Under the direction of Cecilia De Torres
Assisted by Susanna V. Temkin, Madeline Murphy Turner, and Victoria L. Fedrigotti
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Classification: Mural
Medium: Enamel paint
Support: Wall
Year: 1944
1944.27
Pax in Lucem
1944
Enamel paint on wall; transferred to canvas and mounted on stretcher September 1972
43 1/4 x 168 1/8 in. (110 x 427 cm)
Signed and dated upper left: J. Torres-GARCIA 44
Exhibitions
Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Montevideo, Uruguay, Torres-García, July 1974, VII, ill.
Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, Torres-García: Construction et Symboles, June 11–August 1975, no. 74. Traveled to: Museo de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 8–July 22, 1978 (América Latina Geometria Sensível).
Published References
Podestá, José María. J. Torres-García. Monografias de Arte. Serie Americana 3. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1946, ill. no. XXXI.
Torres-García, Joaquín. Nueva Escuela de Arte del Uruguay. Montevideo: Publicaciones de la Asociación de Arte Constructivo, 1946.
Torres-García, Joaquín. "Del libro Universalismo Constructivo 'La Belleza y El Arte' —Arte Constructivo." Paso de los Toros. La Idea (Montevideo) (October 24, 1950), ill.
Lisboa, Maria Julia O. "Una de las últimas conferencias de J. Torres García." Pachamac (Buenos Aires) (November 1953), ill.
Torres-García, Joaquín. "El nuevo arte de America." Revista Pachacamac (Buenos Aires), no. 8 (1953), ill.
Vernazza, Eduardo. "Museo Nacional de Arte Plásticas: Exposición Homenaje Centenario de Joaquín Torres-García." El Día (Montevideo), 1974, ill.
"Extraordinario Dedicado al Pintor Torres García." Mundo Hispánico (Madrid), no. 326 (May 1975), ill. on cover.
T[orrens], M[aria] L[uisa]. "Primer Museo Para el Arte Latinoamericano." Unknown publication [El País ?] (Montevideo), c. 1976, ill.
V[ernazza], E[duardo]. "Trágico golpe para el arte." El Día (Montevideo), July 23, 1978, ill.
"Torres García." Edición Especial. El País (Montevideo), 1978, ill. p. 5.
Torres-García: Obras Destruídas en el Incendio del Museo de Arte Moderno de Rio de Janeiro. Montevideo: Fundación Torres-García, 1981, ill. p. 30-31, no. 6.
Vernazza, Eduardo. "Las Obras que Destruyó el Fuego." El Día (Montevideo), 1983?, ill.
Gradowczyk, Mario H. Joaquín Torres-García, Artistas de América. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, 1985, ill. p. 142-43, no. 113.
"Tercera época, año VII." Cuadernos de Marcha (Montevideo), no. 69 (March 1992), (detail) ill. p. 31, as Pax in Lucem.
Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne. Art d'Amerique latine: 1911- 1968. Paris, 1993. Exhibition catalogue, ill. p. 44.
Carbajal, MIguel. "Hay que Salvar los murales del Saint Bois." El País (Montevideo), February 12, 1995, ill.
Maslach, Adolfo. Joaquín Torres-García: sol y luna del arcano. Caracas: UNESCO, 1998, ill. detail p. 580, no. 381.
Battegazzore, Miguel A. J. Torres-García: La trama y los signos. Montevideo: Gordon, 1999, ill. p. 179, no. 181.
Gradowczyk, Mario H. Torres-García: Utopía y Transgresión. Montevideo: Fundación Torres-García, 2007. Exhibition catalogue, ill. p. 323, no. 8.30.
Museo Gurvich. Murales TTG. Montevideo, 2007. Exhibition catalogue, ill. p. 31, fig. 2 and ill. p. 112, fig 1.
Pérez-Barreiro, Gabriel. The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. Austin: Blanton Museum of Art, 2007. Exhibition catalogue, ill. p. 24-25.
Bulanti, Maria Laura. El Taller Torres-García y los Murales del Hospital Saint-Bois: Testimonios para su Historia. Montevideo: Linardi y Risso, 2008, ill. p. 167-68.
The Menil Collection. Joaquín Torres-García: Constructing Abstraction with Wood. Houston, 2010. Exhibition catalogue (2009–10 The Menil Collection), ill. p. 220.
Miguel Carbajal. Arte uruguayo de los maestros a nuestros días: Joaquín Torres-García. Montevideo: El País, 2011, ill. p. 66.
Sanchez Vidal, Agustin. Joaquín Torres-García. Madrid: Fundacio MAPFRE Instituto de Cultura, 2012, ill. p. 78-79.
Arte y arquitectura en Uruguay 1930-1970. Montevideo: Gráfica Mosca, 2015, ill. p. 61, as Pax in Lucem.
Remark

About the 1978 fire in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

At daybreak on July 8, 1978, a devastating fire reduced the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro to ashes. It was the worst catastrophe suffered by a museum since World War II. Twenty-five years later, there are several things worth recalling about this sad event, not least that it could have been avoided, as the Museum had been alerted by the International Council of Museums that it lacked the basic equipment to extinguish a fire.

Although the origin of the fire was never conclusively established, it is believed that it began in the auditorium after a performance earlier that night. The show had ended late and the watchmen closed the premises just before they left. A hastily extinguished cigarette or a short circuit were listed as possible causes. Someone driving by the Museum alerted the fire department. The first units to arrive were helpless to act, as the Museum's main water supply was shut off because somewhere in the building there was a leaky faucet. When the firefighters finally succeeded in getting the water flowing, it was too late to salvage anything. The fire had rapidly spread through the flammable partitions and the ventilation ducts. The New York Times of July 9 reported the blaze on its front page, describing how hours later, the building's concrete shell was still smoking, littered with piles of dirty gray sludge and broken glass.

Read more about the 1978 fire in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil »

Record last updated April 24, 2015. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: de Torres, Cecilia, Susanna V. Temkin, Madeline Murphy Turner, and Victoria L. Fedrigotti. "Pax in Lucem, 1944 (1944.27)." In Joaquín Torres-García Catalogue Raisonné. www.torresgarcia.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=1826 (accessed on March 28, 2024).