Rómulo Rozo Peña (1899 Bogota – 1964

Mérida, Yucatán Mérida () is the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, and the largest city in southeastern Mexico. The city is also the seat of the eponymous Municipality. It is located in the northwest corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, about 35 km (22 ...

) was a sculptor. Some authors confirm that he was born in

Chiquinquirá Chiquinquirá is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Boyacá, part of the subregion of the Western Boyacá Province. Located some 115 km north of Bogotá, Chiquinquirá is above sea level and has a yearly average temp ...

, Boyacá. He lived a major part of his life in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. He married Ana Krauss in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and had three children: Rómulo, Gloria and Leticia. His second wife was Manuela Vera, yucateca, with whom he had two children: Marco Antonio and Gloria Antonia. Rozo is best known for his internationally recognized sculpture, ''Bachué'', which influenced a generation of Colombian artists.

Studies

Rozo completed his studies at the National School of Fine Arts, Central Technical Institute of Bogota. While he traveled through Europe between the years 1924 and 1929, he studied at the Saint Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He then completed his studies in Paris, France, with

Antoine Bourdelle Antoine Bourdelle (30 October 1861 – 1 October 1929), born Émile Antoine Bordelles, was an influential and prolific French sculptor and teacher. He was a student of Auguste Rodin, a teacher of Giacometti and Henri Matisse, and an important fi ...

, who exerted a major influence on his works. He participated in the

Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 (Spanish: ''Exposición iberoamericana de 1929'') was a world's fair held in Seville, Spain, from 9 May 1929 until 21 June 1930. Countries in attendance of the exposition included: Portugal, the United Stat ...

in Seville, where he won the Big Prize and the Medal of Gold, before returning to the Americas.

''Bachué'' and Seville

In 1925, Rozo made one of his most renowned works, the ''Bachué goddess generatriz of the chibchas'', a granite sculpture inspired by Colombian and pre-Columbian mythology. The work is a reference to the goddess

Bachué The goddess Bachué (in Chibcha language: "the one with the naked breast"), is a mother goddess that according to the Muisca religion is the mother of humanity. She emerged of the waters in the Iguaque Lake with a baby in her arms, who grew to ...

, mother of the Muisca civilisation in their mythology. The response of the international press to ''Bachué'' and Rozo's other works raised the sculptor to greater recognition. He mixed his academic knowledge of western art with elements of his own Latin American culture and native cultures of Asia and Africa, references he drew from the collections of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

and museums of

Trocadéro The Trocadéro (), site of the Palais de Chaillot, is an area of Paris, France, in the 16th arrondissement, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. It is also the name of the 1878 palace which was demolished in 1937 to make way for the Palais ...

.AA. Admiration of Rozo's works was so great as to inspire a 1930 ephemeral literary movement in Colombia called "The Bachués", which advocated the review of the vernacular roots for the creation of a common people's art, in opposition to academic art. The continuity of this influence among the sculptors of this generation (such as Luis Alberto Acuña,

Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo Ignacio Gomez Jaramillo ( Medellín, 30 December 1910 - Coveñas, 12 July 1970) was a Colombian painter, drawer, and muralist. Gomez Jaramillo was one of Colombia's most important artists of the 20th century. He was part of the Colombian Muralist M ...

Pedro Nel Gómez Pedro Nel Gómez Agudelo (4 July 1899 — 6 June 1984) was a Colombian engineer, painter, and sculptor, best known for his work as a muralist, and for starting, along with Santiago Martinez Delgado, the Colombian Muralist Movement, inspired by ...

, Ramón Barba, José Domingo Rodríguez, Hena Rodríguez, Miguel Sopó and

Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt (23 October 1919 – 14 May 1995) was a Colombian sculptor. At the time of his death in 1995 he was recognized as one of the most important sculptors in Colombia and Latin America. Most of the major cities in Colombia ha ...

) signal the ''Bachué'' as the foundational sculpture of modern art in Colombia. For the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 in Seville, the Colombian government hired Rozo to make the ornamentation for the Colombian Pavilion. Rozo reformed Spanish architect

José Granados José Granados Navedo (born February 1, 1946), is a former Speaker Pro Tem of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. Married, with three children, he lives with his family in Florida. Early years While attending the Academia Catolica during ...

' original idea, which did allusion to a baroque church, turning it instead into a temple with an ornamental reference to the Chibchas gods of the Colombian prehispanic territory. Rozo convinced the collector of the ''Bachué'' to loan the work, so it could be placed in the middle of the pavilion during the year that the event lasted. Around it, Rozo created figures in plaster and concrete, with clear referents to the cultures of Tolima, Saint Agustín, Muiscas and the Mayas. The finished result of the installation was an odd beauty between the conjunction of religious architecture with a decoration based in pre-Columbian civilisations. Again, the international press concluded it to be an unprecedented success for the sculptor. Rozo decided not to return to Colombia, moving permanently to Mexico in 1931. In spite of the great influence of the ''Bachué'' in the nationalist generation of artists in Colombia, the work disappeared after its exhibition in Seville. Only in 1998 (68 years after) was it found by art historian Álvaro Medina, and returned to Colombia for the exhibition "Colombia in the threshold of the modernity", curated by the same researcher. During the time the work was missing, a new wave of young artists and the media power of the Argentinian art critic Marta Traba overshadowed the contributions of this generation, condemning it to a second place in the history of Colombian art that was only reassessed since its reappearance. In spite of its historical value, no cultural institution in Colombia showed interest in purchasing it. However, the work became part of the collection of the Foundation Project Bachué, a platform interested in the conservation and gathering of Colombian art.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rozo, Romulo Colombian emigrants to Mexico Colombian sculptors 1964 deaths 1899 births Naturalized citizens of Mexico