Biography
1874
Joaquín Torres-García was born on July 28, 1874, in Montevideo, Uruguay, to Joaquín Torras i Fradera, an business owner from Catalonia, Spain, who had arrived in Uruguay in 1865 as a young man, and María García. Torres attended school intermittently and began assisting with the family business—a trading post that also functioned as a general store, bar, and carpentry workshop on the outskirts of the city.
In 1891, Torres emigrated to Mataró, Catalonia (Spain), joining his father on a return to his homeland. He attended a local artist studio -Vinardell- where he painted for the first time in oil. He also studied at the ‘Escuela Municipal de Artes y Oficios’ -(Academy of Arts and Crafts)- of Mataró.
The family moved to Barcelona. He enrolled at the Escola d'Art i Oficis de la Llotja (School of Fine Arts) and the Academia Baixas. His studio became the nucleus of friends —young artists, musicians, and writers. Julio González—now considered the father of modern iron sculpture—and his brother Joan were close friends of Torres-García. The three shared artistic concerns and worked together in both Torres’ studio and the González family’s blacksmith workshop.
In his early years, Torres focused on drawing the human figure. This period produced a series of charcoal and pencil works—nudes, street scenes, historical figures, and self-portraits—marked by firm, thick, and overlapping lines. Torres began illustrating books and magazines—work that was increasingly in demand and earned him a living and critical recognition. The experience led him to transform narrative into drawings, developing a visual language derived from the text. He exhibited four works at the Palau de Belles Arts in Barcelona, and from then on, showed his work regularly.
1900
At the turn of the century, Torres moved away from the decorative, poster-like style, increasingly focusing on composition. Balancing a palette of bold colors, his work evolved into a planar style, emphasizing the suppression of depth, orchestrating an almost Euclidean interplay of lines, forms, colors, and rhythms. Whether working in a figurative, like the old masters, or in a purely non-representational mode, Torres consistently conveyed a sense of geometric abstraction in his art. He began teaching drawing to his first students, among whom was Manolita Piña, who, nine years later, would become his wife.
Torres held his first solo exhibition in 1900 at the Salon La Vanguardia Gallery in Barcelona. Torres’ emergence as a notable figure in the Catalan Modernisme movement came in July 1901, when a critical review of his work appeared in the magazine Pèl & Ploma. Written by art critic Miquel Utrillo, the article was accompanied by a charcoal portrait of Torres by the renowned artist Ramon Casas. That same issue featured Torres’ painting Font de Joventut on the cover. That same issue featured Torres’ painting Font de Joventut on the cover. Alongside several illustrated artworks, he published first essay titled Impresiones. From then on, he consistently published art theory and critical reviews in major Barcelona magazines, marking the beginning of his career not only as a painter but also as a writer.
In 1902, Torres worked on a commission from Gaudí to design stained glass windows for Mallorca Cathedral. A technique known as “trichromy”—invented by Gaudí—was used, involving the layering of three panes of glass in primary colors. Through this project, Torres learned to work with a palette of red, yellow, and blue. In 1905, a rose window and two vertical stained-glass panels were installed on either side of the apse.
1906
Mural painting became Torres-García’s primary focus. Notable examples include the six frescoes for the Capella del Santíssim Sagrament at the Church of Sant Agustí in Barcelona; a series of allegorical scenes of rural life for the dining room of the Torre del Campanar—a Modernista residence built in 1908 by Joan Rubió i Bellvé, a disciple of Gaudí, (now housed at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid); the frescoes in the chapel of the Divina Pastora in Sarrià; and the stained glass windows for the Sala de la Comissió d’Hisenda (Finance Commission Room) at Barcel ona City Hall.
Preliminary drawings and studies for these early murals reveal Torres-García’s initial use of an orthogonal grid—a structure not explicitly visible in the final works, like the unseen score behind a piece of music. The murals themselves reflect a mature classicist approach, marked by inventive variations on the canon of human proportions and a complex, refined use of that same underlying grid.
