Manolita Piña

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Manolita Piña
Manolita Piña Torres-Garcia and family, 1916
Born
Manolita Piña

(1883-02-24)24 February 1883
Barcelona, Spain
Died(1994-06-11)11 June 1994
(aged 111 years, 107 days)
Montevideo, Uruguay
Nationality
  • Spanish
  • Uruguayan
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1908; died 1949)​
Children4

Manolita Piña Torres-Garcia (née Rubies 24 February 1883 – 11 June 1994) was a Spanish-Uruguayan painter and supercentenarian. She was known as "Doña Manolita" in Uruguay. She was the wife of Uruguayan painter Joaquín Torres García.[1] She was considered to be an "inseparable companion" to Torres García,[2] accompanied him to conferences, exhibitions and supported all of his artistic endeavors.[3] In many ways, she was "like his shadow."[3] She was the founder of Museo Torres Garcia in Montevideo.[4]

Biography

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Piña Torres was born in Barcelona, Spain on 24 February 1883. Piña Torres was classically educated by her wealthy parents and she played piano into her late years.[4]

She married Joaquín Torres García on 20 August 1908 in Barcelona.[5] She and her husband lived throughout Europe as well as New York City and then settled in Montevideo.[1]

Piña Torres's art, along with her husband's, has been collected by Emilio Ellena.[6] Ellena describes her art as creative and beautiful, but Piña Torres stopped painting after she was married.[6] Piña Torres states that she stopped painting so that she would not become a better painter than her husband or disturb his work, which would have been shameful to their family during her time and in her culture.[4] She felt that although she had stopped painting herself, that her opinion on art was always welcome.[3] She may have continued to do some art, since there is a record of a master quality woodcut in a book, Notes on Art by Torres Garcia (1913).[3]

She says that politics were one of the few things she argued about with her husband.[7] She was known to help artists who were suffering from political persecution.[3] Two of her grandchildren were imprisoned and in exile and her home was searched for them.[7] Piña Torres also refused to move back to Barcelona because of the crimes against art that were committed there, such as destroying frescoes.[8] She died at the age of 111 in 1994, being the oldest person in Uruguay at the time of her death.[9]

Legacy

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In 1951, Piña Torres created a group in Montevideo, called MAOTIMA (standing for the names of the participants, Manolita, Otilia, Iphigenia and Maria Angelica) which was dedicated to working on embroidered tapestries.[3]

Piňa Torres was a tireless collector of her husband's work and later helped promote much of his formerly unseen art.[10] She also inventoried his work, a list of over 350 pieces of art.[11] Piña Torres felt that after her husband's death, she should ensure his legacy and therefore created a museum dedicated to her husband's art and legacy which she accomplished at age 106.[4][12] Piña Torres set up the foundation to support the Museo Torres Garcia and helped found the museum which was initially opened on 29 July 1953.[13] The museum went through a long, difficult history until the government of Uruguay stabilized and the museum was inaugurated in its current form in 1986.[13] Piña Torres was credited with enthusiasm and strength in working towards the creation of the museum.[14] In addition to creating the foundation and the museum, she also set up an archive to document his life's work.[12] She was often a subject of portraiture for her husband[1] and the subject of others'other's paintings, as well, including artist, Rafael Barradas.[15]

She was posthumously honored in 2000 by the Cultural Center Foundation, Caixa Terrassa.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Manolita Piña, viuda del pintor Joaquín Torres". El Pais. 14 June 1994. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Desde el vientre más olvidado". El Observador (in Spanish). 11 May 2014. Archived from the original on 23 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Manolita Piña de Rubies". Diccionari Biografic de Dones (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d "Manolita Piña Torres". Museo Torres Garcia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  5. ^ Sureda, Joan (1998). Torres Garcia: Pasion Clasica (in Spanish). Akal Ediciones. ISBN 9788446008149.
  6. ^ a b De Rozas, Marilu Ortiz (13 May 2011). "Torres Garcia y Manolita Pina en Galeria Animal". El Mercurio (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 April 2015 – via Uruguay Relaciones Exteriores.
  7. ^ a b "Manolita Pina de Torres Garcia - 104 Anos de Invencibilidad". El Montevideano - Laboratorio de Artes (in Spanish). 23 August 2009. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  8. ^ "Manolita Pina de Torres Garcia - 104 Anos de invencibilidad (2)". El Montevideano - Laboratorio de Artes (in Spanish). 30 August 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  9. ^ "Manolita Piña, viuda del pintor Joaquín Torres". El País. 14 June 1994.
  10. ^ "Ejemplos de osmótica entre las programaciones de galerías, museos y fundaciones". Arteinformado (in Spanish). 24 May 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  11. ^ Carrato, Victor (29 April 2014). "La obra de Torres García en disputa". Caras & Caretas. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Saatchi Gallery". Saatchi Gallery (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  13. ^ a b "History Museo Torres García". Museo Torres Garcia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 14 May 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  14. ^ "Olimpia Torres - A Mi Padre Llegaron a Quere Apunalarlo". El Montevideano - Laboratorio de Artes (in Spanish). 21 August 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  15. ^ "Manolita Piña de Torres García". Wahoo Art. Retrieved 25 April 2015.

Further reading

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  • Ellena, Emilio; Valenzuela, Pedro (2000). Homenatge a Manolita Piña de Torres García (in Spanish). Centre Cultural, Fundacio Caixa Terrassa.
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