Luisa Geigel Brunet, 1916-2008: Hidden Icon of the Arts in Puerto Rico

• In Event: The other Fridas: Women, art and feminism in 20th-century Latin America

Abstract

Luisa Géigel Brunet, the first modern sculptor of Puerto Rico, distinguished herself as sculptor, painter, scholar, professor and genealogist. Born in San Juan in 1916, she attended prestigious art schools in Barcelona, Washington and New York City, where she held her first exhibitions. Immediately upon her return to Puerto Rico in 1939, at the age of 23, she exhibited her paintings in San Juan, notably a series of nude women. Journalists and art critics highlighted her as a “revelation in our artistic world”. For the next decades (1940-1990), she produced prolifically, held exhibitions, played a decisive role in the leading cultural institution, Ateneo Puertoriqueño, and mentored generations of future artists. Similar to other women artists, she faced sexism and discrimination. Her audacious paintings of nude women and her unorthodox practice of sculpture together with her public profile as a woman who wore pants, practiced sports and smoked cigarettes marked her as both original and transgressive. A distorted narrative developed undermining and obscuring her legacy as one of Puerto Rico’s most accomplished 20th-century artists. The limited collections of her work owned by public museums remain hidden in storage cellars. Art historians often infuse her legacy with inaccurate allegations and sensationalism. Research conducted by the author of this essay exposed those distortions and revealed Luisa Geigel’s actual contributions to the art world. Based upon four years of investigation, including interviews with living artists and former students, searches for work in private collections and in-depth studies of journals, newspapers and archives.

Author

• Yamila Azize, University of Puerto Rico