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 the writing Mística de la pintura by Joaquin Torres Garcia. It transcribed paragraphs from the document and commented on the bewilderment that the doctrines by Uruguayan master seemed to have provoked in the university circles. The author relates, that the ideas of Joaquin Torres Garcia, particularly those where he disowns abstract and concrete art as a cult of pure rationalism, produced “confusion and stupor” to the listeners. In his opinion, Joaquin Torres Garcia seemed to disavow himself as he entered into contradiction with his own affiliations to the past, whether it was with European artistic movements as well as Neo-plasticism.

Mística de la Pintura is the title of a publication that includes a lecture given by Joaquín Torres García at the Association of Constructive Art in Montevideo in February 1947. [Please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following text: “Mística de la pintura. Joaquín Torres García, AAC 1947” by Víctor Bacchetta (doc. no. 1226607)].  The fact that there was a brief comment on the writing published in the student publication of the Universidad de la República (Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias) gave proof of the rising influence that Joaquín Torres García, had gained towards the end of his life. He had conquered in the university circles. Subsequently, he would come to the university to present his famous series of lectures on “La recuperación del objeto,” which were published posthumously. “Mística de la Pintura” is a text composed of seventy-three reflective clauses in which Joaquín Torres García elaborates and points out his “distance” from the materialism of modern civilization in (“Novísimas ciencias sin universalidad ni espíritu” and “Vivir mecánico y artificial”, etcétera). He claims that art is mystical, “with a religious spirit”.  He claims it is something embedded in the artist but nevertheless it is universal in its meaning. In this text Joaquín Torres García confirms with harsh confidence, what, between the lines, he had already said throughout his entire life:  “To be in the Spirit”, “to be universal”, even when as an artist you have to make excuses for it in the real contemporary world. The novelty, if you will, is that in Mística de la Pintura he denounces the emptiness of contemporary materialism and declares bluntly the attitude for an individual introspective that is mystical and full of religiosity.

[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)].