Willy Ramos is a painter, sculptor, engraver and ceramist. He was born in Pueblo Bello, Colombia, in 1954. At the age of fourteen he emigrated to Valencia, where he usually resides, with long stays in Calpe, Alicante.
The exhibition Forging Color brings together a selection of 53 works made between 2014 and 2023, which shows us the most intimate side of the artist. The exhibition is structured around a series of ink drawings, which are configured as a kind of introspective, essential diary, in which Willy Ramos shows us just how he is – straightforward, generous and genuine. No need for ornament, just the white of the paper and black of the ink; the inspiration and expression of what lies deepest in his soul does the rest.
We can see in this drawings a tight link to Eastern philosophy and Zen painting, which felt a sort of astonishment before nature. Those masters not only used nature as the subject matter of their work, but also, and above all, as a medium through which to find themselves. Nature was understood as a way of escape from the chaos dominating human society. These principles from the Far East connect with these delicious pieces that emanate reflection and a process of decantation in Willy Ramos’s painting. With his brushstrokes he expresses a view of life, underlain by profound experimentation with regard to it. Painting and drawing present themselves to the artist as the best of the arts for their expressive potential and immediacy.
The drawings to be seen in the exhibition, in different formats and intensities, do not include the human figure, but focus on the landscape in the form of flowers, stones, waterfalls, streams, mountains and skies, all represented using a synthetic language. Most of these are done in India ink, occasionally intensified with lighter colours emerging from the ink. At times the relief of the land consists of impressionist-like tiny dots or brushstrokes. The space is made up of overlapping planes that give depth to the compositions. Emptiness, in white tones, suggests a certain distance and allows the drawings to breathe. Shape, space and light are the trio of elements making up these drawings on paper. Both the form and the touch of these pieces are defined by the brush, while the ink determines the drawing’s plasticity, light and atmosphere.
In the main rooms of the Museum, Willy Ramos invites us with his painting to live through a truly immersive experience similar to the Rothko’s Chapel by Mark Rothko, who tried to make the spectator of his works a participant in a mystical experience. Ultimately is the viewer who gives meaning to the work – their own breathing, the sound of their body, the beating of their heart are what contribute to the experience and give meaning to the work with no need for other projected sounds.
The visitor can let themselves be entranced by an interesting selection of intimate paintings, not so much because of their size, for Ramos’s works are of huge dimensions, but because of the intimacy linked to their own experience of mother nature.
During his childhood years in his native Colombia, Ramos was able to amass a multitude of images in his memory, which he has recreated in his paintings throughout his artistic career. Colombia is synonymous with exuberant vegetation, thousand-year-old forests, rivers, waterfalls and the Caribbean Sea. At the age of fourteen he emigrated to Eastern Spain, which then became his surrounding countryside and he was to combine perfectly with the landscape of his memories. This hybridisation has produced this variety of pieces – at times tropical, at others peaceful.
Ever the unflagging craftsman, Willy Ramos’s paintings ooze energy through the masterly use of colour and light. He invites us to undergo a sensory experience by contemplating his large paintings. The artist’s principal desire is for his works, created with strong emotional power – for he is more visceral than rational, to cause a state of contentment and optimism in the viewer, to raise questions, and to transport the spectator to moments and landscapes of their past. He invites us to look with the heart, not the eyes or reason; to live, feel and vibrate with the colours.
The arrangement of the paintings in the space embraces with visitor thanks to a sequence of highly intense, masterful oils characterised by explosive colouring influenced by Matisse. The large format means that the artist can let the paint flow, surround and speak and so the work is built up through an intimate hand-to-hand combat, which gives us the chance to live a real experience with nature. Technically, the paintings are done using an exquisite brushstroke combining figurative reminiscences with abstract echoes.
Willy Ramos reveals to us places that we would wish to visit, such as the spectacular, fascinating River of Five Colours [Río de cinco colores] from his native Colombia. Which is a sort of aquatic rainbow combining green, yellow, orange, blue and red thanks to a red plant – the Macarenia clavigera, which gives different nuances to the water depending on the time of year or the conditions of water or light.
The work of Willy Ramos is poetry of form and colour, a song to life and beauty using a universal language that wakens all our senses. Ramos’ work encourages us to dream and appreciate the sounds and smells of nature that come from his works, even the fleshiness of the brushstroke, allows us to feel the landscape. A true immersive experience.
Ana Doldán de Cáceres
Director Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Segovia
Sponsorship:
Diputación de Segovia
