The chapter titled “Luis Fernando Roldán” in El efecto mariposa [The Butterfly Effect] was originally an article by the Colombian curator and critic Carolina Ponce de León (b. 1957), that was published in Art Nexus magazine in January 1996. The article appeared at the time when the Colombian artist Luis Fernando Roldán was awarded the Premio Salón Nacional de Artistas [National Artists Salon Prize] for Calendario [Calendar], a work made with trash he had collected. Calendario was to one extent or another, a result of Parque de la Independencia [Independence Park], the exhibition that was curated by Eduardo Serrano (b. 1939) at the MAMBO (Museum of Modern Art) in Bogotá two years earlier.
That exhibition was a turning point in Roldán’s work, which at that time consisted of large-scale oil paintings festooned with detritus that were classically constructed and displayed good technique. Prior to that, Roldán had worked with “Inflated, rather childish figures… suspended over heavily impastoed planes,” according to the article.
During the period between Parque de la Independencia and Calendario, Roldán turned to the visual art legacy of Andrés de Santamaría (1860–1945). Roldán believed there was an artistic and mental connection between his work and the work of the Colombian maestro, whom he considered to be his main referent in the history of Colombian painting. Roldán was interested in and identified with the existential and romantic idea he perceived in the everyday subjects portrayed in Santamaría’s work.
The works shown at the exhibition Circunstancias [Circumstances] (2009), at the Casas Riegner gallery in Bogotá, reveal Roldán’s continued interest in collecting and using ordinary materials: doors, papers, ribbons made with newspaper clippings, and photographs (Vermeer). He now treats them differently because his scope has broadened over the course of time, but his works are still brimming with his signature poetic content and reveal the same obsessive and disciplined approach to his art.
Luis Fernando Roldán (b. 1955) is originally from Cali. In 2001 he was awarded the Luis Caballero Prize, the greatest accolade there is for Colombian artists of the intermediate generation. In 1996, he won First Prize at the XXXVI Salón Nacional de Artistas [Thirty-sixth National Artists Salon]. His work is part of local and international art collections, such as those at the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Bogotá and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (Poughkeepsie, NY), among others.