Rosa Rolanda
Rosemonde Cowan known as Rosa Rolanda was born in Los Angeles, California on September 6, 1895. Her parents were Harry Charles Cowan (of Scottish origin) and Guadalupe Ruelas (of Mexican descent), Rosa Rolanda was a dancer, choreographer, costume designer, photographer and painter. Rolanda traveled to Mexico for the first time in 1926. During that trip she met many Mexican artists, such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Guadalupe Marin, and Roberto Montenegro. From the beginning of her career Rosa Rolanda showed interest in photography. She was influenced by the surrealist Man Ray, from whom she adopted the Rayogram technique she also was influenced to create surrealist photomontages. Her photographs appeared in magazines and publications such as Theater Arts Monthly, Dyn, Mexican Folkways and Harper’s Bazaar. She and her husband Miguel Covarrubias settled permanently in Mexico City after several trip there. Rolanda modeled for artists like Roberto Montenegro and Diego Rivera. Immersed in this environment, her husband urged her to paint, so at the end of the thirties she began making portraits of her acquaintances, girls, boys, indigenous women, popular celebrations and herself.
Rosa Rolanda also drew inspiration from her world travels. She documented the people around her and their daily life. Rolanda’s images memorialized important elements of the cultures she encountered to tell the tales of their environments, the local customs, foodways, and styles of dress. Rolanda was deeply inspired by Mexican culture and she often chose to paint renditions of the Aztecs, tracing the nation to the very depths of its roots. This is also true of how she chose to paint her subjects. Frequently, the artist painted brown-hued women and children with large eyes, and compact body proportions harkening to traditional Mexican styles. In an interview with Bertha Cuevas the artists stated:
I am of the neo-figurative school of painting. I rarely exhibit but paint for myself. I must paint what I know and what I like. I paint to delight, to amuse. I capture a curve or a color that surprises the eye. I wish I could say I paint out of deep yearning, crazy passion, but I don’t. I paint for pleasure. I don’t exhibit in galleries. People who see my paintings in my house and like them buy directly from me.
Her style was influenced by Covarrubias, but also by post-revolutionary painting and surrealism, like Frida Kahlo. Rolanda explored different techniques and materials, such as gouache, oil, watercolor and crayon.
