Artists in Profile: Puerto Rican Serigraphs

January 29, 2017

Artists in Profile: Puerto Rican Serigraphs

My post-Epiphany survey of new images of the Magi in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection comes to an end this week with the addition of a new artistic genre to the Schools of Sacred Art listings where the Three Wise Men are a popular theme: Puerto Rican Serigraphs. The development of this form of print-making on the U.S.-controlled Caribbean island was the result of a fortunate pairing of politics and art in the years after World War II, when the Puerto Rican authorities sought the help of local artists to promote education, cultural, and modernization among the predominantly rural population, living in impoverished barrios without access to the mass media. The communal information program was the work of DIVEDCO, the Community Education Division of the Puerto Rican Department of Education. Serigraph posters were the primary propaganda tool from the visual arts, since they could be hand-produced without expensive equipment. The Three Kings feature prominently in DIVEDCO posters promoting community Christmas events, since gifts are traditionally given in Puerto Rico on January 6th, El Dia des Reyes (The Day of the Kings), honoring the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child. A selection of the DIVEDCO posters--with and without the Wise Men--can be viewed in the gallery of the new Puerto Rican Serigraphs page in the Schools of Sacred art section. (John Kohan)