This brief review of an exhibition of work by Ricardo Gómez Campuzano at the Museo Nacional in Bogotá by the art critic who came from Austria, Walter Engel (signs “W.E.”), analyzes two characteristics of the artwork. First, it points out the predominance of the subject over the painting; second, it notes his lack of connection with Modern art trends. Regarding the primacy of the subject, the critic states that Gómez Campuzano “sees, observes and reproduces the world with the eyes of a portraitist.” In Engel’s opinion, the reason the artist’s works are so seductive is the representation of the themes itself, which are extracted from nature. Regarding the artist’s distance from Modern art, Engel states that critics who visit the exhibition will readily see that this artist is working outside Modern art trends in Colombia and beyond. His artwork makes no reference to the great modern masters. For this reason, Engel concludes, art critics and historians will find it very difficult to include him with the other representatives of Modern Colombian painting.

This review by the Austrian art critic Walter Engel (1908–2005) is a manuscript found in the art archives at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango whose published version has yet to be found. The review takes an objective look at the work of one of the artists who was most popular among Colombia’s socioeconomic elite, an idea reinforced with a reference to the Mexican ambassador. Apparently, early in Gómez Campuzano’s career, the Mexican ambassador had commissioned the artist to do portraits of his family. When asked why he chose the Colombian painter, he said that he wanted likenesses, and for that job, the Colombian was the best choice. Paradoxically, the painter, Ricardo Gómez Campuzano (1891−1981), has not been the subject of in-depth research because of his stance on the periphery of the avant-garde art circles in Colombia from the 1940s through the 1970s. That was the period in which he came into his own as a well-known artist of Colombian landscapes and portraits. 

In this regard, in Engel’s opinion, the interest in the Gómez Campuzano’s work is basically focused on the subject and the theme of the work; this was the legacy of his training as an academic painter at the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid (Spain). Although it is difficult to date the document, it would be a good guess to say it was written at a time when other Colombian artists were experimenting with avant-garde languages that were received with both praise and criticism. Most importantly, these artists were submitting reality to “certain simplifications, certain arrangements, to a certain [type of] composition aimed at making the theme more accessible.” The artist’s interest in landscape led Eduardo Serrano Rueda (b. 1939) to place him in a group known as the “Escuela de la Sabana.” Among his works there were some representations of Bogotá’s savanna, which is located on a wide plateau near the top of the East Andes, a branch of the Colombian Andes. 

Gómez Campuzano’s artwork was praised in his early years by Colombian critics, falling within a medium whose artistic values were rooted in the academic tradition. During the early inroads and subsequent establishment of Modern art in Colombia, this work was still respected but garnered very little coverage in the communications media. Although the artist won first prize at the Primer Salón de Artistas Colombianos in 1931, he did not participate in later rounds of this Salón. It is worth noting that the Salón is the most important visual arts event in Colombia and, with a few interruptions, has been held since 1940.