Silvia Torras
{{short description|Argentine artist (1936–1970)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Silvia Torras
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date text|1936}}
| birth_place = Barcelona, Spain
| death_date = {{death date text|1970}} (age 33)
| death_place = Mexico City, Mexico
| nationality = {{hlist|Argentina|Spain}}
| education = {{interlanguage link|Escuela de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano|es}}
{{interlanguage link|Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón|es}}
| known_for = Painting
| movement = Informalism
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|George Manning, Jr.|1964}}
- {{marriage|Kenneth Kemble|end=div}}
}}
}}
Silvia Torras (1936–1970) was a Spanish-born Argentine informalist painter.{{Cite web|title=Silvia Torras|url=https://www.arte-online.net/Artistas/Torras-Sivia/(section)/Biografia|access-date=9 December 2020|website=Arte Online|language=es-AR}}{{Cite web|date=2019|title=Silvia Torras. Resplandor 1960–63|url=https://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/museos/museo-sivori/silvia-torras-resplandor-1960-63|access-date=9 December 2020|website=Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires|language=es}} Torras became a notable artist in the Argentine informalism movement and showed her work in several major exhibits during the short period she painted.
Life
Torras was born in 1936 in Barcelona, Spain.{{Cite web|title=Artistas argentinos: Silvia Torras|trans-title=Argentinian artists: Silvia Torras|url=http://cvaa.com.ar/03biografias/3_bios_t1.php|access-date=9 December 2020|website=Centro Virtual de Arte Argentino|publisher=City of Buenos Aires|language=es}}{{Cite web|last=Paz|first=Nadia|date=3 July 2019|title=Resplandor de Silvia Torras|url=http://elgranotro.com/silvia-torras/|access-date=9 December 2020|website=El Gran Otro|language=es}} She had a twin sister and three other siblings. Her father had spent time in Argentina prior to marriage, and the family moved to Buenos Aires before Torras was a year old.{{Citation|last=Kemble|first=Kenneth|title=Love story: Silvia Torras y Kenneth Kemble: 1956–1963|date=18 August 1979|url=http://bibliothequekandinsky.centrepompidou.fr/clientBookline/service/reference.asp?INSTANCE=INCIPIO&OUTPUT=PORTAL&DOCID=0300818&DOCBASE=CGPP#|publication-place=Buenos Aires, Argentina|publisher=Galería Van Riel|language=es}} Torras was raised in Argentina, and that is where she studied as an artist.
Torras married Kenneth Kemble, an artist under whom she trained in Argentina. The two later divorced, and Torras married George Manning, Jr. After her marriage to Manning, she moved with him and their stepchildren to Peru. She and Manning had one child together. Torras died of cancer in Mexico in 1970.
Painting
In Buenos Aires, Torras studied at the {{interlanguage link|Escuela de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano|es}} and the {{interlanguage link|Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón|es}}. She continued her training beginning in 1956 with artist Kenneth Kemble, whom she later married.{{Citation|last=Cabobianco|first=Marcos|title=Destruction against violence: Destructive tactics for representing violence in art|work=A Tale of Two Worlds – Experimental Latin American Art in Dialogue with the MMK Collection, 1944–1989|pages=130–151|publication-date=2018|editor-last=Klaus|editor-first=G.|publisher=Kerber Verlag|editor2-last=Noorthhoorn|editor2-first=V.|editor3-last=Villa|editor3-first=J.|editor4-last=Aguado|editor4-first=A.}}
Torras became a figure within the Argentine informalism movement of the time.{{Cite book|last1=Kemble|first1=Kenneth|title=Kemble, Torras: Noviembre de 2002|last2=Torras|first2=Silvia|last3=Buccellato|first3=Laura|last4=Taricco|first4=Clelia|publisher=Museo de Arte Moderno|year=2002|location=Buenos Aires, Argentina|language=es|trans-title=Kemble, Torras: November 2002|oclc=53138237}} She tended to produce large pieces (around {{convert|3|by|3|m|ft|disp=or}}) reflecting an abstract expressionism. Her themes of organic vegetation and nature references, strong brushstrokes and layered paint, and use of color differentiated her from others in the informalism movement. She typically would not title her works, or titled them only with names of colors. She produced most of her work between the years of 1960 and 1963. In 1963, she moved to Mexico, where she briefly taught art in San Miguel De Allende. El Gran Otro wrote that Torras's "works were developed in a short period of time but with overwhelming force."
Many years after her death, Torras's paintings resurfaced and were put on exhibit in Buenos Aires.
File:Copy of SilviaSivori4.jpg|1961/1963
File:SilviaSivori10.jpg|Untitled, oil on canvas, 1960/1963
File:SilviaSivori12 .jpg|Untitled, oil on canvas
File:Silvia Torras Untitled .jpg|Untitled, 1960/1963
= Exhibitions =
- 1960 – Individual exhibition, Galería Peuser
- 1961 – Individual exhibition, {{Interlanguage link|Galería Lirolay|lt=|es||WD=}}
- 1961 – Arte Destructivo ("Destructive Art"), Galería Lirolay
- 1962 – Premio Ver y Estimar, honourable mention, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 1963 – Premio Ver y Estimar, participant, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 1963 – Premio Di Tella (Di Tella award), participant
- 1963 – Arte Argentino Actual ("Contemporary Argentine Art"), Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
== Posthumous ==
- 1979 – Love Story: Silvia Torras y Kenneth Kemble, Galería Van Riel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2002 – Kemble/Torras, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2018 – Silvia Torras. Resplandor 1960–63, Eduardo Sívori Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2021- Silvia Torras. Juventud y Alegría - MCMC Galeria, Buenos Aires, Argentina{{Cite web|date=2021-03-16|title=Silvia Torras - Juventud y alegría|url=http://mcmcgaleria.com/es/muestra/silvia-torras|access-date=2021-07-30|website=MCMC Galeria|language=es-AR}}
- 2022 - Kenneth Kemble and Silvia Torras: The Formative Years, Duke House Exhibition, New York, New York{{cite web | url=https://vimeo.com/682959554 | title=Duke House Exhibition Opening - Kenneth Kemble and Silvia Torras: The Formative Years, 1956-63 | date=28 February 2022 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2022/january/new-york-university-s-institute-of-fine-arts-to-present--kenneth.html | title=New York University's Institute of Fine Arts to present Kenneth Kemble and Silvia Torras: The Formative Years, 1956-63 }}
References
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Category:20th-century Argentine painters
Category:20th-century Catalan painters
Category:Art Informel and Tachisme painters
Category:Artists from Buenos Aires
Category:Educators from Catalonia
Category:Women artists from Catalonia
Category:Deaths from cancer in Mexico
Category:Spanish contemporary artists