Angel Rodriguez-Diaz

He grew up in a middle-class family and his mother's drawings were the inspiration for him to concentrate on art. Rodriguez-Diaz's mother died at a young age and he became immersed in art to numb the pain. During his teenage years, he entered into art contests. He attended the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, where his talent was both noticed and appreciated. His first solo exhibition, which took place in the university's library, featured his first self-portrait, a subject he would focus on as an adult.

Rodriguez-Diaz moved to the United States in 1978 to attend New York University (NYU). He did not speak English, so it was a difficult adjustment while in school and it was hard to find friends. He left NYU to obtain his Master of Fine Arts at Hunter College. During these years, he saw what people from the United States thought of Puerto Rico and its people. This would heavily influence his work, along with Mexican American themes. He also befriended other Puerto Rican immigrants, learning more about the colonial past of his homeland. In addition to painting, he studied sculpture, photography, printmaking, and other forms of art.

In the 1980s, Rodriguez-Diaz's works began to be displayed in local art galleries and the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico. He began dating, and his second boyfriend was writer Manuel Ramos Otero. One of Rodriguez-Diaz's relationships ended when his partner began dying from AIDS. This was when Rodriguez-Diaz himself found out he himself was HIV positive. He continued participating in solo and group exhibitions, painting one of his best-known works, The Protagonist of an Endless Story, which is a portrait of Sandra Cisneros which hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He met his future partner, Rolando Briseño, in San Antonio, where he moved in 1995.

He was commissioned by the San Antonio government to create a mural, Birth of a City. This was followed by larger commissions; The Beacon is an illuminated obelisk in the couple's neighborhood, and The Crossroads of Enlightenment, a two tower artwork inspired by smokestacks at the nearby Alamo Quarry Market. Rodriguez-Diaz died in 2023 at age 67, survived by his husband, Briseño. His works often had political or social undertones, even the self-portraits, where he is sometimes depicted wearing Mexican wrestling masks.

Early life

Angel Rodriguez-Diaz, also known as Angel Luis Rodríguez-Díaz, was born on December 6, 1955, in Santurce, a barrio of San Juan, Puerto Rico. During the first two years of his life, he spent a lot of time in the hospital due to a hernia. His father was born in a middle-class family near the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Ceiba, and his mother was born to a poor family in Santurce, but attended the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico thanks to money sent from relatives in the Bronx. When Rodriguez-Diaz was born, his parents were 19 and 18, respectively. Both parents were Roman Catholics, but his mother became a born again Pentecostal when she fell ill, and his father converted a few years later. Rodriguez-Diaz had to reconcile this with the fact he knew he was gay at a somewhat young age, which he called "something that was innate."

 

In 1971, at the age of 31, his mother died from a blood-related disease. His father, who drove a truck and delivered dirt to construction sites, was left alone to raise Rodriguez-Diaz and his four younger siblings, but remarried less than a year later. His father would later become a Pentecostal minister and for three years Rodriguez-Diaz attended the same seminary his father attended. Three of his siblings would grow up to be musicians, and his sister, a missionary. His father died penniless in 2003.

Rodriguez-Diaz's interest in art started at a young age when he would watch his mother draw on a notebook. When he was around seven or eight, one of Rodriguez-Diaz's cousins gave him drawing pads, charcoal, and kneaded erasers. In seventh grade, he won a contest for his painting of José de Diego, his first portrait. During his teen years, he focused on his studies and art as an escape from dealing with his mother's illness. He later began painting seasonal murals at Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra High School and, for a 12th grade project, painted an interpretation of Michelangelo's Head of a Lost Soul found in the Sistine Chapel. His first commission was at a restaurant. He graduated from high school in 1974.

He received a scholarship to attend the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, where he won an honorary prize for a painting during his freshman year. In 1975 Rodriguez-Diaz held his first solo exhibition, which took place in the university library, where he displayed his paintings and drawings. One of the paintings in the exhibition, his first self-portrait, was purchased as was most of the works. His first art review, which appeared in El Mundo, was titled Ha Nacido Una Estella (A Star Has Been Born). Later during his college years, one of his paintings was displayed at the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art of the University of Puerto Rico, and he studied printmaking, photography, and other arts. During this time, Rodriguez-Diaz cited Francisco Rodón as one of his inspirations. He was also deeply moved by Two Figures by Francis Bacon. He graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Rodriguez-Diaz left Puerto Rico in 1978 to study at New York University (NYU). He felt isolated when first arriving to New York City because he only spoke Spanish, and for the first time, he was able to observe how Puerto Rico was viewed by people in the United States. Rodriguez-Diaz had nowhere to stay until a friend introduced him to a lesbian couple, who let him live at their place for a few months until he was able to find his own apartment. It took him over a year to be able to speak basic English. Meanwhile, he entered into his first gay relationship, which lasted around a year, and later dated Manuel Ramos Otero for around three years. Rodriguez-Diaz felt embraced by the local Puerto Rican community, learning more about the Puerto Rico statehood movement. He later left NYU and obtained his master's from Hunter College, where he preferred the professors and artists, like Robert Morris.

