The National Gallery in Washington, D.C., has acquired a painting by a Hunter art professor for its permanent collection.
The painting by Juan Sánchez, The Most Cultural Thing You Can Do (1983), is a pivotal early work in his ongoing exploration of the enduring cultural and political bonds between Puerto Rico and its diaspora in the United States, according to the gallery. The painting is the first by Sánchez to enter the National Gallery collection, where it joins two of his lithographs. The gallery said that it is the only Sánchez painting held by a museum in the Washington, D.C., area.
Sánchez’s mixed media paintings, works on paper, and videos are densely layered and loaded. They speak to culture, history, and issues of Puerto Rican identity and the struggle for self-determination. He contextualizes his use of color, texture, graffiti, photography, text, collage with Judeo-Christen iconography, African symbols, indigenous Taino petroglyphs, and other signs in a contemporary and urban reality.
“My works express the cries, angst, and rebellion for social justice as well as celebrate the beauty and joy of a people’s transcendence and life-assertive spirit,” Sánchez said.
The acquisition shows the impact of Hunter College as an anchor institution and cultural training ground in New York City. Born to Puerto Rican parents, Sánchez, who lives and works in Brooklyn, is a professor of painting, photography, and combined media in Hunter's esteemed Department of Art & Art History. Often recognized as the most important visual artist in the Nuyorican movement, he has been called a pillar of the community for his work as an artist, activist, curator, teacher, and mentor. In 2024, he won Hunter’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship or Creative Activity by a Full-Time Faculty Member.
“Juan Sánchez has long been an influential mentor in our department and an equally important artist. It’s incredible to finally be able to see his work represented in the collections of the most significant institutions,” said Ruth Stanton Art & Art History Department Chair Sara Greenberger Rafferty.
According to the gallery, “The Most Cultural Thing You Can Do draws from themes of urban life in New York City in the 1980s, with influences from pop culture, street art, modernist collage, and activism. The work revolves around a photograph taken with a 35-mm camera and printed in such a way to imitate the print advertising found across the city at the time. The photo depicts an off-duty serviceman who the artist often saw around his Brooklyn neighborhood. Taken on the subway, it shows a tattoo of the Puerto Rican flag accompanied by the phrase ‘Que viva Puerto Rico’ (‘Long live Puerto Rico’).”
“Juan’s work reminds us of the continued struggle for civil rights not only among Puerto Ricans but also by all marginalized individuals and communities in the United States and worldwide,” said Hunter Art & Art History Professor Lynda Klich. “With this acquisition, Juan assumes his rightful place in our nation’s museum.”
Other major paintings by Sánchez have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Art, and his work will be the subject of a forthcoming retrospective at the Phillips Collection in Washington in 2027. He also has work in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, El Museo del Barrio, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Puerto Rico, and El Centro Wilfredo Lam in Havana, Cuba, among others.
Hunter’s Department of Art & Art History unites the academic study of Art History, Studio Art, and the work of the Hunter College Galleries. Students can study the history, theory and practice of art. They also can gain practical experience by assisting with organizational aspects of curating an exhibition, writing catalogue essays, or presenting art works in the gallery setting.
