Portrait
Date 1947
Dimensions 23" x 19 3/4"
Category Painting
Medium Oil on canvas
Genre Portrait
Period 20th Century
Collection Museo de antropología, Historia y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico Collection

Antonio Maldonado

"Portrait" (1947)

Biography

Painter, draftsman, watercolorist, and printmaker. Maldonado is one of the most prominent member of the “Fifties Generation” of Puerto Rican artists. He began studying drawing and painting under Magdalena López de Victoria, then in San Juan joined Juan Rosado’s sign-painting studio and later studied painting under Cristóbal Ruiz, Alejandro Sánchez Felipe, and Gretchen Wood. At the sign-painting shop, he became friends with Rafael Tufiño, a friendship that lasted until the end of Maldonado’s life. From 1947 to 1950 he studied drawing, oil painting, and mural technique at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (Academia de San Carlos) in Mexico City. In 1950 he co-founded the Center for Puerto Rican Art, and in 1957 he joined the Graphic Arts Workshop at DIVEDCO, which he headed from 1963 until his retirement in 1987. He founded the Achiote Studio with Luis Alonso and Francisco Luciano, and was actively involved in the creation of the San Sebastián Street Festival in Old San Juan in the seventies. His work is representational, depicting various aspects of Puerto Rican popular culture with images filled with intensity and drama. He was always passionate about the island’s countryside, which he captured frequently in his watercolors.