Helen Bickham facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Helen Bickham
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Helen Bickham at opening in Valle de Bravo, Mexico
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| Born | 9 June 1935 |
| Died | September 30, 2024 (aged 89) |
| Nationality | Mexico |
| Occupation | Artist |
Helen Bickham (born June 9, 1935 – died September 30, 2024) was a talented Mexican artist. She was born in Harbin, China, to parents from different backgrounds. Helen moved to the United States during World War II. After living in Europe for a while, she found her home in Mexico in 1962.
Helen started drawing when she was just six years old. She loved to draw and paint for many years as a hobby. In 1975, she decided to become a professional artist. She had many art shows, including seventy solo exhibitions. She also participated in over 300 group shows. Since 1997, she was a member of the important Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Her artwork often shows people in landscapes. It aims to share feelings and moods rather than just showing a person or object.
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The Life of Helen Bickham
Helen Bickham was born on June 9, 1935, in Harbin, a city in Manchuria. At that time, the area was under Japanese control. Her mother, Nadezna Ivanofnof Rachoak, had a mixed Ukrainian and Asian background. Her father, Howard Montgomery, was an American Navy officer. He sadly passed away during World War II when Helen was only eight years old. Before his death, Helen and her mother moved from China to the United States. They arrived just before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Helen grew up as an only child, moving to different places in the United States. It was hard for her and her mother to get used to life there. Her mother didn't speak English well and worked jobs like sewing and cleaning. She spent time with other people from Europe and Asia who spoke Russian. Helen was often alone as a child. She spent her time reading and drawing because her mother had to work.
Being from different cultures, Helen often felt like an observer. She started drawing what she saw when she was six. She remembered other children asking her to draw things for them. Sometimes, her drawings were misunderstood by adults. Her mother didn't encourage her art much. However, her teachers at school did support her talent. In elementary school, she often got to leave class to draw large murals in the hallways. These murals were usually about holidays like Thanksgiving.
Helen was a very curious child and young adult. She always wanted to understand things deeply. Even though her family didn't think university was for girls, she earned a scholarship. She went to the University of California, Berkeley. There, she took many different classes. She chose to study American civilization to understand the ideas brought to the continent by early settlers. She didn't major in art, but an art appreciation class changed things. Her professor noticed her talent when she worked hard on a watercolor painting. She also visited a museum in San Francisco. Seeing a real Édouard Manet painting for the first time amazed her.
In the late 1950s, Helen got married. Her first son, Geoffrey, was born before the family moved to Europe. While living in Florence, Italy, her landlady was a painter. Helen spent a lot of time in museums across Europe. She saw many famous artworks in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. She later returned to the United States, where her second son, Brett, was born. She lived near Indianapolis and painted landscapes and still lifes. There, she met painter Bill Majors. He saw her watercolors and encouraged her to try oil paints.
In 1962, Helen took a six-week vacation to Mexico. She immediately fell in love with the country. She decided to stay permanently to give her sons a bicultural experience. Mexico became her home, except for some trips to the United States and Europe. When she decided to live in Mexico, she was a single parent. One of her children needed full-time medical care. She wasn't a wealthy visitor. Instead, she worked by teaching English. She first lived in a small, quiet town called San Lorenzo Acopilco. Later, she moved to Mexico City for her son's medical needs. She taught English at schools like Garside and the Instituto Politecnico Nacional. During these years, she kept painting. Her focus changed from landscapes to people, inspired by the people she met in Mexico.
For a long time, Helen didn't think about being a professional painter. It was her hobby and a way to express her feelings. From 1962 to 1975, she was busy teaching and raising her children. Because she had a small budget, she often went to art exhibition openings. She met many artists who, after seeing her often, invited her to their homes. She left her teaching job when her request for leave to take her children to Europe was denied. In England, she represented Mexico as an artist. She was officially invited to exhibit her work there. After returning to Mexico, she became a full-time painter.
Helen Bickham lived in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. Her apartment had large windows facing Plaza de las Cibeles, providing natural light. Her paintings filled most of her walls. She painted every morning, often with coffee in hand. She had a delicate look, but her eyes were described as "laughing." She often rode her bicycle around Mexico City. She said she loved people and nature. People and places that touched her could stay in her memory for years. She traveled widely and believed in universal emotions that connect us. She also believed in a peaceful, multicultural world. Helen was very fond of Mexico. She felt its people had "real humanity," smiling and being polite even in tough times. This influenced her art greatly. An exhibition at UNAM called "México a través del pincel de Helen Bickham" (Mexico through the brush of Helen Bickham) showed her impressions of Mexico.
