JUAN MIGUEL ROCA FUSTER (Palma de Mallorca, 1942 - 2006). "Still life with female figure". 1987 / 1988 Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower left corner. Measurements: 92 x 72 cm; 97 x 78 cm. (frame). Roca Fuster began his artistic training in Palma de Mallorca but soon, in 1958, he moved to Barcelona and enrolled at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts. On his first trip to Madrid in 1960, in the Prado, he was fascinated by the paintings of Velázquez, Zurbarán, Goya and El Greco. During this decade of the sixties he became interested in abstraction and informalism, even painting pictures in which figurative elements were relegated to a secondary role. A key element in his work was always music, as well as the myths of cinema and theatre. During the seventies and eighties he drew closer to Rembrandt and Caravaggio, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite school. His first exhibitions, held in 1965 in the Grifé Escoda galleries in Madrid and Palma, were a great success with the public and critics. In fact, the following year he made the leap abroad, with his solo exhibition at the Don Quixote Gallery in London; almost all his work from this period was sold in England to important private collections. From then on he exhibited his work throughout Europe and the United States, with group and solo shows in New York, Stockholm, Oklahoma, Chicago, Antibes (France), Lyon and Los Angeles, in addition to his repeated participation in the International Fairs in Basel, Frankfurt, Los Angeles and New York. Throughout his career he won numerous prizes, such as the first prizes for Young Painting from the Sala Parés (1961) and from the Dirección General de Bellas Artes (1962), the first medal at the Salón de Otoño de Palma de Mallorca (1966), the extraordinary prize at the I Bienal Internacional de Barcelona (1967), and the first medal at the Salón de Otoño de Madrid (1968), among many other mentions. Although most of his work is in private collections, we can see an exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid.