Engraved in history

By Isabel Santos

(Translated from Spanish.)

It surely happens to you as well. When you hear about printed art in Puerto Rico, those great vintage posters from the 50s come to your mind or you picture yourself having a look at those serigraphies on the San Sebastián street. And you may also think that it is impossible to find this kind of art in galleries because it seems to be an exclusive item of Art & Craft fairs and it is confined to certain themes like the Three Wise Men.
 

But it’s not just that. Even though it faces big challenges, print has kept on track with contemporary art tendencies, and its followers are conscious of the rich tradition they bear on their shoulders.

Printmaking faces very bleak circumstances, but its followers sustain a high morale. 

Due to the accepted idea that the paper used for printing is more difficult to preserve than canvas the market is limited to a few collectors of paper works and the little sales they make at Arts & Craft fairs. Galleries do not trade prints anymore. “It’s true,” says Mercedes Trelles PhD, professor of Art History at the University of Puerto Rico, “there has been a change in the production process of paper since XIX and XX century that makes it weaker. But people still buy photographs and they are printed on paper as well. And there are ways to take proper care of it.”

Consuelo Gotay, one of the most renowned artists of printed arts in the Island, thinks that it all comes down to market strategies: “It is more lucrative to sell a painting for a few thousand dollars than a line of prints that involves more work for the same price.”

On the other hand, it is expensive to acquire the press required to make prints. That is why there are plenty of serigraphies around, because they are printed in a sieve, which is more accessible for the artist. Ada Rosa Rivera, artist and event planner of Jornadas del Grabado, said that acquiring a press is an investment for the artist like it is for the dentist buying all the equipment. It seems ironic but there are now more presses for printed art than fifty years ago, the difference is that they are not as accessible.

Low income from sales joined with expensive equipment makes the idea of keeping alive this art sound like a joke. But artists had faced these problems with patience, originality and a characteristic sense of unity. Particularly, samples of this unity are organizations like Jornadas del Grabado – in which artists go down to the streets and educate about this art at the same time they sell their jobs. They also offer the availability to share their presses to other artists and show respect to their professors, who they call their “masters” in the craft.

New artists

Despite the obstacles, a new generation of artists has gracefully integrated traditional techniques with other art disciplines, like installation, photography, and digital art, to name just a few. Among the most outstanding artists, we should mention Raquel Quijano, Garvin Sierra, Elsa Meléndez, Yolanda Velásquez, Migdalia Umpierre, and Zinthia Vázquez, and many others we cannot mention here for lack of space.

Raquel Quijano owns a press. She does not limit herself to work on paper, but she works in the porch of her house designing patterns that later she prints on fabrics, boxes, dolls and other tridimensional objects. At the moment, she works on a project of interlocked Lego-Like boxes, in which she has been working for the last three years. She learned her technique from Consuelo Gotay and Haydeé Landing. She has an alter-ego named “The Moth” who has an artistic project by itself. She is the co-founder of the artistic space =Desto, in which on November 2006 Garvin Sierra, Elsa Melendez, and Myriam Vázquez showed their work. 

For his part, Garvin Sierra prints rubber stamps on non-conventional objects, like uniforms, dollar bills or toilet paper that he presents in installations with political content. He uses spoons or cardboard as a press and he established his studio in the living room of his house: “Something that makes my mother very happy”, he comments. On 2005 he was chosen to present his artistic work in Ljubljana, Slovenia, as part of the International Print Biennale.

Elsa Meléndez uses the intaglios to make prints on fabrics that later are filled with cotton and hanged inside mobile boxes. Even thought she is already graduated from college, she has access to the university press by auditing classes in the University. On 2006 she received the First Prize on Prints at Visual Art Contest of Ateneo de Puerto Rico and at the moment is curator of the Caguas´ Museum. Her professors were Martín García and Néstor Millán.

Migdalia Umpierre is the printmaking, visual arts and art design professor at the Sacred Heart University, at the Interamerican University and Fine Arts School in Carolina. Her professors were Marilyn Torech, Rosa Irigoyen and Myrna Báez. She studied her master in Mexico University and is planning a future exhibition at Botello Gallery.

