ISSN 1851-0027

A�o 2007. N�mero 3: 106-131

comechingonia.com

Entre el Arte y la Antropolog�a:

Sutilezas del Pasado Prehisp�nico en la Obra de Joaqu�n Torres Garc�a

Recibido el 14 de agosto de 2007. Aceptado el 18 de octubre de 2007

Mar�a Elena Lucero

Doctorando en Bellas Artes

Universidad Nacional de Rosario

Abstract

The Uruguayan painter Joaqu�n Torres Garc�a (1874-1949) carries out one of the plastic proposals of the XX �century that emphasizes the debate on the indigenous past as a base of an American art. In ' 20 �and '30 years the River Plate art field nourishes from the convergence of aesthetic currents of vanguard and local elements, added to desire to revisit the tradition when considering the weight of an important pre-Columbian culture in Latin America. Torres Garc�a propose a new Art in which contributions of the European abstraction and characteristics of the Hispanic cultures coexist -which the artist also approaches, from the interest in the Archaeology of his son Augusto- giving rise imaginary to a peculiar one. In their painting the subtle icons of the Tiahuanaco culture resonate - which adopts its name of the ruins of the old city of Tiahuanaco in Eastern border of the Titicaca Lake -. The entailment with this culture is organized of a complex way since it is not simple references but of symbolic and conceptual processes by which the artist takes control of the fundamental foundation that she sustains east type of preincaicas artistic manifestations: the American constructive platform and its structural base.

Key words: Torres Garc�a - American art - vanguard - Archaeology