Julio Alpuy
b. 1919, Cerro Chato, Uruguay - d. 2009, New York City
Growing up in the Uruguayan countryside with little exposure to art, Alpuy first began drawing at the age of twenty. Within a year, the young artist met Joaquín Torres-García. Inspired by his theories on Constructive Universalism, Alpuy joined the Taller Torres-García.
In 1944, Alpuy painted two murals as part of the Taller's project to decorate the St. Bois Hospital in Uruguay. He would continue to paint murals throughout his career. Encouraged by Torres-García, Alpuy and other Taller members travelled to the Andean region of South America in 1945. This experience, along with other periods of travel during the 1950s in South America, Europe, and the Middle East profoundly affected his work. For Alpuy, nature functions as a framework for his archetypal personal symbolism, based on a fascination with the organic and the primordial.
In 1961, Alpuy immigrated to New York, where he remained for the duration of his life. Alpuy's work has been featured in numerous exhibitions about the Taller Torres-García, as well as in several international solo exhibitions. It is also included in major international collections, including: the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Morgan Library and Museum, New York; The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection, New York; and the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Please click for Chronology and CV
1960s - 2003 Works of Wood and Drawings
Abundantly illustrated, this catalogue features Alpuy’s wood pieces and contains the most extensive recounting of his life and artistic work
Essay by José Roca; Chronology by Cecilia de Torres In English with Spanish translations; 75 color and black and white photographs and illustrations, 140 pages
$ 20.00 + postage
Cuarderno de acuarelas 1940-1960
This catalogue illustrates Alpuy's lively early constructivist watercolors
Essay by Wilfredo Penco in Spanish with English translation; 23 color plates, 32 pages, 8 1/4 x 11 3/4 in.
Published by Galería Oscar Prato, Montevideo
$ 35.00 + postage
Maderas
Cleverly packaged, the images are suitable as decorative cards
28 color plates on individual leaves of heavy stock paper, 6 x 8 1/2 in.
Published by Galería Oscar Prato, Montevideo
$ 20.00 + postage
Cecilia de Torres, El Norte es el Sur, Revista Paula, Diario El Pais. Uruguay, 2021.
"A Notable Uruguayan Artist," La Nación Newspaper, October 24, 1999 – Buenos Aires
Mari Carmen Ramirez, "El Taller Torres García, The school of the south and it’s legacy," 1991
Ronald Christ on Julio Alpuy, 1984
O.S, "Archaisms from Synthesis," La Opinión Cultural, Buenos Aires, September 7, 1980
Rafael Squirru, "To Be Profoundly Human," Galería Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, August 1980
Julio Alpuy, "Situating Oneself," Galería Sarmiento, Argentina, August 1980
Ronald Christ interview with Julio Alpuy, 1972
H.R, "Alpuy’s Mature Period," Plástica Magazine, Uruguay, March 10, 1972
Marta Traba, "Alpuy at the Luis Angel Arango Library," June 8, 1958, Bogotá
Taller Torres-García permanent exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
We are pleased to share the following article written by Cecilia de Torres:
El Norte es el Sur, Revista Paula, Diario El País, Uruguay, 2021.
You can read or download the article here.
El Museo del Barrio featuring works by gallery artists
We are pleased to announce El Museo del Barrio featuring works by gallery artists:
Maria Freire's sculpture Abstraction (1950) is being shown for the exhibition The Illusive Eye, on view February 3, 2016 to May 21, 2016
For more information about this exhibition, please click here.
Also on view from December 22, 2015 – December 4, 2016, in the exhibition Figure and Form: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection, is Julio Alpuy's El jardín del amor (1964).
For more information about this exhibition, please click here.
The South was Their North: Artists of the Torres-García Workshop
2015-2016 Autumn-Winter
Art Basel Miami Beach 2014
December 4-7, 2014
Line - Plane - Volume / Sculpture: 1944-2006
2006 Winter
Works ON & OF Paper - Modern and Contemporary
2005 Autumn
Julio Alpuy - Works of Wood and Drawings 1960-2003
2003 Autumn
Julio Alpuy - Journeys on Paper
1997 Autumn