Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Argentine critic Marta Traba considers Puerto Rican artist Julio Rosado del Valle a key figure in Puerto Rican art because he was among those who paved the way for innovative approaches and experimentation in painting. She asserts that in the work of [...]

In this lecture, Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar asserts that the ideological content of art is determined by its stance on society since “art for art’s sake” is devoid of ideological content. For Homar, “socialist art” is a question of [...]

Puerto Rican writer Felix Joaquín Rivera interviews the artists Teo Freytes and Yrsa Dávila, who are both members of M.S.A. (Manifestación Sintetista Actualizada) [Manifestation of Synthetism Today], a nonprofit organization that provides space [...]

On the occasion of the exhibition La casa de todos nosotros: Antonio Martorell y sus amigos [A House for Us All: Antonio Martorell and Friends] held at El Museo del Barrio in 1992, Puerto Rican curator Susana Torruella Leval analyzes Antonio [...]

Puerto Rican journalist and professor Félix Jiménez comments on the “spatial” concept of the MSA (Manifestación Sintetista Actualizada) group and the freedom that it provides artists who participate in exhibitions that are not inhibited by any [...]

In this essay, Samuel Cherson, a Cuban critic living in exile in Puerto Rico, discusses the abstract work produced by the Puerto Rican painter, Wilfred Chiesa. Cherson begins with a brief description of the abstract movement and its major exponents. [...]

In this set of four brief poems, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, expresses his thoughts about painting and art. Some of the themes he addresses in his poems are related to defining art and its elements, and he also reveals [...]

Lorenzo Homar begins these brief notes on Puerto Rican art and artists by discussing painter Francisco Oller. He goes on to state that art should be at the service of society and that artists should not be concerned with imitating avant-gardes who [...]

Chilean artist Mario Toral speaks of his experiences when he arrived in New York as an exile in 1973, immediately after the coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet. He compares the squandering of North Americans, who throw everything away, with [...]

This text consists of comments by Puerto Rican artist Elizam Escobar, regarding the various concepts and functions of art. In the quotations alongside or below the illustrations of his paintings, Escobar talks about what it means to be Puerto Rican. [...]

This timeline tracks the life of Puerto Rican artist Rafael Tufiño, who lived in New York and in Mexico City. Puerto Rican intellectuals Manuel Cárdenas Ruiz and Eugenio Fernández Méndez review the graphic work produced by Tufiño between the [...]

This is a quote from Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, which is accompanied by a pen and ink drawing: “Depression limitates [sic] the creative activity, deteriorates the involvement and mutilates the concept.” Written in [...]

In this short essay, the Puerto Rican attorney, Eladio Rodríguez Otero, comments on the work of Domingo García shown at a 1966 solo exhibition. The writer states that García’s work includes techniques that lead critics to characterize his [...]

In the introduction to the exhibition Solidaridad held at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Bogota, Colombia, in 1976, Argentine critic Marta Traba—who lived in Puerto Rico for many years—explains that the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende was [...]

This caricature by Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar depicts United States President Lyndon Baines Johnson climbing a staircase, enveloped in flames, which represent the Vietnam War. Johnson is dressed like a cowboy with boots, cowboy hat, belt, and [...]

In the introduction that Rolando López Dirube wrote for the exhibition catalog Dirube, La Romana, the artist—a Cuban exiled in Puerto Rico—mentions that the works in the show were produced between 1973 and 1975 in a studio on La Romana beach in [...]

This is the introduction to the first portfolio, published to commemorate the first anniversary of the Centro de Arte Puertorriqueño [Puerto Rican Art Center] (CAP) that was established in 1950 in San Juan. The essay describes the goals and [...]

This promotional pamphlet was produced by the MSA (Manifestación Sintetista Actualizada) group to announce the event “Poema del pueblo” held on the occasion of May Day or International Workers’ Day. The event took place at [...]

[This document provides] confidential information written by José Meléndez, a police sergeant with the Puerto Rican Intelligence Office, naming those who had attended a meeting chaired by Juan Mari Bras, the president of the Movimiento Pro [...]

[This document is] a confidential report, written by detective Enrique Torres for the Puerto Rican Intelligence Office, about an event at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Puerto Rican Cultural Institute] (ICP) on January 29, 1972. The [...]

In this text written on the occasion of the exhibition L’Avant-Garde held at the Galería Colibrí (1965), Puerto Rican critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata discusses what he considers an interesting show of avant-garde prints by artists from different [...]

Lorenzo Homar believes that the jury of the Ateneo Puertorriqueño’s art competition—Ketty Rodríguez Benítez, Harold Lasky, and Osiris Delgado—acted irresponsibly in rejecting four of the eight prints presented. One of the rejected works was [...]

In this long letter to his Colombian colleague Pedro Alcántara, Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar discusses a number of topics including the technical procedure by which to create a coat with a patina that looks like bronze on a sculpture made from [...]

In this brief letter to Pedro Alcántara, Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar expresses his view of art biennials. He states that many of them “act as lackeys to the North American market.” Homar believes that the jury should not be indifferent [...]

This is the fourth account sent by Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar during his year-long sabbatical in Europe. In it, he tells Ricardo Alegría, director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), about the tapestries he saw at the Musée [...]

