In the newspaper El Correo, Gerardo Elorriaga wrote: “A Teacher to recover”
“The recovery of legacies is a tool that rewrites the history of art. Academic research makes it possible to recover forgotten creators, reinsert them into the currents of their time and give them the right importance.
The case of José Manuel Rozas (Bilbao, 1944- Sukarrieta, 1983) is paradigmatic. His dramatic death broke an ascending trajectory that contemplated international projection and that, instead, fell into oblivion. The exhibition that the Sala Ondare dedicates to him aims to rescue a work full of attractions.
The artist’s resounding personality is evident in a selection of 55 works, paintings and sculptures, closely linked to the context of the Transition. Rozas displays a unique universe of forms of enormous appeal. The itinerary shows us its development from hyperrealist postulates that combines with the introduction of surrealist suggestions. The pieces seem to translate the growing ambition of an author endowed with fierce irony and a critical spirit with the society and politics of his time.
The brilliant resolution, intense chromaticism and lyricism of his bold proposals lead us through the production of this representative of figuration, a contemporary of Vicente Ameztoy or Ramón Zuriarrain. The last section of the exhibition is dedicated to his medium and large-format sculptural works, a reflection of his technical mastery. While waiting for the commercial circuit to recover an exceptional work, we, the spectators, can contribute to the dissemination and recovery of someone who should never have left our cultural baggage.”