Colombian art sculpture to be exhibited in Argentina in 2026

La Bauché, the pinnacle of Rómulo Rozo's work, was purchased by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The work is inspired by the goddess of the Chibchas and measures 1.70 meters
The sculpture named La Bachué, a fundamental work to understand Colombian art that reflects its mestizaje, by the artist Rómulo Rozo, is already part of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires, Argentina (MALBA).

This piece, carved in 1925, will be on display in September 2026 at the MALBA anniversary exhibition, as announced by Argentina's largest art collector, Eduardo Costantini, through an interview with the newspaper El País.

This is a 1.70-meter-high black granite sculpture, considered a masterpiece and a key piece in the evolution of the artistic avant-garde of Colombia a century ago.

Some critics claim that La Bachué, inspired by the Chibcha goddess since its conception in Paris in 1925, seems to have been banned from the Colombian national canon. The original version measures a little more than 30 centimeters, and was sculpted and cast in bronze, according to the Arteria newspaper.

Rozo created a taller version, commissioned by a Colombian industrialist living in Paris, which retained the dark shine of the black stone. The work landed on loan in 1929 in the Colombian pavilion for the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville.

The piece will accompany other pinnacle works of Latin American art by artists such as Diego Rivera or the Brazilian Tarsila do Amaral. The Argentine public will be able to see the sculpture in person in September 2026, during the exhibition for the 25th anniversary of the MALBA, as one of the central pieces.

Since 2001, the museum has been building a private collection with large works on long-term loan, which are then compared and exhibited to the public.
Rómulo Rozo

The artist was born in Chiquinquirá, department of Boyacá, Colombia, on January 13, 1899, and trained as a goldsmith and sculptor. His way of carving and working with signs was very special and had a certain primitivist tone.

Rozo is one of the few Latin American sculptors to whom three complete books have been dedicated about his work. His sculptural work showed a great interest in pre-Columbian cultures, their symbolism and the sophistication of their design.

This creator joins the searches of some Latin American artists of the beginning of the 20th century that include direct references to pre-Hispanic cultures, whose model par excellence was Mexican muralism.

He was artistic director of the construction and decoration of the Colombian Pavilion at the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville (1928-1929); member of the Colombian Academy of Fine Arts (1930); cultural attaché of the Colombian legation (1931-1941); professor at the Academy of San Carlos and the School of Sculpture of the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico City (1933); and professor of sculpture at the School of Plastic Arts of the UNAM. This is what this cultural information medium affirms.

Source