ABSTRACT
Juan oliva was born in Organyá, Catalonia, in 1910, and moved to Argentina as a teenager. When he was about 20, he became a caricature artist for newspapers and magazines, and a comic strip author. In 1932–1933, he joined Cristiani’s studio, and while he was working there, he drew and animated about a dozen short film advertisements. In 1938, he was one of the chief animators for the film El Mono Relojero. In 1939, Oliva struck out on his own and founded Compañía Argentina de Dibujos Animados. Under this name, he made the short film La caza al puma (“Hunting the puma”). The movie was presented to the public in 1940, and was successful. Later, after closing his company, he joined Emelco, the company owned by the Lowe brothers. Here, he started the animated drawings department, and began his teaching career. In 1942, he presented another short film, Filipito el pistolero, which he produced himself. He had made it with a small team of collaborators—only four people. From the 1940s until the time of his death in 1975, Oliva split his time between animated cinema, painting (in this field he obtained flattering reviews), and teaching. Students of this student of Cristiani became the cornerstones of Argentinean animation of the 1950s and 1960s.
