Mari Carmen Ramirez

In 1934, Joaquín Torres-García returned to his native Montevideo, Uruguay, after being active in Europe for many years. He advocated a theory of art called Constructive Universalism, in which simplified universal symbols, including references to pre-Columbian cultures, were set within grids proportioned according to the Golden Section. Embracing his new geographic context, he proposed a new constructive art centered in South America and grounded in the geometry that is sometimes found in ancient American arts and architecture. He disseminated his ideas through the Taller Torres-García [Torres-García Workshop], whose lasting influence came to be known as the School of the South.Considered the most significant art educational community of its time (1944-1962) Torres-Garcia combined, in the tradition of the Bauhaus and de Stijl, the philosophy of the European avant-garde into an integrated arts school whose primary purpose was to develop a truly Latin American artistic language based on constructivist theories. The members of the Taller produced a significant body of work that included painting, sculpture, ceramics, wood and iron reliefs, murals, and architectural projects. This publication and the exhibit it accompanies constitute the first attempt to reconstruct the history and philosophy of El Taller Torres-Garcia and the principal artists who participated in it. The catalog features four major essays on various aspects of the Taller and its legacy by Cecilia Torres, Jacqueline Barnitz, Juan Flo, and Mari Carmen Ramirez. It also includes a complete chronology of the Taller, in-depth biographical sketches of the major artists, a selection of previously unpublished texts by Torres-Garcia and others, a bibliography, and a checklist of works in the exhibit. Beautiful color and black-and-white photographs complement the text. Mari Carmen Ramirez is curator of Latin American art at the Archer M Huntington Art Gallery.… (meer)