New York: 1920–22
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.
Documentary Materials
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Documentary
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photo (historical) Unknown Catalan publication with a photograph of members of the Centre Nacionalista de New York. Torres-Garcia is depicted seated in the rightmost chair at the front. |
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photo (historical) Go Pony |
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Family
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photo (historical) |
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Photographs of the artist
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photo (historical) Torres-Garcia in his New York suit for the 1921 Artist's Ball linked catalogue entries »
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photo (historical) The artist, c. 1920 |
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Toys
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advertisement Advertising poster for Go-Pony! |
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chart The Go-Pony mechanism patented by Torres García New York, 1922 |
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illustration Aladdin Toys Bird I Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1921
8.4 x 5 cm linked catalogue entries »
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illustration Aladdin Toys Bird II Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1921
8.4 x 5 cm
Torres García Foundation, Montevideo linked catalogue entries »
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illustration Black Man with Black Cap Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1921
21 x 18 cm |
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illustration Cabezas Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1920-21
32 x 15 cm
Torres García family collection, Montevideo
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illustration Cochecitos Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1922
10 x 24.5 cm
Private collection, Barcelona linked catalogue entries »
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illustration Details of New York Streets Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1921
28 x 21.5 cm
Ifigenia Torres, Montevideo |
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illustration New York Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1919
28 x 22 cm
Estate of Augusto Torres, Montevideo |
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illustration Port, City, and Ship, New York Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1920-22
13 x 21 cm |
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illustration Scenes of Daily Life Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1920-22
28.2 x 20.4 cm
Collection Torres García family, Montevideo |
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illustration Scenes of Daily Life II Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1921-22
28 x 21.6
Collection Torres García family, Montevideo |
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illustration Scenes of Daily Life III Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1920-22
28 x 21.6 cm
Collection Torres García family, Montevideo |
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illustration The Best American Toys Joaquín Torres García Ink on paper, 1921
16 x 20 cm.
Private collection, Madrid linked catalogue entries »
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illustration Trams, Cars, and Buses Joaquín Torres García Pen on paper, 1921-22
13.3 x 21 cm
Collection Torres García family, Montevideo |
1920
JTG studies English. His former neighbor, Montoliu, writes him from South Carolina, encouraging him to come to America to develop the toy business.
April: In New York, artist and avant-garde patron Katherine S. Drier, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray found the Société Anonyme, the first space devoted to contemporary art in the United States.
May: A dinner is held in JTG’s honor on the occasion of his departure to New York. En route the family takes a train to Paris, where he is met by Miró, visits Picasso and Vollard, and travels to Brussels to see Argentinean writer Roberto Payró and Belgian painter Degouve de Nuncques (1867-1935).
June 16: JTG and family arrive in New York. They are met by Cebriá de Montoliu, who introduces him to American painter and author Walter Pach (1883-1958), one of the organizers of the first Armory Show. JTG rents Pach’s apartment and through him meets the painter Charles Logasa (1883-1936), who introduces him to the Society of Independent Artists and the painter James Daugherty (1887-1974).
Works
In his paintings he is weaving city images and words into a pictorial structure, a scaffolding of vertical and horizontal lines; these works anticipate his constructivist style.
Writings
“Fets” (Events). Noucents, no. 3,supplement of El Dia, Terrasa, July 17.
“Apunts sobre Nova York” (New York notes). La Publicidad, July 30.
“New York.” La Publicidad, September 4.
“New York, los Artistas”(New York artists). La Publicidad, October 2.
1921
January: Katherine Dreier and her sister, Dorothea, purchase three works from 1920: the paintings New York City: Bird's Eye View and New York Docks, and a collage, New York Street Scene, for the Société Anonyme (now in Yale University Art Gallery).
February: JTG meets artists Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Stella.
March: Louis Bouché, director of the Folsom Galleries, arranges for JTG to meet Juliana Force, director of the Whitney Studio Club. There JTG meets John Graham and the composer Edgar Varèse (a friend of Julio González); the three will later get together in Paris. JTG meets American and international artists John Xcéron, Morris Kantor, Abraham Walkowitz, and Max Weber.
Stella, a founder of the Society of Independent Artists, invites JTG to the Society’s yearly costume ball at the Waldorf-Astoria. JTG wears white canvas overalls painted with a maplike overview of New York in black, green, and red. The costume received notice in the March 12 issue of The New York Times.
May: JTG founds the Artists’ Toy Makers Company in association with Dover Farms Industries and files a patent for the Go-Pony, a hobby horse with a mechanism that advanced it forward as it rocked, which is granted in August 1922.
June: JTG moves Uptown to 522 West 161st Street.
Works
JTG paints a portrait of artist Joseph Stella, 1921 (1921.08).
May: Inspired by America’s Popular Culture, JTG resumes designing toys, such as Funny People, a set of toys inspired by the cartoon characters Mutt and Jeff, painted in bright, unmixed enamel paint.
Exhibitions
February: Group exhibition, “Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists,” The Waldorf-Astoria, New York.
April 16–May 15: JTG sends Business Town, 1920 (1920.03), a street-scene painting (no. 24 in the catalogue), Spanish Town (unidentified; no. 4 in the catalogue), Fourteenth Street, 1920 (1920.09) (no. 44 in the catalogue) and Fashion (unidentified; no. 84 in the catalogue), to “Later Tendencies in Art” at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition, Philadelphia.
April 25–May 2: Group exhibition with Stuart Davis and Stanislaw Szukalski, Whitney Studio Club, New York. Both Davis and JTG exhibit works featuring imagery from advertising and labels of brand-name products. The exhibition is reviewed by Hamilton Easter Field, New York Times, May 1, and David Lloyd, “Notes on Some Current Art Exhibitions,” New Evening Post, April 30.
May: Force exhibits JTG’s didactic toy prototypes at the Whitney Studio Club in an effort to help him find a company to manufacture and distribute the toys.
Writings
“Sobre la personalitat i l’obra d’En Nicolas Roerich” (On the work and personality of Nicolas Roerich). Catalonia (New York), February, no. 1.
“El pintor J. Torres-García habla de su arte y de sus proyectos” (The painter Torres-García talks about his art and his plans). Unsigned interview, La Prensa (New York), March 10.
“Rafael Sala: Pintor.” La Prensa, New York. April 13.
May: JTG completes the manuscript “New York” [Montevideo: HUM/Museo Torres García, 2007; prologue by Juan Fló].
1922
May: JTG visits sculptor, collector, and founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in her studio in New York.
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