Joaquín Torres García (28 July 1874 – 8 August 1949) was a Uruguayan-Spanish artist who was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. Torres-García emigrated to Catalunya, Spain as an adolescent, where he began his career as an artist in 1891. For the next three decades, Torres-García embraced the Catalan identity and led the cultural scene in Barcelona and Europe. As a painter, sculptor, muralist, novelist, writer, teacher, and theorist, Torres-García was considered a "renaissance" or "universal man." He used a simple metaphor to deal with eternal struggles he faced between the old and the new, between classical and avant-garde, between reason and feeling, and between figuration and abstraction: there is no contradiction or incompatibility. Like Goethe, Torres-García sought to integrate classicism and modernity. Although he lived and worked primarily in Spain, Torres-García was also active in the United States, Italy, France, and Uruguay; he influenced European and North American and South American modern art.
Torres-García is known for his 1903 collaboration with Antoni Gaudí on the stained-glass windows for the Palma Cathedral and the Sagrada Família. He decorated the medieval Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya with monumental frescoes. His art is associated with archaic universal culture, including Mediterranean cultural traditions, Noucentisme, and modern classicism. Torres-García developed a unique style (first known as "Art Constructif") during the 1930s, while he lived in Paris. Arte Constructivo (Constructive Art), a school he opened in Madrid, became Universalismo Constructivo (Universal Constructivism, a treatise he published in South America while teaching in his workshops Asociación de Arte Constructivo and El Taller Torres-García). Torres-García's art combines classical and archaic traditions with twentieth-century "-isms": Cubism, Dada, neo-plasticism, primitivism, surrealism, and abstraction.
Torres-García published over 150 books, essays and articles in Catalan, Spanish, French and English, and delivered more than 500 lectures. He founded several art schools in Spain and Montevideo and a number of artistic groups, including the first European abstract-art group. Torres-García founded the magazine Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) in Paris in 1929.
Retrospectives in Paris (1955) and Amsterdam (1961) are the earliest shows documenting Torres-García in the world of abstract art. In the United States, he exhibited in New York during the 1920s as the Whitney Studio Club, the Society of Independent Artists and the Societe Anonyme were emerging. In the 1930s, Albert Eugene Gallatin exhibited Torres-García's work in the Museum of Living Art with modern masters Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger. The Museum of Modern Art opened its Latin American collection in the 1940s with the acquisition of Torres-García's work, and the Sidney Janis and Rose Fried galleries sponsored shows during the 1950s. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum had a retrospective exhibition in the 1970s, and more-recent retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art (2015) and the Acquavella Galleries (2018) exhibited Torres-García's art with a contemporary perspective.
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Some of their strengths
Joaquin Torres Garcia has many admirable traits.
Based on spiritual traditions from around the world, they are someone who can be described as Artistic, Confident, Energetic, Optimistic, Passionate, Intelligent, and Altruistic.
Bold and Confident
According to Mysticism’s Astrology tradition, Joaquin Torres Garcia is someone who is a bold, confident, energetic, and optimistic person, who is able to combine personal warmth and charisma with intelligence. A person who seems to identify with family, heritage and ancestry.
Charming and Sophisticated
Based on Daoism’s Ba-Zi or ‘Chinese Zodiac’ tradition, people who know Joaquin Torres Garcia well know them as someone who can be classy, glamorous, and worldly, like jewelry.
Active and Ambitious
According to Hinduism’s Jyotisha or ‘Vedic Astrology’ tradition, many would also describe Joaquin Torres Garcia as someone who is active, ambitious, bold, and courageous.
A person who is driven and organized, is wise with money, who knows how to tell a good story, likes physical activity, and who loves learning.
Charismatic and Playful
Based on the Mayan Tzolk’in or ‘Mayan Astrology’ tradition, Joaquin Torres Garcia is someone who is used to being the center of attention, and who has a playful approach to dealing with life.
They are also someone who is charismatic, compassionate, and understanding, and who is interested in expressing themselves through writing, public speaking, or teaching.
Creative and Leadership-oriented
According to Judaism’s Kabbalah tradition, Joaquin Torres Garcia tends to be someone who is a natural leader, with determination, motivational powers, and who takes obligations seriously. Who has charisma, a sense of humor, and who tends to attract attention.
Some of Joaquin Torres Garcia's challenges
While Joaquin Torres Garcia has many strengths, nobody is perfect. They also have some challenging traits they need to manage.
For example, Joaquin Torres Garcia can be Stubborn, Arrogant, Status-seeking, Rebellious, Emotionally Distant, Idle, and Impulsive.
Arrogant and Status-seeking
One of Joaquin Torres Garcia's key challenges is that they are someone who can come across as arrogant and status-seeking.
Joaquin Torres Garcia must also exercise caution as they can have a hard time reconciling wants and needs, and can be short-tempered and aggressive, and can have difficulty dealing with responsibility, authority, or criticism.
Impulsive and Aggressive
Joaquin Torres Garcia is someone who can be impulsive, aggressive, and confrontational, can have difficulty listening to others, be moody and high strung, have conflict with authority figures, be too judgmental of others, and who can be overindulgent and extravagant.
Domineering and Stubborn
Finally, Joaquin Torres Garcia also can be too rebellious, not respond to criticism well, and be too emotional and extreme about things.
