Joaquín Torres García | |
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by Ramon Casas (MNAC).
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Born |
Montevideo, Uruguay |
28 July 1874
Died | 8 August 1949 Montevideo, Uruguay |
(aged 75)
Nationality | Uruguay Spanish Catalan |
Education | Escuela Oficial de Bellas Artes Barcelona |
Known for | Painting, Sculpture, Writer, Teacher, Illustrator, Theorist |
Notable work | Frescoes of the Generalitat of Barcelona |
Movement | Modern Art, Noucentisme, Constructivism |
Patron(s) | Prat de la Riba |
Joaquín Torres García (28 July 1874 – 8 August 1949) also known as Joaquim Torras, Quim Torras was a Uruguayan/Catalan artist ("l'artista uruguaianocatalà Joaquim Torres Garcia"),painter, sculptor, muralist, novelist, writer, teacher and theorist who spent most of his adult life in Spain and France.
Pioneer of the renaissance of Modern Classicism, leader of the Mediterranean cultural tradition noucentisme, inventor of Universal Constructivism, "Torres-Garcia is one of the great figures of the art of this century", an avant gardist whose influence encompasses European, American and South American modern art.
He is known for his collaboration with Gaudi in 1903 on the stained glass windows for the Palma Cathedral, and the Sagrada Família.
In 1913 he painted the famous monumental frescoes in the medieval Palau de la Generalitat seat of the Catalan government.
As a theoretician he published "more than one hundred and fifty books, essays and articles written in Catalan, Spanish, French, English; admirable treaties about aesthetics, calligraphy, pictograms and avant-garde literature.", and gave more than 500 lectures. An indefatigable teacher he founded two art schools one in Spain and another in Montevideo and numerous art groups including the first European abstract art group and magazine Cercle et Carré (Circle and square) in Paris in 1929. Many artists have called him "Maestro" (teacher) including Joan Miró, Helion, Pere Daura, Engel Rozier.