José Antonio Torres Martinó (1916 – 22 April 2011) was a Puerto Rican painter, artist, journalist and writer. Martinó founded or expanded many of

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

's major media, artistic and journalism organizations. He was known for

abstract painting Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

s, some of which are on display in the collection of the

Museum of Art of Puerto Rico The Museum of Art of Puerto Rico (Spanish: ''Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico'', abbreviated MAPR) is an art museum in Santurce, a barrio of San Juan, Puerto Rico, with 18 exhibition halls. The museum is located in a historic building, formerly occup ...

Early years

Torres was born in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

, in 1916. The teenaged Torres moved to New York City in 1934, to study at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Financial problems forced him to leave Pratt before completing his degree, and he returned to Puerto Rico.

Journalist

Torres began working as a

radio journalist Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

upon his return to Puerto Rico from New York. He co-founded Puerto Rico's first magazine focusing on radio journalism when he was 22 years old. In 2011, Margarita Fernandez Zavala, a professor of art at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

, called Torres "one of the pioneers of radio and television on the island", where he became a well known voice for radio and television audiences from the 1940s to the 1980s. His broadcast work extended to producing cultural programming. In addition to his work in radio and television, Torres became a regular arts and culture columnist for ''

El Nuevo Día ''El Nuevo Día'' (English: ''The New Day'') is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1909 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and today it is a subsidiary of GFR Media. Its headquarters are in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. ...

'', a Puerto Rican daily newspaper. Torres co-founded the Press and Television Guild of Puerto Rico in 1951, and later served as its president.

Painter and educator

Torres continued to paint while working full time on radio, transitioning to painting as a full-time career by the time he was 30. In 1946, he was able to return to his studies, attending the

Brooklyn Museum Art School The Brooklyn Museum Art School was a non-degree-granting professional school that opened at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York in the summer of 1941. The Brooklyn Museum Art School provided instruction for amateur artists as well until Janua ...

in New York in 1946, then the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze ("academy of fine arts of Florence") is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. ...

, in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, Italy, in 1948. Once back on his home island, Torres' body of work body focused on

s, many of which were inspired by the southern coast of Puerto Rico near the city of Ponce. Torres shared his love of art through education and collaboration. In addition to his reach as a journalist, he was a founding member of the Center for Puerto Rican Art, along with Felix Rodriguez Baez,

Rafael Tufiño Rafael Tufiño Figueroa (October 30, 1922 – March 13, 2008) was a Puerto Rican painter, printmaker and cultural figure in Puerto Rico, known locally as the "Painter of the People". Early life Rafael Tufiño Figueroa was born on October 30, ...

Lorenzo Homar Lorenzo Homar Gelabert (September 10, 1913 – February 16, 2004) was a Puerto Rican printmaker, painter, and calligrapher whose artwork stretches to three main workshops: (CPA), DIVEDCO (), and the of the (ICP). Homar was also the designer of ...

and others. He also co-founded the

Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico The Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico ( en, School of Plastic Arts and Design of Puerto Rico) is an institution of higher learning engaged in the training of students in the visual arts. It is located in Old San Juan, San Juan ...

, and the Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico, with Myrna Báez in 1981. Torres spearheaded the creation of a

graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

program at the

School of Architecture, where he then held workshops for a number of years. Torres extended his reach by becoming a lifelong student and authority on Puerto Rican art. His work included publications, including ''Puerto Rico: Art and Identity''.

Death and honors

Jose Torres Martinó died in

Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico Santurce (, from the Basque ''Santurtzi'' which means Saint George) is a barrio or district in the municipality of San Juan. Its population in 2020 was 69,469. It is also the biggest and most populated of all the barrios in the capital city wi ...

, on 22 April 2011, at the age of 94. He is honored at Ponce's Park of the Illustrious Ponce Citizens.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres Martinó, José 1916 births 2011 deaths Painters from Ponce Journalists from Ponce Puerto Rican painters Puerto Rican radio journalists Puerto Rican columnists