When Joaquín Torres García (1874–1949) returned to Montevideo on April 30, 1934, he started assembling a small group of followers that, in 1935, he called the Asociación de Arte Constructivo. While he was teaching theoretical and hands-on workshops to this group, he was also giving talks at a variety of associations, cultural institutions, the Universidad de la República, radio stations, foreign organizations, and so on in an intense campaign that, after six years, had seen him give five hundred lectures.
Though the document is neither signed nor dated, one can deduce when it was written because it mentions that the last exhibition was held on October 10, 1935. It also announces the forthcoming publication of Estructura which, according to the information on the first page of the book by that title, appeared on November 4, 1935. This means that this document was most likely written sometime in October 1935. Furthermore, the logo in the upper left corner is not the one that was finally adopted in 1936. The one shown here was designed by the painter and printmaker Héctor Ragni, a devoted member of the Asociación de Arte Constructivo and one of JTG’s most efficient assistants during the early stage of his work in Uruguay and on into the 1940s.
[As complementary reading see, in the ICAA digital archive, the following articles written by Joaquín Torres García: “Con respecto a una futura creación literaria” (doc. no. 730292); “Lección 132. El hombre americano y el arte de América” (doc. no. 832022); “Mi opinión sobre la exposición de artistas norteamericanos: contribución” (doc. no. 833512); “Nuestro problema de arte en América: lección VI del ciclo de conferencias dictado en la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de Montevideo” (doc. no. 731106); “Introducción [en] Universalismo Constructivo” (doc. no. 1242032); “Sentido de lo moderno [en Universalismo Constructivo]” (doc. no. 1242015); “Bases y fundamentos del arte constructivo” (doc. no. 1242058); and “Manifiesto 2, Constructivo 100%” (doc. no. 1250878)].