 2016. In that same year, he traveled to New Jersey to be on a panel with me, introducing visitors to the Deserted Village of Feltville to the artist Roberto de la Selva, during the Four Centuries in a Weekend event.

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