By Andrea Morales Loucil
Our campus’s museum has recently acquired a plethora of new works from contemporary Puerto Rican and Latin American artists. More than seventy exquisite pieces from eighteen different artists were acquired through generous donations to MUSA, whose collection already counts with more than fifteen hundred pieces. The artwork among the new additions, as well as MUSA’s overall collection, deal with a variety of themes such as social and political criticism, architecture, abstraction, portraits, and gender expression.
“Le cuento una fábula a Jasper Johns” (2003) by Ramón López Colón, MUSA Collection, MUSA UPRM
“Como es afuera es adento” (2012) by Ileana Sosa Gil, MUSACollection, MUSA UPRM
The role of the MUSA in our campus is a crucial one, for it has a vast array of masterworks by renowned Puerto Rican artists both from our campus and around the island. The new additions include artwork from UPRM professors Ramón López Colón, Carlos Fajardo and Baruch Vergara, as well as work from 13 renown artists from Puebla, Mexico. However, the certerpiece of the exhibit are the two pieces by artist and Mayagüez-native Marcos Irizarry. The two artworks are part of a larger, 54-piece collection which came to MUSA from Madrid thanks to the generous donations of Gerardo Aparicio and Natividad Gutiérrez, the latter who printed many of Irizarry’s works while he lived in Madrid. Also present in the exhibit is the painting “Amore” by pioneer abstract artist and Mayagüez-native Noemí Ruiz, which was inspired by her brother’s love for UPRM. (Her brother, Omar Ruiz, was Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration several decades ago.)
“Pintura Color Crema” (2004) by Carlos Fajardo, MUSA Collection, MUSA UPRM
In his keynote address, UPRM Chancellor Dr. John Fernández Van Cleve shared some enlightening words about the importance of conserving art and its vitality in our campus. By promoting art and the artistic expression for students at UPRM as well as the overall community, he said, we are allowing ourselves to not be limited to our academic curriculum, but also embracing our cultural richness and uniting as a community.