Curated by Josef Helfenstein and Mari Carmen Ramírez
One of the key advocates of abstraction in Latin America, Joaquín Torres-García (1874–1949) is best known for paintings that situate pre-Columbian symbols within modernist grids. This exhibition’s focus on the Uruguayan artist’s use of wood unveils a more complex project involving the reconciliation of painting and sculpture, whether through totemlike structures, idiosyncratic assemblages, or toys that verge on folk art. The show comprises some ninety drawings, oil paintings, and works in wood from Torres-García’s formative period in 1920s New York and Europe through his emergence as a pedagogue and champion of Constructive Universalism in the ’30s and ’40s via his own workshop school in Montevideo. The catalogue includes previously untranslated texts by the artist, which should provide further insight into his vision for a transnational modernism.
