Omar Rayo Reyes (January 20, 1928 – June 7, 2010) was a renowned Colombian

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * A ...

and

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptabi ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...

. He won the 1970 Salón de Artistas Colombianos. Rayo worked with abstract geometry primarily employing black, white, red and yellow. He was part of the

Op Art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, ...

movement. Rayo's work shows that geometric art is as much a part of the past as it is of the future. He used traces of the past to discover new ways to present visual and geometric sketches. One of his most celebrated exhibitions was carried out in the National Room of the Museum of the Palace of fine arts of Mexico, titled "20 years, 100 works: Omar Rayo."

Museum

The Museo Rayo de Dibujo y Grabado Latinoamericano was founded on January 20, 1981 by Rayo in his hometown of Roldanillo with funds the artist himself provided. The museum was also funded with help from the Colombian government and others so that this site would remain a permanent exhibit of his works of art during the late 1980s. The museum was designed by Mexican

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Leopoldo Gout and opened with a collection of 2,000 of Rayo's artwork and some 500 other

Latin American art Latin American art is the combined artistic expression of South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico, as well as Latin Americans living in other regions. The art has roots in the many different indigenous cultures that inhabited th ...

ists' works. The museum contains a library, many modules for expositions, a graphic arts workshop and a theater. Sadly government care has been diminishing, and Miss Agueda Pizarro had found a hard time carrying by with financial sustainment. Several activities are carried out by the foundation of the museum's for promoting arts in the region.

Personal life

Rayo met New York-born poet Águeda Pizarro, almost fourteen years his junior, in New York in 1963. At the time Rayo was dating a friend of hers from university, but Rayo soon began going out with Pizarro instead, and she moved in with him in 1968. The couple divided their time between New York and Roldanillo, spending six months in each place. Their daughter Sara was born in 1977, at which point they made the decision to marry. Sara Rayo is now a successful artist in her own right.

Death

''Zibebiz'' (1994), in the Museo Bolivariano de Arte Contemporaneo. Rayo suffered his first heart attack in 1998, and a more serious one in January 2006, which resulted in him spending 30 hours in a coma before recovering. On the morning on June 7, 2010 Rayo collapsed during breakfast at his home in Roldanillo, according to the testimony of one of his assistants, Alejandro Mendoza. At the time his wife Águeda and daughter Sara were at Sara's home in Cali. Rayo was taken to the local hospital where the cause of the collapse was identified as another heart attack. At the hospital he was resuscitated and transferred by ambulance to a hospital in the departmental capital

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...

, but during the journey near the city of Palmira, Rayo's condition deteriorated and his vital signs were lost; he was pronounced dead on arrival at the Valle de Lili hospital in Cali.

Tribute

On January 20, 2012,

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. I ...

celebrated Rayo's 84th birthday with a

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the Google logo, logo on Google's home page, homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition ...

References

External links

Museo Rayo

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayo, Omar 1928 births 2010 deaths Colombian caricaturists Colombian painters Colombian male painters Colombian sculptors Op art