JOAQUÍN TORRES GARCIA

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Sunday feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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Joaquín Torres Garcia (1874-1949) was Uruguayan Painter, muralist, illustrator, sculptor, theorist and teacher. He moved to Spain in 1891, where he studied at Academia de belles artes de Barcelona, and the Academia Baixas. He became affiliated with Noucentisme, a movement that opposed modernism. Its members called for the development of a Catalan cultural identity. He explored pre-Columbian art. as the basis for an American Modernism.

After settling in Paris (1926) he expounded Universal Constructivism (Universalismo constructivo), a style of painting that combined a grid like, abstract structure with symbolic images.

Torres-Garcia’s works evolved to incorporate elements of both Cubism and Constructivism, with a distinct quality of his own. The architectural sense in his painting had distinct dissociation from the colour. Both, flourished as two separate entities aided by geometric abstraction. Joan Miró was a student of Torres-García in Barcelona, and he acknowledged his teacher's influence.

 

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