A city of some three million inhabitants, of which approximately one-half are artists, Montevideo, Uruguay, lies at the American finisterre on a small strip of land surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Rio de la Plata. A landscape of water and pampa, horizon and sky. Along with its sister city, Buenos Aires, it is one of the most cultivated, intellectual cities in the Americas, and but for a twelve year interventionist and military reign of terror, the capital of a model of democratic governance. Things material are important in a utilitarian, not in an acquisitive sense.
Vintage cars dominate the streets.
Clustered around these are the works of pupils and followers, including Julio Alpuy, Elsa Andra, Dayman Antunez, Carmelo de Arzadun, Amalia Nieto, Manuel Pailos, Hector Ragni, Gonzalo Fonseca and the painter's sons, Augusto and Horacio Torres. Through the pragmatic application of these theories, Torres Garcia and the members of the Taller Torres Garcia produced paintings, sculpture, ceramics, wood and iron reliefs, furniture, murals and architectural projects in the Americas and Europe. By 1920, he was drawn to cubism and met Joan Miro. Later that year he departed Paris for New York where he worked under the patronage of Isabelle Whitney. By the end of that decade he had met Mondrian, Braque, Gris, Lipchitz, and Picasso.