Joaquín Torres García

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Joaquín Torres García
Ramon Casas - MNAC- Joaquín Torres García- 027317-D 026088.jpg
Born (1874-07-28)28 July 1874
Montevideo, Uruguay
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Montevideo, Uruguay
Nationality Uruguay Spanish Catalan
Education Escuela Oficial de Bellas Artes Barcelona
Known for Painting, Sculpture, Writer, Teacher, Illustrator, Theorist
Notable work Frescoes of the Generalitat of Barcelona
Movement Modern Art, Noucentisme, Constructivism
Patron(s) Prat de la Riba

Joaquín Torres García (28 July 1874 – 8 August 1949) was an avant garde[1] Uruguayan/Catalan artist ("l'artista uruguaianocatalà Joaquim Torres Garcia")[2] painter, sculptor, novelist, writer, teacher and theorist since 1900, pioneer of the renaissance of Classicism, champion of Catalan Art, and muralist. "Uruguayan-Catalan artist, not only for being the son of a Mataronés but because he lived in Catalunya from the age of seventeen until he was forty-six, acquiring from the land of his father his strong artistic training, and dedicated to it an important sector of his work. He was one of the most notable personalities of artistic movement in the first half of the century."[3] "Torres-Garcia is one of the great figures of the art of this century" [4] (20th-century art), his influence includes European, American and South American modern art, and he is considered the father of Universal Constructivism. " In the United States he was probably underrated precisely because he was so influential; Adolph Gottlieb's and Louise Nevelson's debt to his work has never been fully acknowledged " [5] He is known for his collaboration with Gaudi in 1903 on the stained glass windows for the Palma Cathedral,[6] and the Sagrada Família[citation needed] the frescoes painted in the Palau de la Generalitat of Barcelona,[7] and for being the founder of the European art group Cercle et Carré in Paris in 1929.[8]

Biography

1874–1900

Joaquín Torres-García was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on July 28, 1874. He was the first child of Joaquim Torras Fradera (son of Joan Torras and Rosa Fradera), an emigrant from Mataró, Spain, and María García Pérez (daughter of José María García, from the Canary Islands, and Misia Rufina Pérez, Uruguayan). In 1861, Torres-García's father travelled in a brigantine to make his fortune in South America, and established a general store called the Almacen de Joaquín Torres.[9] As a child, Torres "examined the picturesque store situated in the old Square of the Wagons, the arrival point of the raw material of the country for export to Europe. The colonial Montevideo had a port, trains, and a vibrant population dotted with countless gauchos wrapped in capes with whip ready in hand." [10] "Much of his early education in that predominantly agricultural society came from his observation of the things around him....He received his first formal art training when his family returned to Spain" [11]

In 1891, Torres-García's father returned to Mataró, Spain, with his wife and three children. The family settled in Barcelona. Torres-García enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona (Escuela de Bellas Artes de Barcelona), the Baixas Academy (Academia Baixas) and the Saint Lluc Artists Circle. "Torres-García and Picasso were contemporaries. Both began their artistic lives in modern Barcelona and although their artistic interests were diverse, they focused their attention on the representation of 'modern life' in both its typical and anecdotal aspects. This was a world of fashionable young ladies, prosperous bourgeoisie, Bohemian writers, picturesque actors, ragged and amusing artists and so on, whose privileged epicenter was the cafe Els Quatre Gats, an establishment maintained in the style of Parisian cabarets. The most appropriate medium in which to depict that world was the print, a drawing intended, in many cases, to be reproduced in the illustrated magazines of the time. The language came from Paris; the favorite models were Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen.".[12] His classmates and friends included Ricard Canals, Manolo Hugue, Joaquim Mir, Isidre Nonell, Pablo Picasso, and Julio Gonzalez. Torres was an assiduous contributor of drawings in all the principal newspapers and magazines of the time, such as La Vanguardia, Iris, Barcelona Cómica and La Saeta.

In 1900, Torres Garcia's father died.

