In 1979, Arnaldo Roche Rabell moved to Chicago from his native Puerto Rico, “because of dream,” to enroll at the Art Institute. The move was transformative, not only introducing him to a whole ecosystem of art and artists to discover, it provided an opportunity for him to discover himself as well. Yet the move was also isolating, removed from family and friends, he found himself in a new environment with the barrier of a new language to overcome. It is not surprising then, that touch came to feature so strongly in his paintings, a connection that Roche has acknowledged as well. He began taking rubbings of his models, a technique with connotations of Max Ernst’s surrealist 'frottage,' as a means to be in closer dialogue with his subjects. His process involved draping the prepared canvas over his posed model, then tracing the contours of their body with his paint-covered hands. The physicality of this technique is both meditative and spiritual; the complex pictorial expression that emerges a direct translation, in Roche’s words, “from something real… everything is about being physical and being real.” Roche’s most important and frequent model was his mother, María, to whom he was very close. Their collaborations are an expression of his love for her, of her trust in him and the familial bond they share. He described this collaboration as “an act of humility and sincerity” whereby she places “herself beneath the canvas to be transformed into an art object.” The resulting paintings are a natural progression from his earlier self-portraits, the use of his mother’s body an acknowledgment of a broader definition of the self. Themes of life and death and rebirth are often apparent in paintings she features in, such as The Origin (1986), The Woman with the Fear to Cut Off Her Own Head (1988) and The Kiss (1988), as are the leaves and branches so ubiquitous in his paintings. Pairing the two, his mother and the native flora of Puerto Rico, reinforces their shared symbology as the twin sources from which Roche was born. Roche’s most important and frequent model was his mother, to whom he was close.
Arnaldo Roche Rabell and an assistant at work with his mother modeling, c.1986.
Image courtesy George Adams Gallery archives.
In 1979, Arnaldo Roche Rabell moved to Chicago from his native Puerto Rico, “because of dream,” to enroll at the Art Institute. The move was transformative, not only introducing him to a whole ecosystem of art and artists to discover, it provided an opportunity for him to discover himself as well. Yet the move was also isolating, removed from family and friends, he found himself in a new environment with the barrier of a new language to overcome. It is not surprising then, that touch came to feature so strongly in his paintings, a connection that Roche has acknowledged as well. He began taking rubbings of his models, a technique with connotations of Max Ernst’s surrealist frottage, as a means to be in closer dialogue with his subjects. His process involved draping the prepared canvas over his posed model, then tracing the contours of their body with his paint-covered hands. The physicality of this technique is both meditative and spiritual; the complex pictorial expression that emerges a direct translation, in Roche’s words, “from something real… everything is about being physical and being real.” Roche’s most important and frequent model was his mother, María, to whom he was very close. Their collaborations are an expression of his love for her, of her trust in him and the familial bond they share. He described this collaboration as “an act of humility and sincerity” whereby she places “herself beneath the canvas to be transformed into an art object.” The resulting paintings are a natural progression from his earlier self-portraits, the use of his mother’s body an acknowledgment of a broader definition of the self. Themes of life and death and rebirth are often apparent in paintings she features in, such as The Origin (1986), The Woman with the Fear to Cut Off Her Own Head (1988) and The Kiss (1988), as are the leaves and branches so ubiquitous in his paintings. Pairing the two, his mother and the native flora of Puerto Rico, reinforces their shared symbology as the twin sources from which Roche was born.
