José Ruíz
San Juan, PR, 1936
Biography Details
Painter. Studied drawing, watercolor, caricature and printmaking at the Industrial Arts School in New York City. Back to the island, he created his paintings with furniture enamels on cardboard and sold them to tourists near the Caribe Hilton and Normandie Hotels, managing to create more than 900 works. He is one of the representatives of Naive and popular painting in Puerto Rico. Since the 1960's he has made a consistent body of work. His paintings are characterized by the spontaneity with which the artist brings to canvas everyday scenes of life in Puerto Rico and in places like amusement fairs, plazas, beaches and markets.
Artist Statement
"Joy, happiness, enjoyment, not symbolically, but as manifested in daily events, dominate all his paintings, that is why their presence is given in concrete, specific, and admittedly valid forms in Puerto Rico. Rural or urban vignettes, lost places, barber shops, streets, beaches, small town fairs, markets, or town squares (plazas), roofs full of cats, or children flying their kites, etc. All of his children, women and men are alive - they are doing something and obviously what they do is have fun. No one has painted gestures, habits, physiognomic features and bodily dispositions of Puerto Ricans better than him."
Source: Fernández Méndez, Eugenio; Cárdenas Ruiz, Manuel. “José Ruiz: El Arte Primitivo Vive en Nemesio Canales”. Avance (San Juan, PR), 11 de junio de 1973, p. 56-58.
Formation
Education
nd.
- Industrial Arts School, New York City, New York, United States
Exhibitions
Solo Shows
2000
- El Mundo de José Ruiz, Galería de Arte, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Group Shows
2002
- El mundo de la ingenuidad, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1994
- Nuestros “Naifs”, Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Collections
- Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Bibliography
Books
Delgado Mercado, Osiris. La Gran Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico. Historia de la pintura en Puerto Rico, Vol. 8. Madrid: Ediciones R, 1976, p. 374
Gaya Nuño, Juan Antonio. “Los Naif Puertorriqueños.” La pintura puertorriqueña. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1994 pp. 97-99.
Los tesoros de la pintura puertorriqueña. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, 2000.
Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico-Arte e Identidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1998.
Moran Arce, Lucas, ed. Enciclopedia Clásicos de Puerto Rico. Tomo VII, Barcelona: Ediciones Latinoamericanas, S.A., 1971, pp. 93-95.
Catalogues
“El Mundo de José Ruiz.” Galería de Arte, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, San Juan, Puerto Rico, agosto-septiembre 2000.
“Nuestros Naifs.” Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 26 de junio de 1994.
Newspapers
Colón Camacho, Doreen. “Vistazos a nuestros artistas ‘naif’”. El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 22 de julio de 1994.
Fernández Méndez, Eugenio; Cárdenas Ruiz, Manuel. “José Ruiz: El Arte Primitivo Vive en Nemesio Canales.”” Avance (San Juan, PR), 11 de junio de 1973, p. 56-58.
Molina, Antonio J. “Pintura Primitivista de José Luis Ruiz.” El Mundo (San Juan, PR), 24 de diciembre de 1972, p. 23.
“Ruiz en Sagrado.” El Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 27 de agosto de 2000, p. 113.
“Turistas son Clientes: Pinta Cuadros en Cartulina con Esmalte.” El Mundo (San Juan, PR), 2 de junio de 1959.