(b. Brooklyn, New York, 1922).
Rafael Tufiño was born in New York and came to Puerto Rico in 1936. He studied with the Spanish painter Alejandro Sánchez and worked for the Puerto Rican painter Juan Rosado at a sign shop. He then left the island after World War II to study painting, graphic arts, and murals in Mexico. Upon his return to Puerto Rico in 1950, he founded with Lorenzo Homar (b. 1913), Julio Rosado del Valle (b. 1922), and others the Centro de Arte Puertorriqueño, whose goal was to form a link between the artists and the people of Puerto Rico. The Centro used woodcuts for its first portfolio, and Tufiño favored woodcuts throughout the 1950's. He often depicted quiet local scenes, such as the smoky jazz club in his woodcut La Botella Jazz (1963). His social realist prints helped establish a Puerto Rican artistic identity. Sources:
Edward J. Sullivan, ed. Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century. London: Phaidon Pres
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