Lot 69 Dα

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Joaquín Torres-García was among the few artists to develop what he referred to as a “Universalismo Constructivo” out of his experiences with pre-Columbian art and the techniques of European-influenced geometric abstraction. After training at the Escuela Oficial de Bellas Artes in Barcelona and subsequently living in New York, Genoa and Nice, he moved to Paris in 1926: there he absorbed decisive artistic impulses and founded the group “Cercle et Carré” together with Michel Seuphor, Piet Mondrian, Hans Arp and Le Corbusier in 1930. It was in Paris that he first combined the abstract tendencies current at that time with motifs and symbols from the prehistoric and primitive art of his homeland, finding his way to his own personal constructivist style. In 1934 financial and political reasons led him to return to Montevideo, where he founded another artists’ group, provided drawing instruction and also finally experienced artistic recognition in the form of official commissions.
The 1948 painting “Construcción con sol y luna” is one of Torres-García’s last works. This strictly arranged composition, which features a schematically depicted figure in the middle with the moon and sun to either side, served as a preparatory work for a stained-glass window in his house in Montevideo. In late paintings like this one, he worked with a strict grid that he usually divided up according to the golden section before adding interrelated Native American-inspired motifs, including the sun, fish, vessels and hearts. The colour scheme featuring red, blue and yellow was probably derived from Peruvian textiles.