1901–1909

Miguel Utrillo wrote an article titled "Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Decorator" in Pel i Pluma, published with a portrait by Ramon Casas, photographs of several paintings by Torres — one on the cover of the magazine — and his first article, called "Impressions".[13]

Antoni Gaudí commissioned Torres in 1903 to create stained-glass windows for Palma Cathedral. ″One of the key events in his career was his intervention (between 1902 and 1905) in the High Altar of the Cathedral of Palma de Majorca, a masterpiece of Spanish Gothic, for which he made the lateral stained glass windows and the small rose window in the apse. His interpretation, of the Marian symbols carved in a stone placed above the cathedral's main entrance from the Song of Songs — in the words of Baltasar Coll Tomas — is one of the many dialogues proposed by Torres. Whereas approached from a symbolic/thematic perspective or from a universal stance, these symbols, along with the geometrical composition used by the medieval master masons, will be reinterpreted in every stage of Torres's long career: the sun, the moon, the star, the well, the garden, the tower, the temple. The spiritual realm, reason, feelings, the natural or earthly realm, immediate, intermediate, remote; past, present, future.″ [14]

Eugeni d'Ors, the intellectual father (and inventor of the term) noucentisme, praised artworks that Torres Garcia shows at Sala Pares and the Cercle de Sant Lluc that same year. Later will write the prologue to Torres' show in the Galeries Dalmau in 1912 and includes frequent references of Torres's work in La Ben Plantada, the book which summarizes the ideology of the noucentista. But Torres is far from being an adherent of the ideology indicated by D'Ors; his evolution follows his own theoretical elaboration, explicit already in two texts published before the configuration of noucentisme as a trend around 1910: "Augusta et Augusta" (1904) and "La nostra ordinacio I el nostre cami" (1907). In Classicism, Torres searches for model of order, a language and an adequate cultural reference to overcome the realistic tendency of representation and to develop a Catalan art of capable of universal proportions. Objective which coincides with noucentisme, but Torres's radicalness paradoxically separate him from artists who follow this tendency — Sunyer, Canals, Aragay — and ultimately D'Ors.[15]

Torres-García began teaching art in 1907 at the Mont d'Or school, founded by the pedagogue Joan Palau Vera in Sarrià.[citation needed]

In 1909, he married Manuela Piña i Rubíes, a Catalonian, with whom he would have four children.

1910-1919

Torres-García traveled to Brussels to paint a Pavilion in the Brussels International World Fair. During this prolonged stay in Paris, he visited friends, museums and galleries. Though different, his art shared values with cubism and the theories exemplified in the exhibition organized and named by Jacques Villon in honor of Luca Paccioli, Section d'Or (Golden Section); an exhibition first shown in Paris. On his first trip to Italy and Switzerland, Torres-García observed the ancient and the modern: futurism. In May 1913, he published his first book, Notes sobre Art (Notes on Art), and founded the Escuela de Decoración (School of Decoration/Decorative Arts) in Sarrià. He was commissioned in 1913 [16] to create murals for the decoration of the monumental atrium of the Municipal Palace of Barcelona. "Today the work of the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia is fortunately preserved faithfully in its most substantial core to its original architecture. It was not, however, until 1907, when Enric Prat de la Riba became chairman of the council, which began an important period dedicated to exalt building, parallel to the resurgence of the national political structure. ...[A]lso began a series of mural paintings at the Salon Sant Jordi, an important work by the Uruguayan Catalàn artist Joaquim Torres-Garcia, remaining unfinished at the death of Prat de la Riba in 1917, going beyond the utilitarian and decorative to become the new symbol of the Catalonia noucentista."[17] "For the next five years, he planned and executed murals in fresco technique, employing an "Iconostasis" composition, applied to a "pagan" subject matter and then to a modern theme, proving that classic is not solely associated to the Greek. He painted with orthogonal lines the rhythms of the structure used. This was an evolution he described in "El Descubrimiento de si mismo", and in the manifesto "Evolucionista" published in 1916. Torres-García would later use this same composition in his "Constructivist" works." He designed, built, and decorated with frescoes his home in Tarrasa, "Mon Repos". In 1919, he was dismissed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, the new president of the Mancomunitat who prevented him from continuing the great work decoration Saló de Sant Jordi, in the old Palau de la Generalitat, Torres-Garcia sold the house he had designed and built in Terrassa in 1914, Mon Repos, and left his second homeland.[18]

.

1920-1922

Departs a second time for Paris, with thirty-two crates of paintings. After an encounter with his friend Picasso, his work turns to cubism, while Picasso's to classicism. Seeking to experience a modern city, he travels to New York. Paints a series of portraits, including one of Joseph Stella. The vertical city enhances the orthogonal structure of his cityscape. Works at painting scenery and costumes of The Great Way, a story of the joyful, the sorrowful, the glorious. Exhibits at The Whitney Studio Gallery[19] and The Society of Independent Artists together with Stuart Davis and Szukalski. Dada art all over again. He described his work as “…what painting Torres-García created at that time?…” he asks himself: “…expressionistic and geometric at the same time, and very dynamic "[20]

1922-1924

Returns to Italy. Further development of his Classic and Evolutionistic works. Spain forbids Catalan language, among which Torres- Garcia's writings are included. Death of his mother. Travels to France, Villefranche-sur-Mer.

1925

Moves to Paris for the third time. Exhibits 34 works, a series of fauvist nudes and paintings from New York and Spain at Galerie A. G. Fabre in June. Solo exhibit at Galerie Zak in December 1928. Group exhibition in Galerie des Editions Bonaparte with John Graham, Kakabadze, Tutundjian, and Vantongerloo in August 1929. Solo exhibit in Galerie Carmine. A correspondent for the Catalan literary magazine Mirador, writes series of articles on painters including an interview of Georges Braque. In 1931 he has two solo exhibits at Galerie Jeanne Bucher and Galerie Percier, in October a group show at Georges Petit with Giacometti, Ozenfant, Max Ernst, Miro, Salvador Dalí .[21] In 1932 a solo exhibit at Galerie Pierre of paintings and sculptures. "The friendship between Van Doesburg and Torres-Garcia will create the foundations for the three most important movements to promote abstract art: "Cercle et Carre" (1929-1930), "Art Concret" (1930); and "Abstraction-Cretation"(1931-1936)." [22]

1933

Leaves for Madrid. Finishes the manuscript of "Arte Constructivo" published in 1935 with under the name "Estructura", dedicated to his friend Piet Mondrian. Teaches and lectures.

1934–1949

1934 At sixty returns for the first time since childhood to Montevideo. Exhibits the work of the "Cercle et Carre" group and reedits the magazine as "Circulo y Cuadrado". As he did in Barcelona he now shapes the artistic education of Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. He creates the "Taller Torres Garcia", similar to the European Bauhaus. This studio included artists like Julio Uruguay Alpuy, Sergio de Castro, Gonzalo Fonseca, José Gurvich, Alceu Ribeiro, and Torres García's sons, Horacio and Augusto Torres, among others. Publishes several books. Builds the "Monumento Cosmico" and paints mural frescoes at the Hospital Saint Bois. Paints a series of portraits under the name of "Men, Heroes and Monsters ".

1949 Dies August 8 while preparing two exhibitions one at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York and other at Pan American Union in Washington.

Selected Works

Selected Writings

  • Augusta et Augusta, Barcelona, Universitat Catalana, 1904
  • Dibujo educativo en el colegio Mont D’Or, Barcelona, 1907
  • Notes sobre Art, Barcelona, 1913
  • Diàlegs, 1914
  • Descubrimiento de sí mismo, 1914
  • Consells als artistes, Barcelona, Un enemic del poble, 1917
  • Em digué tot aixó, Barcelona, La Revista, 1917
  • D’altra orbita, Barcelona, Un enemic del poble, 1917
  • Devem Caminar, Barcelona, Un enemic del poble, 1917
  • Art-Evolució, Barcelona, Un enemic del poble, 1917
  • El Públic i les noves tendéncies d’art, Barcelona, Velli nou, 1918
  • Plasticisme, Barcelona, Un Enemic del poble, 1918
  • Natura i Art, Barcelona, Un Enemic del poble, 1918
  • L’Art en relació al home etern i l’home que passa, Sitges, Imprenta El eco de Sitges. 1919
  • La Regeneració de si mateix, Barcelona, Salvat Papasseit Editor, 1919
  • Foi, París, 1930
  • Ce que je sais, et ce que je fais par moi-même, Losones, Suiza, 1930
  • Pére soleil, París, Fundación Torres García, 1931
  • Raison et nature, Ediciones Imán, París, 1932
  • Estructura, Montevideo, 1935
  • De la tradición andina: Arte precolombino, Montevideo, Círculo y cuadrado, 1936
  • Manifiesto 2: Constructivo 100 %, Montevideo, Asociación de Arte Constructivo, 1938
  • La tradición del hombre abstracto (Doctrina constructivista). Montevideo, 1938
  • Historia de mi vida. Montevideo, 1939
  • Metafísica de la prehistoria indoamericana, Montevideo, Asociación de Arte Constructivo, 1939
  • Manifiesto 3, Montevideo, Asociación de Arte Constructivo, 1940
  • La ciudad sin nombre. Montevideo, Uruguay, Asociación de Arte Constructivo, 1942
  • Universalismo Constructivo, Montevideo, 1944
  • Con respecto a una futura creación literaria y dos poemas, Divertimento 1 y Divertimento 11, Montevideo, Revista Arturo, 1944
  • La decoración mural del pabellón Martirené de la colonia Saint Bois. Montevideo, Gráficas Sur, 1944
  • En defensa de las expressiones modernas del arte, Montevideo, 1944
  • Nueva escuela de arte de Uruguay. Montevideo, Asociación de Arte Constructivo, 1946
  • La regla abstracta. Montevideo, Asociación de Arte Constructivo, 1946
  • Mística de la pintura, Montevideo, 1947
  • Lo aparente y lo concreto en el arte, Montevideo, 1948
  • La recuperación del objeto, Montevideo, 1948

Selected Paintings

Murals

  • Decoración mural de la Capilla del Santísimo Sacramento y de Montserrat de la Iglesia de San Agustín, Barcelona, 1904
  • Decoración mural del ábside de la iglesia de la Divina Pastora, Sarriá, Barcelona, 1906
  • Decoración mural del despacho de Hienda del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona. Barcelona, 1908
  • Decoración mural del pabellón del Uruguay en la exposición universal con las alegorías Ganadería y Agricultura, Bruselas, 1910
  • Palas introduciendo a la Filosofía en el Helikon como Xª Musa, Barcelona, 1911
  • La Cataluña eterna, decoración mural del salón San Jorge, Palacio de la Generalitat, Barcelona, 1915
  • La edad de oro de la humanidad, decoración mural del salón San Jorge, Palacio de la Generalidad, Barcelona, 1915
  • Las musas o Las artes, decoración mural del salón San Jorge, Palacio de la Generalidad, Barcelona, 1916
  • Lo temporal no es más que símbolo, decoración mural del salón San Jorge, Palacio de la Generalidad, Barcelona, 1916
  • Decoración mural de Mon Repós, Tarrasa, Barcelona, 1915
  • Decoración mural del domicilio Badiella, Tarrasa, Barcelona, 1916
  • Maternidad, Clínica del Doctor Rodríguez López, Montevideo, 1944
  • Forma, Decoración mural constructiva, pabellón Martirené del Hospital de Saint Bois, Montevideo, 1944
  • El pez, Decoración mural constructiva, pabellón Martirené del Hospital de Saint Bois, Montevideo, 1944
  • Pax in lucem, Decorsion mural constructiva, pabellón Martirené del Hospital de Saint Bois, Montevideo, 1944
  • El tranvía, Decoración mural constructiva, pabellón Martirené del Hospital de Saint Bois, Montevideo, 1944
  • El sol, Decoración mural constructiva, pabellón Martirené del Hospital de Saint Bois, Montevideo, 1944
  • Locomotora Blanca, Decoración mural constructiva, pabellón Martirené del Hospital de Saint Bois, Montevideo, 1944
  • Pachamama, Decoración mural constructiva, pabellón Martirené del Hospital de Saint Bois, Montevideo, 1944

Bibliography

  • JOAQUIN TORRES-GARCIA; ESTHER OF CÁCERES; CAR IT TO ME OF ARZADUM; ALFREDO CÁCERES; PABLO PURRIEL; JUAN R. MENCHACA AND GUIDO CASTILLO, the decoration mural of the Martirené pavilion of the colony Saint Bois. Murals paintings of pavilion J.J. Martirené Hospital of the colony Saint Bois. South graphs. Montevideo, 1944.
  • CLAUDE SCHAEFER, Joaquin Torres García. Ed. Poseidón. Library Argentina de Arte. Buenos Aires, 1949.
  • J. F. RÀFOLS, biographical Dictionary of artists of Catalonia. Torres-Garcia, Joaquin, Volume III, p. 153. Barcelona, Milà, 1966.
  • DANIEL ROBBINS, Joaquin Torrers-Garcia, 1874–1949. Ed. by Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design. Providence, 1970. ISBN 0-911517-23-5
  • ENRIC JARDÍ, Torres García. Editorial Polígrafa, S. A., Balmes, 54 – 08007, Barcelona, 1973. ISBN 84-343-0180-6
  • JACQUES LASSAIGNE, ANGEL KALENBERG, MARIA ELENA VIEIRA GIVES WHISTLES, MICHEL SEUPHOR, JEAN HÉLION, MOUNTAIN PABLO, Torres-Garcia. Construction et Symbols. Published by the Museum of Modern Art of Villa of Paris. Catalogue of the exhibition made between June and August 1975. Paris, 1975.
  • JACQUES LASSAIGNE, Torres-Garcia. Works destroyed in the fire of the museum of modern art of Rio de Janeiro, Published by the Torres Foundation Garci'a. Montevideo, Uruguay. 1981.
  • MARGIT ROWELL, THEO VAN DOESBURG, JOAQUIN TORRES GARCIA, Torres Garcia Structure. Paris-Montevideo 1924–1944 Edited by Foundation Joan Miró. Catalogue of the exhibition in the Fundació Joan Miró, Parc de Montjuic in March 1986. Barcelona, 1986.
  • ANGEL KALENBERG, Seis Maestros De La Pintura Uruguaya: Juan Manuel Blanes, Carlos Federico Saez, Pedro Figari, Joaquin Torres García, Rafael Barradas y José Cúneo. Edited by Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires. Catálogo de la exposición realizada entre Septiembre y Octubre de 1987. Avda. del Libertador, 1473. Buenos Aires, 1987. Printed in Montevideo, 1987.
  • ALICIA HABER, Joaquin Torres Garci'a. Eternal Catalonia. Sketches and drawings for the fresh airs of the Delegation of Barcelona. Edited by Foundation Torres Garci'a. Montevideo. Uruguay, 1988.
  • MARÍA JESUS GARCI'A PUIG, Joaquin Torres Garcia and the Constructive Universalismo: The education of the art in Uruguay. Editions of Hispanic culture. Collection Art. Madrid, 1990. ISBN 84-7232-558-X
  • JORGE CASTLE, NICOLETTE GAST, EDUARDO LIPSCHUTZ-VILLA, AND SEBASTIÁN LOPEZ, The antagonistic Link. Joaquin Torres Garcia-Theo van Doesburg. Published by Institute of Contemporary Art. Ámsterdam, 1991.
  • PILAR GARCÍA-SEDAS, Joaquin Torres the Striped Garcias and Rafael. Dialeg escrit: 1918–1928. Publicacions of l' Abbey of Montserrat. Barcelona, 1994. ISBN 84-7826-531-7
  • JOAN SUREDA PONS, NARCISO COMADIRA AND MERCEDES DOÑATE, Torres Garcia: Pintures de Mon Repos, Published by the Museum of modern Art of the Museum of Art of Catalunya and the Caixa of Terrassa. I catalogue of the exhibition that place in the museum of modern art of the MNAC took, and in the Cultural Foundation of the Caixa of Terrassa. Barcelona, January 1995.
  • PILAR GARCÍA-SEDAS, Joaquim Torres Garcia. Epistolari Català: 1909–1936. Curial Edicions Catalan. Publicacions of l' Abbey of Montserrat, Barcelona, 1997. ISBN 84-7826-839-1
  • JOAN SUREDA PONS, Torres Garcia. Classic passion. Akal editions/contemporary Art. Number 5. Madrid, 1998. ISBN 84-460-0814-9
  • CARLOS PEREZ, PILLAR GARCÍA-SEDAS, MARIO H. GRADOWCZYK AND EMILIO ELLENA, Aladdin Toys. Them joguines of Torres Garcia. Published by the IVAM. I catalogue of the exhibition that took place in the Valencian Institute of Modern Art in September 1998.
  • MIGUEL ANGEL BATTEGAZZORE, the plot and the signs, Impresora Gordon, S.A. Av. General Rondeau 2485, Montevideo, 1999.
  • GABRIEL PELUFFO LINARI, History of the Uruguayan painting. Editions of Eastern band limited liability company. Gaboto 1582. Montevideo 11200. Uruguay, 1999 imaginary Tomo the 1 National-regional (1830–1930) from Blanes to Figari Tomo 2 Between localismo and universalismo: Representations of modernity (1930–1960).
  • EMMANUEL GUIGON, TOMAS LLORENS, J.Torres-Garcia Un monde construit, Hazan, Strabourg, 2002, catalogue of the exhibition that took place in MUSEE D’Art Modern et contemporain de Strasbourg 24 May to September 2002.ISBN 2-85025-827-X
  • EMMANUEL GUIGON, TOMAS LLORENS,JUAN JOSE LAHUERTa J.Torres-Garcia, Editorial AUSA yInstitut de Cultura de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2003, catalogue of the exhibition that took place in Museo Picasso de Barcelona, 25 November to 11 April 2004.ISBN 84-88810-63-6
  • NICOLAS AROCENA ARMAS, ERIC CORNE, MARINA BAIRRAO EMMANUEL GUIGON, DOMITILLE D’ORGEVAL,La ituicion y la Estructura, Lisboa, Museo Coleccao Berardo, 2008.ISBN 97-88448-25105-5

References

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  9. Robbins, Daniel (1970). Joaquin Torres-Garcia 1874-1949. Providence: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design.
  10. Schaefer, Claude (1949). Joaquin Torres-Garcia. Buenos Aires: Editorial Poseidon.
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  12. Llorens, Tomas (2011). J. Torres-Garcia. New York: Joaquin Torres-Garcia Archive.
  13. Utrillo, Miguel. "Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Decorator". Pel i Pluma No. 74
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  15. Sureda Pons, Joan (1998). Torres-Garcia, Pasion Clasica. Madrid: Ediciones Akal.
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  19. http://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15405coll1
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Sources

Robbins, Daniel. Joaquin Torres-Garcia 1874-1949. Providence, Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, 1970

Schaefer, Claude. Joaquin Torres-Garcia. Buenos Aires, Editorial Poseidon, 1949.

Llorens, Tomas. J.Torres-Garcia, New York, Joaquin Torres-Garcia Archive, 2011.

Arocena, Nicolas. Torres-Garcia- Pythagoras- Plato A Geometric Dialogue, or the Eye of the Soul, Lisboa, Museo Coleccao Berardo, 2008

Sureda Pons, Joan. Torres-Garcia, Pasion Clasica. Madrid, Ediciones Akal, 1998

External links