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Printmaker and painter. He studied mechanical drawing and commercial drawing at Central High School in Santurce. His beginnings in the art world started with painter Rafael Tufiño, who offered free guitar lessons to children and young people at the San José public housing project. He developed his learning in graphic arts with master Tufiño at the Community Education Division, at the Campeche Workshop‑Gallery led by Domingo García in San Juan, and with Lorenzo Homar at the Printmaking Workshop of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. Since 1973, when Homar retired, and until 1986 he became director of that printmaking workshop where he perfected his mastery of the silkscreen media. His work captures humorous images and themes of typical Puerto Rican popular culture, such as life in the bar, dancing, politics and the religiousness of our people. In the seventies he developed a novel approach to his work, characterized by the integration of texts to a composition as a graphic element, especially around the edges of the work. His paintings depict visual parallels with his graphic work in which he highlights the drawings, the cleanliness of the lines and the delineation of the forms.
The work of José Rosa is that place where Puerto Ricans observe themselves, where classes and social groups relate, where they identify as equals. Consequently, José Rosa has been able to work from his isolation, because confidence in his national identity has allowed him to search inwards for the roots of his people. The style engendered by his endless search, not outward, but from himself, is individualism.
Source: Traba, Marta. «Art of Latin America 1900-1980», Estados Unidos, John Hopkins University Press,1994.
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1973-1986
1960-1973
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González, José Luis. «País de cuatro pisos», San Juan, Puerto Rico: Ediciones Huracán, 1980. (Ilustración en portada).
«The Latin American Spirit, Art and Artists in the United States 1920-1970», Nueva York, Estados Unidos:Abrahams Publishing con el Bronx Museum, 1988.
Traba, Marta. «Art of Latin America 1900-1980», Estados Unidos, John Hopkins University Press,1994.
Hermandad de la Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico,»Puerto Rico Arte e Identidad», San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1998.
Delgado, Osiris. «Cuatro siglos de Pintura Puertorriqueña», San Juan, Puerto Rico: Banco Santander de Puerto Rico, 1998.
Tió, Teresa. «El Cartel en Puerto Rico» , Estados Unidos:Prentice Hall.
