Artistas Gráficos Puertorriqueños
Puerto Rican Graphic Artists Archive
El Cuarto del Quenepón has maintained this directory of Puerto Rican graphic artists since our founding. The tradition of printmaking and graphic arts runs deep in Puerto Rico, from the revolutionary posters of the 1950s to today’s vibrant street art scene.
Featured Artists
Lorenzo Homar (1913-2004)
The father of modern Puerto Rican graphic arts. Homar’s work at the División de Educación de la Comunidad (DIVEDCO) and later at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña established the visual language of mid-century Puerto Rican identity. His silkscreen posters, woodcuts, and calligraphic work remain touchstones for every generation of Puerto Rican artists that followed.
Notable Works: La Plena series, commemorative posters for cultural events, book designs for Puerto Rican literature.
Rafael Tufiño (1922-2008)
Known as “El Pintor del Pueblo” (The People’s Painter), Tufiño brought working-class Puerto Rican life into fine art. His linoleum cuts and paintings depicted everyday scenes—domino players, market vendors, families in casas de madera—with dignity and warmth.
Notable Works: La Boda, Goyita, DIVEDCO educational posters.
Antonio Martorell (b. 1939)
A living legend of Puerto Rican art, Martorell has worked in printmaking, painting, installation, and theater design across six decades. His work is characterized by bold colors, political commentary, and an encyclopedic visual imagination.
Notable Works: La Casa de Todos Nosotros, ABC de Puerto Rico, theater designs for productions across Latin America.
Myrna Báez (1931-2018)
While primarily known as a painter, Báez’s prints demonstrate her mastery of light and atmosphere. Her depictions of Puerto Rican interiors and landscapes capture a meditative quality rare in Caribbean art.
Notable Works: La Ventana series, Casas del Viejo San Juan.
Carlos Raquel Rivera (1923-1999)
Rivera’s expressionistic woodcuts and paintings addressed social justice themes decades before such concerns became mainstream in the art world. His powerful imagery depicted poverty, labor, and resistance with unflinching honesty.
Notable Works: Huracán del Norte, prints addressing McCarthyism and colonial politics.
The DIVEDCO Legacy
The División de Educación de la Comunidad (DIVEDCO), established in 1949, created a golden age of Puerto Rican graphic arts. Artists including Homar, Tufiño, Jack Delano, Irene Delano, and others produced silkscreen posters, educational films, and illustrated booklets that reached every corner of the island.
This government program—aimed at community education—inadvertently created one of the most significant bodies of graphic art in Latin American history. The DIVEDCO aesthetic, combining social realism with Caribbean color and vernacular imagery, continues to influence Puerto Rican artists today.
Contemporary Graphic Artists
The tradition continues with artists working today:
- Garvin Sierra - Risograph and screen printing exploring diaspora identity
- Frances Gallardo - Paper cuts and installations examining consumption and waste
- Nayda Collazo-Llorens - Mixed media works on migration and cultural memory
- Quintín Rivera Toro - Prints combining traditional techniques with digital processes
Resources
For those interested in Puerto Rican graphic arts, we recommend:
- Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico - Extensive collection of DIVEDCO works
- Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña - Preserves the legacy of state-sponsored arts programs
- La Liga de Arte de San Juan - Contemporary printmaking cooperative
This archive is maintained by El Cuarto del Quenepón as part of our commitment to documenting Puerto Rican visual culture.