Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Samuel Cherson, the Cuban critic living in exile in Puerto Rico, discusses the Puerto Rican artist, Antonio Navia, and his interest in mathematics, physics, and scientific contributions to modern technology that he then applies to his art. Cherson [...]

In this interview with Myrna Báez, fellow Puerto Rican artist Manuel García Fonteboa—who worked for Báez as a printer of silkscreens on many occasions—asks about her training in art and the methods she uses in her graphic work. Báez explains [...]

Lorenzo Homar writes to Ricardo Alegría, the director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Puerto Rican Cultural Institute] (ICP), to thank him for suggesting to Zoran Krisnik that he (Homar) should take part in the Ljubljana Biennial [which [...]

The printmaker Lorenzo Homar writes to the Columbians Maritza Uribe and Gloria Restrepo to thank them for returning the works that were shown in the exhibition at the Museo La Tertulia, in Cali, Colombia. He mentions that he will send them some [...]

In this proposal, Lorenzo Homar, the director of his own workshop, and Professor Georg Fromm, the administrator, outline the basic requirements involved in the financial support of the Taller Homar [Homar Workshop]. They explain that the workshop [...]

In this letter, José Antonio Torres Martinó tells Lorenzo Homar that the Mexican artist Alberto Beltrán greatly enjoyed the book that Homar had sent him, and would like to publish it in El Gallo Ilustrado, the supplement put out by El Día (a left [...]

The Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó writes to Lorenzo Homar to tell him that he will soon be reinstalling the mural tiles that were originally installed in 1966 in the recreation area at El Escambrón. Torres Martinó refers [...]

The Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó writes to Lorenzo Homar to tell him that he will try to raise the necessary fundsto meet him in Europe. Torres Martinó then continues bringing Homar up to date on what their colleagues [...]

The Puerto Rican artist and critic José A. Torres Martinó writes to Lorenzo Homar to describe the technique that was used to remove the tiles of the mural installed in the pool area of El Escambrón (the project was undertaken in 1966), and how [...]

In this letter, Nitza Tufiño, the Mexican born Puerto Rican artist, and daughter of the printmaker Rafael Tufiño, tells Lorenzo Homar that the capitalist system gives artists exhibitions, biennials, and museum shows in exchange for their silence. [...]

Lorenzo Homar, who was on a yearlong European sabbatical, writes to the Puerto Rican artist and critic, José Antonio Torres Martinó, with a summary of recent events. Homar explains that the glue used for the murals at the Olympic Pool at El Escambr [...]

In these two brief articles, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, states that he feels no responsibility for art history. In other words, it is the artist’s privilege to call anything he creates whatever he wants to call it. De [...]

In this paragraph, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, writes about the creation of movement in a defined space. He explains that his figurative painting is based on movement. Included beneath the text is a small painting, [...]

Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, tells us about his experiences as a painter. He says his creative experience is spontaneous and that his painting becomes the tangible evidence of that experience. De Romero also notes the [...]

In this short essay, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, expresses his thoughts about the differences that emerge in painting, whether as the subject of an intellectual conversation or in terms of its significance to him as a [...]

In this essay, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, comments on the differences between a painter and a sculptor. In his own way, he explains what drawings mean to him. Among the attributes that Romero identifies with drawings, is [...]

In these short lines, written in 1981, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, speaks of the polarities through which his work fluctuates as it unfolds [...]

In these short verses, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, starts out talking about what paintings seek to achieve. He goes on to state what he believes should be included in paintings [...]

In this poem, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, writes about the tierra [earth] as if it were a living being that provides us everything we need, as well as what we are. The poem begins and ends by pointing out that the earth [...]

Puerto Rican artist and critic José Antonio Torres Martinó (Ponce, Puerto Rico, born 1916) provides a brief analysis of the work of Puerto Rican artist Marta Pérez García on the occasion of her exhibition of prints at the Galería Botello in 1996 [...]

In this letter to Uruguayan artist Antonio Frasconi, Lorenzo Homar comments on a number of topics: his resignation from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP); issues related to the Portafolio Casals and Luigi Marrozzini; and the request he [...]

The artist Lorenzo Homar writes to Ricardo Alegría, director of the Office of Cultural Affairs at the time, about the selection jury for the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano (1974) [Third San Juan Biennial of Latin American Graphic [...]

The printmaker Lorenzo Homar comments on the silk screen workshop he organized at the Museo del Grabado Latinoamericano [Museum of Latin American Graphic Art] for the museum’s inauguration at the time of the Segunda Bienal de San Juan del Grabado [ [...]

Puerto Rican artist Myrna Báez congratulates the organizers of a conference on literature for having included the visual arts. She states that because art is not given due importance in education, people are not taught to distinguish between “the [...]

One hundred fifty years after the birth of photography, the Puerto Rican photographer, Héctor Méndez Caratini, writes in 1991 about art photography in New York. He notes what a different reception this work is given in New York, compared to the [...]

