Eric's Perspective Feat. Anthony Ramos

In this episode, Eric sits down with pioneering video artist, performing artist and painter Anthony Ramos. They discuss his background - being raised in Providence, Rhode Island and tracing his ancestor’s journey to America from Cape Verde. How he discovered his love for making art at a young age and how his mother and father encouraged his interests. How he cultivated his artistic abilities. How he began his studies as a Political Science Major… to converting to art — studying painting at Southern Illinois University, where he was a graduate assistant to Allan Kaprow and eventually received an M.F.A. from CalArts. Having a video studio in New York. A conscientious objector of the Vietnam war… being jailed for draft evasion… and how all of these experiences have shaped his life. 

The artists that have inspired him and the many exciting adventures he has had - while traveling widely in Europe, Africa, China and the Middle East during the 1970s and 1980s. Documenting the end of Portugal's colonial rule in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. They discuss how his work has evolved through the years… being known as “The Grandfather Video" — to his passion for painting which is now his primary medium. 

Why he left the United States to now — living in the South of France and the exciting projects he has in store..! 

Guest Bio: Performance and media artist Anthony Ramos was among the earliest video artists to use the medium as a tool for mass media critiques and cultural documentation, and to examine media presentations of "truth." In his powerful but rarely seen video works of the 1970s, Ramos sought to combine art and activism, giving agency to marginalized individuals and communities. In his earliest black-and-white video pieces, Ramos engaged in forceful, direct performances for the camera, often using physical endurance and actions to confront political issues.

Ramos has traveled widely in Europe, Africa, China and the Middle East. He videotaped the end of Portugal's colonial rule of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, Teheran during the 1980 hostage crisis, and Beijing just prior to the Tiananmen Square massacre. Ramos produced a number of video works that critique the media through deconstruction and appropriation, and explore the relation of mass cultural imagery, African-American identity, and the politics of race in America. In the late 1980s he turned to painting as his primary medium.

Ramos was born in 1944 in Providence, Rhode Island. He received an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, where he was assistant to Allan Kaprow. Among his awards are a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. In the 1970s Ramos was a video consultant for the United Nations and the National Council of Churches. In the 1980s, he lived in Paris where he was a Professor at the American Center, and oversaw the television cabling of ten blocks of Paris for the first time. He has also taught at Rhode Island School of Design, New York University, and the University of California at San Diego. 

Ramos lives in Eyguieres, France.

For more on Eric's Perspective, visit www.ericsperspective.com

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