Describing significant events of the history of Malaga, Juan José Campos Ruízwho signs his pictorial works as Ruiz-Juan, finalizes the details of an ambitious exhibition that will cover Malaga’s past; a wide collection of something more than 70 oil paintings on canvas that open an artistic path that until now had not been touched upon in such a profuse way.
Attracted by the paint from its most tender childhoodthis man from Malaga raised in Huelin who received his first artistic teachings from the painter José de la Fuente Grima, at the age of 15 he held his first exhibition; an initiatory experience that led him to decide to dedicate himself exclusively to the world of colors and brushes. Immersed in an activity from which it is very difficult to make a living, Ruíz-Juan, with more than 50 national and international exhibitions behind him and with works exhibited in various museums as well as paintings in private collections, at 58 years old and after a long career , decided to tackle the project of painting outstanding moments in the history of Malaga.
Sharing his usual creations in which he covers all types of genres and, without leaving his role as a teacher teaching classes at an academy that he founded and has run since 2003, this teacher started his historical collection in 2014 by painting the bombing of the port of Malaga by french navy occurred in 1693. “The idea of starting this series,” says the author, “came to me as a result of some gatherings that I regularly have with a numismatist friend in which we talk about the history of Malaga”; some talks that helped Ruíz-Juan embark on this series that, ten years after its beginning, already has 83 works. And although some of these paintings have already been seen in some books and publications, the bulk of the sample that remains unpublished is waiting to be exhibited to the public in a very short time.
But regardless of the attractiveness of a very extensive pictorial collection that reflects historical events in Malaga, this set of paintings also adds a very peculiar plus of interest. After painstaking documentation work, this artist has had the collaboration of different history specialists who have contributed their knowledge to the creation of each of these works; paintings that reflect with absolute rigor the scenes of Malacita’s past. And although there have been many names of historians who have contributed their knowledge to the execution of these paintings, Ruíz-Juan highlights the academic Francisco Cabrera Pablos, “a wise man of Malaga history” as he calls it, a few days ago he presented a book that shows on its cover one of the paintings that make up this collection and that he has always been willing to advise this artist.
Faced with this circumstance that turns this series of paintings into a detailed catalog of events from the past, the author of this extensive work has also wanted to show some recreations closer in time; and so, along with scenes that reflect the Malaga Phoeniciathe Alcazaba, the naval battle of Vélez-Málaga, the shipwreck of the Miño where Trinidad Grund’s two daughters died or the sinking of the corvette Gneisenau, Ruíz-Juan also includes port scenes from the 19th and 20th centuries, with the departure of the Andalusia floating dock in August 2022 being the most modern work that can be seen in this exposure.
Although its influence by light and the sea Malaga is very significant: this author’s grandfather was a fisherman, his father owned several boats and owned a picnic area while he played on the beaches of Huelin, Ruíz-Juan has known how to balance this historical series so as not to turn it into a succession of maritime facts; a circumstance that will allow us to see in this collection the masterful pictorial technique of an artist who works perfectly within Mediterranean luminism and naturalism.
And although the pictorial work of this author, well known for his landscapes, his portraits and his multiple works related to Holy Week already position him as a high-profile artist, the exhibition that he is finalizing and that will soon be seen makes Juan José Campos Ruíz, who signs his canvases as Ruíz-Juan, is an innovator who has been working for a decade reflecting in a very rigorous way some of the significant events of Malacitan history. An artistic path that he will continue to investigate and that, in his words, “will keep him very busy researching and painting to give get to know the Malaga of the past”.