He took charge of the art department at a progressive school founded by the renowned educator Joan Palau Vera —he collaborated closely in shaping its pedagogical vision and contributed significantly to its curriculum.
In 1909 he marries Manuela Piña de Rubies, they have four children.
Manolita Piña de Rubíes and goat in her garden in Barcelona. c.1906 photo by her brother Jaime Piña de Rubíes.
Watercolor drawing 1906
Study for mural c. 1906.
Study for the Communion of the Apostles
Study for Church of Sant Agustí in Barcelona representing the Communion of the Apostles.
Archival photograph of the murals in the Church of Sant Agustí in Barcelona. Joaquin Torres-Garcia Archive.
Study for the stained glass windows for the Finance Commission Room at Barcelona City Hall.
Archival photograph of the Finance Commission Room at Barcelona City Hall. Joaquin Torres-Garcia Archive.
Panel of mural of the Baron of Rialp's House 1906 Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.
Panel of mural of the Baron of Rialp's House 1906 Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.
Archival photograph of the murals at of the Baron of Rialp's House 1906. Joaquin Torres-Garcia Archive.
School Mont D´or in Barcelona.
Archival photograph of Torres-García teaching students at Mont d'Or. Joaquin Torres-Garcia Archive.
Archival photograph of Archival photograph of the murals in the Church of the Holy Shepherdess, Sarriá. Joaquin Torres-Garcia Archive.
Joaquín Torres-García and Manolita Piña de Rubíes, first photograph taken after celebrating their marriage in 1909.
1910
Torres-García spents almost a year in Paris and Brussels, where he was comissioned to paint two murals for the Uruguayan pavilion in the 1910 Brussels International Exposition.The two murals, Animal Husbandry and Agriculture, were executed as large curved panels crowning the entrances, each measuring five meters in diameter. He drew notebooks with numbered watercolors. He recorded the places he visited in small sketchbooks—intimate, almost miniature in scale. Two are titled Bruxelles (1–45) and Anvers–Bruxelles (46–97), while a third — Brussels, Paris, Florence, Catalonia, Rome, Geneva, 1910/1912 (98–145) — traces a broader journey. Created Filosofía X Musa. Torres-García’s art and writings were embraced as the visual and literary expression of the Catalan revival. He became known as the principal star of noucentisme after exhibiting his painting Filosofía X Musa, a major work frequently exhibited as an archetype of Catalan culture. The painting was acquired by the Institute of Catalan Studies (Institut d’Estudis Catalans), where it still hangs in the board room.
In 1911, Prat de la Riba, commissioned Torres-García to create stained-glass windows and murals for the Palau de la Generalitat, the seat of the Catalan government —a 15th-century Gothic-Renaissance building,—that would symbolize the resurgence of modern Catalonia in the 20th century.
1912
Solo exhibition in Dalmau Gallery, Torres presented 78 artworks including the painting ‘Philosophy x Muse’.
An important continuation of the 1911 Section d'Or exhibition in Paris, at Galeries Dalmau, the second Cubist exhibition held outside of Paris and the first to feature Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2). Torres-García, familiar with Cubism, wrote a foundational text and review of the exhibition that offers key insight into his artistic direction at the time: Considerations on Cubism and Pictorial Structuralism (Consideracions al Voltant del Cubisme i de l’Estructuralisme Pictòric). In it, he writes, “Cubism is a reaction against realism, driven by a need for structure.
He visits Italy. Florence, Pisa and Rome and then on to Saint Cergues in French/Swiss border while he worked on studies for the murals for the Palau de la Generalitat. He scheduled to begin painting in December or early January, a period ideal for fresco painting due to the humidity and absence of heat. Numerous studies begun the previous year culminated in Eternal Catalonia, the first fresco for the Saló Sant Jordi. He completed it in thirteen days, and it was unveiled to the public on September 13, 1913.
