The writings of Roberto A. Ortelli had striking repercussions on the criticism of the pictorial work of Pedro Figari (1868-1938)—work that Ortelli considered completely without merit.  Ortelli described the works of the Uruguayan painter as “impressions of a beginner [and] to prove it, it is enough to see that their colors are simple, jumbled, distasteful and almost never well composed … which only worsens with his tragic incompetence at drawing and every skill that is elemental in a painter.” He added that Figari’s work should not be confused with modern art, which involves “a stylization of color and drawing” and, to this end, he offered examples ranging from Ourvantzoff, to the German expressionists and Enrico Prampolini. 

The Uruguyan painter Pedro Figari (1868-1938) established himself equally as both a lawyer and an intellectual. In 1921, he settled in Buenos Aires, where he connected with many important figures in the city’s cultural scene. He published various articles in important Buenos Aires vanguardista publications such as Martín Fierro, Proa, and Valoraciones (La Plata) and in newspapers like La Prensa and La Nación. In his writings, as well as in his lecture at the Asociación Amigos del Arte, one can recognize his focus on the development of a Latin American critical gaze that focused on Latin America itself by means of studying the past as well as the urgent contemporary realities in its countries, including Figari’s ongoing interest in the pre-Columbian world. Inicial. Revista de la nueva generación made its debut on the Buenos Aires cultural scene in October 1923, publishing a total of eleven editions until November 1926, when it ceased publication. The editorial board comprised Roberto A. Ortelli, Alfredo Brandán Caraffa, Homero Guglielmini, and Roberto Smith. In 1924, this group split, and, as it happened, two No. 5 editions of the magazine were published, corresponding to the two groups that remained after the schism of the original editorial team. Roberto Ortelli was a poet and years ago had been a participant in the Ultraist group led by Jorge Luis Borges. Although he was interested in vanguard art, Ortelli had a very negative interpretation of Figari’s work—contrasting the positive feedback the Uruguayan artist had received from the members of the Martín Fierro group and the magazine Proa (in its second incarnation).