José Gurvich: Constructive Imagination

The exhibition, curated by Cecilia de Torres, focused on José Gurvich’s complex and unique background; a Latin American, Jewish artist born in northern Europe, Gurvich succeeded in finding his own voice by integrating the traditions of his heritage and his experiences with Torres-García’s legacy of constructive universalism.

Joseph Gurvich, born in Lithuania, was six years old when his family emigrated to Uruguay. In 1945, when he was 18 years old, Gurvich joined the Taller Torres-García. Over the years, he traveled frequently to Europe and Israel, where he worked as a shepherd on a Kibbutz. At 47, Gurvich’s prolific artistic life was cut short in New York as he was preparing for a solo exhibition of his work at The Jewish Museum.

Gurvich’s mature work exemplified the change from the rational structure of constructivism characteristic of the Taller Torres-García to an intuitive, vital, and expressive representation of the world. His dazzling late 1960s canvases blasted images in a centrifugal force where he lavished his great painterly ability. By substituting the orthogonal grid with the spiral, he revitalized the organization of his canvases with dynamic rhythm and playful fantasy.

To find his own vision not only meant to break with the constructive geometric style that characterized his teacher’s tenets, but also to rework the internal mechanism of artistic creation in order to allow the freedom of expression that his imagination demanded. “My intention is free creative play” he wrote, “… where the freedom of the image and the freedom of space emerge, generating a spontaneity without rational considerations that will stop me from speculating; free space becomes a place to develop infinite possibilities.” He introduced poetic and even narrative images related to Jewish religious traditions, pastoral and agricultural references that symbolize the origins in the earth as the source of all life. His love of clay’s tactile and plastic quality was an essential part of his creative output. The medium demands fast working; in Gurvich’s able hands it stimulated free inventive flow, resulting in diverse and expressive forms: figures, abstract constructions, and suggestively erotic shapes connected to the couple and life’s perpetuity.

The Americas Society exhibition included paintings, drawings, and ceramic objects dating from 1957 to 1973 that introduced an important artist always ready to experiment, question, and start anew. His work, in spite of seeming unconcerned with the current trends, and disaffection with contemporary culture, had an ever-increasing relevance in its renewal of a universal language.

Exhibition Catalogue Available

^{The exhibition was made possible with the generous contributions from private collectors, and the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) in Argentina.}

^{Guest Curator Cecilia de Torres explains works exhibited at Jose Gurvich: Constructive Imagination. 2005.}