|
Biography
Uruguayan painter and theorician. In 1892, he moved to Barcelona, where he studied at the Baixas Academy and became involved with the Círculo Artístico. He worked as an illustrator for various magazines and participated in diverse exhibitions. In 1903-04, he worked with António Gaudí on the no Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, and on the restoration of the stained glass at Palma Cathedral in Majorca. In 1910, he took part in the decoration of the Uruguayan pavilion at the International and Universal Exhibition in Brussels and, in 1911, he was contracted to paint frescos at the Salón de Sant Jordi in the Palau de la Generalitat, Barcelona. Around 1915-16 he sought isolation in Tarrasa, where he painted local scenes and landscapes. In 1920, he moved to New York where he designed toys and, in 1922, returned to Europe. In 1928, he took part in the Salon d'Automne and met Mondrian whose influence was decisive in his work. In 1929, together with Mondrian, he founded the Cercle et Carré group, and in 1932, moved to Madrid, where he took part in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Society of Iberian Artists. In 1934, he decided to return to Uruguay and, in 1935, founded the Constructive Art Association. Between 1936 and 1943, he published Círculo y Cuadrado, a periodical which laid the foundations of Cubism, Neo-plasticism and Constructivism in Uruguay. In 1944, he published his most important book, Universalismo Constructivo, in which he puts forward his ideas on the plastic arts, profoundly influencing other artists and the whole of the South American art world. Torres-García forged the link between South American Pre-Columbian culture and European modern art movements, Cubism and Neo-plasticism in particular.
|
|
