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 another material. He also discusses the longstanding problem that Alcántara had been having with Cuban Mariano Rodríguez from Casa Las Américas in Havana. Homar writes that he is surprised by this kind of problem, since Alcántara is known as both a political artist and a socialist. Homar maintains that Rodríguez does not understand the way many artists live and function in non-socialist countries. Though Homar expresses his disdain for commercial art, he does not condemn the artists who make it their trade. He does not believe that it is necessary to visit Cuba to be a better “revolutionary” artist.

Lorenzo Homar (San Juan, 1913-2004) organized in 1957 the Taller de Gráfica [Graphics Workshop] at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, which he directed until his resignation in 1973. Some of the foremost artists of Puerto Rican art studied printmaking techniques in this workshop. Homar inspired in them dedication and love for the art, for, as he once said: “There is no vocation without discipline, and without discipline there can be no freedom in art, or elsewhere.” Homar was one of the organizers of the First Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano held in 1970. He developed the technique of silkscreen and offered numerous workshops in and outside Puerto Rico. Homar met Colombian artist Pedro Alcántara (b. 1942) when the latter was in San Juan for an exhibition of his work at the Galería El Morro (Dibujos y monotipos [Drawings and Monotypes], December 4, 1970) and for the Primera Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [First Latin American Print Biennial, San Juan] (1970) in which Alcántara participated. Later, Alcántara had the opportunity to work in Homar’s studio, where he first came into contact with the silkscreen technique. From that time on, they became and remained close friends. In 1972, Homar was invited by the Museo La Tertulia in Cali, Colombia, to give a class on silkscreen [printing] to a group of artists from that city. During the ten-day workshop, artists Pedro Alcántara, Enrique Grau, and Phanor León were able to print silkscreens for the portfolio that Cartón de Colombia was putting together that year. Shortly after the workshop, Alcántara, with Homar’s assistance, began working on plans to open a permanent printmaking studio. On August 23, 1974, a show featuring some of Alcántara’s graphic work from 1964 to 1974 was held at the Museo de Grabado Latinoamericano [Latin American Print Museum] of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. Homar designed and printed the poster announcing the exhibition. For information related to this letter, see doc. No. 823939 and doc. No. 823924.