Joaquín Torres García

JOAQUÍN TORRES GARCÍA (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1874 - 1949).
"Fish", 1942.
Pencil on paper.
Presents label (exempt) on the back of the Royal Marks Gallery (N.Y).
Measurements: 14 x 22 cm; 48 x 56 cm (frame).
After beginning his training as a self-taught artist, in 1890 Torres García decided to emigrate in order to train as a painter. He travels to Europe with his family the following year, at the age of seventeen. In 1892 he settled in Barcelona and entered the School of Fine Arts. There he came into contact with French impressionism, the main influence at that time for him and other famous students, such as Mir, Sunyer, Canals and Nonell. In 1901 he began to paint in fresco, attracted by the timeless spirit of the ancient works done in this technique, and entered a dynamic group work in which painters, musicians, sculptors and poets collaborated. Around 1910 he began to introduce formal elements typical of Catalonia into his work, imbued with the spirit of vindication of the Catalan identity of the time. Several official commissions are related to this new approach, among which the mural decoration of the Salón de Sant Jordi at the headquarters of the Diputación Provincial de Barcelona stands out as a turning point in his career. In 1920 he moved to New York and came into contact with artists of the stature of Max Weber, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. Soon after, he returned to Europe and settled in Paris, where he frequented the meetings of the group led by Mondrian, thus approaching abstraction and constructivism. In 1934 he finally decided to return to Montevideo, where he was received as a member of the European artistic elite. There he created the Society of the Arts of Uruguay, whose aim was to integrate all the arts and act as a link between artists and the public.