CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/4/2015

Joaquín Torres-García: The Arcadian Modern

"The more the person drawing has a spirit of synthesis, the more of a constructed image he will give us," Joaquín Torres-García wrote in his 1930 manifesto, Vouloir construire (Will to construct). "The drawings of all primitive peoples—black, Aztec, etc, as well as Egyptian, Chaldean, etc.—are great examples. This spirit of synthesis, I believe is what leads to the construction of the whole painting, and of sculpture, and to the determining of the proportions of architecture. This spirit alone allows the work to be seen in its totality as a single order, a unity. What wonders this rule has created across the ages! Why has it been overlooked?" Construction with Curved Forms (1931) is reproduced from Joaquín Torres-García: The Arcadian Modern, published to accompany the first comprehensive retrospective of the artist's work in the U.S. since 1970, currently on view at MoMA.