Constructive universalism

Constructive universalism is called an aesthetic trend created by Uruguayan plastic artist Joaquín Torres García, and developed in the extensive book of the same name, along a thousand pages and published in 1944, highlighting the metaphysical aspects of art and the aesthetic movement promulgated by the Taller Torres García.

Constructive Universalism is, according to Torres García, a way of seeing and doing the art and the title of that which brings together 150 lectures given in Uruguay between 1934 and 1943, published by Ed. Poseidón in 1944. In his subtitle he declares "Contribution to the unification of the art and the culture of America "and throughout its more than thousand pages it bases the plastic doctrine torresgarciana, includes 253 drawings of Towers Garci'a.

As expressed by the teacher, it would try to express with his art the communion of man with the cosmic order. Proof of this is that one of his favorite works, made at this time, is the Cosmic Monument, which draws in the stone with the symbolism of constructive universalism, his conception of life through art. This monument is currently in the gardens of the National Museum of Visual Arts, in Parque Rodó, in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay.

Torres García was focused on finding a way to express in concepts, in simplified forms of reality, this reality itself. He sought to convey a message through signs that would allow for readings free of subjectivity.

In his own words, "either the written name of the thing, or a schematic image as seemingly real as possible: such as a sign." This was probably the result of all the teacher's previous experiences, bringing together elements of neoplasticism, cubism, surrealism, primitivism, pre-Columbian art and the famous rule or golden ratio, rescued from Arab culture. This was the result of the search for a universal language, a unification of all the forms of expression he had perceived and practiced in his pilgrimage through Europe and in his contacts with the other great masters of the time. the life of a work depends on the functionality of the plastic elements.

wiki