Removedor [Thinner] was the official journal of the Torres-García Workshop (TTG); it was written and edited in-house. An item therein stated that: “armed with Removedor and a good spatula, we are prepared to continue painting in the old way until we have laid the groundwork for the arrival of the new one.” The magazine was published twenty-eight times between February 1945 and May 1950, and two special editions appeared in December 1950 and July-August 1953. Guido Castillo is a Uruguayan writer who made contact with Torres-García in 1942. He wrote poetry, stories, and essays, and was also the Editor of Removedor magazine. He currently lives in Barcelona.
This particular document has been chosen because it shows the support there was for Universalismo Constructivo [Constructive Universalism], understood as a new art that expressed mankind’s unity with the cosmic order through a visual language that blended geometric structure with ancestral symbols of the Americas. This article also refers to the manner in which TTG’s work, and the role of its Uruguayan Director, fueled the aesthetic debates that were taking place in the Río de la Plata region at the time. This essay, as well as “Nuestro problema de arte en América” [Our Problem with Art in the Americas] by Torres-García, and “Originalidad e invención” [Originality and Invention] by Sarandy Cabrera, prompted Maldonado’s reaction. He responded with “Torres-García against Modern Art,” an article which was published in their magazine [Bulletin of the Concrete Art and Invention Association] in December 1946.