Joaquin Torres Garcia

I visited Montevideo, Uruguay across the Rio de La Plata from Buenos Aires recently. There we went to Museo Torres Garcia - a museum dedicated to the work of Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres Garcia. I enjoyed the introduction to this wonderful artist who is credited with introducing Constructivism to South America. He lived most of his adult life in Europe, but upon his return to Uruguay he began to be influenced by Pre-Columbian and indigenous art. This influence gives his later works a distinctly South American vibe.

He is perhaps best known for the sketch "America Invertida", but I loved his colorful constructivist paintings from the 1940's.

America Invertida

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"A great School of Art ought to arise here in our country... I have said School of the South; because in reality, our North is the South.  There should be no North for us, except in opposition to our South.  That is why we now turn the map upside down."