Opens the art school "Escola de Decoracio" in Sarriá. published a magazine by same name. First book Notes on art (Notes sobre Art) is published. His theoretical writings express his aim to create a Mediterranean art that was contemporary with his time. Deeply engaged with aesthetics as a branch of philosophy, Torres-García championed Catalan culture, which he considered—alongside its Greco-Latin heritage—one of the most representative expressions of universal art. The book Art and Artists (Arte y Artistas ) by Josep María Junoy was published with a chapter titled From Paul Cézanne to the Cubists, where both Picasso and Torres-García are featured. A close friend of Juan Gris, Junoy sent the book to Paris—both to Gris and to Picasso.
1917
Torres-García has various solo exhibitions in Barcelona, at the Galeries Dalmau, Galerias Laietanes, and Salon la Publicidad. Participates in the group exhibit Gremmi d’Artistes. Publishes eight essays including Art Evolutio. While still in office, Prat de la Riba dies, and there are growing political tensions and uncertainty regarding Catalonia’s future. The press is censored. Barcelona’s merchant ships are attacked by German forces.
Solo exhibit at the Galeries Dalmau where he presents his “Joguines d’Art,” a sculpture/toy series for children; he writes: “let us give them toys in pieces, and let them do what they wish. This way, we will adapt.” Participates in group exhibitions at Exposicio Municipal d’Art with Joan Miró and others, and in the show El Primer Salo de Tardor at Galeries Layetanas. Publishes four essays including “Plasticisme.”
1919
Torres ongoing commission for the Palau de la Generalitat is canceled. Exhibits at VI Exposicio de Juguetes y Articulos de Bazat, Universidad Industrial, where he presents his “Joguines d’Art.” Participates in two group exhibits: Exposicio Municipal d’Art at Barcelona’s City Hall, and Agrupacio Courbet at Galeries Layetanas with Miró, Rafael Sala, E. C. Ricart, and others. Publishes three essays. Sells his home, Mon Repos.
Solo exhibition and lecture at Asociación de Artistas Vascos in Bilbao. Participates in the group exhibit Exposicio de Pintures i Dibuixos at Galeries Layetanas, Barcelona. Returns to Paris, Brussels, and then travels to New York City. Torres’s arrival to New York is chronicled in the press. ‘…The steamer Montserrat (…) arrived yesterday from Cadiz (…) among them Torres-Garcia who came here with his family to spend two years (…) He brought with him 300 paintings…’ He first lives at Walter Pach’s studio for several months before moving to 4 West 29th Street. Torres described his work as: ‘something he had started in 1918 in Barcelona: street scenes of ports, railway stations traffic and objects of every sort –all responding to a personal vision- his own, absolutely, expressionistic and geometric at the same time and very dynamic-sometimes granting the real impression and others of a true synthesis - free rhythm painting, but already with a dominants vertical and horizontal lines…”.
Collaborates with Mitchell Kennerley and Rudolf Meyer Riefstahl on the creation of two companies Artist Toy Makers and Go-Pony for the development and sale of the “Joguines d’Art.
