Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Puerto Rican artist and art critic José Antonio Torres Martinó discusses the various media—event, installation, theater, print, poster, film—used by Antonio Martorell in his attempt to provoke and establish a dialogue with the viewer. Novel and [...]

José A. Torres Martinó, a Puerto Rican artist, comments that in all countries made up of immigrants, when the immigrants are seen as a threatening social group, they are tagged with fairly uncomplimentary nicknames. However, the writer believes [...]

Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó had a low opinion of the exhibition at the X Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [10th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art], held in 1993. Nevertheless, he [...]

Puerto Rican artist and critic José Antonio Torres Martinó states that Myrna Báez has been a militant supporter of Puerto Rican independence throughout her lifetime. Her work, however, is by no means political propaganda. Like many artists before [...]

Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó asserts that there is widespread ignorance about the island of Puerto Rico, which he attributes to its isolation, which is the result of its political subordination. This has created a distance [...]

Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó comments on the news that the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [ICP, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture], in spite of its lack of funding, plans to hold the XI Bienal de San Juan del Grabado [...]

Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó reports that the VIII Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [8th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art], held in 1988, ended with a considerable financial [...]

Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó discusses the life and work of painter Juan Antonio Rosado, better known as “the painter of Puerta de Tierra,” which was known as a working class neighborhood at the foot of Old San Juan, [...]

Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó tells a story about the VIII Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [8th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art], held in 1988. At the inauguration, a young man [...]

José A. Torres Martinó, a Puerto Rican artist, considers both the Primera [1st] (1970) and the Segunda [2nd] (1972) Bienal de San Juan de Grabado Latinoamericano [San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic Art] to be the most significant biennials [...]

Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó notes that many collectors prefer to purchase paintings rather than prints, since paintings—as unique works that are less perishable—provide greater satisfaction. He believes that the Bienal de San [...]

The Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó explains his stance regarding the exhibition organized in San Juan as a “contrabienal” [counter-biennial] to the Sexta Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [6th [...]

José A. Torres Martinó, a Puerto Rican artist, comments on the financial troubles of the XI Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [11th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art], held in 1995. Indeed, he [...]

The Puerto Rican artist José Antonio Torres Martinó explains that Puerto Rican printmaking in the 1950s was an artistic response to the political situation; it was the artists’s way of creating an awareness of Puerto Rico. Thirty-five years later [...]

Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó tells about the time Marta Traba spent in Puerto Rico (1970–71). He states that Traba was very knowledgeable about Latin American art and supported it “in the art forms that, from her point of view, [...]

On the tenth anniversary of her tragic demise, Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó remembers art critic Marta Traba, who lived in Puerto Rico in the early 1970s; he bemoans the fact the she has not been duly remembered on the island. When [...]

Puerto Rican artist José A. Torres Martinó reports on the arrival in Puerto Rico of the Selection and Prize Jury for the IX Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [9th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic [...]

This article, written by the artist and essayist José A. Torres Martinó, explores the subject of regionalism in Puerto Rican art and its role in the early twentieth century, and discusses the regional-universalist expression of a group of artists [...]

Puerto Rican artist and theoretician José A. Torres Martinó writes an account of the Segunda Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [2nd San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic Art], inaugurated on January 28, 1972. The writer goes over [...]

With a nod to the ideas of the Mexican writer, Octavio Paz, Puerto Rican artist José Antonio Torres Martinó observes that some writers suffer from two kinds of exile. In addition to the exterior exile, or physical separation from their country, [...]

José Antonio Torres Martinó, a Puerto Rican artist and critic, states that Rufino Tamayo is in Puerto Rico for a retrospective exhibition that will revolve around the work of the Mexican painter. This show is one of the main events of the VII [...]