Hej all, today we are going to Argentina, to find out the fantastic art of Xul Solar!
Multi-talented artist
With Modernist winds arriving in Latin America at the beginning of the 20th century, brought by artists who studied/travelled to Europe, a lot of countries developed their avant-garde movements.
Xul Solar (1887-1963), an Argentinian who spent more than ten years travelling around England, Italy, and France, meeting artists and other interesting people, returned home with many ideas to promote cultural renovation.
He was a painter, sculptor, linguist, inventor, writer, designer, and, astrologer. A lifelong curious and deeply interested in mysticism and occultism having met Aleister Crowley around 1914.
Although influenced by Cubism, Surrealism, and, German Expressionism, Solar’s art doesn’t follow any specific codes, but rather combine them all, creating his own visual language.
Incredible worlds
All of Xul Solar’s artwork is permeated by his interest in the mystic and the imagination of different realities and possibilities.
In paintings, we see architecture, people, and, scenes that seem to inhabit another world.
To me, there’s something optimistic in his use of colours, symbols, and shapes. His created realities look brighter, better than ours.
Drago, 1927 Image: WikiArt 
Ciudá lagui, 1939 Image: WikiArt
In design, the Panajedrez, a game that is a mix of chess with language and symbols, the piano Solar transformed searching for new sounds and combinations that reflected the colour’s sounds.
Panajedrez, ca1930 Image: Philip Greenberg 2013 The New York Times 
Piano, Image: Museu Xul Solar
And it goes further, he also invented two languages. The Panlengua it’s a universal language, based on numbers and astrology and Neocriollo, a combination of Portuguese and Spanish, the two main languages in Latin America.
Here we note another recurrent theme and inspiration, universality. The sense that we should be looking to find common ground and unite, because language, for example, would not be a barrier.
Panlengua, ca 1950 Image: cultura.gob.ar 
Pan Altar Mundi,1954 Image: Malba
In creating his own style, Xul Solar led the way to modernism in Argentina and was actively interested in other Latin American avant-garde movements.
There is a connection to Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres García, and he was a good friend and collaborated with the famous Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges.
To know more:
Watch: In the video created by “Canal á” when the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires showed the exhibition “Panactivista”, you can see more of his wonderful creations!
See: Browse Xul Solar’s works in the collections of Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires,Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires and Museo Xul Solar.
Let me know your comments below or on Social!
Have a great week!
❤
La Modernista 