1921
Gives lectures at the Catalonia National Club and publishes a series of essays for their magazine Catalonia. Marcel Duchamp and Katherine Dreier visit his studio, and Dreier acquires his works for the Societé Anonyme Inc. Torres-García creates four illustrated books of New York City. He participates in Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists group exhibit; after the show, there is a costume ball at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where Torres-García dresses as a caricature of New York City in his New York Suit, the New York Times writes: "J. Torres-Garcia, the Spanish artist, who had New York City outlined on his costume, the Woolworth Building on one leg downtown, the Metropolitan Tower on the other, he sat on the Bowery, the Times Building was on his chest just above Forty-Second Street, and the Bronx ran uptown on the back of his neck.” With Stuart Davis and Stansislaw Szukalski, he was part of a three-person exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club; The Arts writes: "J. Torres-García is more near reality of things, more near life, more near of himself. His talent is more vital. His paintings of life in our modern cities are admirable in their compactness, the exhibition as a whole is worth to see." He receives a commission for a painting for the Church of Our Lady of Esperanza –Lady of Hope. Illustrates the cover for the book The Great Way by Horace Fish and designs the scenery, the costumes and posters for its play shown at the Park Theater. Finishes work on the book New York, a continuation of three essays published the year prior. The group exhibition Paintings and Drawings by American Artists Showing the Later Tendencies in Art exhibits his work alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Man Ray, Stella and others at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
1922
Solo exhibition in Hanfstaengl Gallery in New York. He participates in the Whitney Studio Club, Annual Exhibitions of Painting and Sculpture by Members of the Club group exhibit. Founds the Aladdin Toy Company, American distributors of Torres-García’s toys, on 66 Leonard Street and is granted a patent registered the prior year. Torres-García travels to Italy, disembarked in Genoa, visited Pisa and Cascina, and by October had settled in Fiesole, in the heart of Tuscany. He rented what had once been the villa’s caretaker’s house, surrounded by a magnificent garden. Direct contact with Romanesque and Renaissance art bore fruit in a new series of unmistakable works, in which he experimented with a highly personal form of Cubism. Preparatory interviews began for what would become the first monograph on the artist, which was published in 1926.
Participates in two group exhibits at the Salon d’Automne, Paris. Begins work on three-dimensional wood sculptures that he will title Objets plastiques. The Aladdin Toy Company’s warehouse in New York catches fire, and his stock of toys is destroyed. Leaves Italy for Villefranche-sur-Mer, France.
1926
Returns to Paris. Has solo exhibitions at Galerie A.G. Fabre in Paris and Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona. Participates in group exhibitions: the Salon d’Automne in Paris, and the Galeries Dalmau with Miro, Delaunay, Picabia, Gleizes, and Barradas. The government of Barcelona orders the destruction and repainting of his frescoes at the Palau de la Generalitat. This creates a scandal, in which with local artists refuse the task; the few that do cover with canvases cleverly overlaid over the originals thus preserving them for posterity.
Various solo exhibitions. Enrolls his children at the Académie Ozenfant. Completes Mise Au Point, the first of many art books in which he blurs the distinction between written text and drawings. He completes a new series of “Joguines d’Art.” With Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian collaborates on the creation of the modern art movement that will be known as the Cercle et Carré.
1929
Piet Mondrian joins Torres-García and Van Doesburg in various group exhibitions that year: L’Esac in Amsterdam, Abstrakte und Surrealistische Malerei und Plastik in Zurich, Exposicion de Arte Moderno nacional y Extranjero at the Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona. Publishes various essays including “Origen y Desarollo del Cubismo.” Duchamp and Dreier visit his studio; she buys a painting and drawings for the Société Anonyme. Torres-García participates in various other group shows, including Exposition d’Art Abstrait, Editions Bonaparte Gallery in Paris, and the Salon de Surindependants, Paris. Holds weekly “social” evenings at his studio where Mondrian, Jean Arp, Van Doesburg, Michel Seuphor, Pierre Daura, Jean Xceron, Jean Hélion, John Graham and others get together to discuss art, Torres-García writes “the fruit of those long evenings was the publication of the Cercle et Carré magazine.”
1930
Founding of the Cercle et Carré; the group publishes three magazines and holds a collective exhibit at the Galerie 23 in Paris with Torres-García, Mondrian, Arp, Wassily Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Stella, Amédée Ozenfant, and others. Torres-García then participates in two more group exhibitions, the Salon Les Independants, Paris, and the Salon de la Societe des Artistes Independants, Bordeaux. Publishes eight essays, among them “Una conversa amb Georges Braque.”
