Lot Essay
The vibrant palette of primary colors, the prominent figure of a contemporary man in the foreground and the words 'Montevideo' and 'XX Century' which dominate this important work painted on New Year's Day 1946, signal a dramatic change in Torres-García's outlook. World War II had just ended, and as documented in his diary entries, he followed the war news with great interest and referred to Europe as Babel, because of the chaos and decline there. In the handwritten manifesto La regla abstracta, (The Abstract Rule), which Torres-García completed on February 5th, a month after painting this oil, he expounded on his belief that it was in the Americas where a new and powerful art was emerging.
This painting exemplifies the ideas inspired by his confidence and optimism in the future of the New World in the aftermath of the War. Contradicting his previous belief in pursuing only what is truly permanent in art, this composition conveys his excitement in the 'vibration which is awakening our artistic consciousness to a new interpretation of the fantastic, modern world.' (1) His constant shifting in allegiances, from the universal and enduring to the immediate and modern, adds to what makes Torres-García such a complex and compelling figure. He called for 'the painter to construct a painting as if he was a bricklayer building a wall: applying pure red, then drawing an angle, adding pure yellow, drawing a circle, and then blue and black and white. Using pure unmixed colors, like a worker painting a machine.' (2) This powerful work, fully represents the 'new kind of realism, with true measure, true color and true form' which Torres-García was so enthusiastically advocating only three years before his death in 1949. (3)
We are grateful to Cecilia de Torres for her assistance in cataloguing and writing the above essay for the present lot.
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1. Torres-García, La Regla Abstracta, (The Abstract Rule), in Nueva Escuela de Arte del Uruguay, Pulicaciones de la Escuela de Arte Constructivo, Montevideo, 1946
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
This painting will be listed under P 1946.18 in the forethcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's oeuvre being prepared by Cecilia de Torres
This painting exemplifies the ideas inspired by his confidence and optimism in the future of the New World in the aftermath of the War. Contradicting his previous belief in pursuing only what is truly permanent in art, this composition conveys his excitement in the 'vibration which is awakening our artistic consciousness to a new interpretation of the fantastic, modern world.' (1) His constant shifting in allegiances, from the universal and enduring to the immediate and modern, adds to what makes Torres-García such a complex and compelling figure. He called for 'the painter to construct a painting as if he was a bricklayer building a wall: applying pure red, then drawing an angle, adding pure yellow, drawing a circle, and then blue and black and white. Using pure unmixed colors, like a worker painting a machine.' (2) This powerful work, fully represents the 'new kind of realism, with true measure, true color and true form' which Torres-García was so enthusiastically advocating only three years before his death in 1949. (3)
We are grateful to Cecilia de Torres for her assistance in cataloguing and writing the above essay for the present lot.
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1. Torres-García, La Regla Abstracta, (The Abstract Rule), in Nueva Escuela de Arte del Uruguay, Pulicaciones de la Escuela de Arte Constructivo, Montevideo, 1946
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
This painting will be listed under P 1946.18 in the forethcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's oeuvre being prepared by Cecilia de Torres