Untitled Composition 1929

Joaquín Torres-García created this untitled composition in 1929 using oil on canvas. The grid structure and the placement of symbolic objects relate to his theory of Universal Constructivism. Torres-García sought a visual language rooted in both the ancient past and the modern present. He spent much of his life between Europe and his native Uruguay and traveled in artistic circles including Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. He was invested in the notion of the artist as a maker and in the democratizing potential of abstraction. Look at the arrangement of pictographs, including a fish, a house, and a clock, that evoke both indigenous art and modernist design. Torres-Garcia founded associations and publications in an attempt to develop a uniquely American art, resisting European cultural dominance. To learn more about his theories and his place in the history of Latin American art, look to contemporary publications and manifestos that document his radical approach to the social role of art.