Universal Constructivism

Universal Constructivism is the style and doctrine the Uruguayan painter Joaquín Torres-García developed from the late 1920s onward, joining the structural rigor of European Constructivism to what he considered universal pictographs - the sun, the moon, the fish, man, woman - and to the primitive art of the Americas. His aim was an art that would be universal yet answer the question of what it means to be American: a modernist grid filled with schematic signs rooted in the traditions of the continent. Torres-García carried the program through the Taller Torres-García, the Montevideo workshop whose members - Julio Alpuy, Gonzalo Fonseca, José Gurvich - made it the reference point of Latin American constructive art. Its synthesis of grid and sign later reached North American artists such as Adolph Gottlieb and Louise Nevelson.

Defining characteristics

• Orthogonal grid compositions dividing the surface into compartments
• Schematic pictographs - sun, moon, man, woman, fish, clock - set into the grid
• Synthesis of abstract structure and stylized figuration
• Limited, often earthy palette with flat areas of color and dark outlines
• Signs drawn from pre-Columbian and 'primitive' traditions of the Americas

Key figures

• Joaquín Torres-García (1874-1949) — Created the style and founded the Taller Torres-García in Montevideo
• Julio Alpuy (1919-2009) — Taller painter and sculptor who carried the style forward after Torres-García
• Gonzalo Fonseca (1922-1997) — Taller-trained painter and sculptor who extended the pictographic system
• José Gurvich (1927-1974) — Taller painter whose lyrical figuration extended Universal Constructivism

Example works

• Figuras sobre uma estrutura — Joaquín Torres-García (1930)
• América Invertida — Joaquín Torres-García (1943)

Sources

• Universal Constructivism - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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