Narciso Dobal
San Juan, PR, 1916-1970
San Juan, PR, 1916-1970
Painter. Dobal first studied with Spaniard Alejandro Sánchez Felipe and later, in 1935, at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, with a scholarship from El Mundo newspaper. He returned to Puerto Rico in 1938. He and painter Julio Tomás Martínez are considered the most innovative artists of their time, Dobal because he distanced himself completely from the representational style of painting cultivated by other Puerto Rican painters and instead created works reflecting the formal characteristics of such European schools of the twenties as Cubism and Surrealism. He did continue to portray Puerto Rican subjects, however, in strongly drawn compositions with pure, warm colors. His figures are depicted in stylized, geometrical forms, almost in the manner of Abstraction. His production was limited, since he abandoned painting to devote himself to his career as a medical technician.
" His work shows the influence of Cubism in the management of the planimetric Space and Composition and European trends of figurative realism of the twenties in the allegorical and realistic approach fantasy themed "
Flavia Marichal Lugo y Norma Rosso Tridas, "Biografías", p. 75
1935-1936
n.d.
1953
n.d.
1940
2007
2001
1992
1988
1958
1955
1948
1935
“Autocontemplación”, Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2006.
“Contexto puertorriqueño: del rococó colonial al arte global”, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2007.
“Los tesoros de la pintura puertorriqueña, exhibición inaugural del Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico/ Treasures of Puerto Rican Painting, Inaugural Exhibit”, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2001.
Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico Arte e Identidad. San Juan: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 2004, pp. 72-73 y 425.
Marrero, Carmen. “Cuadros De Boricuas Van a III Bienal”. El Imparcial (San Juan, PR), 7 de agosto de 1955, pp. 12 y 41.
Rodríguez, Jorge. “La paleta surrealista de Dobal”. Escenario (San Juan, PR), 3 de abril de 2002.