Mallorcan painter Joan Guerra, a leading figure in naïve art rooted in popular tradition, has died.

PalmThe Mallorcan painter Joan Guerra, also known as Juan Guerra, passed away this Wednesday on the island. Born in Sencelles, he was one of the most unique figures of Naïve art in Mallorca, with a body of work deeply linked to popular imagination, religious iconography, and the island's daily life. A self-taught artist, Joan Guerra developed over decades a distinctive and easily recognizable style characterized by rounded forms, flat perspectives, a rich palette, and a naive yet symbolically charged gaze. His paintings and sculptures depict scenes of rural life, popular festivals, processions, churches, biblical figures, angels, and Mallorcan landscapes, always from a close, almost childlike perspective that eschews academic realism.

His work draws from the oral and visual traditions of the people, with a clear intention to preserve collective memory and to dignify the rituals, beliefs, and customs of inland Mallorca. Guerra's art did not seek formal sophistication, but rather direct emotion and communication with the viewer, one of the essential characteristics of Naïve art.

Throughout his career, he exhibited in various cultural spaces in Mallorca, especially in his hometown, where he received several institutional tributes and retrospective exhibitions. One of the most notable brought together some sixty works that spanned all stages of his artistic production, from his earliest pieces to his most mature works.

Aesthetic and Thematic Universe

In addition to painting, Joan Guerra also worked in sculpture, maintaining the same aesthetic and thematic universe: hieratic human figures, serene expressions, and an everyday spirituality, far removed from drama, that connects with popular devotion. His death leaves a void in the local art scene, but also a coherent and honest legacy that forms part of Mallorca's cultural heritage. Joan Guerra always painted with fidelity to his land and his way of seeing the world, transforming the simple into artistic material. His memory will endure in a body of work that, beyond trends and fads, continues to speak of the people, of roots, and of memory.