In various events preceding his 50th anniversary celebration, the genre-defying paintings by Jordi Rollán’s works are stronger than ever and convey his view of life.
Warmly welcomed and grantly hosted by Le Méridien Ra Beach Hotel & Spa (Starwood Hotels & Resorts) on Tarragona`s Costa Dorada (El Vendrell, a 40 minute drive from Barcelona), a three-month summer exhibition showcases his last works. Besides showing a selection of his oeuvre inspired by the hotel itself, a vast and unique privately owned collection of sculptures by Salvador Dalí can be viewed at the resort’s grounds and lobby, accompanied by a specifically created music theme composed by Henri Scars Struck, to be listened to with podcast.
One of Jordi Rollán’s master pieces hangs in the Presidential Suite of Le Méridien Ra beach Hotel & Spa, evoking a Mediterranean looking garden in fresh tones, with hues of gold, lime green and lilac, warmly matching the ochre decorated suite overlooking the sea through the palms on the beach. The fresh, light and figurative-surrealist composition is the finishing touch to this magnificent suite.
Amongst distinguished hotel guests, renowned art collectors, patrons and friends, they all visit the temporary exhibition at the seaside hotel and conform an ever growing global collective of Jordi Rollán`s followers. His works do form part of the art history of Barcelona, Catalonia and is alive thanks to the dynamic initiative of the artist himself and fully backed-up by Christina de Vreeze-Cabrera globally.
At 14 years of age he decides to become a painter and consequently abandons his studies to apply to the prestigious Llotja Academy where he is accepted. His first phase is a figurative style centered on the female figure, his pictorial development nowadays is inspired by his search for colour and form, rendering compositions between the abstract and the figurative, allowing complete creative freedom when standing in front of his canvas. Other mediums he works in are collage, graphical works and sculpture.
His works are reminiscent of early 18th Century British conversation pieces in contemporary times and different settings: portrayals of groups seeming to be engaged in genteel conversation, interaction or activity, oftentimes outdoors. The painter is an experience himself and it almost seems as if he is in a constant postmodern mode.
Tremendously ahead of his time, he spent a decade travelling in the eighties, working and exhibiting in north and Central Europe, imbuing and fusing his style with that of local artists, where conversation and reasoning (and trying out) of the changing lines, styles and colors compared to the Mediterranean light where central. He never abandoned his pictorial language but did evolve and adapt to his own findings. The United States of America and Canada were also widely travelled.
Such is his stance in life as well, a strong individual position but closely linked to world events. Down to earth in all of his manners, his unique anecdotes include days long down-time with Francis Bacon, Pavarotti’is painting sessions, Spain`s former Queen Sophia opening his exhibitions, an important work ordered by Juan Antonio Samaranch, the seventh president of the International Olympic Committee from 1980 to 2001, and Germany’s late Minister of Foreign Affairs Hans Dietrich Genscher hosting some of his shows in Germany. The USA, Canada and Uruguay are also on his exhibition map and in his hometown Barcelona, the emblematic former Ritz hotel holds a painting by him in the Dalí Suite. All of this comes as no surprise since Jordi Rollán is a whirl wind and a perfect host, his natural and humble way of going about everything that concerns him is just like you have known him for a long time.
Warm, elegant and rhythmic compositions, composed of series. Jordi Rollán’s world is that of timeless sophistication. His pictorial language evokes the way he sees life; his canvasses are a kaleidoscope of colour-and meaningful compositions, with undeniable attractive figures evoking placid and idyllic images. The list is long of his awards and distinctions, monographs, extensive bibliography and solo exhibitions, which started in 1966 just after he received a grant from the Royal Circle of the Arts in Barcelona, where he still holds a relevant position.
His works have the signs of a distinctive brand, creating value to the collections or environments they enter. The painter creates since his teens and is still a daily painter, now isn’t that a sign of a true artist? Jordi Rollán is an established artist, an innovator with a recognizable style, whose universe you should enter.
