Exhibition of José Gurvich in Barcelona.
We present the first exhibition of José Gurvich in Barcelona. Our gallery has always been linked to Joaquin Torres-Garcia’s constructivism, as well as to his disciples on his workshop in the Montevideo of the 1940s. Besides the exhibition dedicated to the Taller Torres-Garcia, his workshop in Montevideo, we have had solo shows of his students Alceu Ribeiro and Augusto Torres, and now we present Gurvich.
Born in Lithuania, he moved to Montevideo as a child. After studying music and fine arts, in 1945 he joins the Taller Torres-García, where he will learn the basis of constructivism and to which will remain linked until his closing in 1962. After travelling through Europe in the decade of the 50s, the closing of the Taller takes him to decide to settle in a kibbutz in Israel with his wife and son to know the roots of his culture.
After moving back to Montevideo, the establishment of a dictatorship in Uruguay forces him to exile, and will settle in New York, where he will die in 1974.
In the present exhibition we include paintings and drawings from all his career, from his beginnings in constructivism up to his later years, where his work evolves to a personal cosmic vision that can be appreciated in works such as “Composición especial” (Space composition). Also, we have managed to bring two of his scultpures “Torre del Edén” (Tower of Eden) and “Hombre universal” (Universal man), two pieces very representative of his closer to Judaism.
His work moves between his constructivist heritage taught by Torres-Garcia and his desire of freedom, even if in the beginning it is like in probation. Over the years he will freed himself by making come together opposed values: hope and emptiness, uprooting and identity, duty and freedom…
In the opening we will have the pleasure to feature a chat with his son Martín, the General Consul of Uruguay in Barcelona, Gustavo Ariosto Fernández Britos, Guido Castillo, writer and theorist of the Taller Torres-García and Alceu Ribeiro, painter and fellow student at the Taller.
The exhibition of José Gurvich can be visited until April 20th.
