Extremely Rare Irizarry abstract geometric print etching, signed and numbered on cotton rug paper.
Irizarry was considered a master and a virtuoso in the techniques of intaglio printing. He also worked in etching and aquatint, sometimes combining them creatively with other techniques.
Year 1960-70
Edition 300
Signed: handsigned and numbered by the artist
Dimensions of paper
27 inches high
19.5 inches width
FRAME NOT INCLUDED. WILL SHIP IN CARDBOARD TUBE.
About Marcos Irizarry--
1936-1995
Printmaker, painter and teacher. Irizarry first studied art under painter Cristóbal Ruiz at the University of Puerto Rico. In 1958 he entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, and in 1962 he entered the printmaking studio at that school, where he learned intaglio techniques. Irizarry is considered an innovative artist and a virtuoso in the techniques of intaglio printing. He also worked in etching and aquatint, sometimes combining them creatively with other techniques, and, beginning in 1988, made ventures into painting. He was a force behind the creation of the metal engraving studio at the Puerto Rico Escuela de Artes Plásticas, and from 1987 until his death he was artist-in-residence at the University of Puerto Rico’s Mayagüez Campus.
His work evolved over the course of his career, a result of his contact with international avant-garde movements during the twenty-six years he lived in Spain and his constant travels throughout the rest of Europe. - See more at: http://www.mapr.org/en/museum/proa/artist/irizarry-marcos#sthash.sLWDUYr1.dpuf
Although he is one of the Puerto Rican artists with greater international exposition - his works are part of the collection of the Museum of modern art (MoMa) in New York and the Museum of modern art in Madrid-, little is known in the island of this genius, which became a virtuoso on the technique of engraving on metal.
To understand why the little national presence of this artist and his work, one would have to review the history of art in Puerto Rico up to the mid-20th century. At that time the most prominent creators were those who cultivated figurative art or "socially engaged" art, which was linked to the development of the cultural project of the Commonwealth. Marcos Irizarry, as well as a group of artists, broke from that aesthetic with abstract pieces that moved away from easy coding and the "national affirmation", looking at other artistic currents that arose out of the country.
Consecuentially it was very difficult to make a career in Puerto Rico for the abstract artists of the time. Many of them had to move out of the country, as it is the case of Olga Albizu and the own Irizarry, who lived for three decades in Spain.