Cosmopolitan University Network

Department of Arts and Art History

Rodriguez Candhales hails from Uruguay and was born in Montevideo on October 26, 1917. For the time being he is a permanent resident in the US.
At quite an early age he showed remarkable aptitude for drawing. At the age of eight he executed a landscape that drew much admiration from his school teachers.
It was not until he was eighteen that he began to consider Fine Arts seriously.
He took sculpture and was for some time the student of Professor Sathu, a prominent sculptor of Montevideo.
His progress was rapid, and he was soon to complete the first exhibition of his works at the Uruguayan National Soccer Club in his native city. This exhibition created such sensation in Montevideo that the National Club urged him to become the accredited Professor of the Fine Arts Section of the Club.
During this period his work came to the notice of the Uruguayan Government, and a scholarship was granted enabling him to continue his studies in Italy. He therefore left for that country and became a student of the famous Italian artist Professor Casandro of Naples.

While he was in Naples, an invitation arrived from the Vatican; he was to be received by Pope Pius XII. Subsequently, he painted his Holiness.

After perfecting his work in Italy, he left for Paris where he spent two years executing many commissions.
By then, feeling homesick, he went back to his native Uruguay. There he held several exhibitions of the canvases he had painted in Italy and France. Those exhibitions were very successful at various important Galleries of Montevideo. Among them one may mention the Moretti Gallery, the Salvo Palace Gallery and the San Raphael Hotel Gallery in Punta del Este.

He really became a recognized portraitist at the age of thirty-five. In Montevideo, he reached a status much appreciated by the artistic world.
1958 he started his tour around the world. Beginning in Santiago de Chile he opened several exhibitions at the Carraras Hotel and at the Santa Lucia Gallery. During his stay in Santiago he painted some forty portraits of the principal members of the Chilean society and of Santiago’s diplomats.

The Mayor of Vina del Mar, Gustavo Lorca was so impressed by DR Candhales’ paintings that he invited him to exhibit his canvases at the Royal Palace. The Mayor even offered him a professorship at the National School of Arts. The remunerative offer was however declined as Chandales desired to return to Paris. Before leaving Chile he held the famous "Banco de Chile Exhibition" in Santiago. He left Chile 1961 and traveled throughout South America living a time in the rainforest painting Indian themes. During this period of his life he was sponsored both by the American Government and the Dominican.

Proceeding to Lima, Peru, sponsored this time by the Uruguayan authorities joined by the American Embassy he opened a new exhibition in the Peruvian-American salon in Lima. On this occasion, President John F. Kennedy instructed his special envoy for Latin America, Mr. Schlessinger, to be present at the inauguration of the exhibition. Later Mr. Schlessinger invited the painter to send his drawings to the District of Columbia to be exhibited at the Gallery of the Pan American Union in Washington.

After further exhibitions held in Chile, Bogota and Caracas, Rodriguez Candhales proceeded to Europe where he first made a long stay in Spain. There, he resided several month in Madrid where the Ortiz Gallery bought all his paintings.

Later his paintings were exhibited at the Falange Building. While in Madrid, he continued studying sculpture with the famous Spanish Professor Pablo Serrano.
He finally arrived in Paris in 1962. There he was contacted by Jean Assi, who knew of his world reputation. The result was that the Assi Gallery at Rue la Motte Piquet exhibited all his paintings for two years.

He spent some time in Switzerland where his paintings were exhibited at Maet Mader Gallery in Bern. At that time he proceeded to Germany after having received an invitation to paint Konrad Adenauer’s portrait in Bonn.
Passing through Holland, he executed many portraits in Amsterdam.

Before proceeding to the USA, he paid a short visit to Italy where he produced an Exhibition at the Instituto Culturale Latin America in Rome.
After that he settled in the United States, held an exhibition in Texas at the Margaret Dreyer and at the David Gallery in Houston.
He went on to California, sent his drawings to be exhibited permanently at the Pan American Union in Washington through an invitation of Mr. V. Gomez Licre, Director of the aforesaid Art Gallery.

After living in Santa Monica, CA for four years, he left for Spain living in Costa del Sol and Barcelona. He spent four years there exhibiting his paintings at Grife & Escoda, Sala Gaudi, and Augusta Galleries.
Leaving Spain Candhales spent some time in Paris and New York, where his agent bought most of his paintings.

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