MOMA DEVOTES A MAJOR RETROSPECTIVE AT JOAQUIN TORRES - GARCIA

The Museum of Modern Art presents a major retrospective devoted to the art of Joaquín Torres-García (Uruguayan, 1874–1949). The exhibition comprises works ranging from the late 19th century to the 1940s, and includes drawings, paintings, objects, sculptures, and original artist notebooks and rare publications.

 

This retrospective unfolds as a survey combining a chronological display with a thematic approach, structured in a series of major chapters embracing the artist’s entire oeuvre with emphasis on two key moments: the period from 1923 to 1933, when Torres-García participated in various European early-modern avant-garde movements while establishing his own signature pictographic-constructivists style; and 1935 to 1943, when he produced one of the most striking repertoires of synthetic abstraction upon his return to Uruguay.

 

Torres-García is one of the most complex and emblematic modern masters from the first half of the 20th century, and his work laid out transformational paths for modern art on both sides of the Atlantic. Manifesting a profound impulse toward arcadic, primitive, and schematic forms alongside a permanent fascination with the notion of utopia, he participated in some of the most crucial intellectual and artistic discussions of the past century. His personal involvement with a significant number of early avant-garde movements, from Catalan Noucentismo to Cubism, Ultraism-Vibrationism, and Neo-Plasticism, make him an unparalleled figure deserving of a comprehensive critical reevaluation in the U.S.