Roberto Moya (1931 - 2008)
Puerto Rican painter, printmaker and digital artist was born in New York City and raised between New York and Puerto Rico.
From the age of nine, Moya was obsessed with drawing. “Just before the breakout of World War II I was sent up to New York on the San Jacinto to visit the the family. Ours was the last boat to leave Puerto Rico so by way of fate I was to remain in New York until after the war ended.” School in NY was difficult because of the language barrier. “I had a tendency to withdraw into myself. I understood both languages but was reluctant to speak either. I began drawing as a comfort. I drew on everything, in the margins of my schoolbooks and my test papers. The pen was a wondrous tool that allowed me to achieve distance from everyone, and a secret world.”
Eventually, Moya studied at the Pratt Graphic Arts Center, the New School for Social Research, the Phoenix School of Design, and the Arts Students League, as well as the University of Southern California.
Puerto Rico always beckoned Moya. Memories from his early years on the island, his strong loving grandmother, and the vividly explosive hues of Puerto Rico, sparked his desire to return. After a decade of going back and forth he settled in Puerto Rico in 1968.
“When my work was embraced by my people, it was the most wondrous gift, a fulfilling experience that I have never ceased to be grateful for … finally, I could settle down and create.” His works have been displayed in numerous exhibitions in Puerto Rico and abroad, including a 1999 retrospective in Hawaii.
Moya ventured into digital graphics in 1989 and created the first digital portfolio in Puerto Rico, which led to an invitation from the Pratt Graphic Arts Center to exhibit his work and lead a seminar. In the early nineties, he was named resident artist of the University of Puerto Rico where he was a professor and taught classes from his studio in digital art.
He often approached the digital medium as a research tool for his painting, what he called, “an electronic notebook.” This allowed for the exploration of colors before working on the canvas. His work is semi abstract, characterized by quick strokes and heavy pigment which imparts great expressive force to the images. This carries through to his printmaking where he combines silkscreen and lithography, as well as a combination of the two.
Source: Roberto Moya, autobiographical notes; Antonio J. Molina, Las pinturas de Roberto Moya, El Mundo, Aug. 13,1970.
From the age of nine, Moya was obsessed with drawing. “Just before the breakout of World War II I was sent up to New York on the San Jacinto to visit the the family. Ours was the last boat to leave Puerto Rico so by way of fate I was to remain in New York until after the war ended.” School in NY was difficult because of the language barrier. “I had a tendency to withdraw into myself. I understood both languages but was reluctant to speak either. I began drawing as a comfort. I drew on everything, in the margins of my schoolbooks and my test papers. The pen was a wondrous tool that allowed me to achieve distance from everyone, and a secret world.”
Eventually, Moya studied at the Pratt Graphic Arts Center, the New School for Social Research, the Phoenix School of Design, and the Arts Students League, as well as the University of Southern California.
Puerto Rico always beckoned Moya. Memories from his early years on the island, his strong loving grandmother, and the vividly explosive hues of Puerto Rico, sparked his desire to return. After a decade of going back and forth he settled in Puerto Rico in 1968.
“When my work was embraced by my people, it was the most wondrous gift, a fulfilling experience that I have never ceased to be grateful for … finally, I could settle down and create.” His works have been displayed in numerous exhibitions in Puerto Rico and abroad, including a 1999 retrospective in Hawaii.
Moya ventured into digital graphics in 1989 and created the first digital portfolio in Puerto Rico, which led to an invitation from the Pratt Graphic Arts Center to exhibit his work and lead a seminar. In the early nineties, he was named resident artist of the University of Puerto Rico where he was a professor and taught classes from his studio in digital art.
He often approached the digital medium as a research tool for his painting, what he called, “an electronic notebook.” This allowed for the exploration of colors before working on the canvas. His work is semi abstract, characterized by quick strokes and heavy pigment which imparts great expressive force to the images. This carries through to his printmaking where he combines silkscreen and lithography, as well as a combination of the two.
Source: Roberto Moya, autobiographical notes; Antonio J. Molina, Las pinturas de Roberto Moya, El Mundo, Aug. 13,1970.