Joaguín Torres-García was a key player in Uruguayan art in the early 1900s. After spending much of his youth in Europe, he returned to his home of Montevideo in 1932 where, because of his European experience, he was held in high regard. Torres-García founded the Uruguay Society of Arts, was responsible for bringing constructivism to Uruguay and was overall a huge influence on younger artists throughout Latin America.
As seen in his Composición Universal of 1933, Torres-García created a distinct geometric style. His 1929 meeting with Piet Mondrian in Paris inspired him to push the limits of his geometric forms into the grid, allowing him to evolve his art without any hindrance of three dimensional illusion. Torres-García filled his grids with an extensive lexicon of symbols that gained momentum throughout his career. His symbols varied greatly, drawing from pre-Hispanic cultures (the sun), Masonic symbols (the knife) as well as modern objects (the clock). By drawing from a variety of sources, Torres-García visualized his belief in a universal art that did not tie him to specific nationalistic ideals or local tradition. Though his ideas are akin to those of the Neoplasticists, he drew from multitudes of sources (including his past) rather than severing his ties with a concrete past (like Mondrian and others). Later in his career, using his depth of iconography and earthy pallet, Torres-García became more interested in laying a foundation for Uruguayan arts.
References:
Barnitz, Jacqueline. Twetieth-Century Art of Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
Art:
Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana
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