TORRES-GARCÍA
Between Noucentisme and Avant-gardes (1891-1934)
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Joaquín Torres-García (1874-1949), Sala Parés, in collaboration with the Museo Torres García in Montevideo and the Generalitat de Catalunya, is organising an exhibition featuring around one hundred and twenty works – including oil paintings, works on paper, and toys – that span a broad chronological range: from the artist’s arrival in Catalonia in 1891 to the early 1930s.
In the exhibition, the production of Torres-García from those four key decades intertwines, crucial for understanding his evolution as well as the birth of Constructive Art. Thus, both his eclectic early works, in which academic elements are combined with clear modernist influences, and his extensive noucentista output, culminating in the decoration of the Saló de Sant Jordi – whose sketches have been lent by the Generalitat de Catalunya for this exhibition – reveal a Torres-García whose work increasingly expresses a religious sense of art, beyond the merely formal and aesthetic. This premise is essential to understanding his exploration and quest for a synthesis that would open new paths toward innovative plastic solutions. The young Torres-García is a painter who explores, experiments, and studies, but who, above all, is capable of constructing a personal art aimed at connecting with the essential order through perception and expressing this order through his own artistic vision. As he states in his Notes d’art (1913): “In every great work of art, the idea of each object, more than its reality or particularism, is the essential thing… He sees, in color and form, the expression of that idea.”
This same idea becomes more evident in his work from 1917 onwards, the year when he abandoned the classical aesthetics associated with Noucentisme and connected with the avant-garde. Both the toys from around 1917-19 and the appearance of irregular grids in some of his works, as well as his engagement with Futurist ideas, serve as a gateway to the Constructive Art he would later codify. Likewise, Torres-García’s fascination with the modern city is also widely represented in the exhibition, with fully modern compositions that, despite their themes, contain a deeper meaning beyond the formal. These works belong both to his final period in Barcelona and to the brief yet highly significant periods he spent in New York (1920-1922) and Paris (1926-1932). It is precisely in the late 1920s that his universal Constructive Art becomes fully defined.
We are proud to celebrate Torres-García’s art on the 150th anniversary of his birth, thus reviving the connection the Uruguayan artist had with Sala Parés at the beginning of his career. The many facets of his art return to the Barcelona gallery to contrast with one another, to complement each other, and, ultimately, to be showcased comprehensively, highlighting the artist-builder’s search for ‘the essential’.
REVIEWS
“Torres-García, dels frescos del Palau als dibuixos de la Sala Parés”. Notícies 3/24, 19/12/2024.
Teresa Sesé – “Torres-García vuelve a casa”. La Vanguardia, 08/12/2024.
Antoni Ribas Tur – “Todo el esplendor de Joaquim Torres-García en la Sala Parés”. Ara, 02/12/2024.
“Homenaje a Joaquín Torres-García en la Sala Parés”. PAC, 02/12/2024.
“El regreso de Torres-García a la Sala Parés (Barcelona)”. Exibart, 02/12/2024.
“Torres-García. Entre el Noucentisme y las vanguardias (1891-1934)”. ArteInformado, 04/12/2024.
“Catalunya Migdia”. Multidifusió, 29/11/2024.
“Noticies Catalunya informació”. Catalunya Ràdio, 29/11/2024.
“TORRES-GARCÍA. Entre el Noucentisme y las vanguardias (1891-1934)”. GRAF, 29/11/2024.
“Joaquín Torres-García, retorno a la Sala Parés”. Hoyesarte, 29/11/2024.
Jordi Carrión – “Torres-García, un creador contemporani”. La Vanguardia, 15/09/2024.
Joan Bofill – “Nuestro norte es el sur”. La Vanguardia, 15/09/2024.
CHECK OUT THE VIRTUAL CATALOGUE
