Joaquín Torres-García (1874-1949)

Gift from the artist, 1946
Private Collection, Italy
Thence by descent to the present owner

José María Podestá, Joaquín Torres-García, Buenos Aires, 1946, illustrated

This work on a thin piece of artist board is unbroken and unreinforced on the reverse. The paint layer is probably slightly dirty but has not been cleaned. Beneath the “R” in the center right, there is a small dent in the board, which may have always been there but can be corrected. There are no losses. The work is unvarnished. There do not seem to be any retouches. This is a work which has been very carefully preserved, and it is recommended that it be framed behind glass to keep its pristine condition. (This condition report has been provided courtesy of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.)
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Guillermo de Torre (Madrid 1900-Buenos Aires 1971), the Spanish art critic and poet, described Torres-García’s constructive compositions as “micro cosmos containing nuclear elements of the world.” By placing pictographs within a structure, it is quite an achievement how Torres-García found a way to contain so much meaning within the surface of Pintura constructiva.Created in 1935, this emblematic painting features the artist’s most significant symbols, culled from diverse sources and cultures. Man is at the center of this “micro cosmos;” he is surrounded by the key, representing reason and knowledge; a hammer, for manual labor; a fish, the force of life and fertility. The rising sun is vital light; it is Inti, the Father sun in Andean theology. A Greek temple depicts the birthplace of Western civilization. The Golden Section rule is compositional harmony. There are symbols for opposite aspects of human nature, like the five-pointed star, the pentagram, and a mask. The first is the perfect example of geometry’s rationality, the second the occult and mysterious. And the cross, the intersecting of vertical and horizontal lines, is the active and the passive. For Torres-García, symbols encompass the whole range of humanity’s makeup, they are the nexus between reason and nature; life, emotion and geometry united. [1 ]

When in 1946, Editorial Losada in Buenos Aires published a Torres-García monograph by the Uruguayan writer José María Podestá, this composition was reproduced in color on the first page. All other reproductions were printed in black and white. Perhaps this chromatic difference was intended to underscore this work as a complete and perfect summation of Torres-García’s iconic style.

Enigmatically, since the 1946 Argentinean publication, this exemplary Torres-Garcia painting has not been exhibited or reproduced, as it has remained within the same family for over sixty years.

[1] J. Torres-García, Simbolismo intelectual y simbolismo mágico, Universalismo constructivo, Ed. Poseidón, Buenos Aires, 1944

© Cecilia de Torres, 2013