Ramón Vásquez Brito

He was born on 29 August, 1927 in Porlamar, Nueva Esparta State and died on 20 August 2012 in Porlamar. He was a painter, son of Inocente Vásquez and Mercedes Brito. His childhood happened between Margarita and Coche Islands, where his grandparents lived. At the age of 13 he joined the seminar of Cumaná but shortly after he returned to Margarita. In 1943 he travelled to Caracas, where he studied in the Plastic and Applied Arts School (Until 1947) with Rafael Monasterios, Cesar Pietro and Pedro Angel Gonzalez, among others. In 1946 he made his first individual exhibition in Porlamar, Nueva Esparta State; He entered to the staff of Plastic and Applied Arts School as strained glass window workshop assistance. In 1949 he obtained a scholarship from the Argentinean Government to make a specialization course of engraving in the School of Beauty Arts Ernesto de la Cárcova in Buenos Aires, where he studied lithography until 1950.

Works and contributions

• In 1950 he produced cubist works that turned away from his figurative vision.
• From 1953 to 1959 he developed pieces of abstract tendencies of great geometric rigour, incorporating collages with colour papers, and creating paintings and relieves with industrial enamel under the influence of Neoplasticism.
• Between 1955 and 1956 he made the polychromic project for the apartment blocks in the urbanization "23 de enero" in Caracas.
• In 1960 he abandoned the geometric abstractionism for entering in the informal abstraction, and he made paintings with textures and dark tones with the appearance of subjective landscapes.
• In 1962 he took part of the Venezuelan representation in the Venice Biennial.
• In 1965 he started a landscape series, where the evocation of lines and forms suggest the open space.
• In 1971 he made a series of works about the Guri Hydroelectric Complex, and others with the theme of the Lake Maracaibo Bridge.
• In 1983 he participated in the 18th Biennial of Sao Paulo, and he exhibited paintings in the Freites Gallery with the theme of seascape and the resource of female figure.
• In 1988 The Contemporary Art Museum Francisco Narvaez organized a retrospective of the Artist called "Matter and light of the recovered space". The same year, Cesar Bolivar made the short film “Vasquez Brito... The sea".

          

Awards

• In 1949 he won the Jose Loreto Arismendi Award in the 10th Official Hall.
• Official Plastic Arts Award in the 11th Official Hall, 1950.
• Second Award in the 2nd Plastic and Applied Arts Annual Hall of Aragua State, cultural centre, Maracay, 1962.
• Antonio Edmundo Monsanto Award, in the 24th Arturo Michelena Hall, 1966.
• Aristides Rojas Award, in the 28th Official Hall/ CVF Award, 28th Official Hall, 1967.
• Arturo Michelena Award, in the 26th Arturo Michelena Hall, 1968.
• Aristides Rojas Award in the 30th Official Hall, 1969.
• Conac Award in the 2nd Biennial of Visual Arts, MACC, 1983.