Painting a picture of Puerto Rico’s early masters in Mi Puerto Rico show at Worcester Art Museum – Massachusetts

“”Mi Puerto Rico: Master Painters of the Island, 1780-1952,” an exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum, is a curiously sad show. Its not supposed to be. Organized by the Museo de Arte de Ponce, it means to celebrate three of Puerto Ricos most important artists and call attention to an artistic culture that is older and richer than most people know.

The impression it actually conveys, however, is that Puerto Rico was, at least until the mid-20th century, too isolated and too conservative to support a vital artistic tradition. Two of the featured artists, José Campeche y Jordán (1751-1809) and Miguel Pou y Becerra (1880-1968), were mediocre at best, and the third, Francisco Oller y Cestero (1833-1917), though talented and ambitious, had a career much thwarted by provincial circumstances.”

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