Female nudes, often partially concealed by paper, fabric or other materials, are central to the art practice of the Spanish painter Soledad Fernández Ramos, born in Madrid in 1945, who trained in the studio of José Gutiérrez Valle and later continued her studies at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Her work has been exhibited in Spain and internationally, and her paintings have entered museum collections in Spain, France and Malta. Contemporary writing on her work repeatedly emphasised the tension between the precise realism of her paintings and the more mysterious, inwardly sensuality. There is something strangely intimate about these paintings. Her women are nude, sometimes almost entirely so, and yet they rarely appear completely exposed. Their bodies are seen emerging from behind translucent fabrics, sheets of paper, dark mantillas and fragments of drapery, appearing and disappearing at the same time, as if they are playing hide and seek, hiding and disappearing from our view. This is perhaps what makes her erotic art so compelling, because it is not really about nakedness. It is about the game, the space between revealing and concealing.
Fig.1 Soledad Fernandez Ramos, Sea at the bottom, 2007
Fig.2 Soledad Fernandez Ramos, Untitled, 2001
Fig.2a Soledad Fernandez Ramos, Untitled, 2001, detail
Fig.3 Soledad Fernandez Ramos
Vocabulary of Revelation
At first glance, her paintings might seem almost photographic in their precision, mainly because the skin is rendered with extraordinary care; fabric has weight, transparency and texture; hands, hair and folds of cloth are observed with the patience of someone who has spent a great deal of time looking. But to call Fernández Ramos simply a hyperrealist would miss something essential. Her realism is not an end in itself. The exactness of the body becomes a way of entering something more mysterious.
This is particularly evident in works such as ‘Desnudo entre papeles’ seen in Fig.5. and ‘Descubriéndose’ in Fig.6. Even their titles suggest a vocabulary of revelation. A woman here is not simply naked; she is discovering herself, dreaming, resting and emerging from paper. Fernández Ramos repeatedly places the female body in a state of transition between visibility and disappearance. And this is where her eroticism becomes interesting.
Fig.4 Soledad Fernandez Ramos, Entre papeles blancos
Fig.5 Soledad Fernandez Ramos (Madrid, 1949), Desnudo entre papeles, 1998
Greater Sense of Intimacy
The erotic is often imagined as the art of showing more: more skin, more of the body, more explicitness, but Fernández Ramos works almost in the opposite direction. She understands that concealment can intensify looking. A piece of translucent material across the body can make us more conscious of the body beneath it. A hand emerging from darkness, a shoulder partly hidden by fabric, a face turned away from us can create a greater sense of intimacy than complete exposure. Her fabrics therefore do not merely decorate the nude. They become part of its language.
Fig.6 Soledad Fernandez Ramos, Descubriendose
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Soledad Fernández Ramos is active on Instagram and has the following website
Click HERE for the article about the desire, power, and psychological intimacy in the art of Riccardo Mannelli
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