Mexican artist Alberto Beltrán requests authorization from Lorenzo Homar to send his series of Puerto Rican prints to an exhibition in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). He mentions that the president of the Taller de Gráfica Popular ( [...]

Lorenzo Homar believes that the jury of the Ateneo Puertorriqueño’s art competition—Ketty Rodríguez Benítez, Harold Lasky, and Osiris Delgado—acted irresponsibly in rejecting four of the eight prints presented. One of the rejected works was [...]

Mexican artist Alberto Beltrán informs Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar that a number of people have shown interest in exhibiting works by Puerto Rican artists outside of Mexico. He also mentions an exhibition of Soviet art that has had a major [...]

The Puerto Rican artist, Félix Rodríguez Báez, wrote a letter to all the members of the Galería Campeche [Campeche Gallery] in which he asked them to read and comment on the rules. He also sent them two invitations in which he established the [...]

Oscar Colón Delgado, a Puerto Rican painter, sends Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar a copy of the letter he wrote to the publisher of the 1961 Almanaque Mundial de Selecciones [Selecciones World Almanac] to thank him for including his name in [...]

The president of the Puerto Rican company United Promoters and Advertisers, Juan Luis Márquez, sends Lorenzo Homar the article he wrote for El Mundo newspaper, “Entre Mayas y Cundeamores” [Between Mayas and Bitter Melons], in which Márquez [...]

This is the third report that Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar sent to Ricardo Alegría, executive director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), while he was on sabbatical in Europe. Homar provides an overview of everything he has seen [...]

In this letter that artist Lorenzo Homar wrote to Ricardo Alegría, director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), while he was in France, Homar states that there has been a problem with the glue used to stick the tiles on the mural of [...]

The Mexican printmaker, Alberto Beltrán, thanks Lorenzo Homar for the invitation to the Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic Art]. However, given the late date on which the news reached him, he [...]

Mexican printmaker Alberto Beltrán writes to his Puerto Rican colleague Lorenzo Homar about the controversy stirred up by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and his group, following the announcement in the press that he [Fuentes], José Luis Cuevas, [...]

Mexican artist Alberto Beltrán thanks Lorenzo Homar for his time and attention during his visit to Puerto Rico. He tells Homar that artists Ángel Bracho and Jesús Álvarez Amaya, from the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP), have sent works to Puerto [...]

Panamanian artist Julio Zachrisson congratulates Lorenzo Homar on the poster he created for his exhibition. He also congratulates him on his selection as a member of the jury of the festival in Cali, Colombia. He asks Homar to talk to Luigi [...]

Luigi Marrozzini, director of the Galería Colibrí in San Juan, provides H.D. Glicksman with information about the Portafolio Latinoamericano, which consists of twenty-two original prints, mostly etchings and lithographs produced in signed, limited [...]

Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara writes to Lorenzo Homar to confirm that the exhibition to be presented in Colombia will be titled El Cartel en Puerto Rico, Gráfica de Lorenzo Homar [The Poster in Puerto Rico: Printmaking by Lorenzo Homar]. He asks [...]

Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar apologizes for being so late with his preparations for the poster exhibition in Cali, Colombia. He comments that his work was not well received by the critics and he has doubts about himself when he finds out that [...]

Pedro Alcántara tells Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar that he has obtained passage for Homar on September 18, 1972. He informs Homar that the short silkscreen course or workshop the Puerto Rican artist will be giving will run for ten days, and [...]

In this letter to the editor of The San Juan Star newspaper, Lorenzo Homar comes to the defense of art critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata in the wake of the article written by the artist Rafael Rivera García, who said that Ruiz de la Mata’s columns [...]

In this brief, cynical note, artist Lorenzo Homar informs the editor of the radical newspaper Claridad that he plans to suggest that the “Methadone Prize” at the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [3rd San Juan Biennial of Latin [...]

In this letter to Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara, Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar explains the materials that are necessary to print silkscreens in Colombia. He explains what the dryer should be like, which thinner should be purchased, and [...]

Mariano Rodriguez (Havana, Cuba 1912–1990), the deputy director of the Casa de las Américas, asks Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar to consider being the Puerto Rican coordinator of a group affiliated with either the Casa de las Américas in [...]

The Uruguayan artist Luis Solari writes to the Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar to thank him for his earlier letter in which Homar wrote about his trip to Cali, Colombia, to organize a silkscreen workshop. Solari says he is happy to hear this news [...]

In this set of three letters, Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara writes to Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar, shortly after Homar’s departure from Cali. He tells Homar that Juan Antonio Roda, the Spanish artist who has set up his studio in [...]

Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar thanks Mariano Rodriguez (1912–1990), vice director of the Casa de las Américas, for inviting him to serve as the coordinator for an adjunct group of that organization in Puerto Rico. However, Homar turns down the [...]

In 1974, Ricardo Alegría was director of the Office of Cultural Affairs, as well as a member of the committee for the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [Third San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic Art]. [In this letter,] Alegr [...]

Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara thanks Lorenzo Homar for the photographs, letters, and silkscreen he sent him. Alcántara asks him to buy some printing materials he will need to create a portfolio of four works for the Communist Party. The party [...]