Madrid: 1933
Key events and activities of the life and artistic path of Joaquín Torres-García (JTG) are summarized in this chronology, which encompasses his works, exhibitions, writings, and life events. Other aspects of his career, such as the lectures he gave in Montevideo after his return in 1934, as well as the activities of the Asociación de Arte Constructivo (AAC) and the Taller Torres-García (TTG) are documented in the 1992 exhibition catalogue, El Taller Torres-García: The School of the South and Its Legacy (UT Press).
Only select artworks, exhibitions, and writings by the artist are featured in this chronology. For more complete information, please browse the catalogue, exhibition, and literature sections of this catalogue raisonné.
The facts in the chronology have been gathered from a wide variety of sources and have been checked against the archives of the Museo Torres-García and those of Cecilia de Torres. There exist in the public sphere numerous inaccuracies that have been previously published; this chronology has sought to correct those errors.
1933
JTG studies Iberian and pre-Columbian art at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid.
JTG lectures at the Escuela de Ceramica (School of Ceramics), the Ateneo (Athenaeum), the Instituto Escuela, the Lyceum Club, the Salón de Otoño, the Ateneo Teosófico (Theosophical Atheneum), and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Royal Academy of Arts) where he meets Spanish poet Frederico García Lorca, who attended the lecture.
Realizing how under recognized Juan Gris’s (1887–1927) work is in Madrid, JTG tries unsuccessfully to organize an exhibition in his honor.
March 25: Eduardo Marquina lectures about Torres-García at the Residencia de Señoritas in Madrid.
Summer: JTG creates the Grupo de Arte Constructivo, that includes the following artists: Benjamín Palencia (Albacete 1894-Madrid 1980); Maruja Mallo (1909- 1995); Luis Castellanos (1915-1946); Alberto Sanchez (1895-1962); Eduardo Díaz Yepes (1909-1978); José Moreno Villa (1887-1955); Antonio Rodríguez Luna (1910-1985); Francisco Mateos (1894-1976); and Manuel Angeles Ortíz, (Jaén 1895-París 1984).
Works
Inspired by Indo-American ceramics and textiles, JTG paints a series of works in which images and structure are interlaced by a continuous flowing line.
Exhibitions
Included in the ongoing exhibition "Gallery of Living Art" (collection of A. E. Gallatin), New York University.
March: Retrospective solo exhibition, Museo de Arte Moderno Madrid, relocated one week later to Sociedad de artistas ibéricos (Society of Iberian Artists), Madrid.
May 24–June 11: Solo exhibition, “La obra pictórica de Joaquín Torres-García,” Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc, Barcelona.
October: Group exhibition, “Grupo de Arte Constructivo,” Salón de Otoño, Madrid.
Writings
“Guiones” (1, 2, and 3). Brochures. Madrid.
“El mito del hombre abstracto,” unpublished.
“Arte Constructivo,” unpublished.