Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Waldemar Cordeiro, Essay Example

Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Waldemar Cordeiro are visual artists from the Southern Cone who employed European constructivism. Artists from Mexico, South and Central America showcased their art and their technique distributed over region and time. The artists had artwork such as media works, paintings, and sculptures. The two artists were from different cosmopolitan towns and eras though generally the 20th century but were deeply engaged in the avant-gardes. Joaquin Torres-Garcia wrote a manifesto entitled the School of the South, and Waldemar Cordeiro wrote a manifesto entitled Ruptura, each describing their visual artwork and other documents and essays. Their artwork originated from the avant-garde of Latin America, and their success also translates to the avant-garde’s achievement. This paper aims to discuss how the two artists deployed the visual languages of constructivism to advance their respective avant-garde projects. Further, the report provides examples of the two artists’ artwork that depict their unique constructivism approaches.

In the document, “Inverted Utopias, Avant-Garde Art in Latin America: Vital Structures the Constructive Nexus in South America” by Ramirez, the inverted utopia is discussed (Ramirez 191). The utopian catalog by the Latin American avant-garde was created between the 1920s and the 1970s. The exhibition had different artists and their artworks. The

record contained over twenty critical essays from American and European critics. The catalog is of significant volume and rarity and is an input of many artists or groups of artists such as Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Waldemar Cordeiro. Over 200 artworks by over 60 artists were involved, and their work exhibited over 300 color illustrations and over 100 illustrations without color. Ramirez considered the Latin American avant-garde as “beyond the fantastic” when discussing it in his writings. He credits the European avant-garde as very broad and evokes a lot of arguments (Ramirez 191). However, he praises Latin American art as complicated, original, and carries the people’s culture despite it influencing art universally.

According to Ramirez, the Inverted Utopias catalogs aimed to correct the wrong perceptions attributed to the Latin American avant-garde and serve as a historical benchmark to the modern era artwork. For instance, scholars considered the exhibition and catalogs imitative of European art, which was not the case. The chronicles depict this and show that the art also contributed to the revolution in art production this century. The inverted utopia symbolized that the claims were inverted and that the Latin American avant-garde was original and supreme over the European art.

An example of Joaquín Torres-García’s inverted utopia is the inverted South American map of 1936 (Torres-Garcia 320). The plan had all the cardinal points and directions not tampered with the north and south in their usual position, but the southern tip was facing up, making it seem prominent, overshadowing the north. Torres-García had a meaning to this masterpiece. His reversed topography symbolized and encouraged the urge for artists to break away from their typical design or order of producing art and be more open-minded to the American and European avant-garde. This way, the artists can explore other creative ways and not concentrate on the monotonous and less liberal trends with inspiration from far and wide.

Torres-Garcia advocated for artwork relevant to the community, nation, and international with an aspect of the art being decorative (Torres-Garcia 322). He acknowledged that artists from other regions were also decorative but were not socially significant. He criticized European art as impossible and that of “dreamers and apprentices” (Torres-Garcia 321). He encouraged other artists to employ different patterns but, at the same time, be creative, original, and realistic. Nonetheless, the artwork signified the independence of Latin American art from European art. Latin American art improved the drives and inspirations of European art to something meaningful and valuable. Despite the same field and influence, the Latin avant-garde and the European avant-garde had opposite orientations. European art focused on the future utopia or the future, while Latin art focused on the retrograde paradise or the past.

However, the reversed utopia was not as prominent and did not traverse to other regions as the European art. The exhibition happened in Houston in the Museum of Fine Arts and made its first appearance in Madrid museum in 2000. One artwork that was part of the catalog was the Medio siglo sin-lugar of 1918 to 1968 though with slight adjustments. The art was titled Heterotopías, indicating that an approach by Michel Foucault that is the opposite of utopia. The utopia conveyed by European art was imagined in the future and maybe impossible to ultimately attain. On the other hand, the heterotopia was real, in the present, possible to achieve or even part of the culture. The two concepts indicated the different projects and reverse goals of the European and Latin avant-garde.

The critical essay by Ramirez also contains a text on Torres-García’s manifesto on the southern school. The text criticizes Torres-García’s and other artists’ concepts of constructive universalism. Torres-García’s manifesto titled “El Taller Torres-García: The School of the

South and Its Legacy” made its first appearance in an exhibition in 1992 (Torres-García, 320). Furthermore, Ramirez’s critical essay contains the Rupture manifesto by Waldemar Cordeiro. The paper explains the geographical disparities in the avant-gardes and the thoughts on constructivism advocated by Latin American art. Nevertheless, subtractions are noticed in the document with an essay on Torres-García’s work by Robert Lubar and Thomas Llorens missing. The missing text would have shed light on the aesthetics used and the shift made when Torres-García traveled to Uruguay. The subtractions can be explained by the fact that the document was voluminous and the impact of its addition or subtraction was not substantial.

Ramirez states that in Torres-García constructivism, “the individual or humankind either as the kernel or the central receptor of the constructive work” (Ramirez 195). Further, he posits that European constructivism has attributes of humankind with “the notion of the self-referential structure of the work of art” (Ramirez 200). Ramirez claims that Latin art and revolution had no contamination by humanism with all its mechanical processes. Constructivism by Torres-García and Waldemar Cordeiro had the precision and material not influenced by man, and the correlations were purely formal (Ramirez 193). He argues that European constructivism did not take into account human input. However, he was always against the division of artwork into “fragments” (Ramirez 192).

Furthermore, Ramirez highlights the work of Waldemar Cordeiro and his major play in the concrete art and Ruptura group. The Brazil group received less criticism, especially the one from Sao Paulo compared to the one in Rio D’ Janeiro. Nonetheless, the two groups played a central role in the constructivism type of art. “On the Subject of Waldemar Cordeiro’s popcretos,” Ramirez evaluates the Latin American art and the art from the

united states and argues that the two are different and independent in their conceptualism in the social and political ideologies and liberalism (Ramirez 200). Clark, who is also a critic `of the artwork, states that “we are the new primitives in the new era,” suggesting that despite embracing the new trends, the Brazilian art is their contextualized and original work (Ramirez 199). The statement implied that despite the new concepts being employed from other regions, the rituals and symbols are maintained as seen in the structuring of the self. The artwork used different structures, which is viewed as the “cornerstone of constructivism” (Ramirez 191).

The methods used and the stereotypes attributed to the Latin American reversed utopia are justified in the exhibition. This art has created a benchmark for more inspirations in modern art. After research and evaluation, the artwork reveals the journey and contribution of Latin American art to contemporary art. The criticism of the Latin and European avant-gardes has propelled the type of art forward and led to more museums worldwide. For instance, Torres-García’s sculptures and paintings were showcased in a museum in New York and other artworks by other artists. The artwork brought to light many artists such as Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Waldemar Cordeiro, their revolutions and thoughts, and past and future artworks. Therefore, despite the criticisms and unanswered questions, the Latin American avant-garde is original, unique, and a primary contributor to modern art. Further, the inverted utopias have been an essential source of contemporary art and useful in future art. Therefore, Joaquin Torres-Garcia and Waldemar Cordeiro deployed constructivism’s visual languages to advance their respective avant-garde projects. Their artwork also depicts their unique approaches to constructivism.

Works Cited

Rami?rez, M. C., & Olea, H. “Inverted Utopias, Avant-Garde Art in Latin America: Vital Structures the Constructive Nexus in South America.” London: Yale University Press, 2004, pp 191-200.

Torres-Garcia, J. “Manifestos: The Southern School.” Uruguay, 1935, pp 320- 322.