Juan antonio roda biography of alberta

During his early years Juan Antonio Roda was never far from the sea. Born 1921 in Valencia, Spain, and the fifth child of Julio Rodríguez-Roda, a public works engineer and Carmen Compaired, the young Juan Antonio only later in his artistic life reminisced – while painting in Paris – that the sea had “disappeared” from his life.

Like many of his contemporaries, Picasso, Gaudi and Miró, Roda gravitated towards Barcelona where he learned Catalán “in three days” and was educated by staunch conservative priests.

The industrial port also inspired a passion for literature, film and poetry.

In his teenage years, Roda found himself caught up in the Spanish Civil War. While the internationalists of the Communist Party took to the streets to convince young republicans to join their cause, Roda dabbled in portraiture and sketching the faces of his friends.

“But I was more of a reader than a painter,” remarked Roda during a rare and candid interview with the cultural division of t