Ricardo Yrarrázaval

Ricardo Yrarrázaval (Santiago, October 12, 1931) is a Chilean painter and ceramicist. The central theme of his work is man and his situation in society.

Biography

He was born in Santiago de Chile, 1931. His artistic vocation awoke at a very early age. After joining a ship bound for Egypt, he traveled to Naples and Rome,

Later, he left the Italian capital and went to France to finally settle in Vallauris. There he came into contact with ceramic techniques, an activity to which he dedicated himself for several years, without ever abandoning painting.

His pictorial production is characterized by his deep and intense search, both formally and thematically. After a transcendental experience with abstraction, which earned him the recognition of a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1966, (a one-year stay in New York), in the 1970s his work acquired surrealist overtones and he began to paint in a style that some called subjective realism and that would later evolve towards the objective. The characters in his paintings are figures with round volumes and distorted shapes that represent archetypes of modern society.

His most recent painting stands out for its inalienable search for new techniques, and an unmistakable relationship with the modern and its link with today's society, the figure of the human being always at the center.

Of the numerous awards he has obtained, the second prize at the Lima Biennial (1968) and the first prize for painting at the I Contest of the National Securities Placement Company of Chile (1975) stand out.

Major exhibitions

• 1954 Drawing, Instituto Chileno-Norteamericano de Cultura, Santiago, Chile.
• 1959 Ricardo Yrarrázaval: Óleos, Sala Ministerio de Educación, Santiago, Chile.
• 1965 Painting and ceramics, Carmen Waugh Gallery, Santiago, Chile.
• 1969 Painting, Institute of Contemporary Art (IAC), Lima, Peru.
• 1974 Painting, AELE Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
• 1975 Six Surrealism Approaches in Chile, Instituto Chileno Francés, Santiago, Chile.
• 1978 Painting, Instituto Chileno-Francés de Cultura, Valparaíso, Chile.
• 1978 Painting, Gallery Galatea, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 1980 Ricardo Yrarrázaval: Recent Paintings, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile.
• 1984 Painting, Gallery Escuela Moderna de Música, Santiago, Chile.
• 1985 Painting, Instituto Chileno-Alemán de Cultura, Concepción, Chile.
• 2002 Retrospective 50 Years Ricardo Yrarrázaval, Sala de Arte Fundación Telefónica, Santiago, Chile.