Joaquin Torres-García & The School of the South

JOAQUÍN TORRES-GARCÍA [1874-1949, Uruguay]

JULIO ALPUY [1919, Uruguay - 2009, USA]

JOSÉ GURVICH [1927, Lithuania -1974, USA]

GONZALO FONSECA [1922, Uruguay - 1997, Italy]

The Uruguayan painter, muralist, sculptor, teacher, writer, and theoretician, Joaquín Torres-García was born in Montevideo to a Catalan father and a Uruguayan mother. When he was seventeen years old, his family returned to the father’s homeland in Catalonia, Spain. Torres-García would not return to Montevideo for another forty-three years, living in Spain, France, the United States, and Italy.

In Barcelona, he studied at the Academy La Llotja and at the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc. In 1903, he worked at Antoni Gaudí's studio. Commissioned to decorate a large hall for Barcelona's Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya, he traveled to Italy in 1912 to study fresco. By 1916, he had completed four large fresco murals. He contributed essays to magazines and newspapers, and his first book, Notes sobre art, was published in 1913. In 1917, Torres-García began to design manipulable, didactic wood toys for children, which he continued to do until the 1930s in Paris.

In 1920, Torres-García left Barcelona for good. He settled in New York, and after two years, he returned to Europe; first, he lived in Tuscany, and then, in 1926, he moved to Paris. It was there that he met the French artist Jean Hélion who introduced him to the artists of the avant-garde. He became friends with Jacques Lipchitz, Theo van Doesburg, Alexander Calder, Piet Mondrian, Le Corbusier, Luis Fernandez, and Amédée Ozenfant. He also renewed his friendship with the sculptor Julio González. With Michel Seuphor, Torres-García founded the group and journal, Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) in 1930. At the end of 1932, due to the economic effects of the stock market crash, he moved to Madrid.

After eighteen months in the Spanish capital, he returned to Uruguay. In Montevideo, he first founded the “Asociación de Arte Constructivo” (AAC) (“The Association of Constructivist Art”) with a group of Uruguayan artists. In the first issue of Círculo y Cuadrado, a magazine inspired by Cercle et Carré which the group renewed, the seminal drawing of the Inverted Map of South America was published. Torres-García’s statement was: “Nuestro norte es el sur” (“Our North is the South").

2023
Collectiva, Galeria Marc Domènech, Barcelona, Spain
Armchair, Characters & Mirrors: 20th Century Avant-Garde Cabinet, Galería Leandro Navarro, Madrid, Spain
Taller Torres-García: a unified aesthetic. Constructive Universalism with paintings, sculpture, and drawings, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
Drawing From The South of America: Master Drawings, Henrique Faria, New York, NY, USA

2022
Konkrete Global! Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg, Germany
Introducing MACA, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Atchugarry (MACA), Manantiales, Punta del Este, Uruguay
Tercer ojo, Colección Costantini en Malba, Habitar la ciudad, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina
Joaquín Torres-García: Toys, Ortuzar Projects, New York, NY, USA
Torres-García: el arte del juguete, Galería Guillermo de Osma, Madrid, Spain

2021    
Ways of Seeing: Three Takes on the Jack Shear Drawing Collection, The Drawing Center, New York, NY, USA
Drawn: From the Collection of Jack Shear, The Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA
Abstraction and Calligraphy – Towards a Universal Language, Louvre Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Nosso Norte é o Sul, Bergamin & Gomide, São Paulo, Brazil

2020
Constructed Dialogues: Selections from the Latin American Collection in the inaugural installation of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA
Avantguardes històriques, Sala Balmau, Barcelona, Spain
Metáforas Latinoamericanas, Galería Freijo, Madrid, Spain
Unconventional Figures, Rosenburg & Co., New York, NY, USA

2019
Sur Moderno: Journeys of Abstraction, The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
Torres-García: Un universo vanguardista, Galería Sur, Punta del Este, Uruguay
Joaquín Torres-García. Obra Viva, Centro Cultural La Moneda, Santiago, Chile

