Rhythm in Three

Beginning with his first solo exhibition in 1948, Joaquín Roca Rey played an important role in the renewal of sculpture in Peru. After early studies at Lima’s School of Fine Arts, Roca Rey began his training as a student of the Spanish sculptor Victorio Macho, before continuing in Spain under the master Jorge Oteiza. The figures in Rhythm in Three represent the consolidation of the aims of his formative years. In 1955, Roca Rey won the international competition for the design of the monument to the president José Antonio Remón in Panama City, which would be erected in front of the Legislative Palace and unveiled two years later. Now partially destroyed, the monument was composed of a central column and great frieze with symbolic figures illustrating Remón’s famous declaration: “Neither millions, nor alms. We want justice”. The interlinked figures of Rhythm in Three were conceived as part of that decorative frieze. In them, the simplification and stylization with which the human figure is described and the skill with which movement is suggested reveal clearly the decisive influence of the English sculptor Henry Moore. (NM)