Joaquín Torres-García (1874-1949)

oil on canvas

Estate of the artist
Augusto Torres
Jan Krugier Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Madrid

 

Montevideo, Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes, Tercera Exposición de la Asociación de Arte Constructiva (AAC), 1935, n.n.
Barcelona, Museo Picasso, Torres-García, November 25, 2003 – April 11, 2004, p. 253, no. 238, illustrated

Madrid, Alianza Forma, Universalismo Constructivo, 1984, Vol 2., illustrated

This painting is unlined. The paint layer appears to be unvarnished and is in beautiful condition. Garcia has changed the composition quite radically in some places and healthy pentimenti is visible throughout, particularly in the lower portion of the picture. There are few spots of retouch in the dark triangle in the upper right and around the extreme edges. Other than this there appears to be no restoration visible, either under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye and the picture should be hung as is. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
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In many ways, Joaquín Torres-García's peripatetic life paralleled the enormous social, economic and political upheavals that defined modern life in the first half of the twentieth century.  Born in Montevideo in 1874, Torres-García lived most of his life away from his homeland, immigrating with his family as a teenager to Barcelona in the 1890s, to New York in 1920, Italy in 1922, Paris in 1926, Madrid in 1932, and finally his return to Montevideo in 1934 after forty-three years of absence. As an artist, these multiple migrations not only put him in direct contact and dialogue with the broad spectrum of vanguard art practices of his day, but also exposed him to numerous cultures and perspectives that no doubt shaped his world view as well as one of his primary objectives as an artist—to create a visual language that eschewed facile or descriptive images in favor of a complex lexicon of archetypal forms that could be understood by viewers across national borders and cultural differences—a Universal Constructivist art.

 

Prior to developing his signature style, Torres-García's artistic evolution, beginning during his years in Barcelona up until his arrival in Paris in 1924, reflects a panoply of artistic practices as varied as Art Nouveau, symbolism, Mediterranean classicism, vibrationism (refer to Lots 15 and 16 in this Sale for two excellent examples of this period), cubism, and fauvism. And, despite the seemingly disparate nature of these manifestations, collectively they reflected the artist's belief in the principles of Neo-Platonic thought vis à vis the pursuit of an artistic language capable of conveying a higher ideal that could transcend mundane reality in favor of the universal and timeless.

 

The culmination of this search coincided with his arrival in Paris in 1926 and his absorption and active participation within that cultural milieu. Indeed, Torres-García immersed himself in the Parisian avant-garde, and immediately familiarized himself with the key players and ideas of the two leading groups—the surrealists and the abstractionists. Torres-García's mature style would synthesize aspects of both of these leading movements. He was particularly partial to the proponents of abstraction and in 1930, co-founded with the Belgian critic and artist Michel Seuphor, the Cercle et Carré, a loose association of artists who boasted an international line-up of participants, including Jean Arp, Fernand Léger, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kurt Schwitters and George Vantongerloo, and subscribed to a range of views about geometric abstraction. Although the group disbanded in 1931 they left an indelible mark in the history of modern art. Likewise Torres-García's involvement in this group would prefigure his role as educator and theorists upon his return to Uruguay in 1934, most notably as founder of the Asociación de Arte Constructivo (AAC) and later El Taller Torres-García. Equally significant was his encounter with Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, the creators of neoplasticsim, a specific form of geometric abstraction that combined pure geometry and color with mystical spiritualism—an approach that no doubt resonated with Torres-García's own beliefs about the intersection of art and life. It was also during this period that the artist intensified his study of ancient art, particularly the artistic and cultural expressions of Amerindian cultures. 

 

It was at this juncture in the late 1920s, that Torres-García had all of the elements in place that would coalesce to form his mature style—one that combined aspects of cubism  (the concrete form), neoplasticism (the purified structure), and surrealism (the subconscious and the associational) with the incorporation of a language of symbols derived from pre-Columbian art and the artist's study of other western and non-western ancient cultures. The latter is of particular significance as it was the elaboration of this system of signs that enabled the artist to transform the overly rational aspects of geometric abstraction with a distinctly humanistic vision. Indeed it was this unique combination of elements that defined his trademark style and his outstanding contribution to the history of modern art—what he referred to as "Constructive Universalism."

