Consuelo Gotay
Bayamón, P.R., 1949
Bayamón, P.R., 1949
Printmaker, designer and professor. She graduated in 1970 from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and earned her master’s degree from Columbia University in New York in 1971. She started as a printmaking apprentice in the Printmaking Workshop of the UPR School of Architecture with José Antonio Torres Martino as professor, and in Lorenzo Homar’s workshop. She also studied printing at the Bernardino Cordero Vocational School in Ponce, at the Center for Book Arts in New York and in Canada she studied non‑toxic printmaking with Keith Howard. Her teaching profession has been lasting and significant in Puerto Rico (at the UPR School of Architecture) and in the Dominican Republic (at the Institute of Advanced Studies). Her work has earned awards and honorable mentions throughout her remarkable career, and is part of multiple collections in Puerto Rico, the United States and Venezuela. Her works portray her mastery of silkscreen printing, letter design, linocuts and woodcuts, and she has created portfolios and artist’s books that combine images, designs and words harmoniously. Her prints, through textures achieved with elegant strokes, evoke poetic depictions of the native landscape.
“Her iconography is a kind of magic made up by flora, landscapes, architecture, the human figure and indescribable elements that appear as eyes watching us while we, spellbound, observe cryptic symbols instead. All integrated, all new and fresh, all part of the Greater Antilles. If I wasn’t familiar with her work, I would feel a great emptiness. … We need for the work of art to return us hope, love of life as well as to our work. Also, perhaps, some much needed tears, be them of sadness or joy. Consuelo’s work brings back to us those feelings, something that is lacking everywhere; let us take a look”.
Lorenzo Homar
Letter to the artist
1984
1999
1992
1990
1984
1972-76
1971
1969
1990-2006
1994-2000
1984-1989
1982-1984
1981-1984
2001
1998
1997
1996
1994
1993
1984
1983
1982
1977
1976
1973
2012
2007
2005
2001
1998
1992
1982
1980
1977
Torres Martinó, “José Antonio. “Las Artes Gráficas en Puerto Rico”, Puerto Rico: Arte e Identidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1998.
Torres Martinó, José Antonio. “Los Animales Interiores de Consuelo Gotay”, 1976.
“En enero: Elsa de Vana, Rafael Amable y la puertorriqueña Consuelo Gotay”. El Caribe (Santo Domingo, RD), 6 de febrero de 1982.
“Mixing Romance and Magic Federico Barredas”. The San Juan Star (San Juan, PR), 10 de junio de 1984.
Bonilla Norat, Félix. “Portfolio of Graphics”, The San Juan Star (San Juan, PR), 9 de julio de 1978.
Díaz Quiñónez, Arcadio. “Orfeo en Guayama”. Periódico El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 31 de enero de 1999.
Noya, Olga. ”Los Animales Interiores de Consuelo Gotay”. Prensa Libre (San Juan, PR), 29 de abril de 1977.
Núñez, Diómedes. “En ocasión de su tercera exposición individual: entrevista con Consuelo Gotay”. El Nacional (Santo Domingo, RD), 21 de enero de 1982.
Routte, Eneid. “Palés Matos Still Casts his Spell”. The San Juan Star (San Juan, PR), 5 de mayo de 1977.
Tolentino, Marianne de. “Consuelo Gotay expone grabados en Puerto Rico”. Listín Diario (Santo Domingo, RD), 2 de junio de 1983.
Tolentino, Marianne de. “Gráfica y Poesía de Puerto Rico en Casa de Teatro”. Listín Diario (Santo Domingo, RD), 19 de julio de 1977.
Tolentino. Marianne de. “En Casa de Teatro, Grabadista de Experiencia, Consuelo Gotay”. Listín Diario Santo Domingo, RD), 3 de febrero de 1982.
Fernández Zabala, Margarita. “La obra de Consuelo Gotay”, Plástica, Revista cultural de la Liga de Estudiantes de Arte de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, septiembre de 1982.
Fernández Zabala, Margarita. “La Sala de Gráfica Puertorriqueña y su Contenido”, Plástica, Revista cultural de la Liga de Estudiantes de Arte de San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 7 de julio de 1981.
Díaz Quiñónez, Arcadio. Los Animales Interiores de Consuelo Gotay”. Revista Literaria Sin Nombre, San Juan, Puerto Rico, abril-junio de 1976.