Rafael Tufiño

Rafael Tufiño Figueroa (1922 – March 13, 2008) was a Puerto Rican painter, printmaker and cultural figure in Puerto Rico, known locally as the "Painter of the People".cite web |url= http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/arts/design/17tufino.html?_r=1&oref=slogin|title= Rafael Tufiño, Artist, Is Dead at 85|accessdate=2008-03-18 |author= Stuart Lavietes |date=2008-03-17 |work= |publisher= New York Times] cite web |url= http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iEDasJY7HV_vrWvnmpBj7hzHTXpAD8VFCAGG0|title=Puerto Rico Painter Tufino Dies at 85 |accessdate=2008-03-18 |author= |date=2008-03-17 |work= |publisher=Associated Press]

Early life

Rafael Tufiño was born in Brooklyn, New York. At age 10, he moved with his grandmother to Puerto Rico where he started painting. He served in the Army Signal Corps in Panama during World War II, and afterwards studied art in Mexico at the Academia de San Carlos. He moved to New York in 1956 to continue his studies after receiving a Guggenheim fellowship. He spent most of his later life traveling between Puerto Rico and New York.

Artist work and legacy

Rafael Tufiño's painting included portraits, landscapes and images of Puerto Rico daily life. His work is among the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the U.S. Library of Congress, the Galería Nacional in Puerto Rico, and the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico. During the 1950s, he was part of the "Generación de los Cincuentas" (the Generation of the Fifties), a group of artists who tried to create a new artistic style and aesthetic identity for Puerto Rico.

Tufiño dedicated his later life to foster art and related studies in Puerto Rican barrios and communities, such as founding a workshop and art cooperative named Taller Boricua in 1970 and advocating for the creation of El Museo del Barrio, both in East Harlem. Until 1963, he contributed to the Puerto Rico Department of Public Instruction (now the Department of Education) various paintings, posters, and advertisements to help bring government-sponsored literacy and hygiene programs to poor and illiterate communities in Puerto Rico.

For his body of work and his dedication towards minority communities, he received a lifetime achievement award by the National Arts Club in New York City in 2003.

Personal life

Rafael Tufiño had two daughters, Nitza and Rima Tufiño, and three sons, Rafael Tufiño Jr., Salvatore Tufiño, and Pablo Tufiño.

Death

Tufiño died on March 13, 2008 from lung cancer in Condado at the age of 85.cite web |url= http://www.vocero.com/noticias.asp?s=Escenario&n=109341|title=Última pincelada: fallece maestro Rafael Tufiño |accessdate=2008-03-18 |author= Jorge Rodriguez|date= |work= |publisher=El Vocero de Puerto Rico (Spanish)] Upon hearing his death, the Governor of Puerto Rico ordered all state flags to fly at half staff and proclaimed 2 days of national mourning.

References

External links

* [http://www.puertoricanposters.com/artists/1 Examples of his work]