Juan Antonio Roda

JUAN ANTONIO RODA (Valencia, 1921-Bogotá, 2003).
"Still life", 1950.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the upper right margin.
Measurements: 60 x 74 cm; 72 x 84 cm (frame).

Juan Antonio Roda was a Spanish-Colombian painter, considered one of the great masters of Colombian painting in the late twentieth century. He studied at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios and the Escuela Massana in Barcelona. After his military service, he won first prize at the Salón de Artistas Jóvenes de Barcelona in 1945 and had his first solo exhibition in 1948. After a scholarship in Paris, he moved to Colombia in 1955. There he became integrated into cultural life and was a professor at the National University of Colombia and, later, professor and director of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of the Andes, where he trained artists such as Luis Caballero and Beatriz Gonzalez. In 1970, he obtained Colombian nationality and, between 1983 and 1987, he served as consul general of Colombia in Barcelona. His work, which combines the dramatism of classical Spanish painting with influences of expressionism and abstract art, is characterized by his approach to the geography of the tropics. His legacy includes numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries in Europe and America, and his work continues to be a reference in contemporary art. Throughout his career he has had solo exhibitions in Barcelona, Paris, New York, Bogota and Quito, among other cities.