The following six pieces by graphic artists Luis Alonso, Lorenzo Homar, Antonio Martorell and Rafael Tufiño were recently donated to the Graphic Arts Collection by Alma Concepción and Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones. Their generous gift is a most welcomed addition to the Library’s superb holdings of Puerto Rican graphic arts. Holdings which indeed originated with an initial donation by Concepción and Díaz-Quiñones of dozens of silkscreen posters and prints soon after they moved to Princeton in 1982.
What was then an incipient collection dramatically expanded soon after thanks to another important gift, this time by master printmaker and calligrapher Lorenzo Homar, who donated numerous prints, drawings, posters, plates, and an invaluable part of his correspondence to Princeton following a special exhibit celebrating his art organized in 1983 by Dale Roylance, then Graphic Arts Curator (1980-1995). Homar’s gift was in no small part a result of his deep appreciation for his close friendship with Elmer Adler, Curator of Graphic Arts at Princeton (1940-1952) and founder of La Casa del Libro in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Political caricature denouncing the secret surveillance and repression against independentistas, critics, and leftist intellectuals at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras.
Cámaras, Agencias Privadas de Detectives – Alambradas – fuera independentistas…, 1971, by Lorenzo Homar.
Lorenzo Homar’s long relationship with Princeton continued while Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones served as Director of the Program in Latin American Studies. During those years, Homar designed the logo used by PLAS for many years as well as a carved woodblock that adorned the Sala Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, a hall located in the Program’s former home at the Joseph Henry House.
This most recent donation by Concepción and Díaz-Quiñones also included a small number items not shown here that will be added to the Arcadio Díaz Quiñones Papers. Princeton University Library is immensely grateful to both of them for their continuous generosity.
