Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

La creación del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña en 1955 estuvo precedida por debates en la legislatura del gobierno de Puerto Rico. El partido en el poder, el Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), sentó las bases para “definir el horizonte [...]

Spanish critic Manuel Pérez-Lizano reviews the group exhibition, Arte y Política [Art and Politics], which was organized in 1988 by the Galería M.S.A. (Manifiesto Sintetista Actualizado) [Manifesto of Synthetism Today] during the VIII Bienal de [...]

Ricardo Alegría, the Puerto Rican anthropologist and founder of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Puerto Rican Cultural Institute] (ICP), urges all who are involved in cultural activities to unite and work together to counteract the [...]

In this essay, Samuel Cherson, a Cuban critic living in exile in Puerto Rico, discusses the exhibition organized by the Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos [Graphic Artists Association] featuring the artists who refrained from participating in the Quinta [...]

Puerto Rican writer Arcadio Díaz Quiñonez places Lorenzo Homar in the context of the cities of San Juan and New York, where the artist lived and produced his graphic work. He asserts that Homar’s career, like the images in his paintings and [...]

The Puerto Rican artist Luis Hernández Cruz claims that the finest work produced by three generations of abstract artists was exhibited at the 1er Congreso de Artistas Abstractos de Puerto Rico [First Puerto Rican Abstract Art Conference], held at [...]

The Cuban critic Manuel López Oliva reviews the collection of Puerto Rican works of art from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Puerto Rican Cultural Institute] (ICP) that was exhibited at the Galería Latinoamericana at Casa de las Américas [...]

[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 [...]

Lorenzo Homar informs Ricardo Alegría, the executive director of the ICP (Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña), of the difficulties he is having with his weekly class in printmaking techniques and creative design at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas [...]

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 [...]

Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar tells Ricardo Alegría, director of the Instituto Puertorriqueña [Institute of Puerto Rican Culture], what happened to Homar’s portfolio, Tres estrofas de amor para soprano [Three Stanzas of Love for Soprano], [...]

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, Puerto Rican artist Paul Camacho conveys his personal opinion to printmaker Lorenzo Homar concerning an exhibition at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas [School of Visual Arts] at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [ICP, Puerto [...]

Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar writes to Félix Rodriguez Báez, who at the time was the director of the Escuela de Artes Plásticas [School of Visual Arts] of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [ICP, Puerto Rican Cultural Institute], to [...]

In this essay, Benjamin Arnaldo Meyners, who was Puerto Rican but lived in New York, explained that the president of the Riverside Museum in New York, Netti Horsch, and the director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) [Puerto Rican [...]

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 [...]

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 letter to Ricardo Alegría, the director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) at the time, Lorenzo Homar discusses an array of topics, including the IV Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [Fourth Latin American Print [...]

In this text, Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar comments on the mural program organized by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) in the early-1970s. He states that most Puerto Rican artists support the program: since they are rarely able to [...]

Puerto Rican printmaker Lorenzo Homar informs Ricardo Alegría, director of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), of his reasons for not being interested in participating in the selection committee for the Bienal de San Juan de Grabado [...]

In his reply [contestación], Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar says that he does not think there is an artistic movement in Puerto Rico that could be compared to Cubism or Expressionism, among other examples. He says that the socio-political [...]

Puerto Rican critic Ernesto Ruíz de la Mata remarks that, in spite of the important role played by posters, it was not until 1964 that the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [ICP, Puerto Rican Cultural Institute] organized the first exhibition of [...]

Puerto Rican artist and essayist José A. Torres Martinó offers an account of artists working on the island from the 1940s through the 1960s. He speaks of the importance of the Centro de Arte Puertorriqueño (CAP); the División de Educación de la [...]

In this interview by Puerto Rican curator Mari Carmen Ramírez, printmaker and artist Lorenzo Homar speaks of how he became interested in silkscreen; in addition to his career as a poster artist; the primary function of the poster medium; what [...]

Puerto Rican artist and printmaker Antonio Martorell offers an overview of important events in 1950s Puerto Rico. During that period, artists and writers strove to “affirm the threatened national identity and language, point out and question an [...]

Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, a Spanish historian who lived in Puerto Rico, explains the difference between the poster and other art forms. He claims that whereas in other countries the poster is used mostly in the spheres of politics, and sales, in [...]

Argentine critic Rafael Squirru writes a critical review of an exhibition of posters held at the Taller de Gráfica [Graphic Art Workshop] of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) [Institute of Puerto Rican Culture]. This workshop was led by [...]

The French critic and historian Marianne de Tolentino, who lives in the Dominican Republic, lists the artists who took part in the exhibition, Primer Congreso de Artistas Abstractos de Puerto Rico [First Puerto Rican Abstract Artists Conference] that [...]

Puerto Rican historian and curator Marimar Benítez asserts that the museums created by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) under Ricardo Alegría, the director of that organization from 1955 to 1973, did not have an adequate structure for [...]

The Puerto Rican critic and historian Teresa Tió acknowledges the importance of the Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar, and discusses his evolution as a poster artist at the Taller de Gráfica del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP) [ [...]

In this autobiography, Puerto Rican-born, New York-based artist Rafael Ferrer chronicles his life from 1933 to 1972. He discusses his early life in military school where he learned to play the drums; his mentoring by Spanish Surrealist émigré [...]