2018
The Worlds of Joaquín Torres-García, Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York City, NY, USA
Vanguardia Y Arte Internacional IV, Galería Leandro Navarro, Madrid, Spain
Unlocking the Grid, Bookstein Projects, New York, NY, USA

2017
Colección Telefónica Cubismo(s) y experiencias de la Modernidad, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Junto al aura de Picasso, Fundacion Picasso, Museo Casa Natal, Málaga, Spain

2016
Joaquín Torres-García: un moderno en la Arcadia, Museo Picasso, Málaga, Spain
Torres-García y el objeto – Arte y Diseño, Galería Guillermo de Osma, Madrid, Spain
Joaquín Torres-García: un moderno en la Arcadia, Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain

2015
Joaquín Torres-García: The Arcadian Modern, (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
Joaquín Torres-García, Sala Dalmau, Barcelona, Spain
Joaquín Torres-García 1874-1949, Museo de Bellas de Murcia, Spain
Joaquín Torres-García: Maderas, dibujos y juguetes, Galería Leandro Navarro, Madrid, Spain
Torres-García: el niño aprende jugando, Museo Torres-García, Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, São Paulo, Brazil
Joaquín Torres-García, Gary Nader Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Looking South, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

2013
Joaquín Torres-Garcia i Barcelona: 1891-1919, Palau Antiguitats, Barcelona, Spain

2012
Joaquín Torres-García. Obra mural inédita 1914-1918, Amics de les Arts i Joventuts Musicals, Terrassa, Spain

2011
Torres García: Geometría, creación, proporción, Fundación Iberé Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Torres-García. Dibujos inéditos, Oriol Galería d’Art, Barcelona, Spain
Torres-García a les seves cruïlles, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Torres-García: Utopía y Tradición, Museo de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Torres-García at his Crossroads, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Barcelona, Spain

2010
Trazos de New York, Museo Torres García, Montevideo, Uruguay; Caixa de Río de Janeiro, Brazil
Torres-García: Dispot temporal per un any de la Collecció Alejandra, Aurelio i Claudio Torres al MNAC, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

2009
Joaquín Torres-García: Constructing Abstraction with Wood, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, USA
J. Torres García 1874-1949 Anys de Galeria, Sala Dalmau, Barcelona, Spain
Joaquín Torres-García: Paintings in Houston Collections, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA

2008
Darrere la màscara constructiva, Centre Cultural de Caixa Girona-Fontana D'Or, Girona, Spain
A Intuição e a Estrutura/ La Intuición y la Estructura: De Torres-García a Viera da Silva 1929-1949, Fundação de Arte Moderna e Contemporânea, Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Spain
Joaquín Torres-García: De Paris a Montevideo, Galería Leandro Navarro, Madrid, Spain

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA

Art Museum of the Americas (AMA), Washington, D.C., USA

Banco de Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain

Banco República, Uruguay

Berardo Museum, Lisbon, Portugal

Biblioteca Central de Barcelona, Spain

Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA

CIFO, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL, USA

Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, USA

Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

Colección de Arte Banco de la República, Colombia

Colección Telefónica, Madrid, Spain

Col·lecció Fundació Antiga Caixa Terrassa, Spain

Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Dallas Museum of Art, TX, USA

Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zürich, Switzerland

Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio, Lenox, MA, USA

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian/Centro de Arte Moderno, Lisbon, Portugal

Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Fundación Cultural de la Caixa de Terrassa, Spain

Fundación Francisco Godia, Barcelona, Spain

Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, Spain

Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain

Gary Nader Art Centre, Miami, FL, USA

Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, USA

Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY, USA

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA

Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain

Instituto de crédito oficial (ICO), Madrid, Spain

Katoennatie HeadquARTers, Antwerp, Belgium

Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

LaM - Lille Métropole musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France

Liceo No. 1 Manuel Rose, Las Piedras, Uruguay

Lille Métropole Musée d’art (LAM) contemporain et d’art brut, Villenueve d’Ascq, France

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA, USA

Musée d’Art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France

Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France

Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCS), Strasbourg, France

Musée de Grenoble, France

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, France

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, France

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Museo Botero, Bogotá, Colombia

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Atchugarry (MACA), Punta del Este, Uruguay

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, Spain