Torres-García has numerous solo shows in Paris at the Galerie Jeanne Buscher, Galerie Pierre, Galerie Percier, Galerie Jean Charpentier, and the Galerie Librairie Oliviero. Participates in three group exhibitions: at the Galerie Billet with Picasso, Miro, Daura and others; the Galerie Georges Petit with Miro, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, and others; and Les Superindépendants. Publishes three essays, among them “Père Soleil.”
1931
Torres-García has numerous solo shows in Paris at the Galerie Jeanne Buscher, Galerie Pierre, Galerie Percier, Galerie Jean Charpentier, and the Galerie Librairie Oliviero. Participates in three group exhibitions: at the Galerie Billet with Picasso, Miro, Daura and others; the Galerie Georges Petit with Miro, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, and others; and Les Superindépendants. Publishes three essays, among them “Père Soleil.”
1932
Solo exhibition at Galerie Pierre in Paris. Participates in multiple group shows in Paris: the Librairie de l'Opéra; Galerie Jean Bucher with Ernst, Arp and Jean Lurçat; an additional show in Galerie Jean Bucher; and the Galerie Zak. Albert Eugene Gallatin visits his studio and acquires multiple works for the Gallery of Living Art at New York University. Towards the end of the year, Luis de Zulueta, Minister of State of Spain's Second Republic and Torres-García’s friend since childhood, entreats him to move to Madrid, the letter writes "we need men like you."
1933
Torres-García returns to Madrid, Spain. Solo exhibitions at the Residencia de Señoritas, Madrid; Museum of Modern Art of Madrid; and Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc in Barcelona. Conferences at various institutions. Participates in the Asociacion de Artistas Ibericos group exhibit in Madrid. Named honorary President of the Málaga Association of Arts and Crafts Students. Founds the art group Grupo de Arte Constructivo, and organizes and participates in its first exhibition at the Salon de Otoño in Madrid. Publishes two essays, the book Guiones, and finishes work on two other texts including Arte Constructivo. With growing political and social instability in Spain, Torres-García embarks on his fourth and last transatlantic journey on April 11th to Uruguay.
1934
Torres-García arrives at Montevideo, Uruguay, the place of his birth sixty years earlier. Lectures at various organizations and institutions, and he is named honorary professor at the School of Architecture of Montevideo. Founds the first school of modern art in the region; Asociacion de Arte Constructivo. Solo exhibit 1ª. Exposición de Pintura y Escultura. Albert Eugene Gallatin purchases more works of Torres-García for the Gallery of Living Art.
1936
Publishes his autobiography Historia de mi Vida. Founds the American chapter of Cercle et Carré, adopting the name Círculo y cuadrado. Participates in two group exhibits in Paris: Salón des Surindépendents and Origines et développement de l'art international indépendant organized by the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris. Completes Monumento Cosmico, an aptly named monumental 16 by 9-foot granite sculpture. Begins once again to paint portraits of famous and infamous historical figures; he names the series of over a hundred paintings Hombres, Heroes y Monstruos. World War II breaks out in Europe, and Torres-García corresponds with friends and family who keep him updated on the unfolding horror and chaos
1940
Founds the Taller Torres-García art school and the magazine Removedor. Solo exhibitions at the Sociedad de Arquitectos del Uruguay, Comisión Municipal de Cultura, and the Sociedad de Amigos del Arte in Montevideo; and J. Torres García in Galeria Müller, Buenos Aires. His work is acquired and exhibited at the newly founded Latin American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
1944
The artist was commissioned to complete multiple murals including seven large frescoes for the Saint Bois Hospital and La Maternidad for the Rodriguez López Hospital. Solo exhibitions in Sociedad de Amigos del Arte, Montevideo; Salón del Ateneo, Montevideo; and Galerie Pierre in Paris. Participates in the Exposición de Pintura Moderna del Uruguay group show in Galería Comte de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires. Continues lecturing and teaching; he writes over forty essays and books since his arrival to Uruguay.
1949
Joaquín Torres-García passes away on August 8, 1949 in Montevideo.
