Joaquín Torres-García Calle de Barcelona (Street in Barcelona) 1917
Joaquín Torres-García is one of the most influential artists to emerge from Latin America in the 20th century, and was among the first in the region to institute the language of Constructivism. After moving to Barcelona in 1892, he immersed himself in the study of European classical painting and worked closely with the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí on a number of murals for cathedrals and stained glass commissions throughout the country. His work during this period was marked by a neoclassical style, which he would later abandon upon moving to Italy and then France in the 1920s, where his innovative Constructivist production would be born.
In Calle de Barcelona, Torres-García abstracts an urban landscape; the manner in which the buildings and windows that make up the background are simplified into lines and geometric forms signals the grid-like composition that would become important in the artist’s later work. The elements he depicts from a daily scene on the streets—a carriage and horse, a human figure, and architectural elements—have been reduced to the interplay of line, color, and form without losing the scene’s representational and narrative value.
Identification
Title
Calle de Barcelona (Street in Barcelona)
Production Date
1917
Object Number
2012.106
Credit Line
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Jorge M. Pérez
Copyright
Public Domain
https://www.pamm.org/en/artwork/2012.106
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Physical Qualities
Medium
Oil on board
Dimensions
14 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Visual Description
Calle de Barcelona by Joaquín Torres García is a painting from 1917. It is made of oil paint on board. It measures fourteen and a half inches tall by nineteen and a half inches wide and is hung in landscape orientation, meaning its longest side runs parallel to the floor.
The painting depicts the landscape of a city street. Starting from the background and moving toward the viewer, the sky is light blue with white clouds scattered across the horizon. The middle ground depicts several buildings. On the right-hand side of the composition, the buildings are a cream color with brick-colored roofs. Their facades have multiple rows and columns of small and grey windows, suggesting great height. The buildings to the left of the composition are brick colored, cream, and dark yellow. Their facades also have multiple rows and columns of windows; however, the windows are much larger. The brick-colored building has a sign pasted on it. The sign is white with a red dot and blue lettering.
The foreground contains a small dark yellow building on the far left with what appears to be a black steam train locomotive passing in front of it. A single tree with green leaves and brown bark sits in the center of the composition. To its right there is another small building. Its façade is brick-colored. Above it there is a yellow circle tied to a black chain and a crane that extends out of the frame. The bottom of the composition houses two men. The man in the center is wearing all blue and his skin is dark. He tends to several wagons and at least two horses. One horse is white with a black saddle, the other is brown. Behind the man in blue, the second man looks over and he is dressed in black. His skin is also dark. To the right extreme of the canvas there is a small yellow building. Painted in grey on the building is the artist’s signature “J.T.G” and the numbers “1917”
