José Manuel Figueroa
Maunabo, PR, 1928 - 1964
Biography Details
Printmaker, painter, engraver, draftsman and silkscreen printer. He received a scholarship in 1947 to learne graphic arts with Lorenzo Homar and Irene Delano at the Community Education Division, where he began as a non-skilled laborer in 1949, and later worked as a graphic artist. In 1960, he received an award at the International Exhibition of Posters in Canada. A posthumous exhibition of his work was held in 1964. He became notable for his posters and Christmas cards and participated in several collective exhibitions. His work is considered as “naive”, but in the last years of his life he left behind this phase and started to stand out, with a great concern about the subject-matter, among the most mature painters.
Artist Statement
“What is in the work of artist José Manuel Figueroa? There is, naturally, a truncated endeavor. There is an emergence of faculties that would have given, with a little more, several beneficial lessons to his generation and the ones to come. There is an outbreak of cliffs, of grottos – and of greenery, yes! -, that in his landscapes allow us to glimpse perhaps into his own soul. There is a display of daily transformation, of daily struggle, of daily anguish.
And there is, once everything has been said, an “us”. A desire to do, do, do, sometimes against all hope, in spite of everything, above all the setbacks. And there is pride, a challenge, a momentary or eternal – it all depends – hesitating before the walls.
There is also the doubt, in many of Figueroa’s work, that if despite the tenacity, the care, the artistic effort of each one, what has been achieved in life at the time of death will deserve any remembrance.
All these shocks are provided to us by the artist José Manuel Figueroa with each one of his creations.”
-Pedro Juan Soto
Formation
Education
1947
- Graphic Arts Studies. Community Education Division (DIVEDCO), Departamento de Instrucción Pública, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Professional Experience
1949-1964
- Graphic Artist. Community Education Division (DIVEDCO), Departamento de Instrucción Pública, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Exhibitions
Solo Shows
1964
- Obras de José M. Figueroa (Exhibición Póstuma), Sala de Arte, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Group Shows
2012
- Interconexiones: lecturas curatoriales de la colección permanente del MAPR, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1987
- La tarjeta de navidad puertorriqueña, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1985
- El Cartel en P.R. 1950-1985, Museo de la Universidad, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1963
- Colectiva de Grabados Puertorriqueños, Galería Colibrí, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1960
- Impacto: El Arte Mundial, International Exhibition of Posters, Ontario, Canada
1957
- Puerto Rican Artists, Riverside Museum, New York, United States
Awards, Distinctions and Achievements
1960
- Award. International Exhibition of Posters, Ontario, Canada
1954
- First Prize. Poster Contest, Servicio de Bomberos de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1947
- Scholarship. Community Education Division (DIVEDCO), Departamento de Instrucción Pública, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Collections
- Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Bibliography
Books
Báez, Vicente. “Siglo XX, La Gran Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico”. Tomo 8, 1976, p. 207.
Goya Nuño, Juan Antonio. “La Pintura Puertorriqueña”. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1994, p. 99
Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico. “Puerto Rico Arte e Identidad”. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1998.
Catalogues
Interconexiones: lecturas curatoriales de la colección permanente del MAPR, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2012.
Newspapers
“En Canadá Boricuas Son Premiados En Exposición Carteles”, El Mundo (San Juan, PR), 8 de julio de 1960.
Soto, Pedro Juan; J. A Torres Martinó, Meléndez Contreras, J. “José Manuel Figueroa Una Vida Tronchada…”, El Mundo (San Juan, PR), s.f., pp. 5-6.
Miranda, Antonio. “José Manuel Figueroa Ven Suicidio en Caso Pintor Hallado Muerto en su Oficina”. El Mundo (San Juan, PR), 13 de enero de 1964.
Cabrera, Alba Raquel. “Ateneo Auspicia Exhibición Obras de José M. Figueroa”. El Mundo (San Juan, PR), 1964.