Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this article, the art historian, Teresa Tió, evaluates the stylistic change in the painting of Francisco Rodón and the way he has been developing his new public figures. The new subjects include two politicians, two writers and two dancers [...]

In this text, Roberto Montero Castro explains the significance of this portrait painted by Francisco Rodón and why the painter decided to paint Rómulo Betancourt. The writer also notes when Rodón started and finished the work. The essay concludes [...]

In this text, the writer, Marimar Benítez, explains that in order to be a painter, Francisco Rodón functions based on rituals: the ritual of the painting[, itself,] and the ritual of the revelation of the work. Some of his works have been rejected [...]

This text is an interview of the Puerto Rican artist, Francisco Rodón, conducted by Eneid Routté-Gómez. In the interview, Rodón explains the origins and development of his art, how he selects the models whose portraits he wishes to paint, who he [...]

Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá analyzes the portrait of Luis Muñoz Marín, who was governor of Puerto Rico, painted by Francisco Rodón. He comments on how the artist managed to capture the subject’s soul and personality on a huge canvas [...]

Marta Traba, the Argentine art critic, states that Francisco Rodón is “un hombre que pinta” [a man who paints]. She calls him this because he is a person who “considera la vida como su actividad fundamental y ha resuelto dar testimonio y [...]

The writer of this text, Rafael Squirru, states that the Puerto Rican artist, Francisco Rodón, is the leading portrait painter in the world. Squirru maintains that each portrait of a prominent figure done by Rodón captures the subject’s essence [...]

In this essay, Marta Traba, an Argentine critic who resided in Puerto Rico for some time, analyzes the work of Puerto Rican artist Francisco Rodón. Traba asserts that rather than a painter, Rodón is “a man who paints.” She states that his work [...]

The poet Iván Silén writes about what Puerto Rican painting is and aspires to be. He believes that painting in Puerto Rico has become “insulated” and has been seriously harmed by foreign “isms.” He mentions that certain artists are the [...]

Marta Traba, the Argentine critic who lived in Puerto Rico for some time, claims that there is a form of Puerto Rican art that can be understood and recognized elsewhere. As examples, she mentions portraits by the Puerto Rican painter Francisco Rodó [...]

Marta Traba, the Argentine critic who lived in Puerto Rico for some time, accepts that there is a political and cultural “art of resistance” in Latin America and in Puerto Rico. This “resistance” refuses to follow aesthetic models developed [...]

In this essay, Marta Traba, an Argentine critic living in Puerto Rico, mentions that Puerto Rican painter Francisco Rodón won an award at the 1972 edition of the Bienal de Medellín thanks to the criticism of the Latin Americans participating in [...]

Argentine art critic Rafael Squirru describes the connection between the Puerto Rican artist Francisco Rodón, and his work, and the way that Rodón “immerses himself in the canvas.” Squirru places Rodón within the Romantic tradition due to his [...]

Argentine art critic Marta Traba—who lived in Puerto Rico with her husband, Uruguayan literary critic Angel Rama—considers then-contemporary Neo-figurative art a true provocation. She makes reference to critics who believed that Neo-figurative [...]

According to the Argentine critic and historian Rafael Squirru, the Puerto Rican artist Francisco Rodón has managed to capture the character of his sitter in each of his portraits. In fact, he has mastered the art of portraying the essential [...]