1 / 3
Featured lot selected by the auctions House.
Premium MILLON
117
-
Joaquin TORRES GARCIA (1874-1949)
Wooden construction , 1930…
See original version (French)
117
-
Joaquin TORRES GARCIA (1874-1949)
Wooden construction , 1930…
See original version (French)
Estimate €40,000 - €60,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Joaquin TORRES GARCIA (1874-1949)
Wooden construction , 1930
Oil on wood
69 x 49 cm
Signed lower left Torres Garcia , dated lower right 30.
bottom right.
Stamped COL.M.P on the back.
Inscribed on the back in blue chalk A L
(Misses and cracks to the panel)
André Lefebvre Collection, Paris
Sale André Lefebvre, Paris Hôtel Drouot , 24 November 1967, lot 129
Private collection
Bibliography
Joaquin Torres Garcia Catalogue raisonné digital edited by Cecila de Torres with the collaboration of Susanna V. Temkin, Madeleine Murphy Turner and Victoria L. Fedrigotti, no. 1930.34
Exhibitions:
Joaquin Torres-Garcia un monde construit, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg; 24 May - 8 September 2002, reproduced on page 72
Then Museo Colecciones ICO Madrid from 22 October 2002 to January 2003
In Paris in the 1930s, Torres-García developed a pictorial language that he called "Universalismo Constructivo". Somewhere between pure abstraction and pre-Columbian archaic values, he constructed his compositions using a system of pictograms. His aim: to create universal art that is immediately perceptible to the senses. In Constructif avec boussole, he uses a repertoire of signs that combines geometric composition, figurative elements and words.
Drawing on the principles of pure abstraction defended by the neoplasticists, Torres-García develops a singular and immediately recognisable plastic language. He developed a constructive vision of the world based on an order of geometric relationships and an extensive repertoire of schematic signs. What he calls his "constructed universalism" is based on abstract compositions combining invented symbols and simplified representations of objects borrowed from reality. Abstraction does not imply the erasure of figuration, but its reorganisation according to the principles of the grid, scaling and compartmentalisation of space.
From 1931 onwards, his paintings were characterised by an orthogonal structure that accommodated object schemas as well as images drawn from a collective memory. They are the result of a plastic interpretation of the universe, expressed through the repetition of small compartments comparable to checkerboards. Each one contains a condensed representation of a familiar object or figure: a steamship, a clock, a bottle, a hammer, a chair, a human silhouette or a fish. These motifs proliferate on the surface of the painting, taking over the space and contributing to the creation of a world ordered by their multiple relationships. Between similarities and differences, they generate unexpected combinations and singular articulations. The artist can then vary related forms, whether objects or human figures, drawn with an economy of means that retains something of the immediacy of the gesture.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like