As an artist with an oeuvre as varied and colorful as his sources of inspiration, Rafael Ferrer’s work defies categorization. His long career has seen him explore the roles of figurative painter, conceptual artist and musician, and his relationship with his birthplace, Puerto Rico, has remained at the heart of each.
One of Ferrer’s classmates in the early 1950s showed him a book on modern art while he was pursuing a degree in music at Syracuse University in New York. A few years later, he returned to Puerto Rico and enrolled at Universidad de Puerto Rico, where he studied painting under Spanish Surrealist Eugenio Fernández Granell.
Ferrer visited Europe with Granell in 1954 and befriended Cuban painter Wifredo Lam as well as French writer André Breton, who is known as the leader of the Surrealist movement. Ferrer developed a deep interest in Surrealism as well as Afro-Caribbean music and culture, and the prominent artistic figures he gained as mentors and friends would have a significant impact on his work in the years that followed. Later, as Ferrer moved to New York City and across the northeastern United States, he would examine the stereotypical imagery of the tropics in popular culture and attempt to subvert it in his work.
Ferrer has worked in sculpture, printmaking, drawing and more, and his choice of material has included everything from gourds to leaves to paper bags. In the 1960s and ’70s, he made improvisational process-oriented sculpture that saw an integration of materials such as corrugated steel and ice and created narrative installations that occupied entire rooms. His bold work has regularly referenced the sprawling impacts of colonization. He painted and drew on the kind of navigational charts and maps that would have been employed by seafaring explorers, and his Dos Pinas Secas (“Two Dry Pineapples”) depicts the fruit that Christopher Columbus brought back to Europe from Guadeloupe, which was seen as a symbol of hospitality before it represented prosperity and prestige.
After seeing Alex Katz paint on the beach during the mid-’70s, Ferrer returned to painting. His vivid and colorful oil paintings of the 1980s and ’90s depict everyday scenes in the tropics, such as marketplace vendors, women shopping and fishing boats on a beach, but are also marked by examinations of societal and political issues. Ferrer’s works can be found in the collections of the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and other institutions.
Find Rafael Ferrer art for sale on 1stDibs.
$5,000
Mercado
By Rafael Ferrer
Located in Lyons, CO
Color monotype. Rafael Ferrer depicts the intense life of the Caribbean in his paintings and prints. With hot colors, deep shadows and mysterious relationships among his figures, Fe...
Monotype
Recodo
By Rafael Ferrer
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Ed. 25. Rafael Ferrer depicts the intense life of the Caribbean in his paintings and prints. With hot colors, deep shadows and mysterious relationships among his f...
Lithograph
"Sin Fin"
By Rafael Ferrer
Located in Lyons, CO
Color woodcut. Rafael Ferrer depicts the intense life of the Caribbean in his paintings and prints. With hot colors, deep shadows and mysterious ...
Woodcut
Haiti II
By Rafael Ferrer
Located in Lyons, CO
Color monotype. Rafael Ferrer depicts the intense life of the Caribbean in his paintings and prints. With hot colors, deep shadows and mysterious relationships among his figures, Fe...
Monotype
$399
H 21.5 in W 29 in
Spring Landscape with Pond and Trees, Hand Drawn Lithograph, 21.5 x 29 in.
Located in Union City, NJ
Spring Landscape with Pond and Trees is an original hand drawn, limited edition color lithograph by the master French landscape painter Michel de Saint-Alban. The print was created i...
Lithograph
$420Sale Price|30% Off
H 26 in W 38.75 in
ROADS Signed Lithograph, Contemporary Landscape, Rural Highway
By Frank Licsko
Located in Union City, NJ
ROADS is an original hand drawn lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) by the artist Frank Licsko printed using traditional hand lithography techniques on archival Arc...
Lithograph
$516Sale Price|35% Off
H 35.5 in W 26 in
GIARDINO SEGRETTO Signed Lithograph Mediterranean Landscape Art, Moonlight
By Jim Buckels
Located in Union City, NJ
GIARDINO SEGRETTO is a hand drawn limited edition lithograph created in 1988 by the Iowa born artist, Jim Buckels who is known for his dream-like ima...
Lithograph
$3,500
H 27 in W 27 in
Druid Point Signed Lithograph, Contemporary Fantasy Landscape, 1988
By Jim Buckels
Located in Union City, NJ
DRUID POINT is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph by the Iowa born artist Jim Buckels printed using hand lithography techniques on archival Arches printmaking paper, 100% acid free. DRUID POINT presents a finely detailed fantasy landscape scene depicting a modern architecture cliffside house set high on a hill overlooking sparkling moonlit water and a deep blue night sky full of stars. Dramatic shades of dark blue, light purples, turquoise, greens, light beige, gray, black and touches of white create an intriguing nighttime ambience which keep the viewer's imagination engaged. DRUID POINT is a rarely seen, beautifully detailed architectural evening landscape evoking an aura of mystery and fascination. Print size - 27." x 27" unframed, excellent condition, vivid colors, full bleed image, no margins, square size format, hand signed in pencil by Jim Buckels Year published - 1988 Edition size - 350, plus proofs Printer - J K Fine Art Editions Co. NY DRUID POINT is a very impressive, hand crafted original limited edition lithograph not a photo reproduction or digital print! JIM BUCKELS Artist statement- "On one level, I think of myself as a decorative artisan, or at best a scene painter. I don't mind this distinction, because many of my heroes never achieved much more. It's a modest but honorable aspiration. The artists who have influenced me are quite dissimilar and usually less prominent in the pantheon of art history: Canaletto, the Flemish scene painters, the Hudson River artists...
