Description

Description: We offer an original signed oil painting by Ramon Prats. It is painted on masonite that measures 24” x 15 ¾” and finished with a thin black frame. Signed “PRATS – 70” at the lower right. Item #FA00206.

Prats has broken the “rules” of academic painting, mainly that the white background is filled in around the objects and that the entire surface has an even-handed stucco-like finish. This playfully self-aware rule breaking softens and flattens pictorial space in a thoroughly enjoyable way.

The following biography is from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum:

Ramon Prats (American, b. Spain, 1928-2003) developed his talent for painting while he was a child. At age 15, he was appointed the official artist and illustrator for El País newspaper in Havana, Cuba, where his family lived at the time. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in Santo Domingo and at the School of Graphic Arts in Havana, Cuba.

Upon completing his studies in Cuba, Prats moved to New York, where he studied at the Art Students League of New York. The Associated American Artists (AAA) soon commissioned him under an exclusive seven-year contract. He regularly exhibited at the AAA gallery until 1955, and also showed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1952, he assisted painter Jose Vela Zanetti in painting the mural, “Mankind’s Struggle for Lasting Peace,” which is still in the lobby of the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Prats moved to Mexico in 1956 and was pivotal in spearheading the development of modern art there until his death at age 74.

Condition: The masonite is bowing inward slightly, overall the painting in near fine condition.