Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document is an open letter in which Julio E. Payró declares his difference of opinion with Guillermo de Torre regarding the application of the term “abstract.” This letter responds to the concepts discussed by Torre in the catalog for the [...]

In this chapter from América Latina en sus artes Jorge Alberto Manrique begins by describing the artistic movements of the 1920s and comparing this period to a giant hinge that moved backward to the nineteenth century and forward to the twentieth [...]

There are basically three sections in the catalogue for the Primer Salón Independiente de Artes Plásticas: (1) Statement of principles; (2) List of participating artists; and (3) The text of the tribute to the painter Milo Beretta, mentor to young [...]

This article by Sarandy Cabrera, which appeared in Removedor, the journal published by the TTG (Taller Torres-García), is an example of the magazine’s colloquial—and aggressive, “from the trenches”—discourse. This [...]

In this article, published in Bogotá’s El Tiempo newspaper on the occasion of Julio Alpuy’s first exhibition in Colombia, the Argentine critic Marta Traba reiterates her earlier strong critiques of the constructive system proposed by Joaquín [...]

The introduction to the catalogue for the exhibition of Latin American art Ante América [Regarding America]—presented in late 1992 at the Luis Ángel Arango Library and the Banco de la República in Bogotá—that was written by the art critic [...]

In this brief essay Joaquín Torres-García outlines the goals he developed at the AAC (Asociación de Arte Constructivo) and explained in the association’s magazine. He describes the difficulties he had in trying to make [...]

In an attempt at historical reconstruction, and due to the intense political situation in Venezuela (between 1974 and 1978), art critic Roberto Montero Castro attempts to detect the presence of “the Venezuelan identity” in certain artistic [...]

The Puerto Rican critic Efraín Barradas writes about the full schedule of exhibitions in the United States, where he lives; according to him very few include Latin American art, since little is known about Latin American artists and their work. Be [...]

In this essay, Joaquín Torres García attempts to link this sociopolitical doctrine with that of modern art after presenting a succinct historical review starting from “primitive communism” up through the Marxist doctrine. He does so by [...]

In this lecture, Joaquín Torres García (JTG) asserts that groups of artists that are not joined by theoretical ideas or stand behind a distinct ethical platform are pointless. He therefore repudiates the schools and groups in Uruguay, supporting [...]

In this article, Guido Castillo does not launch an all-out attack on Cándido Portinari because he recognizes the Brazilian artist’s “human values” and his compassion for the suffering endured by some people in the world. But [...]

In his famous “Manifiesto 1,” Joaquín Torres García repudiates the article published in the Confederación de Trabajadores Intelectuales del Uruguay’s journal Movimiento. Torres García’s text, in turn, occasioned “Contestando a Torres [...]

In this essay, Joaquín Torres García speaks about “Lesson 50,” which was later published in his book Universalismo Constructivo (1944). In it there are some comments referencing selected paragraphs from another conference under the same title [...]

This essay posits the concept of “geometría sensível” [Sensitive Geometry] as one of the unitary characteristics of contemporary Latin American art, and notes the growing interest (within the region and further afield) in the art produced in [...]

This essay suggests a reading of the works of Joaquín Torres García (1875–1949) and the contemporary Brazilian artist Anna Bella Geiger through the lens of their compositional approaches, both of which were related to the field of cartography. [...]

Chapter five of the book Arte simple, published in Montevideo (1937) by Cipriano Santiago Vitureira, focuses on Constructivist art and the unquestionable contributions by Joaquín Torres García. The author values the multifaceted artist’s return [...]

The essay situates Joaquín Torres-García’s work within the course of his life and, at the same time, explains some of its polemic aspects. On one hand, it points out the lack of acknowledgment of the contributions made by the Uruguayan artist to [...]

In 1933, Norberto Berdía compared David Alfaro Siqueiros’s visit to Montevideo with the return to Uruguay, in 1934, of artist Joaquín Torres García. In Berdía’s view, the two men represent diametrical positions: Torres García personifies “ [...]

This article, “El arte naturalista y el arte geométrico,” includes a discussion of Joaquín Torres-García’s main theoretical ideas. Here he restates his metaphysically-inspired philosophical approach and his [...]

Upholding the need to theorize his practice—Joaquín Torres García once again explains the basis of his Constructivist art; in his view, all artists should engage in permanent reflection. This text is primarily aimed at pointing out the confusion [...]

In this brief article, written in a colloquial, essay style, Guido Castillo expresses the hope that the essence of modern art will be reborn from its own ashes in both the emblematic figure of Joaquín Torres-García and in Universalismo [...]

This is an excerpt from the book L’Homme, cet inconnu [Man, the Unknown] by the French scientist Alexis Carrel, which appeared in issue Number 5 of Círculo y Cuadrado, the magazine published by the Asociación de Arte Constructivo [...]

This article from the AIAPE’s magazine includes several critiques of the decisions taken by the Minister for Public Education, Eduardo Víctor Haedo and the Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes. The decisions are considered highly inappropriate since [...]

In this article, the author speculates on the criteria adopted for judging artistic competitions and the difficulties encountered in having to provide critical judgement on the diverse and “contradictory” work presented by Joaquín Torres García [...]

