Painter, poet and art theorist · 1916-2002
Painter, poet and art theorist
José Julio Rodríguez Hernández was a painter, poet and art theorist born in Los Llanos de Aridane. His early commitment to abstraction and his participation in the PIC and LADAC groups place him among the key figures in post-war Canarian avant-garde renewal.
He was born in Los Llanos de Aridane on 13 July 1916. His interest in drawing appeared in childhood and his training passed through schools on La Palma and Tenerife. The Civil War interrupted this path; after returning to the Canary Islands he began Law studies in La Laguna, which he left to focus on painting and poetry.
In 1947 he was one of the artists in the Pintores Independientes Canarios exhibition at Santa Cruz de Tenerife's Círculo de Bellas Artes. With Juan Ismael he drafted the group's manifesto, rejecting dominant regionalism and defending independent practice. He also took part in LADAC, a group that linked the islands to contemporary languages of abstraction.
His Arte absoluto 1949/50 exhibition, shown at El Museo Canario in March 1950, is considered by researcher Pilar Carreño the first abstract art exhibition in the Canary Islands. His work moved through figurative and abstract stages, while his writing helped formulate the aspirations of the islands' avant-garde.
