Constructive Composition
Torres García, Joaquín
Montevideo, 1874 - 1949
Constructive Composition, 1936
Signed & dated lower left: ''JTG/ 36''.
On stretcher: "A Angélica Lusich, recuerdo de J. Torres-García, Agosto 28 de 1940" [Information by Cecilia de Torres].
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Collection
Oil on canvas
46 x 38,1 cm
CTB.1997.12
Artwork history
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Angélica Lusich, Montevideo, August 28, 1940. Gift from the artist [Angélica Lusich- the director of Exhibition hall “Amigos del Arte” Montevideo, where Torres-García showed his works in may 1934 to July 1949]
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Eugenia Rodríguez Cucalón Gallery, New York
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Lee Ault & Co., New York
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Sotheby’s Auctions, New York, lot 655, May 18, 1979
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Cecilia Buzio de Torres
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Fernando Guereta, Barcelona
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Sotheby’s Auctions, New York, lot 52, May 29, 1997
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Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
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-De l’Impressionisme a l’avantguarda a la Col.lecció Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Llorens Serra, Tomàs (ed.). [Exhib. Cat.]. Barcelona, Centre Cultural Caixa Catalunya, 1999, p. 196, lám. p. 197 [Sheet by Tomàs Llorens Serra]
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-Del post-impresionismo a las vanguardias. Pintura de comienzos del siglo XX en la Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Valencia, IVAM Centre Julio González [Exhib. Cat.], 2000, n. 55, p. 176.
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-Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Arnaldo, Javier (ed.). 2 vols. Madrid, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2004, vol. 2, p. 310, lám. p. 311 [Sheet by Tomás Llorens]
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-La tradición moderna en la Colección Carmen Thyssen. Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Málaga, Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga [Exhib. Cat.], 2011, p. 130, lám. p. 131.
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-Rusiñol, Monet, Gauguin, Sunyer. El paisaje en la Colección Carmen Thyssen, Gerona, CaixaForum; Tarragona, CaixaForum; Lérida, CaixaForum [Exhib. Cat.], 2012, n. 58, p. 176, lám. p. 177.
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-Un món ideal: De Van Gogh a Gauguin i Vasarely. Col.lecció Carmen Thyssen. Espai Carmen Thyssen, Sant Feliu de Guíxols [Exhib. Cat.], 2017. p. 116, 117, 159, 160 y 185. [Sheet by Tomás Llorens].
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-Pintar la luz. Maestros catalanes de la Colección Carmen Thyssen. Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga [Exhib. Cat.], Ed. Fundación Palacio de Villalón, Málaga, 2021. Cat. 45, p. 102.
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-Caminos de modernidad. 1860-1980. Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. Centro Cultural Bancaja, Valencia [Exhib. Cat. Cur.: Moreno Molina, L.; Beltrán Alandete, M.]. Fundación Bancaja, Valencia, 2022. P. 188-189 [Sheet by Tomás Llorens]
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– KHRÔMA. El Universo emocional del color. Museu Carmen Thyssen Andorra [Exhib. Cat.], Ed. Fundació Museu Andorra (Museand), Principado de Andorra, 2023. P. 76, 77, 135, 216 & 217 [Sheet by Tomás LLorens].
Expert report
Constructive Composition is a typical example of Torres García’s mature style. The rectangular canvas has been decomposed using golden ratio rules, into a series of rectangles with contrasting formats and proportions that forma unified, coherent mesh. The artist has inscribed a graphic symbol in each of the rectangles, based largely on the schematic form of an object.
Extracted from the customary repertoire of the artist, as if they were voices from a dictionary, these pictograms create a kind of allusive message that constitutes the specific iconic content of the work.
The palette, based on white, black and a range of red and green earths, has the characteristic luminosity of Torres Garcia’s best works.
The composition is structured by the two diagonals in the picture but dominated by the downward line that joins the upper left corner, where the rectangle with the sun appears, and the heart and key in the bottom right comer.
Torres García arrived back in his hometown Montevideo in the summer of 1934, after an absence of forty-three years, with the plan to establish himself as an artist and spread the principies of modern art in Uruguay. In 1935, he founded the Constructive Art Association and in May 1936, the year in which he painted this work, the first edition of Circulo y Cuadrado (Circle and Square) was published, the magazine that would be the mouthpiece of the association. The inscription visible in the upper right rectangle, written in a personal alphabet that the artist invented in 1935, alludes to the association.
Tomás Llorens