Uruguay to the rescue of the unknown artists of the Torres García workshop

The walls of his house were never pure white and the light in the rooms was always warm. “Low palette, following the master”, recalls Eduardo Alvariza, referring to the aesthetics of the famous Torres García Workshop, where his mother, Berta Luisi, was trained.

Her name does not appear in the prominent books of Uruguayan painting and there is little record of her work, despite being a valuable artist.

Almost 15 years after her death and in the midst of a worldwide process of vindication of art made by women, the Gurvich Foundation, in Montevideo, acquired part of Luisi's collection and opens next Tuesday the artist's first solo exhibition.

While the record at auction of Joaquín Torres García, the best-known Uruguayan artist, is 3.38 million dollars and his work is exhibited in the best museums in the world, that of Berta Luisi (Montevideo, 1924-2008) and other female disciples of her workshop is practically invisible.

Although in the 1940s almost one-third of the members of Torres' famous workshop were women, “the canon of painting in Uruguay is no stranger to the canon of politics and most social activities, in which a macho vision has prevailed,” says art historian Gustavo Peluffo Linari.

- In search of women -

The books on Joaquín Torres García repeat an emblematic black and white photo showing the teacher with his students, 10 women and 20 boys. All are identified, except one whose identity is still ignored.

“It is no coincidence that it is a woman who has no name,” says the exhibition's curator, Eugenia Méndez.

The Torres García workshop featured artists in the region: Julio Alpuy, Gonzalo Fonseca, José Gurvich, Anhelo Hernández, Dumas Oroño, Antonio Pezzino, Augusto Torres...

Among the women, Elsa Andrada, Linda Kohen, Marta Morandi, Eva Olivetti and Luisi, among others, attended. With the exception of Andrada, most of them barely known, and in some cases, with little work on the market.

“There is a lack of research among the women of the Torres García workshop. They did not transcend,” says the curator. “At some point in history, women were left in an invisible place, we are going to look for them.”

During his research, Mendez documented that Luisi went on to participate in at least 15 group exhibitions. However, he found hardly any information. “The books of Uruguayan painting don't mention it. Studying it was a difficult task, a huge challenge.”

The curator interviewed Luisi's family and friends, studied the collection that includes more than 400 oil paintings and identified stages of the work.

- Cathedrals and mechanical rhythms -

Berta Luisi was born and died in the same neighborhood of Montevideo, Pocitos, in a middle-class family.

When she divorced, in 1964, she moved into an apartment with her son. There he lived off his father's pension, dedicated to raising the child and painting in his bedroom.

That room smelled like paint and cigarettes. His son remembers that there were pictures even under the bed. “It was intense, at home he painted until the last drop of light entered his room and then, with artificial light, he worked sketches, I have hundreds of papers.”

Peluffo defines Luisi's work as constructivist with “sporadic borrowings from the surrealist imagination”.

His paintings have the air of Torres García, the composition in paintings, the symbols, the earthy palette, sometimes a little brighter and more colorful in the gouaches. They also show a universe of their own: cathedrals and stone gardens, the bottom of the sea, mechanical rhythms.

“She was an intellectual, she talked about music, film, literature, metaphysics. Her capacity for synthesis and conceptual density defined her personality and aesthetics,” says Marcos Torres, grandson of Torres García, who is also an artist and knew her.

Torres recalls Luisi and other artists' visits to his father's workshop, Augusto Torres.

“I have images of children running around the paintings while discussing metaphysics,” she laughs. “Do not think that it was men who took care of them, those gentlemen were in the nebula of aesthetics. It was them, who brought the land to the workshop.”

Most of Luisi's paintings were until recently in his son's house. The rest are scattered. “She had a wedding and gave away a painting,” says Alvariza. There are paintings of his in private collections in Argentina, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the United States.

“My mother was only interested in painting (...) She was always immersed in her art. He didn't know how to show himself, but he always wanted to do a solo exhibition.”

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