In this article, Sarandy Cabrera comments on the opinions expressed by Tomás Maldonado in his essay, “Torres-García against Modern Art,” published in the magazine [Bulletin of the Concrete Art and Invention Association]in December 1946. Cabrera [...]

“En la sociedad burguesa ganan los banqueros y pierden los artistas” (In Bourgeois Society, Bankers Win and Artists Lose) is the name of an article by Norberto Berdía on painter Joaquín Torres García. More specifically, the text discusses how [...]

The Argentine critic Silvia de Ambrosini claims that there have always been “opponents” in the art field. In her opinion, these “opponents” are what revitalizes the creative atmosphere. She says that in Latin American art “we find [...]

Manuel Maples Arce traces an overview of the sculptor Germán Cueto’s avant-garde œuvre, in Mexico as well as in Spain, followed by Cueto’s collaboration with the estridentista movement, his later stay in Paris and his return to Mexico. He [...]

This leaflet presents the work done in Madrid in 1933 by Joaquín Torres García and the Grupo de Arte Constructivo during JTG’s visit to Spain prior to returning to Uruguay for good. Three similar documents are known to exist, each one containing [...]

This leaflet presents the work done in Madrid in 1933 by Joaquín Torres García and the Grupo de Arte Constructivo during JTG’s visit to Spain prior to returning to Uruguay for good. Three similar documents are known to exist, each one containing [...]

This leaflet presents the work done in Madrid in 1933 by Joaquín Torres García and the Grupo de Arte Constructivo during JTG’s visit to Spain prior to returning to Uruguay for good. Three similar documents are known to exist, each one containing [...]

In this text, Shifra Goldman examines the problematic homogenization of the idea of “Hispanic” art and culture that was promoted by the exhibition Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors organized by The [...]

In this essay, the author, Carlos Herrera Mac Lean outlined a response to the article written by Joaquín Torres García against him, culminating this third section on the brief public controversy between both of them. The response, in a written [...]

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 [...]

Uruguayan artist and theorist Joaquín Torres García proposes in “La Escuela del Sur” an essential inversion in the political and cultural geography of the world by suggesting that the map of the world could be reversed, so that the South would [...]

This “lesson” given by Joaquín Torres García (JTG) is a manifesto of sorts. It is the first in which the artist formulates the idea of “inverting the map” of South America and asserts the existence of a local cultural identity that should [...]

This exhibition was organized by a group of independent artists associated with the AIAPE (Agrupación de Artistas, Intelectuales, Periodistas y Escritores) working with a recently created State agency, the Comisión Municipal de Cultura. All parties [...]

“The liberation of the artist” is the title of one of Joaquín Torres García’s “lessons.” In it, he discusses the geometric foundations of Constructivist Art and calls for “setting oneself free” from what has been learned about the “ [...]

In this text, Luis Felipe Noé explains his theory that the shared impulse that defines Latin American painting is its preoccupation with “inventing history.” He argues that this impulse is a direct result of Latin American artists’ experience [...]

The critic Cipriano S. Vitureira discusses Miguel Ángel Pareja’s painting, approaching it from several different perspectives. For example, assessing the painter’s exploration of new European isms that emerged during the two World Wars, which he [...]

In this insightful review of the V Salón Municipal de Bellas Artes, the critic Cipriano Vitureira takes for granted that the worldwide political and social events of the early 1940s demand a renewal in both artistic and thematic terms, particularly [...]

Joaquín Torres-García wrote this editorial for Círculo y Cuadrado, the journal published by the Asociación de Arte Constructivo de Montevideo that seeks to follow in the footsteps of Cercle et Carré, the magazine co [...]

Referencing such Latin American nations as Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and the European nations of Spain and Italy, Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva examines certain artists and movements that in the aforementioned countries, [...]

The painter Carmelo de Arzadun wrote this critical review of the exhibitions held in Uruguay from 1936 to 1939, a period that was defined by effervescent creativity and a lively calendar of artistic events. The exhibition of works by French artists, [...]

Art historian Shifra M. Goldman writes with great acuity and depth about the traveling exhibition, Art of the Fantastic: Latin America, 1920–1987, which opened at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1987, and subsequently went to the Queens Museum in [...]

In this article the head of the AIAPE, Juvenal Ortiz Saralegui, condemns the incompetence of the jurors who were appointed by the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública y Previsión Social to grant “artistic salaries.” In 1935 the jury that had been [...]

This article by Fernando García Esteban appeared in the weekly journal Marcha and is part of a controversy with the writer Juan Carlos Somma. All in all, the critic’s rant revealed behavior and decisions, both governmental and private, when he was [...]

Rafael Squirru introduces María Elena Sieburger’s exhibition of paintings (Galería Lirolay, Buenos Aires, August 21–September 2, 1961), noting that?following a period during which she hewed closely to Joaquín Torres García’s legacy?she is [...]

Following harsh criticism of positivism (and eclecticism) of the intellectual environment of Montevideo, Joaquín Torres García presented his ideas about metaphysics, ethics, and religiosity in art. This text makes several important points about the [...]