The masters

These young people are heirs of a long tradition of printmaking. A tradition handed down by so many masters it is impossible to mention them all. When we say master we do not limit ourselves to those that teach but those that master the technique to keep alive and beautiful this art for generations to come. 

We should mention some of them, like Luis Alonso, Analida Burgos, Susana Herrero, Rosa Irigoyen, Lope Max Díaz, José Antonio Peláez. Dennis Mario Rivera, Rafael Rivera Rosa, Ada Rosa Rivera, Juan Sánchez, Carlos Ruiz Sueños, Nelson Sambolín, and Myriam Vázquez. Their works were really important during the 70s and the 80s. 

We will point out some of those that had given classes to the young artists mentioned above. 

Martín García Rivera is an outstanding figure of engraving in the 80s. He belongs to the last but one generation to inherit the technique from the founders of prints in Puerto Rico. He studied in Trina Padilla de Sanz School in Arecibo with Rolán Borges Soto. Later, he obtained a bachelor degree from the UPR in 1983 and in 1984 he studied wood printing with Dennis Mario. He followed studies at Pratt Institute in New York and graduated on 1988. 

Consuelo Gotay was José A. Torres Martinó´s disciple. She obtained a bachelor degree from the UPR on 1965 and then studied at Columbia University in New York. She has taught classes in Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico leaving her influence behind in the printing culture. She is professor at the Fine Arts School.

Haydeé Landing studied Fine Arts at the UPR and continued studies in Mexico. She won the first prize in the International Print Biennale in Ljubljana, in 1991. At the moment she teaches classes at the Fine Arts School.

The masters of the masters

These are the artists that are a big influence in the printing history not just by their technique but also for a fighting spirit that still remains. They are:

José Alicea studied Art with Miguel Pou and, later, was an assistant for Lorenzo Homar in ICP studio. He mastered various techniques and he was the first puertorrican to have an individual show at the Ateneo de Puerto Rico. The most recent homage in his name was last week at Jornadas del Grabado. He was professor at the Fine Arts School and taught artists as Luis Alonso, Omar Quiñones and Isabel Vásquez, among others.

Myrna Báez was a disciple of Homar, she contributed to prints with new techniques and obtained unexpected results that helped her disciples, says José A. Torres in his essay “Las artes gráficas en Puerto Rico.”

Marcos Irizarry died on 1995. He lived most of his life in Spain and was Artist Resident in the UPR in Mayaguez. He participated four years in a row in the International Print Biennale in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He left a great abstract collection in exhibition at the Art Museum of UPR in Mayaguez.

Antonio Martorell was disciple of Lorenzo Homar and is one of the most active artists at this moment. He founded Alacrán Studio on 1968, the first independent and dissident studio from the government. On times of political disturbance they expressed protest through posters. He was the winner of the 3^rd San Juan Print Biennale, Florencia Print Biennale, and Latin American Print Biennale. There is humor and critical thoughts in his art.

José Antonio Torres Martinó was one of the founding members of Centro de Arte Puertorriqueño (CAP) and assistant of Homar. He studied at Pratt Institute and Fine Arts Academy in Florence. In the 80s he was the leader – together with Myrna Báez- of the Brotherhood of Graphic Artists that was founded to protest against the way the Biennale was organized.

Rafael Tufiño was born in New York. He studied at San Carlos Academy in Mexico and worked with Lorenzo Homar at the División de Educación de la Comunidad (DIVEDCO) and later in the CAP. Then, he helped out in the Puertorrican Cultural Institute studio.

In the history of printed arts all roads lead to Lorenzo Homar, who died on February 16, 2004. He directed the DIVEDCO and, later, he founded CAP, together with Irene Delano and ICP studio that he also directed until 1973. All this studios were focused on education to the people through art and posters. He liked to use printed words in his work that is why Teresa Tió has called him “apalabrado”, or the one with many words.