Helen Bickham passed away on September 30, 2024, at 89 years old.
Helen Bickham's Art Career
Helen's first art show was in 1963. However, she felt her professional career truly began in 1975. That's when she started painting full-time. Since then, she held seventy solo exhibitions. She also took part in over 300 group shows. Her art was displayed in Mexican cities like Mexico City, Monterrey, Acapulco, and Puerto Vallarta. Her work was also shown in the United States, England, Scotland, Switzerland, Argentina, and Canada.
Some of her important exhibitions included shows at the Arts Association of the State of Indiana (1963). She also exhibited at Galería May Brooks in Mexico City (1965). Other notable venues were the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles (1980) and the Hotel Ritz-Carlton, Boston (1982). She also showed her art at the Galería de Arte Misrachi in Mexico City (1995). The Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro (2003) and Museo Ex Convento del Carmen in Guadalajara (2006) also featured her work.
Some of her well-known paintings include En el Jardín del Desierto (In the Desert Garden) and En su Mente (In Her Mind). Other famous works are Hacia el Abismo (Towards the Abyss) and Llegando al Fin del Día (Reaching the End of the Day). She also created Cuatro Puntos (Four Points) and a series called Cacería en el Norte (Hunting in the North).
In the 1960s, a University of Texas book featured her in a section on contemporary Mexican art. In 1997, she became a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. She also served on its board.
Helen Bickham's Artistic Style
Helen Bickham used many different art materials. These included watercolor, oil paints, pencil, and ink. She also worked with lithography, engraving, and paper embossing. She liked to paint on medium to large canvases. She also used fiberboard and museum board. She experimented with mixing different techniques. For example, she combined drawing with embossing. In her work Palomas (Doves), the doves are embossed on paper. They fly away from the hands of a woman drawn with great detail.
Helen would start, erase, and move images around her canvas. She kept working until she was happy with her art. She believed her pieces were always "works in progress" as long as she owned them. Because of this, she did not date her artwork.
Her art often focused on everyday people. She found inspiration in those she saw daily. She felt they were more open about their feelings. Her work showed figures, but not in a super realistic, photographic way. She preferred to capture a feeling or mood instead of an exact person. Her early art in Mexico often showed scenes from Mexican life. These included street musicians, women working, and people in traditional markets. Later, her figures became more general, like Westerners. However, the landscapes behind them often remained Mexican. Her art has been compared to famous artists like Diego Rivera and Rafael Coronel.
The main goal of her art was to be thoughtful and explore inner feelings. The people in her paintings are often anonymous. They appear in the front, with one or two landscapes in the background. These figures could be a single person, a pair, or a small group. They might be working, playing, or simply existing in nature. The settings seem ordinary, but their expressions or body language often show some tension. Helen wanted to express the deep emotions people have during everyday activities. She called her work "a window on an instant."
For example, in En el Jardin del Desierto (In the Garden of the Desert), a man and woman stand close. But they are separated by large, thorny maguey plant leaves. This shows they can't connect. Often, her subjects look at the viewer, inviting a conversation. Her art tells a story, even if it's not always clear. These stories often deal with relationships, feeling alone, thinking deeply, and adjusting to new things. She aimed to show a journey, either physical or spiritual. This represented personal growth.
Helen found inspiration by watching people. A look or movement could spark an idea if she felt it had a universal meaning. She found this inspiration in Mexico, Scotland, and New York. Her paintings reflected her ideas from her life experiences. These included her travels and meetings with people. She drew expressions that everyone could understand, no matter their culture. Helen said, "Human emotion crosses every frontier in the world. The human condition interests me. We all have such a hard time of it."
As human relationships change, she explored using multiple panels. She created diptychs (two panels) and even triptychs (three panels). She painted them so they could be rearranged. They would still fit together, but in a new way.
She sometimes created art in response to important world events. These included conflicts and social issues. However, she believed in letting people interpret her work themselves. She never painted violence or hate. She felt these were not truly part of human nature, but rather unusual behaviors.
See also
In Spanish: Helen Bickham para niños
