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Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar (1923)Eduardo Ramirez Villamizar was born in Pamplona, in the Northeast part of Colombia, in 1923. He originally planned to be an architect and took up studies to that end at the National University in 1940. After a few semesters, however, he abandoned architecture in favor of fine arts. Ramírez Villamizar began his career as a painter, along abstract lines, as exemplified here by his 1954 oil on canvas, Yellow-Red-Black. Gradually his work moved from virtual space to three-dimensional space. The coherence and consistency of his development have given his work remarkable substantiality. In 1950, Ramírez Villamizar traveled to France, staying until 1952. Thereafter came frequent trips to New York, Paris, Madrid and Rome, some for purposes of exhibiting his work. In 1957, he agreed to give classes at the School of Fine Arts in Bogotá. That year he completed his first reliefs, mostly in white; they were reminiscent of the work of Anthony Caro and architectonic in spatial concept. The architectonic note is characteristic of his work in general, as is evident from Leaning Vertical Architecture in this exhibition. Ramírez Villamizar has received a number of awards, including the Guggenheim Prize for Colombia in 1958 and the first prize for painting at the Twelfth Salon of Colombian artists, in 1959. He represented Colombia at the Fifth São Paulo Biennial together with Obregón, Wiedemann and others. In the exhibit "South American Art Today," held at the Dallas Museum, his work appeared along with that of Obregón, Grau, Negret and a rising young star, Fernando Botero, nine years Ramírez Villamizar's junior. Undoubtedly, however, the most significant event in the artist's career was his turn to sculpture, marked by his 1958 commission to do a mural for the Bank of Bogotá. With great sensitivity he combined elements of geometric abstraction, pre-Columbian designs of his own invention and the magnificent spatial and textural effects of Hispano-Colombian colonial baroque altars in a composition in wood covered with gold leaf. The result is a spectacular relief in which the viewer can observe contrasting elements of Colombia's artistic past, presented in contemporary language. Since the 1960s, Negret and Ramírez Villamizar have been the recognized masters of Colombian sculpture. Negret received the prize for the field at the 1963 Fifteenth National Salon of Artists; in 1966, at the Seventeenth Salon, it went to Ramírez Villamizar. Like Obregón before him, in 1969 Ramírez Villamizar represented Colombia at the Tenth São Paulo Biennial with an entire room dedicated to his works alone. On that occasion he received the second prize for sculpture at the international level. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ramírez Villamizar figured regularly on the international scene centered in New York, with shows at commercial galleries and exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum. He received commissions for monumental works from private corporations and public institutions. While he experimented with new materials, iron has been his preferred medium in recent years. Coming from this period are the two 1967 acrylics, entitled Vertical Relief and Horizontal Relief. A special event in Ramírez Villamizar's career was the 1973 installation of his composition, From Colombia to John F. Kennedy, in Washington, D.C. The work, a gift of the Colombian government, is sited in the gardens of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In the same year, two other monumental pieces by the artist were installed in New York City, in Fort Tryon Park and at Beach High School.By the early 1970s, a younger generation was firmly established on the national scene. Some, like the Bogotá painter and draftsman Luis Caballero, have achieved international renown. These artists and succeeding generations were guided by the examples of Obregón, Grau, Negret and Ramírez Villamizar, who established an atmosphere of freedom in teaching and cultural institutions and gained respect for Colombia's art in international circles. These four artists have frequently figured together in exhibitions: In 1957 they represented Colombia at the Fourth Sao Paulo Biennial. The list of national and international prizes they have received continues uninterruptedly to the present day. For example, Grau's painting Bather (in the present exhibit) won a Ministry of Education prize at the Fourteenth Annual Salon of Colombian Artists, of 1962. At the same salon Obregón received the official prize for his work entitled Violence and Ramírez Villamizar won the prize for sculpture. During the 1950s, when Washington seemed less cosmopolitan than it appears today, exhibitions of contemporary art took on considerable significance for gallery-goers. Rising stars were systematically presented at the headquarters of the Organization of American States. From 1955 to 1957, Grau, Obregón, Negret and Ramírez Villamizar all gave one-man shows in Washington under the auspices of the OAS General Secretariat, thanks to the efforts of José Gómez Sicre, the Cuban-born long-time Chief of Visual Arts at the OAS and Marta Traba's equivalent at the international level. With counsel from the OAS, the Corcoran Gallery also presented a 1957 show entitled "From Latin America," in which Negret, Obregón and Ramírez Villamizar figured prominently. Negret is Negret, whether he finds inspiration in an Amerindian kachina doll or a design of Inca origin. Ramírez Villamizar is absolutely distinctive, whether his expression derives from a Tairona spiral or a wall in Machu Picchu. Obregón's images of the condor, bull and barracuda and even the 1965 portrait of his son Mateo in Little Warrior, have become part of Colombia's cultural repertory. Add to these the strange humor and exquisite technique displayed in Grau's canvases, and the highest aesthetic achievements of Colombia are represented here. The creativity of these four pioneers made possible the great diversity and vitality of Colombian art today.
The sculptor Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar can be regarded as traditional
in spite of the abstraction and the breath which traverses the constructivism
of its work. Even though the form of his sculptures inevitably and necessarily changes
from creation to creation, the artists gives a feeling that it would be
downright impossible to add or to remove anything from any given piece
without deteriorating their solemnity and reducing the range of their
design.This is the equivalent of perfection of any form of art, purity,
balance, essential form and grace.
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