20^th - 21^st Century, Spanish

Calduch is an artist who has played an instrumental role in culture and the arts in Valencia.

Though at the beginning of his career he largely focused on figurative painting, his early landscapes would later gave way to a more social language in painting that led him to join the Bulto and Ara groups in the 1970s, and also to exhibit in Els altres 75 anys de pintura valenciana, an exhibition organised by Col·lectiu de Pintors del País Valencià, a group of artists from the Valencia Region.

In 1979 he joined the faculty at the School of Fine Arts of Valencia, and in 1981 he took over the direct running of the Methods of Graphic Expression workshop. In fact, Calduch’s educational work and his role as a founding member of the Promociò Cultural del País Valencià association are particularly significant within his career.

One of his main focuses of research is experimenting with the support as a means for expression, which led him to engage with electrography and . He gradually purged his work of all figurative and symbolic elements, until he arrived at pure painting, initially influenced by . Calduch usually works in series, and his latest works are examinations of colour and its variations, conceived to elicit a paused and thoughtful gaze from the spectator.

Apart from many exhibitions of his work in Spain, Rafael Calduch has also exhibited in Cuba, Japan, and Chile.