Joaquín Torres-García - PEZ AAC CON CUERDA APLICADA

Joaquín Torres-García

1874 - 1949

PEZ AAC CON CUERDA APLICADA

inscribed AAC

oil and twine on board

11 1/4 by 27 in.
28.7 by 68.6 cm.
Executed circa 1940-1942.

In 1929 Uruguayan artist and theorist Joaquín Torres García, together with Belgian writer Michel Seuphor, founded the Cercle et Carré group in Paris to promote constructivist art in the avante garde movements. Other members included Le Corbusier, Mondrian, Arp, Schwitters, Vantongerloo, Ozenfant  and Kandinsky. What differentiated Torres Garcia was his aim to create a universal language based on new world imagery rather than be beholden to the artistic traditions of the old world.  Much of his inspiration came from the art and architecture of the Andean cultures such as the architecture of Machu Pichu, the geometry of the textiles and the pictographs in pottery and land art.  In the universal language he created, the fish symbolized movement and freedom. Although a classically trained artist, he pushed the limits of his materials by using found and often re-used wood as the members of the Arte Povera movement would do twenty years later.