 

Executed in 1932, Constructif Misterieux offers the viewer a veritable blueprint for exploring the intricacies of Torres-Garcia's signature style of Constructive Universalism. The composition is carefully structured and proportioned within a grid that attests to Torres-García study and adherence to the ancient practice of the Golden Section and the principles of neoplasticism. His pictographic language is then carefully positioned within the resulting compartments of this geometric structure. The selection of symbols is guided by his belief in the different realms of reality or consciousness—in ascending order, the instinctual or sensorial, followed by the realm of spirituality and emotion, and at the highest level, the intellectual. In keeping with this philosophical structure, the ideograms utilized in this painting are consistent with this approach. The natural world is represented by the archetypal symbols of a fish and a snail placed in the lower compartments of the composition, followed by the symbols of the universal man and woman as well as an anchor, all of which refer to the realm of emotions, while at the top, references to travel and architecture or the simple motif of a ladder suggests transience and passage perhaps to another stage of consciousness or awareness. While Torres-García assigned a hierarchical value to these "states of knowledge" it is equally true that he believed that true ascendance was only possible through a balance between these realms. His painterly brushwork and his use of an unusually colorful palette of rich red, forest green, bright orange, lilac and metallic gray, albeit muted with grisaille undertones, may be seen as an effort to counter the rational aspects of the grid with an element of the intuitive and imaginative.  Likewise, such references to ancient cultures, as a pre-Columbian stone mask, an ancient stela and a carved vessel at the bottom of the composition assert the timeless aspects of his archetypal imagery while suggesting a metaphorical anchor and a poignant thread of continuity that asserts the universality of Torres-García's art across different cultures, space and time.¹

 

Constructif Misterieux was painted during Torres-García's last year in Paris, no doubt a bittersweet moment. As this was not only a period of great creative and intellectual output but it also coincided with the solidification of his career as a key member of the Parisian vanguard with his participation in various group exhibitions at Georges Petit, Jean Charpentier, and Piere Loeb Galleries, as well as a one-person show at Galerie Jeanne Bucher. But as the international depression widened, Torres-García was forced to uproot himself and his family yet again. He left for Madrid in December of 1932, but the move proved to be brief as political unrest motivated one last migration. In 1934, Torres-Garcia made the important decision to return to Montevideo. Indeed, his decision would significantly transform the path of twentieth-century art in Latin America. As a key exponent of modern art, Torres-García's role as an artist, educator and theorist upon his return to Uruguay influenced several generations of artists in the Southern Cone region and beyond. His "Constructive Universalism" represented an alternative to more mimetic or figurative based practices in the region, while in the words of Cecilia de Torres, offering "the first systematic and coherent attempt to create an autonomous artistic tradition for Latin America."² Constuctif Misteriux eloquently embodies that pursuit and the lessons Torres-García shared with his students and followers upon his return to Montevideo. So much so that in 1935, Constructif Misterieux was included in the 3^rd Exhibition of the AAC, surrounded by the works of other key members of the group—Carmelo de Arzadun, Julián Álvarez Marques, Héctor Ragni and Augusto Torres, among others—the painting visually communicated the culmination of a new language based on a shared tradition of abstraction simultaneously rooted in Western and non-Western principles and the foundation for a new art capable of conveying the complex identities and histories of the Americas.

 

 

 

1 For a more detailed discussion on this topic, see Valerie Fletcher, "Joaquín Tores-García" and Adolfo M. Maslach, "On the Esoteric in the Art of Joaquín Torres-García in Crosscurrents of Modernism: Four Latin American Pioneers, Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres-García, Wifredo Lam and Matta (Washington, D.C.: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), pp113-115, 153-157.

 

2 Cecilia de Torres, "Joaquín Torres-García, Composition," Latin American Art, May 30-31, 2007 (New York: Sotheby's), Lot 18