Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

La Escuela del Sur magazine was published by the TTG (Taller Torres García). The first issue appeared in 1958, five years after Removedor—the Taller’s previous journal—ceased publication. The article “Salutación a Torres García,” written [...]

This lecture was given at the last exhibition of Joaquín Torres García’s paintings, shortly before he died. The speaker, a Uruguayan writer who was very close to JTG, had long been a prominent figure in intellectual circles in Montevideo. [...]

In this article, Guido Castillo does not launch an all-out attack on Cándido Portinari because he recognizes the Brazilian artist’s “human values” and his compassion for the suffering endured by some people in the world. But [...]

This article by Sarandy Cabrera, which appeared in Removedor, the journal published by the TTG (Taller Torres-García), is an example of the magazine’s colloquial—and aggressive, “from the trenches”—discourse. This [...]

“Reflexiones” is just that, a collection of thoughts related to the essence of the constructivist doctrine and the concrete strategies to be adopted in an environment that was not particularly receptive to the doctrine. The intent is to [...]

In this brief article, written in a colloquial, essay style, Guido Castillo expresses the hope that the essence of modern art will be reborn from its own ashes in both the emblematic figure of Joaquín Torres-García and in Universalismo [...]

The article “Universalidad del Constructivismo” is essentially a monologue about a painting by Joaquín Torres García. The author of the article, Francisco Lanza Muñoz, muses on the subject of abstraction and its metaphysical underpinnings, [...]

In this article, which appeared in the final number of the magazine Círculo y Cuadrado (December 1943), J. Luis San Vicente discusses the spirit of cooperation among members of the TTG (Taller Torres-García). The writer also provides a [...]

This article by Héctor Ragni—one of Joaquín Torres García’s “devout” disciples—reveals the author’s profound understanding of the maestro’s doctrinaire corpus of constructive universalism [...]

In this brief essay Joaquín Torres-García outlines the goals he developed at the AAC (Asociación de Arte Constructivo) and explained in the association’s magazine. He describes the difficulties he had in trying to make [...]

This article, “El arte naturalista y el arte geométrico,” includes a discussion of Joaquín Torres-García’s main theoretical ideas. Here he restates his metaphysically-inspired philosophical approach and his [...]

This is an excerpt from the book L’Homme, cet inconnu [Man, the Unknown] by the French scientist Alexis Carrel, which appeared in issue Number 5 of Círculo y Cuadrado, the magazine published by the Asociación de Arte Constructivo [...]

“The plane on which we should place ourselves” is one of the most synthetic statements Joaquín Torres García makes in his lectures on the theory and practice of “modern classicism.” In it he casts some doubt on the very idea of “modernity [...]

Carmelo de Arzadun stresses the importance of creating intellectual groups in Montevideo, explaining that their conversations about their various aesthetic preferences would enrich the debate in local art circles. On the whole, the article does not [...]

Joaquín Torres-García wrote this editorial for Círculo y Cuadrado, the journal published by the Asociación de Arte Constructivo de Montevideo that seeks to follow in the footsteps of Cercle et Carré, the magazine co [...]

This text was written in 1950 by Guillermo de Torre, a year after the death of Joaquín Torres García. In it, he made a brief assessment of the artistic master relating to modern art from his beginnings as a muralist in Barcelona, while [...]

Luis Camnitzer discusses Joaquín Torres García’s exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and assesses reactions to his work among North American audiences and intellectuals. The Uruguayan artist and critic, who lives in New [...]

Upholding the need to theorize his practice—Joaquín Torres García once again explains the basis of his Constructivist art; in his view, all artists should engage in permanent reflection. This text is primarily aimed at pointing out the confusion [...]

“The liberation of the artist” is the title of one of Joaquín Torres García’s “lessons.” In it, he discusses the geometric foundations of Constructivist Art and calls for “setting oneself free” from what has been learned about the “ [...]

In this lecture, Joaquín Torres García (JTG) asserts that groups of artists that are not joined by theoretical ideas or stand behind a distinct ethical platform are pointless. He therefore repudiates the schools and groups in Uruguay, supporting [...]

This “lesson” given by Joaquín Torres García (JTG) is a manifesto of sorts. It is the first in which the artist formulates the idea of “inverting the map” of South America and asserts the existence of a local cultural identity that should [...]

This document is a transcription of one of the last lectures Joaquín Torres García gave at the Escuela Taller de Artes Plásticas (ETAP) in Montevideo. In it, he paves the way for cutting short the series of lectures he had been giving at that [...]

By means of an overview of modern art and its development, Joaquín Torres García lays out his Constructivist theory as the culmination (or convergence) of various strains of Western art. In his view, the moral value of the artist’s position lies [...]

This document is a transcription of a lesson that Joaquín Torres García (JTG) gave in January 1935, nine months after his return to Uruguay. It may have been given at Estudio 1035 or at the Escuela Taller de Artes Plásticas (ETAP). JTG attempts to [...]

In this essay, Joaquín Torres García speaks about “Lesson 50,” which was later published in his book Universalismo Constructivo (1944). In it there are some comments referencing selected paragraphs from another conference under the same title [...]

Following harsh criticism of positivism (and eclecticism) of the intellectual environment of Montevideo, Joaquín Torres García presented his ideas about metaphysics, ethics, and religiosity in art. This text makes several important points about the [...]

In this essay, Joaquín Torres García attempts to link this sociopolitical doctrine with that of modern art after presenting a succinct historical review starting from “primitive communism” up through the Marxist doctrine. He does so by [...]

In the Montevidean press, the controversy between the writer Juan Carlos Somma and the art critic Fernando García Esteban developed and was published in installments. It revolved around the governmental and private decisions that were made in [...]

This article by Fernando García Esteban appeared in the weekly journal Marcha and is part of a controversy with the writer Juan Carlos Somma. All in all, the critic’s rant revealed behavior and decisions, both governmental and private, when he was [...]

This article includes the text of a section that appeared before the introduction in Joaquín Torres García’s book, Universalismo Constructivo (published in Buenos Aires in 1944). Here the maestro refers to “the modernity” of current art, an [...]

In the Montevideo-based weekly Marcha, writer Juan Carlos Somma condemns a series of confused decisions the Uruguayan government made about the preservation and restoration of murals by Joaquín Torres García and members of his workshop at the [...]

The article by the art critic and columnist of the weekly journal Marcha, Fernando García Esteban, was written in immediate response to the published complaint made by Juan Carlos Somma regarding the imminent restoration and transfer of the murals [...]

This leaflet presents the work done in Madrid in 1933 by Joaquín Torres García and the Grupo de Arte Constructivo during JTG’s visit to Spain prior to returning to Uruguay for good. Three similar documents are known to exist, each one containing [...]

This leaflet presents the work done in Madrid in 1933 by Joaquín Torres García and the Grupo de Arte Constructivo during JTG’s visit to Spain prior to returning to Uruguay for good. Three similar documents are known to exist, each one containing [...]

This leaflet presents the work done in Madrid in 1933 by Joaquín Torres García and the Grupo de Arte Constructivo during JTG’s visit to Spain prior to returning to Uruguay for good. Three similar documents are known to exist, each one containing [...]

In his series of four articles, José Cúneo challenges Joaquín Torres García for having submitted to the VIII Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes—where he won the Grand Prize—a painting that, in the author’s view, has nothing to do with his [...]

José Cúneo’s text entitled “Arte Abstracto” was read at a lecture that he gave in Montevideo. Although the exact date when it was written is unknown, the lecture appears to have been given in 1956 or 1957 at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in [...]

In this essay, the author, Carlos Herrera Mac Lean outlined a response to the article written by Joaquín Torres García against him, culminating this third section on the brief public controversy between both of them. The response, in a written [...]

In this article, the author speculates on the criteria adopted for judging artistic competitions and the difficulties encountered in having to provide critical judgement on the diverse and “contradictory” work presented by Joaquín Torres García [...]

The article was motivated by the book published by Michel Seuphor, a year before in 1949, in Paris, the spirit that integrated magazine Cercle et carré two decades prior. The book aimed to formulate a brief history on European abstract art. The [...]

The art critic Fernando García Esteban points to a local artistic reality that is in grave crisis, as it is out of touch with the concerns inherent to contemporary European artists, in his opinion. This a characteristic was considered to be “ [...]

Víctor Bacchetta was part of the board of directors of the magazine CLINAMEN up through its third publication along with Manuel Claps, Ángel Rama and Ida Vitale. The second issue of the magazine published a brief notification on the appearance of [...]

Sarandy Cabrera, the author of this article, seeks to make an apologetic review on the life and work of Joaquín Torres García on occasion of his recent death on August 8, 1949. Cabrera (who was a member of the Torres García Workshop) highlighted, [...]

This essay by Guido Castillo, a student of Joaquin Torres Garcia, and partner in ideology, was written for the magazine ASIR on the exhibition on the works by Joaquín Torres García organized in Montevideo in 1951, two years after his death. The [...]

This is an editorial note appearing in the magazine NÚMERO written in 1949 on occasion of the death of Joaquín Torres García that same year and in commemoration of the bicentennial of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s death. The note stressed the [...]

In this insightful review of the V Salón Municipal de Bellas Artes, the critic Cipriano Vitureira takes for granted that the worldwide political and social events of the early 1940s demand a renewal in both artistic and thematic terms, particularly [...]

In this article the head of the AIAPE, Juvenal Ortiz Saralegui, condemns the incompetence of the jurors who were appointed by the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública y Previsión Social to grant “artistic salaries.” In 1935 the jury that had been [...]

This article from the AIAPE’s magazine includes several critiques of the decisions taken by the Minister for Public Education, Eduardo Víctor Haedo and the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes. The decisions are considered highly inappropriate since [...]

This exhibition was organized by a group of independent artists associated with the AIAPE (Agrupación de Artistas, Intelectuales, Periodistas y Escritores) working with a recently created State agency, the Comisión Municipal de Cultura. All parties [...]

The painter Carmelo de Arzadun wrote this critical review of the exhibitions held in Uruguay from 1936 to 1939, a period that was defined by effervescent creativity and a lively calendar of artistic events. The exhibition of works by French artists, [...]