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Lot Essay
It is wonderful that treasures like this 1931 painting are resurfacing after years of neglect. In the reassessment of art that took place after the Second World War, Torres-Garcí's work and his contribution to the trajectory of Modernism were overlooked.
Perhaps this was because Torres-Garcí's work didn't fit in with the notion that Modernism had to be hard-edged or minimalist or perhaps it was because he had left Europe for Montevideo in 1934. In that new order, his paintings, which were conversant with the art of ancient civilizations, didn't conform to the categories then in vogue.
Ironically, this is precisely what Torres-García envisioned: to continue the lineage of art that links civilizations. As was reported in The Chicago Tribune of March 6, 1931, "He [Torres-Garía], is frankly an artist of the avant-garde, and throughout his work he has established an order that tends to unite tradition with the spirit of today... A modern primitive, his paintings reflect the great art of the past."
Recently, while walking through the Metropolitan Museum's galleries of ancient art this connection was confirmed when a small stone tablet from Mesopotamia stopped me short. Nothing I had ever seen resembles more the work of Torres-Garca<->a: a white glyph on a dark gray background divided by a grid with symbols within.
In this 1931 Untitled painting, the structure is symmetric, divided by a central axis, with identical compartments on each side. This highlights the architectural character of his late 1931-1932 paintings.
The strange creature in the center of the canvas is the work's most perplexing feature. Torres-García left no clue as to the origin of this "primal being," that with slightly different details, he placed prominently in several compositions of this period. There is a mysterious, almost threatening aspect to it in contrast to the other comprehensible symbols and figures. At that time in Paris, he was exploring diverse sources: children's, pre-Columbian and primitive art.
In this small canvas, Torres-García aspired to encompass the Universe. A few lines from an essay that he wrote about Lipchitz might best describe his own thoughts. "The artist's intuition penetrates ever more deeply to reveal what is untranslatable, resistant to any form of language, something that only form, by some miracle, can display before our eyes. Any attempt to describe such work in words is a vain enterprise indeed. Undoubtedly, the artist himself would be equally incapable of providing the explanation, since his work is the product of the subconscious, conceived through a force rooted in the depths of his being, at a level no longer that of the individual but of universality."
Cecilia de Torres, New York, April 2003
Perhaps this was because Torres-Garcí's work didn't fit in with the notion that Modernism had to be hard-edged or minimalist or perhaps it was because he had left Europe for Montevideo in 1934. In that new order, his paintings, which were conversant with the art of ancient civilizations, didn't conform to the categories then in vogue.
Ironically, this is precisely what Torres-García envisioned: to continue the lineage of art that links civilizations. As was reported in The Chicago Tribune of March 6, 1931, "He [Torres-Garía], is frankly an artist of the avant-garde, and throughout his work he has established an order that tends to unite tradition with the spirit of today... A modern primitive, his paintings reflect the great art of the past."
Recently, while walking through the Metropolitan Museum's galleries of ancient art this connection was confirmed when a small stone tablet from Mesopotamia stopped me short. Nothing I had ever seen resembles more the work of Torres-Garca<->a: a white glyph on a dark gray background divided by a grid with symbols within.
In this 1931 Untitled painting, the structure is symmetric, divided by a central axis, with identical compartments on each side. This highlights the architectural character of his late 1931-1932 paintings.
The strange creature in the center of the canvas is the work's most perplexing feature. Torres-García left no clue as to the origin of this "primal being," that with slightly different details, he placed prominently in several compositions of this period. There is a mysterious, almost threatening aspect to it in contrast to the other comprehensible symbols and figures. At that time in Paris, he was exploring diverse sources: children's, pre-Columbian and primitive art.
In this small canvas, Torres-García aspired to encompass the Universe. A few lines from an essay that he wrote about Lipchitz might best describe his own thoughts. "The artist's intuition penetrates ever more deeply to reveal what is untranslatable, resistant to any form of language, something that only form, by some miracle, can display before our eyes. Any attempt to describe such work in words is a vain enterprise indeed. Undoubtedly, the artist himself would be equally incapable of providing the explanation, since his work is the product of the subconscious, conceived through a force rooted in the depths of his being, at a level no longer that of the individual but of universality."
Cecilia de Torres, New York, April 2003