In 1971, when Roberto Roque traveled for the first time to Europe with a baggage full of questions, he could not imagine the beaches where his restless and creative soul could take him. As other ancient and modern plastic artists, the inner wishes to find himself impel Roque to go along the original routes of occidental art. In Paris, had a brief meeting with Siqueiros one of his first and most solid influences. Roque lived in the North of Italy for several years where the diversity and intensity of his personal experiences, were transformed into a high quality figurative visual art. He had successive individual and collective exhibitions in the Peninsula and also in the Ex-Soviet Union.  In that time, he probed several techniques and materials, such as: “dripping  with acrylic”; “encaustic painting”; “etching”; “acrylic on wood and mural painting”

In this stage, with solid reminiscences, not only in prehistoric, but also in prehispanic and medieval art, he also started to work the stone in its natural state in a polychromatic way. This technique is not commonly use in modern art.
In that moment, a new movement was brought into life: “The Roquismo”. Later on, in the eighties, this trend culminates in Mexico with a sixty-seven tons of weight and six meters height pictographic monolith, located in the gardens of the ENEP Acatlan from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

Several experiences converge in this artist personality who chose: the university of Gorki for his preparation: Life by strictness, sometimes stifling. From the academy: La Bribriesca, for example, of his early years: his job with the photographer Enrique Bostelman; his unexpectedly encounters with Siqueiros and the Expressionism mainly with Munch. His work in mental health hospitals: first in Mexico, then in Italy, where Roque teaches figurative arts to the patients and he observes, measures and lives through as the Mannerist Greco at the mental health hospital in Toledo. From Expressionism to Surrealism; from Modernity to Post Modernity.
The assimilation of a social reality that violent burst Mexico in 1968 and continued with the spirited fighting worker and Italian cultural movement, unfold this reality into the mysterious world of dreams. When he returns to Mexico by the late seventies, Roque deeps his work with stones, and continue working with easel and mixed techniques: acrylic on wood, sketch, sand and suaje on cartoon. Then, in the eighties merges “Aquelarre” of dramatic expression versus the erotic soft breath canvas: “Vestidor”, “Lo que nos paso” and “Pendulo”, among others. Also, remarkable in this line, the serial of serigraphs “Relaciones”.

The nineties initial production, settles an interesting bridge among thematic and material: intimist, sensual; the endless feminine comes to life in the sofa with postmodern colors: reds, greens, purples, smooth and rosy skin.

Roberto Roque’s most recent work, astonishes due to its conception and its experimental renewal sign: contrasting in technique and material, but similar in thematic. Jumps from draw on paper to form and regular dimension freestone that the artist carves and paints.
The stone and women obsession. Five different models unveil his fine stroke of seductive detail of its forms: the ankle, the leg that lazy spreads, the belly lassitude, the wrist, the forearm, the convex roundness of breast, a free and easy piece of clothing. The reflective features of a beautiful face, a glance; and beyond, the enigma of life. A suggestive serial of nudes, that shows any doubt of talent. The profession of this artist arrives to his creative maturity involved with his epoch, with his reality and with the universal message of art.

Carlos Véjar Pérez - Rubio  December 1994.
 

His work: