Contact: Lauren Van Natten
T. 212 660 7102
lvannatten@elmuseo.org
For Immediate Release

BETWEEN THE LINES: TEXT AS IMAGE
An Homage to Lorenzo Homar and The Reverend Pedro Pietri

On View at El Museo del Barrio
February 24 – September 10, 2006
Press Preview: Thursday, February 23
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

New York, NY – February 2006 – El Museo del Barrio, New York’s premier Latino and Latin American cultural institution, will present Between the Lines: Text as Image. An Homage to Lorenzo Homar and The Reverend Pedro Pietri from February 24 – September 10, 2006. This original exhibition will feature select works by two recently deceased Puerto Rican masters: leading printmaker Lorenzo Homar (1913-2004) and influential performance artist, political activist and co-founder of the Nuyorican literary movement, The Reverend Pedro Pietri (1944-2004). The work of both Homar and Pietri celebrates the word – written, spoken and performed – and El Museo’s presentation will focus on this literary aspect, linking the two artists and their circles for the first time. The exhibition is organized by Margarita Aguilar, Curator, El Museo del Barrio.

Between the Lines: Text as Image features works by Homar and Pietri, along with other artists for whom language was the primary subject and content of their artistic practices. Homar’s graphic renditions of political and poetic texts served as means to crystallize the voices of his contemporaries, such as Pablo Neruda, Tomás Blanco, Julia de Burgos and Federico García Lorca. Drawing primarily from the extensive holdings of graphic arts within El Museo’s Permanent Collection, the exhibition forges connections from Homar’s calligraphic images to its resonance in the visual elements used in the Spanglish poetic performances of Pietri as well as in the works of Homar’s colleagues and students, including Antonio Frasconi, José Rosa Castellanos and Antonio Martorell. Debuting in New York will be a partial installation of Martorell’s Jaulabra, literally a contraction meaning “caged-word,” in which a dictionary of ten sacred words such as paz (peace) and verdad (truth) are liberated from traditional text and engrained into wood tiles covering the floor and wall, swirling around the viewer to be reassembled in limitless possibilities.

While El Museo has frequently hosted presentations by Lorenzo Homar and by Pedro Pietri, this project will mark the first museum exhibition focusing upon Pietri’s work as a visual element, and will link his performative, poetic practice to others of his generation, for whom language – whether English, Spanish, or Spanglish – was also an extremely important element of their visual work, including Adál, Papo Colo, and Daniel Joseph Martínez. On display are these artists’ integrations of text and image as signs, brochures and other projects that, by reaching outside the art world, convey political, social and cultural messages as assertions of this generations’ place in society, and illustrate a critical approach to the maintenance of the Latino visual-literary tradition.

Expanding upon the presentation of the Puerto Rican graphic tradition as well as upon the practice of creating art outside of mainstream production, Between the Lines: Text as Image. An Homage to Lorenzo Homar and The Reverend Pedro Pietri will be presented concurrently with Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Early Impressions. This exhibition will highlight the internationally-celebrated conceptual artist’s use of text and reproducible forms as explored in his early efforts created during his formative years in Puerto Rico placed in relationship to selections from his mature and well-known artistic oeuvre. A full range of public programs for adults and children will accompany both exhibitions.

Support for Between the Lines: Text as Image. An Homage to Lorenzo Homar and The Reverend Pedro Pietri has been provided by GEICO, The Hispanic Federation, and by Chocolate Cortés. The media sponsor for this exhibition is Univision 41/Telefutura 68.