Homar, Lorenzo (1913–2004)

Lorenzo Homar (b. 1913; d. 16 February 2004), Puerto Rican graphic artist. Homar, a native of San Juan, migrated to New York with his family in 1928. His early training was in design; he worked for Cartier from 1937 until 1950. He took courses at the Art Students' League (1931) and Pratt Institute (1940). In 1946, after military service, Homar attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where he studied with Rufino Tamayo and Arthur Osver and came into contact with Ben Shahn. Returning to Puerto Rico in 1950, Homar founded the Center for Puerto Rican Art (CAP) with Rafael Tufiño and José A. Torres Martinó. CAP was part of a movement to create a national art that was both accessible and contemporary.

In 1951 Homar began working with the Division of Community Education, which produced educational materials, including silk-screen posters, books, and films for Puerto Rico's rural population. He became the director of its graphics workshop in 1952. Awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1956, Homar returned to New York. From 1957 to 1973, he headed the graphic arts workshop at the Institute for Puerto Rican Culture and trained many of the island's most prominent print-makers in xylography, silk screen, and other techniques. In 1970 Homar was one of the organizers of the first Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latin-oamericano. He established his own workshop in 1973. He has been awarded numerous prizes, and his work has been shown internationally.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century; Hispanics in the United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Museo De Arte De Ponce, Exposición retrospectiva de la obra de Lorenzo Homar (1978).

The Squibb Gallery (Princeton, NJ), Puerto Rican Painting: Between Past and Present (1987).

Bronx Museum Of The Arts (Bronx, NY), The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920–1970 (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Alegría, Ricardo E., and Lorenzo Homar. The Three Wishes: a Collection of Puerto Rican Folktales. New York: Harcourt, 1969.

Homar, Lorenzo. Lorenzo Homar a los 80 años. San Juan: Galeria Palomas, 1993.

Homar, Lorenzo. Maestros de verdad. Hato Rey, P.R.: Galerías Prinardi, 2005.

Homar, Lorenzo, and Flavia Marichal Lugo. Lorenzo Homar: Abrapalabra: la letra mágica: carteles, 1951–1999. Río Piedras: Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1999.

Homar, Lorenzo Antonio Martorell, and Arcadio Díaz Quiñones. Carteles de Lorenzo Homar. Turabo, P.R.: Universidad del Turabo, 1994.

Lloréns Torres, Luis, and Lorenzo Homar. Luis Lloréns Torres. San Juan de Puerto Rico: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 1975.

                                        Miriam Basilio