This essay notes the bonds of friendship and ideological affinity that existed between the multifaceted Antonio Berni, whose paintings are steeped in realism and social awareness, and his fellow travelers in Uruguay. This friendship between the AIAPE-Uruguay and the Argentinean artist began when Berni founded the CTI (Confederación de Trabajadores Intelectuales) in Rosario (where he was born) just as a homonymous trades union organization was launched in Montevideo, the forerunner of the AIAPE (Agrupación de Intelectuales, Artistas, Periodistas y Escritores). The author of this article confirms that the social message in Berni’s paintings (which were exhibited at that time at Amigos del Arte in Montevideo) was a clear reflection of the artist’s sincere moral integrity. According to this journalist, Berni advocated social solidarity as a person, and a reformulation of realism in art as a painter. To accomplish the latter goal required skill in the art of constructive drawing, such as his own.  

Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, certain groups of Uruguayan intellectuals were members of left-wing political and cultural organizations that pledged international solidarity against fascism. Painters and graphic artists channeled their concerns about the social and political issues of the day into their works. The trend toward “social realism” in art reflected the political and cultural commitment in artistic circles to workers in the city and peasants in rural areas. David Alfaro Siqueiros’ visit to Montevideo in February 1933 sparked the initial interest in this particular aesthetic, subsequently bolstered by the influence of painters based in Argentina, such as Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Antonio Berni, and Demetrio Urruchúa.

In 1938, the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Montevideo, together with the Sociedad Amigos del Arte, invited Berni to hold an exhibition of paintings focused on social criticism. Following his trip to Europe, the Argentinian artist had been in contact with exponents of surrealism, and the paintings he showed in Uruguay included strange-looking human figures that were somewhat grotesque and phantasmagorical but were also meticulous realist critiques of social conditions in the Río de la Plata region. On that occasion in Montevideo, Berni showed some of his paradigmatic works, such as Manifestación and Desocupación (both produced in 1934), which caused quite a stir among Uruguayan audiences and artists, and encouraged the local social realism movement.