Rojo’s family fled to Mexico in 1949 from the Spanish Civil War due to their role in the resistance against Franco. In Mexico, Rojo attended the Esmeralda Art School and soon joined the Generación de la Ruptura, later becoming one of Mexico’s most recognized abstract artists. Rojo’s geometric paintings were created in series and focused on geometric motifs that he explored in greater depth with each canvas. His later series, like México bajo la lluvia from the 1980s, are characterized by their meticulous detail. As the larger geometric forms of his earlier works are reduced and reshaped, they form diagonal compositions of bright, saturated colors taken from traditional Mexican design and artisanship. Rojo stated about this series, “I don’t believe that these works will lose their link to a constructive tradition that has always been the point of departure for my work. Rather, these paintings are about enriching, giving nuance, and providing a point of contradiction between geometric purity and its impure execution.”
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