Art is the Solution

Vieques Amado Source: Pinterest The twentieth century was a good time for Puerto Rican art, producing many of the island’s artistic luminaries. However, few twentieth century Puerto Rican artists are as well-known as Augusto Marin. Marin’s style evolved constantly throughout his career; his work was always on the edge of experimentation, combining Modernist styles with Caribbean themes and colors. Puerto Rican history and politics were major subjects in his art, and the painting I’m discussing today— Vieques Amado —is an excellent example of this aspect of his work. The title of the piece (which translates to Beloved Vieques ) references the island of Vieques, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico that is considered to be part of the Puerto Rican territory. For many years, the United States Navy used the island as a bombing range, a source of great anger and sadness for many Puerto Ricans. When Marin created Vieques Amado in the year 2000, the island was the source of prot...

El Arbol de los Despojados Source: La Fundación de las Artes Augusto Marín Without a doubt, Augusto Marín is one of the most important and famous Puerto Rican artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Although his style tends toward abstraction, Marín’s paintings often draw inspiration from more traditional themes and famed pieces of Western art. This drawing, entitled El Arbol de los Despojados (which translates to The Tree of the Bereft ) is one such example of this phenomenon. As the title suggests, the drawing depicts a tree that appears to be composed of the twisted bodies of human beings. At the top of the tree, a horned figure (which appears to represent the Devil) stretches his arms up to the sky. The disembodied head of a horse lays behind him. El Arbol de los Despojados is undoubtedly strange and sinister, but it has its roots in the idea of the Tree of Life, a mythological idea prevalent in Western art (and in art around the world). Generally, the Tree of Li...

El Nacimiento de Venus Source: La Fundación de las Artes Augusto Marín Without a doubt, Augusto Marín is one of the most important and famous Puerto Rican artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Although his style tends toward abstraction, Marín’s paintings often draw inspiration from more traditional themes and famed pieces of Western art. This painting, El Nacimiento de Venus (which translates to The Birth of Venus ), takes its impetus from Sandro Botticelli’s painting of the same name. Botticelli’s Birth of Venus is one of the most recognizable paintings of the Renaissance period; in fact, it’s one of the most famous paintings in the Western world. The subject matter comes from classical mythology, depicting the moment that that the goddess Venus emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman; Venus is traditionally considered to be born of the sea-foam. She is the goddess of love and fertility in the Roman pantheon. Birth of Venus Source: Google Art Projec...

Grito de Lares Source: La Fundación de las Artes Augusto Marín Today, I want to switch topics to talk about a painting that is much more modern than anything else I’ve talked about so far: Grito de Lares by Augusto Marin. The title — Grito de Lares — refers to the 1868 Lares revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico. The uprising was a seminal event in the history of Puerto Rico and clearly had a deep impact on Marin, even though he was working more than 100 years later. As the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico notes, “one of his favored subjects is island politics.” The painting depicts men — brandishing the Lares revolutionary flag — riding into battle on horseback. Marin’s use of bold colors and curving lines conveys a sense of energy and movement. The stampeding horses and the open-mouthed men on their backs call to mind the exaltation and passion associated with revolution. In examining these compositional elements, it is clear that Marin was inspired by some of the o...

Agriculture Source: Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico I want to follow up yesterday’s painting by talking about another piece of art that depicts farming in Puerto Rico. Agriculture by Augusto Marin is, in some ways, very similar to Ramón Frade’s masterpiece, El Pan Nuestro de Cada Dia . As in Frade’s work, Agriculture celebrates the lives and work of agricultural laborers. However, Marin’s piece is distinctly stylized, as opposed to realistic. The monumental figure of an agricultural worker dominates the foreground. At his feet grow calabazas and pineapples, while sugarcane grows to the left and bananas plants and coconut trees are visible in the background, representing the richness and agricultural diversity of Puerto Rico. Marin’s style tended toward the abstract. His bold lines, combined with the pose and size of the farmer in the foreground suggest strength, energy, and forward momentum. The stance of the figure proclaims ownership and mastery of the land, in stark contrast wi...