Until 1962, the work of Hernando Tejada (1924-1998) had oscillated between drawings, photographs, paintings, and murals. However, in 1963 he approached softwood carving, following a friend’s request to create multiple puppets and set design pieces. By 1968, Tejada would create what would be the inaugural piece of his furniture-women series: Rosario, the wardrobe woman. Rosario, according to Miguel González, arises from the need for everyday storage; it is a dresser to alleviate domestic chaos, inevitably influenced by Tejada’s knowledge of visual arts, set design, and craftsmanship. After Rosario came: Teresa (table, 1969); Sacramento (seat, 1970); Abigaíl (lectern, 1972), Mónica (record player stand, 1976), and many others; among them Estefanía, the telephone woman (1975), which currently forms part of the MAMM collection. Estefanía is simultaneously a telephone, a drawer, and a stool; it features a rotary dial in place of a heart, its lips house the mouthpiece and its hand the receiver, and it additionally has a compartment for the telephone directory. Like other furniture-women, it is inspired by a real woman, a friend of Tejada, whose occupation, personality, and appearance greatly contributed to the characteristics of the carved piece of furniture. Besides being useful, Estefanía is generous in artistic references: from the reclining women of Goya, Moore, or Cánovas, to its notable influence from Romanesque, Gothic, and Latin American wood carving, resulting in a tropical Baroque style in which humor, ingenuity, and resourcefulness intermingle with elements of the Colombian popular imagination.
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