Juan De’Prey

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Juan De'Prey was born in Haiti in 1904 and had moved to Puerto Rico with his father and siblings as a young child. As a teen he did odd jobs to survive in Puerto Rico such as shining shoes, selling newspapers, and fishing. At age 25 he jumped ship in New York in 1929. By 1934 he was painting and cofounded a Latin Art collective with Mexican artist Miguel Angel de Leon called Pro Art Group. He won an award at the Washington Square Art show in 1939 and one of his works was selected to be shown at the Whitney Museum in the Spring of 1940. He began to show in galleries thereafter in New York, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. In the 1950's he was a founding member of the artists colony in Brooklyn Heights where he ran a studio at 44 Hicks Street. He died suddenly in 1962 at the age of 58.