Career and personal life

 

After graduating, Rodriguez-Diaz lost his first job and became a makeup artist on mannequins in Brooklyn. He left that job to work for Rootstein, a prominent mannequin company in New York City. During these years he held his first show at the Hunter Gallery in New York City. Soon after, another show took place at the Cayman Gallery in the city, a gallery where Latino artists were welcomed. This was followed by a solo exhibition at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, in addition to several group exhibitions in New York City and Mexico City. After Black Monday in 1987, he lost his job painting mannequins and received unemployment benefits for the next year. During this time, Rodriguez-Diaz was able to focus more on his art. Rodriguez-Diaz began dating George Gillon who later contracted AIDS and was hospitalized. Gillon urged him to be tested, and this is when Rodriguez-Diaz also received the diagnosis in the late 1980s of being HIV positive, and the couple separated.

While he was unemployed, Rodriguez-Diaz participated in solo exhibitions at the Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago and Mendelson Gallery in Pittsburgh. His next job was working as an accountant, where he stayed for a year before being laid off. The free time allowed him to work in his own studio in Brooklyn, which he rented for a few years. After moving back to Manhattan, Rodriguez-Diaz began to paint more portraits, including The Protagonist of an Endless Story, which depicts Sandra Cisneros and now hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) after hanging for years in Cisnero's home. According to the SAAM, "Cisneros stands before a fiery sunset, dressed in a traditional Mexican skirt embroidered with sequined imagery that refers to her profession as a writer. Her commanding pose, reminiscent of historic European portraiture, proclaims that she will endure in her native landscape."

One group exhibition held at the Housatonic Museum of Art was reviewed by The New York Times, which said Rodriguez-Diaz was inspired by Salvador Dalí. During a trip to San Antonio, Rodriguez-Diaz met his future partner, Rolando Briseño. Rodriguez-Diaz lived in New York City for 16 years, before moving to San Antonio where he focused not only on paintings, but sculpture as well. He immediately felt a connection to Mexican Americans in the area, as he saw them as a colonized people, like Puerto Ricans.

Once in San Antonio, he and Briseño purchased a former grocery store in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and converted into a studio and home. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rodriguez-Diaz said he felt the most comfortable in San Antonio because his works were more appreciated by the city's Latino community. During the late 1990s, most of his exhibitions, both solo and group, took place in San Antonio. In addition to abstract painting and portraits, he was commissioned in the early 2000s to paint a large mural, titled Birth of a City, for the San Antonio government's Development and Business Service Center. A solo exhibition at the Beeville Art Museum in 2004 featured 49 works by Rodriguez-Diaz painted between 1993 and 2003, including self-portraits where he is wearing a wrestling mask.

In addition to Birth of a City, Rodriguez-Diaz was commissioned by the city to create a public artwork in his neighborhood. The result was The Beacon, a 28-foot (8.5 m) illuminated obelisk which stands at the intersection of Blanco Road and Fulton Street. Another commissioned work during this time frame was Las Tres Marias, an oil painting in the Cathedral of San Fernando. The San Antonio government commissioned another artwork, The Crossroads of Enlightenment, in 2014. It is the largest of his public art works, with two towers representing smokestacks found at the nearby Alamo Quarry Market. During these years, he continued participating in solo and group exhibitions. For a 2017 exhibition, he painted Goddess Triptych, which are three portraits of a plus-sized nude Black woman.

Death and legacy

On March 31, 2023, Rodriguez-Diaz died in San Antonio at age 67, survived by his husband, Briseño. It was noted Rodriguez-Diaz's paintings almost look like photographs and many of these were self-portraits. Artist and professor Ricky Armendariz said "He was literally one of the most talented — technically and conceptually — artists that I've ever met, bar none...His work was hard hitting at times. His work was about identity, pain and loss." After hearing of his death, Cisneros called Rodriguez-Diaz "a gentleman and a genius." Many of his paintings had political or social undertones, covering a range of topics including the U.S. oil industry, American imperialism, and the way people living with HIV are viewed. The inspiration of Diego Velázquez and Peter Paul Rubens in Rodriguez-Diaz's work was also noted.

In a 2004 interview, Rodriguez-Diaz said "...it's interesting how things develop because it's not that you develop an agenda...it's a recipe. It's sort of as [if] you live your life, you realize that there's recurring things in your life that all of a sudden you become conscious that these have been issues present from early on in your life. And all of a sudden you find the opportunity to make a statement." An article in the San Antonio Current said Rodriguez-Diaz "attracted international attention for his ability to combine technical proficiency with political and social commentary to create an instantly recognizable visual style."

• List of Puerto Ricans
• Latin American art
• Puerto Rican art