Lithograph
$218Sale Price|37% Off
H 24 in W 18 in
Earth Preservation (Environment, Climate Activism, Renewable Energy)
By Shepard Fairey
Located in Kansas City, MO
Shepard Fairey Earth Preservation (Environment, Climate Activism, Renewable Energy) Screen print on thick cream Speckletone paper Year: 2025 Size: 24 x 18 inches (60.96 x 45.72 cm) E...
Screen
$510Sale Price|25% Off
H 25 in W 39 in
BEYOND EARTHS BEAUTY Signed Lithograph Island Landscape Tropical Plants, Beach
By Eileen Seitz
Located in Union City, NJ
BEYOND EARTHS BEAUTY is an original hand drawn lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) by the American woman artist Eileen Seitz, printed using hand lithography techniques on archival Arches paper 100% acid free. BEYOND EARTHS BEAUTY depicts a lush, brightly colored island landscape bursting with colorful tropical plants...
Lithograph
$476Sale Price|20% Off
H 33 in W 21.5 in
PHAEDRA'S VIGIL Signed Lithograph Fantasy Landscape, Reflecting Pool Purple Blue
By Jim Buckels
Located in Union City, NJ
PHAEDRA'S VIGIL is an imaginary architectural landscape that combines the real and the surreal. Created in 1989 by the Iowa born artist Jim Buckels(b.1948) known for his dream-like i...
Lithograph
$2,900
H 42.25 in W 30.5 in
"The Gates VIII, from Project for Central Park, New York" signed lithograph
By Christo
Located in Boca Raton, FL
"The Gates VIII, from Project for Central Park, New York" offset lithograph in colors on wove paper. Signed Christo in pencil on front lower right. Sheet size: 39 x 27 1/2 inches (99...
Lithograph
$475
H 16 in W 20.63 in
"A Game of Lacrosse": A Hand-colored 19th Century Woodcut Engraving by Hall
Located in Alamo, CA
A colorful and attractive hand-colored 19th century woodcut engraving entitled "A Game of Lacrosse" after a drawing by W. H. Hall. It was published in New York in Harper's Weekly on May 10, 1884. It depicts a scene from an intense lacrosse game. This hand-colored woodcut engraving is presented in a red mat that measures 16" high x 20.63" wide. The sheet measures 10.63" high x 15.88" wide. There is a central fold, as issued. The print is in excellent condition. Lacrosse is the oldest sport in North America, possibly originating as far back as the 1400's. The sport was first invented by Native Americans, who originally played it as a means to toughen braves for war or to settle tribal disputes. It was played by between 100 and 1,000 participants at a time. There were no strict boundaries and the game could cover miles and take days to complete. It was very violent with many injuries, which were sometimes fatal. The game was unknown to whites until the 17th century when a Jesuit priest observed Heron Indians playing it. He thought the stick and netting resembled the "crosier" carried by bishops during religious ceremonies, This led to the name "la crosse". A Canadian dentist standardized the rules of the game in 1867 and the 1st college team was created at New York University in 1877. The game gained national attention and popularity in 1956 when the Hall-of-Fame football player Jim Brown...
Woodcut
$250
H 22 in W 17.5 in
Vintage Rene Ricard Mal de Fin: Paintings 1989-1990 poster with poetry and ocean
By Rene Ricard
Located in New York, NY
Original poster commemorating Rene Ricard's 1990 exhibition Mal de Fin: Paintings 1989-1990 at the Petersburg Press Gallery, New York. The image reproduces his painting, Mal de Fin, ...
Lithograph, Offset
$350
H 21.5 in W 28.5 in
Fermeture Anneulle, Hand Drawn Lithograph 1982, French Park Landscape
Located in Union City, NJ
Fermeture Annuelle is an original hand drawn, limited edition color lithograph by the master French landscape painter Michel de Saint-Alban. The print was created in the 1980's using...
Lithograph
Vacance
By Hiro Yamagata
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Vacance" 1980 is an original color serigraph on paper by renown artist Hiro Yamagata (Japanese, b. 1948) It is signed and numbered 204/300 in pencil by the artis...
Screen
Recodo, Puerto Rican Modernist Color Lithograph on Paper
By Rafael Ferrer
Located in Surfside, FL
Rafael Ferrer (b. 1933 in San Juan) is a Puerto Rican artist. He attended the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, where he cultivated an interest in music. In 1951 and ’52, he stu...
Lithograph
Recodo, Puerto Rican Modernist Color Lithograph on Paper
By Rafael Ferrer
Located in Surfside, FL
Rafael Ferrer (b. 1933 in San Juan) is a Puerto Rican artist. He attended the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, where he cultivated an interest in music. In 1951 and ’52, he stu...
Lithograph
Atardecer III
By Rafael Ferrer
Located in Lyons, CO
Color monotype Rafael Ferrer depicts the intense life of the Caribbean in his paintings and prints. With hot colors, deep shadows and mysterious relationships among his figures, F...
Monotype