Picture of J.M. Rozas

JOSE MANUEL ROZAS (Bilbao 1944 – Sukarrieta 1983)

The value of a life is not measured by its duration ( Nazario Maiz )

Born in Bilbao, his artistic vein already shown at the age of six when he was awarded in Madrid for a landscape oil painting . At he college of La Salle in Irun, where he studied as an intern, he skipped class to take refuge in the belfry to be able to paint . At night and in secret , in his room, he sculpted small figures.

After leaving school, he studied art, drawing and decoration, but nothing can fully capture his interest ,his self- taught and creative mind walks free , perhaps because freedom is for him a quest that becomes an obsession in art and life . With the brush or gouge he manifested against all injustice and decanted himself as a committed artist and human being .

In 1967 he made his first exhibition in Bilbao, then after in many other localities such as Vitoria-Gasteiz, Donostia, Iruñea, Santander, Valladolid, Madrid, Barcelona, Essen(Germany)…, with nearly 50 exhibitions until 1983 , endorsed by the critics of the time .

With a surreal style in his paintings and sculptures, his creative imagination travel looking for freedom and social justice. He was an artist committed to society. His painting claimed the shortcomings and deficiencies of society . His aspiration was LIFE, but a memorable life, free, responsible, committed to the ideals of his land and his people, with strong roots that in fact is a constant in his work. One of his wishes was that Basque culture would grow and reach out to all corners and its inhabitants without distinction.

Although most of his work is found in private collections, one of his paintings , “Allegory in Amarillo ,” was awarded in Arteder and is in the House of Sport in Bilbao.

Rozas  lived for art, for which he devoted all his time . Artificer of beauty, nature lover , wanted to find a place to create in peace and harmony with his environment and himself. He moved with his family to Sukarrieta…

When he was in full creative capacity , having reached that level of maturity required for all artists , violence took his life prematurely. A brutal punch, root reaped a promising future for a man of 38, whose work was already embraced internationally

A cruel slap ,
An icy blow
An invisible murderer hand
A brutal ax has cut you down …