NEW YORK.-Americas Society presents the first New York retrospective of José Gurvich (b. Luthuania, 1927; d New York, 1974), a prominent member of the Taller Torres-García in Montevideo, Uruguay. José Gurvich: Constructive Imagination will be on view at the Americas Society from October 27, 2005 through February 28, 2006, as the centerpiece of the series Tradition and Transformation: Jewish Culture in Latin America. The Opening date is Thursday, October 27 at 7:00 PM.

“This retrospective is an example of America Society’s commitment to producing solo shows of Latin American artists whose works are underrepresented in the United States. Critical shows by other members of Taller Torres-García date back to 1972 with Julio Alpuy and to 1988 with Augusto Torres’ Form, Structure, Síntesis: A Retrospective,” said Tess O’Dwyer, Vice President for Cultural Affairs and Development. Besides the Taller Torres García, other in depth monographic shows presented at the Americas Society include those of Wilfredo Lam, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Geraldo de Barros, seminal artists whose work was not represented at the time.

José Gurvich: Constructive Imagination examines the artist’s Jewish heritage vis-à-vis the development of constructivism as a modern idiom. Born in a village in the Trakai district of Lithuania, Gurvich immigrated with his family to Uruguay when he was a child. After a brief period at the School of Fine Arts of Montevideo, he joined the Taller Torres-García, developing a new language that would combine elements of the European avant-garde and Pre-Columbian art. Despite his devotion to Torres Garcia’s Universal Constructivism, Gurvich began to explore his own path through an investigation of folk imagery.

Cecilia de Torres, curator of the exhibition in conjunction with the José Gurvich Foundation in Uruguay, states, “Gurvich had a natural inclination for what the Russians called “faktura,” the idea that each material generates a particular repertory of forms.”