Antonio Martorell
"Homenaje a Magritte*" (2000)
"Homenaje a Magritte*" (2000)
Printmaker, painter, illustrator, creator of installations, set and costume designer, writer, draftsman and professor. After completing diplomacy studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he opted to pursue the arts. In 1961, with a scholarship granted by the Ferré Foundation, he studied painting and drawing with artist Julio Martín Caro in Madrid. Upon his return to the island, he started his printmaking learning process under the tutelage of Lorenzo Homar at the Printmaking Workshop of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. He created the Alacrán Workshop in 1968, one of the first independent printmaking workshops in Puerto Rico. He was director of this workshop‑art school until 1971, a venue characterized by his commitment to the social denunciation of reality and national politics. He has taught graphic arts in Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia and México (where he resided from 1978 to 1984), and has created, organized and sponsored artistic, community and cultural multimedia events as an integral part of his passion for human and artistic expression. Also, he has designed scenography and costumes for multiple plays, and has created numerous installations and performances. His work transmits his freedom and exceptional creative talent in figurative compositions that illustrate his penchant for portraiture and his love for the written word, typography, theater, playfulness and the sensual-sensory.