In 1949, Michel Seuphor (1901–99) published the book L’art abstrait. Ses origines, ses premiers maîtres, where he referenced time in Paris in 1930, without making substantive references to Joaquín Torres García, who had been his partner in founding the group Cercle et Carré in Paris. Such was the initial theme of the article the Spanish writer Guillermo de Torre wrote for the catalogue of the fifth biennial of São Paulo (Brazil). De Torre expressed his suspicions about the silence of the Parisians about this postwar cultural environment, which was critiqued globally in various forms. The author goes on to provide a conceptual review of Joaquín Torres García’s artistic development, from when he started in Barcelona, and then emphasizing the period he spent in Montevideo from 1934 to 1949, citing the work Monumento Cósmico of 1938, the series of portraits of famous men (1939–40), and his work in murals in 1944, carried out with the assistance of his team at the TTG (Taller Torres García). The author points to the intellectual coherence the master artist has throughout his artistic process, placing himself at “extreme artistic limits that are geometrical on one side and metaphysical at the other.” Although the review does not introduce any new or unknown ideas about the work of Joaquín Torres García, since de Torre uses quotes by Julio Payró and José María Podestá to support his argument, it is still noteworthy having been written by someone close to Joaquín Torres García in both Europe and in Montevideo. In fact, de Torre promoted “The Ultraist Movement” and married the Argentinean artist Norah Borges while residing in Buenos Aires in the 1950s. These circumstances gave the text a kind of pleasant and colloquial tone in its intention of drawing a psychological portrait of the artistic master.
[For further reading, please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following texts written by Joaquín Torres García: “Con respecto a una futura creación literaria” (730292), “Lección 132. El hombre americano y el arte de América” (832022), “Mi opinión sobre la exposición de artistas norteamericanos: contribución” (833512), “Nuestro problema de arte en América: lección VI del ciclo de conferencias dictado en la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de Montevideo” (731106), “Introducción [en] Universalismo Constructivo” (1242032), “Sentido de lo moderno [en Universalismo Constructivo]” (1242015), “Bases y fundamentos del arte constructivo” (1242058), and “Manifiesto 2, Constructivo 100%” (1250878)].
