“Another America: Selections from El Taller Torres-García” Exhibition
Bookstein Projects
[Image: Gonzalo Fonseca "Untitled (Symbolscape)" (1959) Oil on wood, 26 x 34.5 in. (BP#GF-8095)]
This event has ended.
Bookstein Projects presents a group exhibition of paintings, sculpture, assemblage and drawing by selected members of El Taller Torres-García. Those exhibited include Julio Alpuy, Gonzalo Fonseca, José Gurvich, Francisco Matto, Manuel Pailós, Augusto Torres, Horacio Torres and their teacher Joaquín Torres-García.
In 1943, Joaquín Torres-García created “The School of the South” in the form of a workshop - El Taller Torres-García. He preferred that were unspoiled by previous art training. Among the many who were attracted by his powerful message and charismatic personality, a handful were exceptionally talented: Julio Alpuy, Gonzalo Fonseca, José Gurvich, Francisco Matto, Manuel Pailós, and the artist’s two sons, Augusto and Horacio Torres.
For these young artists, El Taller provided an experimental training ground and a unique space for testing the applicability of modernist principles to the American setting. One of the outstanding aspects of the workshop was its goal of integration of the arts into a total unified environment very much in the tradition of European arts and crafts movements. But Torres-García rejected the industrial, technological orientation of those precedents and instead the members of El Taller Torres-García experimented with simple materials and innovative techniques. [i]
After Torres-García’s death in 1949, El Taller Torres-García continued to function for over a decade under the direction of some of the older members. These years represent a period of mature development and experimentation for the seminal group of El Taller artists (Gonzalo Fonseca, José Gurvich, Francisco Matto, Manuel Pailós, Horacio Torres), marked by the flourishing of their individual personalities and styles. [ii]
Working within the collective aesthetic of El Taller Torres-García, and always searching for creative solutions to the material limitations of their context, they engaged in projects that encompassed a broad range of media, and produced a wide range of works from traditional paintings and sculptures to furniture and decorative objects. This period also saw their incursion into architecture as part of the aim of integration of the arts, as well as public projects. By the late 1950’s, however, the principal members of El Taller Torres-García had left Uruguay in order to pursue their own careers. [iii]
After the official demise of El Taller in 1962, the seminal group of El Taller Torres-García artists continued to develop key aspects of Torres-García’s teachings from their own perspectives, and through them a new generation of artists has been influenced by the Uruguayan master’s art.
Another America: Selections from El Taller Torres-García will be on view from April 24 – June 1, 2019. A reception will be held on Wednesday, April 24th from 6:00-8:00pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact the gallery at (212) 750-0949 or by email at info@booksteinprojects.com.
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[i] Ramírez, Mari Carmen. El Taller Torres-García: The School of the South and Its Legacy. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1992. p. 2-3.
[ii] Ibid. p. 3.
[iii] Ibid., p.4.
Media
Schedule
from April 24, 2019 to June 01, 2019