Joaquín Torres García

In 1909, he married Manolita Piña. The couple went on to have four children together.

He died on August 8, 1949, at the age of 75, in Montevideo, Uruguay.

He is considered as the founder of the modern painting movement entitled ‘Universalismo Constructivo’. This style is abstract and symbolic, integrating different styles of art to form revolutionary works.

He was born on July 28, 1874 in Montevideo, Uruguay. His mother, María García Pérez, was Uruguayan while his father, Joaquim Torras Fradera, was a Catalan immigrant who owned his own general store.

Facing financial challenges, the family decided to return to his father’s hometown in Barcelona, Spain, in 1891. Here, Joaquin Torres Garcia entertained his artistic fantasies by painting under the artist Josep Vinardell.

In 1892, he attended Barcelona’s Academy of Fine Arts to study painting. After a short time, the young man decided to switch his enrollment to the more prestigious Baixas Academy.

From 1893 to 1898 he attended the Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc. While studying here, he began to illustrate periodicals and books including Barcelona Comica and Jacinto Benvante’s La Vida Literaria.

In 1901, Joaquin Torres Garcia began to paint frescoes. His early style was an adoption of the work of the French artist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

In 1903, he paired up with Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi to work on stained glass for the ‘Sagrada Familia’ Cathedral in Barcelona. The same year he began to publish texts about Noucentisme.

In 1913, his first book, ‘Notes on Art’, was completed and published. The same year he founded the School of Decorative Arts in Sarria.

In 1918, near the end of a long project, the government decided to cancel the job. At this point, he turned his focus to designing wooden toys. He went into a decade-long period of silence where he did not participate in theoretical discussions.

Between 1920 and 1922, Joaquin Torres Garcia relocated to New York where he painted numerous portraits including one of Joseph Stella. He was featured in exhibits in both the Society of Independent Artists and The Whitney Studio Club. He painted scenery for ‘The Great Play’.

In 1944, Joaquin Torres Garcia published his most influential theorist work, ‘Universalismo Constructivo’. The art was an integration of Renaissance style, European formalism, and the mystic character from primitive art. He gained such a large following with the younger generation of students that they considered his trend to be like a “religious conviction” in which Garcia was God.