(b San José, 1 June 1907). Costa Rican engraver, painter, illustrator, draughtsman, writer and critic. He studied for a year from 1931 at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes but was otherwise initially self-taught, using Louis Gonse’s L’Art japonais (Paris, 1883) as a source. He produced a series of caricature drawings, influenced by Cubism, in the Album de dibujos de 1926. During 1929 he met the sculptors Juan Manuel Sánchez and Francisco Zúñiga (the latter was also a printmaker), and through his interest in German and Mexican Expressionist printmakers, he developed a passion for wood-engraving. His first wood-engravings were published in the periodical Repertorio Americano (1929). He went on to contribute wood-engravings and drawings to collections of short stories and poetry, educational books, periodicals and newspapers. In 1931 he taught drawing and wood-engraving at the Escuela Normal in Heredia. He exhibited at the Salones Anuales de Artes Plásticas in San José (1931–6). His subject-matter was largely Regionalist, but unlike his peers in the group Círculo de Amigos del Arte, he was able to go beyond a mirror-like reflection of peasant life (e.g. Burial at Heredia, 1938; see 1989 exh. cat., p. 21). The dominance of black in his images of this period was especially suited to interiors and night scenes. He visited Argentina, Bolivia and Peru in 1932 and exhibited at the second Sala de Amigos del Arte in Buenos Aires with Raúl Soldi and Antonio Berni.

• Amighetti, Francisco
  • Costa Rica, §III: Painting, graphic arts and sculpture