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 text intended to synthesize the various aspects of the Uruguayan master’s works and his thoughts. Castillo was an intellectual that was very close to Joaquín Torres García, who shared the editorial office of the newspaper Removedor with Sarandy Cabrera, the newspaper published by the workshop and the Asociación de Arte Constructivo/Association of Constructive while the master artist was alive between 1945 and 1948. The newspaper would again be published with a few isolated issues appearing during the start of the 1950s. 

This article written by Guido Castillo (1922−2011) for the magazine ASIR two years after the death of the master artist Joaquín Torres García and was written on occasion of an exhibition on his works in the Municipality of Montevideo. The article addressed various essential ideas held by the artist, among which were the concepts of “structure, tone, color, symbolism, the earthly and the eternal”. The author highlighted that under no circumstances these concepts implied reiteration of any kind of aesthetic, but rather served as references and of conceptual support to a zigzagging path. Castillo describes it as either a “permutation of an idea” or as a “stylistic adventure.”  It is no coincidence that the author made such considerations at the beginning of the nineteen fifties, when the art emerging from the Torres Garcia Workshop had to show verve and diversity after the loss of its historical advisor. In Uruguay, the criticism escalated against the TTG (Taller Torres García/Torres Garcia Workshop) that was understood as being a pictorial recipe book by hostile critics.

On the other hand, Castillo collects many of the Torres Garcia ideas seeking to establish a foundation for constructive art, not only regarding aesthetic doctrines or the point of fusion between the aspects of modern art with classic traditional art, but rather regarding ethical-political issues that recognizes the crisis of modern civilization, especially after the genocide of World War II. The author considers that Constructivism is “one of the most important efforts in trying to unite the scattered pieces of the spirit of our times and engrain it into the strong western tradition.”

[Please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following additional texts 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)].