Marina metafísica [Metaphysical Marina]
1962
20th century
116.2 cm x 58.4 cm (45 3/4 in. x 23 in.)
Julio Alpuy
(Tacuarembó, Uruguay, 1919 - 2009, New York City)
Primary
Object Type:
construction
Artist Nationality:
Latin America, Uruguay
Medium and Support:
Oil on incised, carved wood
Credit Line:
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of the artist, 2005
Accession Number:
2005.150
Julio Alpuy trained in the seminal Taller Torres-García, a workshop founded in Montevideo by Joaquín Torres-García to transmit to a younger generation his style of Universal Constructivism, an approach to abstraction inspired by a fusion of ancient American forms with the European avant-garde. In 1961, after almost two decades of working faithfully in Torres-García’s style, Alpuy moved to New York where he was able to develop his own distinctive style, as seen in this work of 1962. While the title suggests a marine landscape, what we see is the artist’sresponse to a new urban cityscape, in a composition incorporating the timeless symbols that would be a lifelong concern for him. By using found and recycled materials—wood in this case—Alpuy also explored what he saw as the spirituality of used objects.