1955 Glenn Benjamin Goudsmit born in Amstelveen, Netherlands
1978 Moves to France
1982 Co-founder of the art magazine “Artension”
1985 Co-founder of “Fusion”, an international group of artists
2017 Moves to the Azores
Around 200 paintings in private collections in France, Germany, Holland, England, Belgium, Canada and the USA.
A note from Victor Ryath
Throughout my career as a painter, what has changed most is my view of illusion.
As the youngest painter, I didn’t believe so much that the images I created illustrated illusory worlds. I thought they were real. Although, on the contrary, the paintings I did at that time were the most abstract I’ve ever done, in the sense that there were no recognizable forms in the paintings.
Over the course of my painting career, 40 years so far, this has changed to a much more imaginary world, with suggestive shapes that can be interpreted differently by the viewer. Each person being different means that each person will apprehend and feel and interpret differently. So now, unlike at the start of my career, I feel that nothing is real, everything is an illusion. Nothing can be explained in a specific way or defined.
My struggle as an artist is sometimes to believe in an illusion. Otherwise, how could I create?
To support me in this task, and this has always been my interest, there is the phenomenon of color. An endless journey of research. Something that can’t be defined either, that has infinite compositional schemes. This gives me a lot of motivation.
To conclude, my opinion as an artist is that nothing can be defined. Looking for a definition or feeling the need to find reality means for me wanting to die and not create anymore.
Victor Ryath,
Capelo, Faial Azores December 27, 2018