The internationally famous modernist artist Joaquin Torres-Garcia ,whose work is featured in our spring BIG IDEA project, Free Play, was also a toy designer who marketed his toys under the brand name Aladdin Toys. Torres-Garcia taught drawing at a school in Barcelona in the 1910s, when he came to believe in the importance of play for child development and education.
Consisting of multiple parts that children can arrange into different groupings, his transformable wooden toys reflected his Constructivist aesthetic and also his belief in making toys that allow children to express their creativity while building knowledge. Visitors to Free Play can see original Torres-Garcia toys, and play with contemporary reproductions of his toys.
