The content of this article should be considered within the context of when it was written and published: 1947. At that time Joaquín Torres-García was feeling overwhelmed by the criticism he had received of the murals he had painted on the walls of the Hospital Saint Bois (the criticism began as soon as the project was completed, in 1944). On top of all that, Cándido Portinari was in Uruguay. The Brazilian artist was working on his mural A Primeira Missa no Brasil, which received unusually warm praise from intellectuals and politicians in Montevideo. At the time a dramatic shift in attitudes to figurative mural painting was in progress among artists and the general public (that had been encouraged by the exhibition La pintura contemporánea norteamericana presented in Montevideo in 1941). The TTG (Taller Torres-García) had condemned this consensus in Removedor magazine, and its young students had expressed hopes for a renewal in style. The article ironically discusses the opposition that Torres-García teachings encountered to the widespread concept of artistic “freedom;” a freedom that had no conceptual framework, other than what was provided by an art technique in itself: a freedom “without the Torres-García Rule.” This was a problem that the maestro attributes to the indiscriminate circulation of Greek and Renaissance-style art prints which were used as models for imitation in works of sculpture and painting. Torres-García also associates what he calls a “lack of faith” in many artists with an unthinking opportunism fueled by personal interests of a financial nature or a desire for fame in provincial circles in Montevideo.
[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). See also the following articles about Portinari’s time in Uruguay: by Cándido Portinari “Sentido social del arte” (doc. no. 1313089); by Guido Castillo “Cándido Portinari no es un creador” (doc .no 1263707); by Alfonso Domínguez “Latitud Sur 34º, Longitud 58º Oeste. Exposición Cándido Portinari” (doc. no. 1226448); by Cipriano S. Vitureira “La libertad en Portinari” (doc. no. 1225346), and “La Primera Misa, mural de Cándido Portinari” (doc. no. 1312738); and by Lelio Landucci “Portinari” (doc. no. 1312931)].