Julio Alpuy

During his early career, Alpuy was a part of the Taller Torres-García (School of the South) and the constructive art movement.

Additionally, his studies in Europe and Latin America helped develop an interest in Cubism and myths that influenced later works.

Alpuy attributes these years in association with the Juventudes Libertarias to have helped further his understandings of freedom, justice, and respect.

Shortly after, Víctor Bachetta, a member of the Association of Constructive Art, connected Alpuy with Joaquín Torres-Garcia.

[2] After several years studying under Torres-Garcia, Alpuy began traveling around Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.

[2] He taught his students how to create with various mediums including stone, wood, and clay, as well as the theory of Constructive Universalism.

Torres-García hoped to construct a universally understandable form of art that transcended the bounds of time and culture.

He composed his works through the use of a grid or as he called it "structure" whose proportions were set with the geometry of the Golden Mean, a recurrent number in the history of art that also appears in natural forms.

He then chose archetypal symbols which he believed communicated universal messages and situated them inside the structure that organized the composition.

The theory of Constructive Universalism began to shape Alpuy's work, and by the mid-forties he was painting in a style similar to the artists at the Taller.

In December 1945, Torres-García encouraged Alpuy, and several others at the Taller, to travel in Latin America and study pre-Columbian art.

Instead, Alpuy began delving into new mediums and ideas, and eventually left the school in 1956 to seek his own path.

The Egyptian murals and hieroglyphs were very important for Alpuy because much of his interest in Constructive Universalism was focused on employing symbols and archetypes to project a message.

After the Middle East, Alpuy returned to Europe and spent the majority of his time in Venice and Paris.

[1] After Alpuy left the TTG, he received a grant from the New School for Social Research in New York City.

[1] Encouraged by the grant and the presence of Augusto Torres and Gonzalo Fonseca, fellow TTG artists, in New York, Alpuy decided to move permanently to the city.

1948 - Vian Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina[3] 1956 - Sociedad Amigos del Arte, Montevideo Uruguay[3] 1958 - Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogota, Colombia[3] 1959 - Fundaciones Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela[3] 1959 - Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, Venezuela[3] 1960 - Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogota, Colombia[3] 1964 - J. Walter Thompson Company, New York[3] 1964 - University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts[3] 1964 - Galería El País, Montevideo, Uruguay[3] 1969 - Zegri Gallery, New York, New York, New York[3] 1971 - Galería Losada, Montevideo, Uruguay[3] 1972 - Center for Inter-American Relations, New York[3] 1972 - Galería do Diario de Noticias, Lisboa, Portugal[3] 1976 - Galería Losada, Montevideo, Uruguay[3] 1977 - La Galería, Bogotá, Colombia[3] 1978 - La Trinchera, Caracas, Venezuela[3] 1979 - Alianza Cultural Uruguay y EE.UU., Montevideo, Uruguay[3] 1980 - Karlen Gugelmeier, Montevideo, Uruguay[3] 1980 - Galería Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina[3] 1983 - Museo Rayo, Roldanillo-Valle, Colombia[4] 1985 - Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, New York[4] 1988 - Galería Dialogo, Brussels[4] 1989 - Galería Palatina, Buenos Aires, Argentina[4] 1990 - Walter F. Maibaum Fine Arts, New York[4] 1997 - Works on Paper, Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York[4] 1999 - Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina[2] 2003 - Cecilia de Torres.

Cancel, Luis R.; Quirarte, Jacinto; Benítez, Marimar; Perazzo, Nelly; Sims, Lowery S.; Cockcroft, Eva; Angel, Félix and Stellweg, Carla.