The first difficulty Joaquín Torres García encountered to convince his audience in Montevideo on his ideas about “structure,” “total order,” “one single law,” and other ideas was what he called the “individual interest” that was placed above any spiritual concept of life. The inherent positivism and materialism imposed by the consolidation of a pragmatic mentality within the framework of commercial, industrial activity, and growth in a provincial environment, are factors that Torres García abhorred and denounced as obstacles for the understanding of his Universal Constructivist doctrine. “While the eternal man and the man who passes, are not going arm in hand, there will be no solution for any problem, be it human or of art.” On several occasions he reiterated his conviction about a “unique and universal truth,” a matter that clashed with the eclectic relativism of the Montevidean intellectual tradition. In it, he saw the predominance of the “plurality of truths.” His lesson insisted on the concept of “structure” as if it was a metaphysical truth, an intimate essence of the things that he had placed in “total order,” a law of unity that in a sense Torres García assumed as religious. The concept of “classicism” he touted affected both aspects of art and life that he judged were inseparable. He created a metaphysical scaffolding around art as its ethic support that was linked to life and valued as an aesthetic construction. He argued that “if a rule supports us, and if by it we place ourselves in the right and it provides a measure of everything how can we not trust it? [...] Today it is believed that only by force, rights are entitled. This rule liberates us from such abnormality.” This affirmation was presented in 1941 and cannot be separated from the context of world wars at a time that was politically problematic and that emphasized militaristic culture. These consequences were already being felt in Montevideo of that era. [For additional reading, please refer to the ICAA digital archive for the following 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)].
