Joaquin Torres-Garcia ( 1874-1949) - Group of toys. Carved and painted wood. Many pieces signed JTG.

H  8-3/4 in.
H  8-1/2 in.
H  8-1/2 in.
H  6-1/2 in.
H  6-1/4 in.

Joaquín Torres-García  a Uruguayan-Spanish artist, was one of the twentieth century’s most influential painters, theorists, and authors. He moved with his family to Catalonia, Spain, where his artistic formation began. His career unfolded across several countries—Spain, the United States, Italy, France, and Uruguay—placing him in direct contact with the major artistic debates of his time.

He founded a number of influential schools and groups, including the Escola de Decoració (School of Decoration) in Barcelona; Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) in Paris—the first European abstract-art group, which brought together artists such as Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky; the Grupo de Arte Constructivo (Constructive Art Group) in Madrid; and the Taller Torres-García (Torres-García’s Workshop) in Montevideo.

Torres-García’s pictorial language, like Cubism, operates as a synthesis between representation and abstraction. He developed a system of pictograms, figures reduced to signs that function like a written language, embedded within a geometric composition. His structural principles are rooted in the classical tradition derived from Greek and Roman culture, absorbed in Catalonia during his youth—which he first articulated as Modern Classicism and later developed into Universal Constructivism. At its core was his conviction that geometry constitutes a universal visual language, shared instinctively across cultures and eras.

• April 12 - June 29, 2018, The Worlds of Joaquín Torres-Garcia, Acquavella Galleries, New York.
• 25 October 2015 – 15 February 2016, Joaquín Torres-García: the Arcadian modern, Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 29 December 2013 – 2 March 2014, Art & Textiles: fabric as material and concept in modern art from Klimt to the present, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
• 22 Apr 2013 – 30 Jun 2013, From Picasso to Barceló: Spanish Sculpture of the 20th Century, National Art Museum of China
• 16 May – 11 September 2011, Torres-García a les seves cruïlles (Torres-García at his Crossroads), Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Barcelona
• 20 February 2010 – 30 May 2010, Joaquín Torres-García: Constructing Abstraction with Wood,^[34] the San Diego Museum of Art
• 27 March 2009, Trazos de Nueva York, Museo Torres-Garcia, Montevideo
• December, 2008 - April 2009, Torres García a Vieira da Silva, 1929–1949, IVAM, Valencia, Museu Colecção Berardo, Portugal
• 8 October 2005 – 15 February 2006, Le feu sous les cendres : de Picasso à Basquiat, Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, Paris
• 7 October 2005 – 19 February 2006, Obras maestras del siglo XX en las colecciones del IVAM, Valencia
• 25 November 2003 – 11 April 2004, Torres-Garcia, Museu Picasso, Barcelona
• 2003, Jean-Michel Basquiat-Gaston Chaissac-Jean Dubuffet-Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Jan Krugier Gallery, New York
• September 2002, From Puvis De Chavannes to Matisse and Picasso : Toward Modern Art, Palazzo Grassi, Venice
• 24 May – 8 September 2002, Joaquin Torres-Garcia : un monde construit : Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg
• 31 May – 23 August 1992 Joaquin Torres-Garcia en Theo van Doesburg, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam