Sofía Arzarello (1897-1984), the long-time essayist and activist, who was also an educator in the fields of phycology and aesthetics, discusses the prolific work of the art historian Elie Faure (1873–1937) who, thirty years earlier, published his essay “Formes et forces” (1907). Arzarello co-founded the AIAPE (Agrupación de Intelectuales, Artistas, Periodistas, Escritores) in 1936, and was a member of the institution’s Press Committee. In the 1930s she was a columnist at a number of cultural publications, and a political activist who supported the Spanish Republic during the Civil War (1936–1939). This article was published six months before the death of the doctor and art historian in recognition of his theoretical influence and, especially, because of his political stance as a militant anti-fascist. During the 1920s and 1930s, Faure influenced many artists and art critics in Uruguay, including Eduardo Dieste, Cipriano Vitureira, and José Cúneo. The first two mention Faure and quote his texts, because he tended to observe artistic forms, explaining them via their differences and analogies, as if they possessed an organic solidity that encompassed very different places and times. In Faure’s view, the expansion of the critical spirit was a vital necessity. In Uruguay, this helped to endorse a move toward criollismo culto trends, contributing new anthropological perspectives of the formal analogies that were studied in works of art.
