This text by Brazilian art critic Frederico Morais (b. 1936) discusses the fact that the work of Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar (1922–2004), though firmly entrenched in geometric abstraction and Constructivism, has a sense of social and political commitment. In “El sueño del orden” [see doc. no 1092041]—an interview with Ramírez Villamizar by writers Álvaro Rojas and María Cristina Laverde published in the book Así Hablan los Artistas—the artist explains how his geometric work has a political purpose: in a society characterized by disorder, violence, and chaos, he embarks on a paradoxical pursuit of order, balance, and harmony. Morais therefore argues that “the constructivist project is at core optimistic and even utopian. The constructivist artist believes that art can be an instrument by which to transform society; he wants to build a new reality that, if possible, extends into the socio-political sphere.”
It could be argued that there are few places in the world where a visual hypothesis like the one put forth by Ramírez Villamizar can be so relevant and powerful. In a social and historical context in which destruction, deconstruction, and fragmentation have been constants, the artist’s sustained interest in constructing, creating, assembling, and edifying serves as a striking contrast. Morais describes Ramírez as “an upside-down Colombian,” and asserts that only in developing countries can Constructivism in art be understood as political. He states, “if in culturally saturated, developed societies, ‘total nothingness’ (Mathieu) arises as an aesthetic perspective, in our emerging societies, where there is so much to be done and constructed, constructivist art goes beyond the realm of the aesthetic to become ethical and even political.”
Significantly, Morais mentions Ramírez Villamizar’s Torres de concreto [Concrete Towers], a series little discussed in other critical texts. These large-format works created in the seventies for public spaces in the United States (Vermont, 1971; New York City, 1973) and Colombia (Bogotá, 1973) consist of tall concrete towers along a continuous line. Morais considers the work from this series, which Ramírez Villamizar donated to Bogotá for its Parque Nacional, one of the most utopian works of Latin American art in existence. With its orderly and balanced straight lines, the work contrasts with the exuberance and disorder of the park’s wildlife in the same way that Ramírez’s Constructivist work in general provides an efficacious counterpart to the surrounding context of Colombia and the continent.
