Joaquín Torres García
Uruguay (1874—1949)
Born in Montevideo but raised in Barcelona, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Baixas Academy. He started painting frescoes and collaborated with Antoni Gaudí on the Sagrada Familia. He founded the School of Decorative Arts in Sarria. In 1918 forced to drop off a long underway project, he started to design wooden toys until he moved to New York and went back to painting. In 1930 he co-founded with Piet Mondrian and Michel Seuphor the Cercle et Carré magazine. He brought the magazine in Montevideo, where he also founded the Taller Torres-Garcia Constructivist School. In 1944 he published his theories in Universalismo Constructivo, his major work and his legacy.
