La Playa Negra I (Tar Beach I)

Antonio Martorell, La Playa Negra I (Tar Beach I), 2010, woodcut on Japanese paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2012.59.1, © 2010, Antonio Martorell
Copied Antonio Martorell, La Playa Negra I (Tar Beach I), 2010, woodcut on Japanese paper, sheet and image: 59 x 47 in. (149.9 x 119.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2012.59.1, © 2010, Antonio Martorell

Artwork Details

Title
La Playa Negra I (Tar Beach I)
Artist
Date
2010
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet and image: 59 x 47 in. (149.9 x 119.4 cm)
Copyright
© 2010, Antonio Martorell
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description
woodcut on Japanese paper
Classifications
Subjects
  • Cityscape — New York — New York
  • Architecture — bridge
  • Figure group — female
  • Puerto Rican
  • Object — other — sewing tool
  • Latinx
Object Number
2012.59.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2012.59.1

Artwork Description

Puerto Ricans who migrated to the continental United States during the early to mid-twentieth century called the rooftops of tenement buildings “tar beaches.” Martorell’s print was inspired by his study of rooftop snapshots that migrants mailed back to relatives on the island. Here a fashionable woman wears a fur-collared coat and sits in front of a New York City skyline. Her hardworking double on the left sits behind a sewing machine. In his Playa Negra (Tar Beach) series, Martorell juxtaposed migrants’ prosperous self-image with a glimpse of their tiring labor.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013
Description in Spanish

Los puertorriqueños que emigraron al territorio continental de los Estados Unidos alrededor de la Segunda Guerra Mundial llamaban a los techos de los edificios de apartamentos ​“playas negras”. La inspiración para el grabado de Martorell surgió de su examen de las fotografías de las azoteas que los inmigrantes enviaban a sus familiares en la isla. En este grabado, una elegante mujer lleva un abrigo con cuello de piel y está sentada frente a una vista de la ciudad de Nueva York. Su doble, una mujer trabajadora, está sentada a la izquierda frente a una máquina de coser. En su serie Playa Negra (Tar Beach), Martorell contrasta la autoimagen próspera de los emigrantes con un reflejo de su arduo trabajo.

Nuestra América: la presencia latina en el arte estadounidense, 2013

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Related Books

OurAmerica_500.jpg
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture. This beautifully illustrated volume presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. Our America includes works by artists who participated in all the various artistic styles and movements, including abstract expressionism; activist, conceptual, and performance art; and classic American genres such as landscape, portraiture, and scenes of everyday life. 

Exhibitions

Media - 2011.12 - SAAM-2011.12_1 - 77591
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
October 25, 2013–March 2, 2014
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge.