Atomic Energy.
Joaquín Torres García, an artist without parameters
Dissatisfied with the vanguards of the 20th century, Torres García created his pictorial representation of reality. Cecilia Buzio de Torres, a staunch promoter of his work, ranks the artistic vision of Torres García (1874-1949), as the fourth greatest artistic movement of the 20th century. “I think that Torres García’s contribution to modernism was to go beyond cubism”, she said.
The “constructive universalism” of Torres García
As an expert, she defines the direction taken by the Uruguayan painter as a particular confluence of three major creative trends of the time; cubism, surrealism and neo-surrealism, taking from surrealism the world of the subconscious to integrate it to the plasticity of cubism and structural purity of neoclassicism, in a perfect creative amalgam. It should also be mentioned the influence of pre-Columbian and Indian art, expressions that Torres García also assimilated, understanding their relevance and incorporating them into his aesthetic.
(L) Drawing; (R) Self Portrait.
A Latin artist at the MoMA
According to the curator, Luis Pérez-Oramas, the exhibition Joaquín Torres García: The Arcadian Modern should not be construed as a New York victory for a Spanish artist since his works have been on display at MoMA for many years. Rather it should be considered as a fitting tribute from a city like New York—so important for the art world—to one of the most relevant modern artists of Latin origin.
The sample is a representative selection of the work of an artist who lived during the last quarter of the 19th century, along with Toulouse-Lautrec, Proust, Zola, Nietzsche and Bergson. He also shared the first half of the 20th century with Einstein, Wittgenstein, Mondrian and Barnet Newman, and still shows today a validity that many contemporary artists would envy, concluded Pérez-Oramas.
Canopy The Fair.
The return to New York
Torres García first came to New York in 1920. “New York is my city,” he say at the time, according to the book New York, Impressions of an Artist. He worked as a designer for toy companies, painted backdrops for theater performances and wrote advertising copy. But Joaquín Torres García became overwhelmed by New York. He found there a commercial conception of art very different from the European purism. Today, he returns— through his works—to the city he loved and at some point came to hate, to receive a deserved tribute as one of the masters of contemporary art. ■
