La Tradicion Del Hombre Abstracto (Doctrina Constructivista) (The Tradition of the Abstract Man. Constructivist Doctrine)
Montevideo: Comision de homenajes a Torres Garcia, 1974. Facsimile edition. Softcover. 1/1700. Octavo. Unpaginated (40 leaves). Original tan wraps with tan reverse lettering in brown square of cover, brown lettering on spine, protected by modern mylar. Reprint of the 1938 first edition, published by Asociación de Arte Constructivo, Montevideo. This reprint, a facsimile edition, was published as an homage on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the artist. Printed to heavy gray paper.
"In 1918 he started to design wood toys as an extension of his teaching assignments; these toys integrated very simple forms into highly complex constructions, an early example of what he would do in his later Constructivist art production. He continued to design them after his move to New York in 1920, and they were manufactured for sale in 1922 after he returned to Europe that year. He settled in Paris in 1926, and after a rejection from the 1928 Salon d'automne, began to experiment with Constructivism, creating his first truly Constructivist works in 1929. His mature work from this latter period delicately balances natural and plastic elements, often containing signs that reference the indigenous cultures of South America. Late in 1929, Torres-García met Piet Mondrian, and along with Michel Seuphor the three later founded the movement Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square). The group went public in 1930 with an eponymous journal and a group exhibition of 46 Constructivist artists at Galerie 23, Paris. The main goal of Cercle et Carré was to provide an artistic alternative to the dominant Parisian movement of Surrealism, and the association served as a forum for abstract artists to explore their ideas. Torres-García ultimately left the group in 1930 after several disagreements with Seuphor.
After a short period of time in Madrid, where he exhibited, taught, and gave lectures, Torres-García returned to Uruguay in April 1934. There he founded the Asociación de arte constructivo (Association of Constructivist Artists) and published the journal Circulo y cuadrado, which introduced the avant-garde art movements of Cubism, Neoplasticism, and Constructivism to artists in his home country. He published extensively on the theory of art, and partly due to his 1935 call for artists to invert the traditional hierarchy of art by placing Latin America before Europe in his text Escuela del sur (School of the South), has many Latin American followers." (Guggenheim).
Text in Spanish. Very light wear along edges of wraps. Three-quarter inch chip at top foredge of back cover. Very good + condition. Item #49718
Price: $150.00