1. Painting and Traditions.

In Uruguay, Figari is considered an exponent of modernism. In the first decades of the country's independent existence, Uruguayan art stemmed from the academic style of Juan Manuel Blanes (1830-1901), whose subjects recorded and glorified historic moments and documented customs in the newly liberated Country. Figari's early work reflects his having studied under Godofredo Sommavilla, a secondary academic painter. Figari probably first saw the work of Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard in the collection of his friend and fellow artist, the Uruguayan impressionist Milo Beretta (1870?1935). His absorption of the style of these two French "intimistes" permitted him to break free from the restrictions of academic formulae. However, unlike Bonnard and Vuillard, whose paintings recorded their surroundings with a sense of immediacy, Figari, instead, delved into the past and into his memory to depict historical events and the life of the La Plata region in the post?colonial period. In his mature period, he would come to depict everyday life and historical episodes with nostalgic, poetic, and sometimes humorous overtones.

Figari's personal vision of the past had no precedent in Uruguay's academic traditions. It enabled him to celebrate his native country and to show others that is was unnecessary to follow European pictorial traditions. He once said, "My conviction has been to elevate our culture and make us love the American things that are so very much ours!" But he did not present himself as a painter. "I am not a painter. My intention is to stir certain memories, call to mind some episodes that genuinely reflect our social life, so that artists see the area that they can embellish upon in those memories." This nationalistic reaction was not unusual among the friends and contemporaries of Figari. After his studies in Europe, the painter José Cúneo said, "The final destination of my studies ... will be Uruguay; my desire is to paint here, employing all the original elements that my country has!"

An enthusiastic defender of Uruguayan tradition, Figari extended his personal vision of his country from his art to his literary compositions. In 1927?28, he wrote and illustrated his first short stories, narrating quotidian episodes. These stories approach the immediacy of oral tradition, and are spiritually related to his pictorial visions. Narrative and nostalgic in their sensibility, they are an idealization of American life as remembered by a voluntary exile. In discussing his painting entitled The Duel with a reporter of the Los Angeles Times:

a large ombú tree ... two gauchos ... daggers bared ? two
ponies, one standing as if waiting ?the other dead upon the
ground. "But why the dead horse?" I asked. Figari explains
with a smile: "Two men meet to fight a duel. One, turning,
shoots down a pony. 'What did you do that for?' questions the
oponent. 'Because', answered the other, 'when you and I
get done here, one pony will be enough'

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3. Figari's Style and the Art of the Americas

There were no true artistic precedents in Uruguayan art for Pedro Figari's personal vision and style. His preoccupation with portraying the essence of the Rio de la Plata as well as his attitude towards establishing a Uruguayan art is reminiscent of attitudes among nineteenth?century painters in the United States, who wished to separate themselves from Europe's artistic dominance. The promotion of native subjects by artists of the Hudson River school during the years 1825?75 can be equated to the affirmation of native subjects in Uruguay embraced by suchartists as Figari in the early twentieth century. In the Western Hemisphere, this development seems a natural consequence of a country's separation from its colonial past. Figari's pictorial representations of remembered scenes were not only a means of celebrating his native land but also an attempt to elevate public awareness of the validity of portraying native subjects. To a friend Figari indicated the importance of this awareness in a letter:

"I continue to think that those countries of America, our
countries, have much art that has yet to be realized, and
it could be most advantageous that such art be executed
autonomously and, not coercively, which has been the
custom. We have lived besotted with the wonders of the
old world, and this attitude has not accompanied the spirit
of freedom and sovereignty that a deeply original creativity
demands."

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4. The Autonomy of Art according to Figari

In constrast to Latin American artists such as Joaquin Torres-García, Pedro Figari had neither disciples nor pupils to propagate his vision. To other artists who followed him, his importance was in the liberation of personal aesthetic attitudes and the enormous possibilities this opened in painting. His legacy, which stressed that technique should always be subordinate to expression, cleared the way for new artistic perceptions.

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5. Landscape

An important element in his early landscapes, which is found also in his later work, is the moon. just as the ombú dominates the sparse, flat terrain, the moon presides in Figar's skies, both in landscapes and urban scenes. This moon does not have the aspect of reality but seems to belong to the spiritual world of dreams and myths. Coupled with Figari's pictorial representations of sky, which border on the abstract, the moon casts us into the private and poetic world of the artist. A profound affection for his native land is conveyed. The moon appearing behind a house or structure in urban scenes serves as a reminder of the vast outside world where harmony reigns in nature. This indoor/outdoor relationship is present throughout Figari's entire work. Through him we are privy to intimate conversations or to a glimpse of a world outside the domestic enclave. No accurate indication of time is given in any of his scenes. Dawn, dusk, or night, the shadowless hours of day provide the diffused light that most pervades and reinforces the dream-like feeling in his paintings.

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6. Drawing

The freedom with which Figari's figures are drawn approaches the abstract and exhibits a primary concern with movement and gesture. This is especially evident in his dance series, primarily in the candombe, where action and rhythm govern individual figures. His study of movement is revealed in the preparatory drawings, which are similar to animations for cartoons.There revealed is his preoccupation with gesture. Using pencil or pen, his stroke is nervous or sure, depending entirely on the emotion or movement he wished to convey.

Preliminary studies for a final work sometimes indicate the colors Figari planned to use. This is typical of a methodical approach where all elements of the final work are clearly determined in advance. These preliminary drawings are testimonies against any allegations that Figari was an unschooled or primitive painter. Primitivism is a term to be used only to describe the energy which exudes from Figari's work, so basic in nature and humanity. It can be associated with a tradition passed from one generation to another through oral instead of written means.

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