He was born in Mexico City on March 7, 1920, where he received his primary education. At an early age he devoted himself to wood carving using the human figure as his subject. At the age of 18 he was sent to Montreal, Canada to continue his classical studies by attending the School of Fine Arts.
In 1974, Ramiz opened a studio in Puerto Vallarta. His atelier dominated, in a magnificent view, “the little town”, and a splendid panorama of the sea and the mountains.
He began to travel to the Near East in search of a spirit world. There, in Lebanon, the land of his ancestors, he had the opportunity to visit several of the oldest monasteries, where he acquired knowledge of the ancient Phoenician culture. He continued his journey through Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and returned to Canada where he frequently lived with Benedictine monks in their monasteries, becoming fascinated with Gregorian chant. Spirituality comforted and inspired him.
Ramiz helped create several monumental bronzes throughout Mexico when he was an assistant and protégé of Augusto Bozzano, a former director of Florence’s famed Academy of Arts, before emigrating to Mexico City as a political refugee from Italy in the late 1980s. from the 30’s.
Another Barquet sculpture that has become especially famous recently is his portrayal of an emigrant to Mexico from Lebanon, the birthplace of his parents. Today there are 19-foot-tall versions installed on Avenida Reforma in Mexico City, in the port of Veracruz, Mexico, and by the port of Beirut, Lebanon. Mexico even used the image of a postage stamp in honor of the Lebanese emigrants who arrived in Mexico from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, and several Lebanese cultural centers in the main cities of Mexico have smaller versions.
He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Mexico City, as well as in Monterrey, Guadalajara, Cancun, and Puerto Vallarta. He has exhibited in cities across the United States such as Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Seattle and San Antonio. His work is found in private collections in Mexico, the United States, Canada, South America and some European countries. There is an important collection of sculptures in Hong Kong.
The city of Puerto Vallarta will be eternally grateful for his artistic contributions and will always remember him. His work, which speaks for itself, will be admired and enjoyed for many generations to come.
Ramiz has often been referred to as the artistic patriarch of Puerto Vallarta, but he was also an artistic philanthropist, having donated the artistic content of all of his local public sculptures, and in some cases helping to raise the expense money for the foundry and the transportation of parts. In addition, he contributed small sculptures to auctions and other fundraising efforts for a number of local organizations, such as BECAS (scholarships,) Biblioteca Los Mangos (public library), and the International Film Festival, which used his pieces as special prizes. for notable filmmakers in the industry such as the director, Roger Corman.
At the age of ninety, the highly talented and highly esteemed sculptor, Ramiz Barquet, passed away on July 4, 2010 from complications of a heart attack.
No other plastic artist has a greater number of public works in Puerto Vallarta than Ramiz Barquet. For this reason, his work is a fundamental part of the urban landscape and identity of Puerto Vallarta.
Rest in peace Ramiz Barquet. His work and, through it, his memory remains.
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