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Joaquín Torres-García prints bring a lively mix of geometry and storytelling into your home. Torres-García was a Uruguayan painter, teacher and writer who worked in Barcelona, New York, Paris and Montevideo, and created Universal Constructivism, a style that sets simple signs such as suns, fish, boats and clocks inside a grid. Our collection of fine art prints covers his constructive paintings, New York street scenes, Paris views and still lifes.

About Joaquín Torres-García

Joaquín Torres-García was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 28 July 1874. His father, a Catalan from Mataró, ran a general store near the port. In 1891 the family moved back to Catalonia, and he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona and the Baixas Academy. Among the young artists he knew there were Pablo Picasso, Isidre Nonell and Julio González, and he drew for papers such as La Vanguardia.

In the early 1900s he worked with Antoni Gaudí on stained glass for Palma Cathedral in Mallorca, and by the end of the decade he was one of Barcelona's leading artists. He became a leader of Noucentisme, a Catalan movement that looked back to the Mediterranean and classical world, and from 1913 he painted frescoes for the seat of the Catalan government in Barcelona. They drew so much criticism that the work was stopped and the murals covered over. In 1909 he married Manolita Piña; their four children, Olimpia, Augusto, Ifigenia and Horacio, all became artists.

After the birth of his children his work turned to simple geometric figures and primary colours, and he began making wooden toys. He spent two years in New York in the early 1920s, then lived in Italy and the south of France, and from 1926 in Paris, where he met Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg and founded the Cercle et Carré group with Mondrian. In 1934 he returned to Montevideo, founded the Association of Constructive Art, and from 1943 ran the Taller Torres-García, a workshop that trained a generation of Uruguayan artists. His book Universalismo constructivo appeared in 1944. He died in Montevideo on 8 August 1949.

Style and Subjects

Torres-García's mature paintings look like a page of picture-writing. He divided the canvas into a grid of rectangles, based on the golden section, and placed in each one a simple sign: a fish, a sun and moon, a ship, a clock, a figure, a key. These pictograms work like a universal language, joining the order of modern abstraction with the symbols of ancient and pre-Columbian art.

Before that, his work moved through stages. The Barcelona paintings are calm and classical, the New York pictures are busy views of docks, traffic and crowds, and the Paris works mix city scenes with the first grids. The collection follows all of these.

Famous Works

• Stained glass for Palma Cathedral (1902–1905), Palma Cathedral, Mallorca. Windows designed with Antoni Gaudí, with Marian symbols such as the sun, moon and star that he used all his life.
• Philosophy Presented by Pallas on Parnassus as the Tenth Muse (1911), Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona; second version in the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid. A calm classical scene seen as a founding work of Catalan Noucentisme.
• Voyages rapides vers le soleil (1930). From his Paris years, when he was working out his grid with Mondrian and Van Doesburg nearby.
• Pintura constructiva (1931), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A constructive painting with signs set in a grid of coloured compartments.
• América Invertida (1943), National Museum of Visual Arts, Montevideo. His famous map of South America turned upside down, with the south at the top.
• Construcción con sol y luna (1948). A late work built around the sun and moon, two of his favourite symbols.

Decorating with Torres-García Prints

Torres-García's grid paintings have the order and warmth that suit modern interiors. A constructive print like Constructivo a cinco tonos or Transatlántico constructivo looks right in a living room or study with wood, leather and earthy colours, and works well above a mid-century sideboard or desk.

The New York pictures, such as New York Docks and Fourteenth Street (Business Town), bring city energy to a hallway, office or loft. The playful Artists' Ball prints, with Pierrot, Harlequin and dancers, are a fun choice for a family room or a child's room.

FAQ

What art movement was Joaquín Torres-García part of?

He founded his own movement, Universal Constructivism, which combines geometric abstraction with symbols. Earlier he was a leading figure of Catalan Noucentisme, and in Paris he co-founded Cercle et Carré, an early group of abstract artists, with Piet Mondrian.

What is Joaquín Torres-García's most famous work?

América Invertida (1943), his drawing of South America upside down with the south at the top, is his best-known image. His constructive grid paintings of the 1930s and 1940s are also widely known.

Was Torres-García Uruguayan or Spanish?

Both. He was born in Montevideo to a Catalan father and a Uruguayan mother, grew up and trained in Catalonia, and became a Spanish citizen. He spent his last fifteen years back in Montevideo, where he is a central figure of Uruguayan art.

What was the Taller Torres-García?

It was the workshop he ran in Montevideo from 1943, teaching young painters his constructive method based on flat colour, line and geometry. It stayed open until 1967 and trained artists such as Gonzalo Fonseca, José Gurvich and his sons Augusto and Horacio Torres.

Related Artists

• Piet Mondrian: Dutch abstract painter and co-founder with Torres-García of Cercle et Carré in Paris
• Theo van Doesburg: De Stijl founder who introduced Torres-García to the group in 1928
• Sophie Taeuber-Arp: abstract artist who showed in the 1929 exhibition he organised for the Galeries Dalmau
• Isidre Nonell: fellow student in Barcelona in the 1890s
• Ramon Casas: Barcelona painter who portrayed the young Torres-García and ran the magazine Pèl & Ploma