Do You Love Art? I Keep Finding Exciting Art: 40 Stunning Paintings!
The Stunning Dario Ortiz Robledo: Neo-Realist Artist
Dario Ortiz is an internationally recognized self-taught artist considered one of the pre-eminent representatives of the Renaissance of contemporary narrative art in Latin America. He was born in Ibagué, Colombia.
Dario Ortiz revealed his abilities in painting at an early age. Observing his son’s interest in visual art and achievements at various competitions, Ortiz’s father taught him oil painting at the age of twelve. Within three years, Dario took part in his first group exhibitions. Although Ortiz was taught oil painting by his father, he is considered an autodidact painter.
He received a diploma from Colegio San Tarsicio, Bogotá in 1986. From 1990 to 1991, he studied History and Art Appreciation at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University.
Dario Ortiz’s career started in 1987 when he showed his artwork in his first solo exhibition. The following year, he dropped out of his university studies and concentrated on developing his skills in art. Ortiz first became an assistant at a restoration workshop, then served as an illustrator for various books and periodicals. In addition, heIn addition, he took an active part in the cultural life of Colombia.
Dario Ortiz has participated in many group exhibitions in about 20 countries during his career. He has had nearly thirty solo shows in Italy, the United States, France, Austria, Slovakia, China, South Korea, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia.
In 2003, Dario Ortiz founded the Museo de Arte del Tolima (Tolima Museum of Art) in Ibagué. Nowadays, Ortiz shares his time between Madrid and Mexico City.
According to art critic Carol Damian, Director of The Frost Art Museum of Miami, “His paintings are complex interplays of forms in space that document an emotional, as well as a physical process and, are as disturbing as they are convincing in their reality.” Yoshiharu Sasaki, Assistant Director of the Iwaki Art Museum de Japan, also wrote, “It would be possible to be said that the painting of Ortiz is baroque of the contemporary time, constituted by the greatness, and of a powerful subject, in addition, dramatic to a hidden tone, harmonizing with the privacy and the audacity a traditional interpretation to the contemporary.”
Contemporary art is nothing and everything at the same time; that is its charm. Like everything intangible, it is a collective illusion in which you sometimes decide to participate and sometimes not. — Dario Ortiz Robledo
“His paintings show that the essence of the human being has not changed in centuries… images-characters, some of them taken from biblical paintings combine our insecurities, fears, and dreams after wandering between the current interposed to a plane of thousands of centuries ago where … the characters interact with the viewer, now inquiring about their thoughts and judgments, now in the sense of question… space, flesh, harmony, drawing, precision, character, passion and verb dominated with total mastery and precision to show the suffering of being human in the circus of life . . . In his works, Darío, like Velazquez centuries ago, represents himself faithfully as a witness on stage to retransmit to us in the first person, the moment being himself the one that provokes reactions and the main protagonist. The perfect combination of the classic in conjunction with modernity shows us that except for the clothing and artifices, little else has changed. One of the great Masters of the current era.”— Paloma de la Torre.
© Stephen G. Arrowsmith 2022
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