Alfonso Arana (1927- ) is a Puerto Rican painter. 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... A painter is a person who paints woodwork, walls, etc. ...

Arana was born in New York City from Puerto Rican parents. When he was young, the family moved to San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, where the young painter spent his youth. At age six, Arana made his first picture and presented it to his mother. His father, a businessman, did not want his son to become an artist. This caused a major rift between father and son. New York City, officially named the City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... San Sebastián is a municipality of Puerto Rico. ...

As a young man, Arana studied art in Mexico at the Atelier de Jose Bardasano, at the Manhattan School of Arts in New York, the Academie Julien and L'Ecole des Beaux of Paris, and did post graduate work at the American University in Washington D.C.. Jump to: navigation, search The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... See also the American University in Cairo and American University of Beirut American University is a fully accredited and internationally known private coeducational university located at Ward Circle, straddling the Spring Valley and American University Park areas of Northwest Washington, DC. It currently has roughly 5,000 undergraduate students, and... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United...

As an artist, Arana became known for his style of almond-shaped, hollow yet expressive eyes in a face without a skull and with a slightly oversized body. He is also well known for his use of light, sophisticated and almost transparent colors. Arana himself defines his style as expressionism and mannerism. The artist once explained that his alive and expressive human figures do not have any skulls because "they are receptacles of the active things in the world as is God, nature, life, whatever we want." On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ... Mannerism is the usual English term for an approach to all the arts, particularly painting but not exclusive to it, a reaction to the High Renaissance, emerging after the Sack of Rome in 1527 shook Renaissance confidence, humanism and rationality to their foundations, and even Religion had split apart. ...

His works are often unsettling for the degree of expression shown by his silent figures. Most initiates to his style might find his paintings to be disturbing. However, after an initial period, viewers of his paintings often find beauty within the figure's expressions.

Arana has exhibited his work in Tokyo, Paris, New York, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, and Spain. Hes reputation has been built from Puerto Rico. In 1986, he created the Fundación Francisco Arana, an organization dedicated to foster art in young people. Once a year, the Fundación gives an outstanding art student a scholarship to live and study in Paris. Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Kokyo Imperial Palace. ... Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México) is the name of a megacity located in the Valley of Mexico (Valle de México), a large valley in the high plateaus (altiplano) at the center of Mexico, about 2,240 metres (7,349 feet) above sea-level, surrounded on most sides...

Arana and his wife, Simone, live in France.

Of his art, Arana said:

My figures have the elements of life and light. That light that invades the body is the spiritual side of these beings and I like painting in that spiritual space. Each figure transcends life beyond real life & I feel the beings come from within me and then I, myself become part of their world. They are real to me, they are my friends.

References

Article on El Vocero de Puerto Rico 1 Nov 2003 http://www.vocero.com/noticia.asp?n=35299&d=11/1/2003

Article on Imagen Hispana Jun 05 http://www.imagenhispana.com/July05_Alfonso-Arana-Orgullosamente_Hispano.html