In 1934 Joaquín Torres García returned to Uruguay with his family. By 1938 he had reformulated the concept of Universal Constructivism which he had developed in Paris between 1928 and 1932. Together with the purist, rigorous, and rational art of the Cercle et Carré group—created in partnership with Michel Seuphor—he integrated symbolism, metaphysics, and a number of elements of the subconscious into his work. In Uruguay this proposition was enriched with symbols from the pre-hispanic cultural substrate.

Constructivist Art stands out for its strict orthogonal and bidimensional qualities. The vertical and horizontal lines create cells containing symbols. Constructivist artists generated a graphic language that do not need to be interpreted as mere vocabulary, but as a series of artistic entities that require the viewer’s active imagination.

Drawn with a pen and ink over pencil, the work incorporates shading based on horizontal lines that suggest two planes. The presence of the sun, the fish, the vase, the ladder, and the waves suggest the intellectual, spiritual, and physical planes whose unification makes human beings, their existence in the cosmos, and their relationship with the earth possible.