Joaquín Torres-García

Joaquín Torres-García was a Uruguayan painter, sculptor, writer, teacher, and art theorist who developed Universal Constructivism, combining geometric grids with simplified symbols drawn from everyday life and diverse cultural traditions. After decades in Europe and the United States, he returned to Montevideo in 1934, where he founded the Asociación de Arte Constructivo and promoted a distinctly South American modernism. His teaching, lectures, publications, and 1944 book Universalismo Constructivo made him a major influence on twentieth-century Latin American art.