The Puerto Rican artist, Antonio Martorell, wonders if there is eroticism in Puerto Rican art. The question arises after Hollister Sturges, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, [Massachusetts,] asks Martorell if erotic art exists on the [...]

This is a draft of the text in which Puerto Rican artist Myrna Báez explains why she would like to be considered for the prestigious Guggenheim Scholarship. Báez states that she has not been able to dedicate herself fully to her painting and [...]

At the retrospective exhibition of his work held at the Museo de Arte de Ponce on April 13, 1978, Lorenzo Homar gave a talk entitled “Some Thoughts on Posters.” He discussed the importance of posters as a means of visual communication to the [...]

In this letter, Uruguayan artist and academic Luis Camnitzer tells printmaker Lorenzo Homar that he and the other artists at his New York Graphic Workshop had managed to get the Center for Inter-American Relations to suspend a New York exhibition of [...]

In this letter artist Lorenzo Homar replies to his colleague, Uruguayan professor Luis Camnitzer, who had suggested that some of the artists who planned to participate in the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [3rd San Juan Biennial [...]

In this letter to Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar, Uruguayan artist and academic Luis Camnitzer proposes that, on the occasion of the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [3rd San Juan Biennial of Latin American Prints], scheduled [...]

In this letter sent to the Puerto Rican Socialist Party’s newspaper Claridad, printmaker Lorenzo Homar replies to an article by Puerto Rican writer Edwin Reyes. Homar attacks the position taken by Reyes—and by “Santitos,” a character who [...]

In this open letter, Puerto Rican artists Nelson Sambolin, Lorenzo Homar, Antonio Maldonado, and Rafael Rivera Rosa state their goals in connection with the III Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [3rd San Juan Biennial of Latin American [...]

In this manifesto, Puerto Rican artists Antonio Martorell, Lorenzo Homar, Rafael Rivera, Juan O'Neill, Nelson Sambolín, Antonio Maldonado, and Ángel Casiano expressed their solidarity with oppressed and exploited nations that struggled to gain [...]

In this letter from Mexican printmaker Alberto Beltrán to his friend and colleague, Puerto Rican Lorenzo Homar, the former discusses the 50th anniversary of the Taller de Gráfica Popular [TGP, People’s Print Workshop] in Mexico. Beltrán tells [...]

Luis E. Díaz Hernández, executive director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Puerto Rican Cultural Institute] (ICP), sent a letter to the artist Lorenzo Homar with a questionnaire consisting of five questions. The objective of the [...]

In this short poem, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, criticizes a Christian prayer by repeating “blah, blah, blah, blah . . . ” to show his lack of interest in either prayers or the Ten Commandments. Romero concludes his [...]

In 1929, the publishers of Índice, the Puerto Rican magazine, were curious about their contemporary countrymen, and wondered who they were and what they were like. To aid in the discussion, they posed three specific questions: 1) Do you think there [...]

In 1929, the publishers of Índice, the Puerto Rican magazine, were curious about their contemporary countrymen, and wondered who they were and what they were like. To aid in the discussion, they posed three specific questions: 1) Do you think there [...]

In 1929, the publishers of Índice, the Puerto Rican magazine, were curious about their contemporary countrymen wondering who they were and what they were like. To aid in the discussion, they posed three specific questions: 1) Do you think there is a [...]

In 1929, the publishers of Índice, the Puerto Rican magazine, were curious about their contemporary countrymen, and wondered who they were and what they were like. To aid in the discussion, they posed three specific questions: 1) Do you think there [...]

The Peruvian intellectual, José Carlos Mariátegui, contends that “no todo el arte nuevo es revolucionario, ni es tampoco verdaderamente nuevo” [not all modern art is revolutionary; in fact, neither is it truly modern]. Revolutionary and [...]

The critic Samuel Cherson gives a historical account of the Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art]. He notes that the 7th Biennial (1986) opened 3 ½ years after [...]

Samuel Cherson, a Cuban living in exile in Puerto Rico, gives a brief account of the history of the Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art]. He concludes that the 8th [...]

In this short poem, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, explains why he has always been an artist, never paying any attention to other people’s opinion [of him]. In the poem, de Romero explains that his dedication is documented [...]

In this brief article, Ralph de Romero, a Puerto Rican artist born in New York, expresses his thoughts about the duality of life: both the physical and the spiritual. The introspective tone of the article concludes with comments about the side street [...]

Carlos Conde III, who at the time in question was president of the board of directors of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [ICP, Puerto Rican Cultural Institute], answers several questions asked by the Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar about [...]

In this letter to Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar, Mexican artist Alberto Beltrán comments on the new issue of the publication, El coyote emplumado[The Plumed Coyote], which will cover topics relating to the campaign being waged by right-wing [...]

According to Arnold Belkin, “the Canadian son of Mexican mural painting,” the imperialist policy of the United States of America toward Latin America, as well as the prevailing climate of repression there, prompted many Latin American artists to [...]

In this letter, Mexican artist Albero Beltrán (1923–2002) informs Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar that the course in poster design that Polish designer Wiktor Gorka was offering at the Academia de San Carlos (Mexico City) would continue until [...]