Zig-zag
Xul Solar
,Watercolor on paper, 35 × 50cm.
During the 1930s in Buenos Aires, following his stay in Europe, Xul Solar returned to the theme of mystic architecture, one he had initiated in Milan and Zoagli, Italy, in 1918. He painted “imaginary countries” in watercolor or tempera, on paper adhered to cardboard. In general, these “countries” –as he called them– depict a series of panel-walls, represented with an illusion of space, separation and profundity to a certain degree. Arches, metamorphic walls with faces, spawning jointed serpents, strange characters and rigid flags high on their masts appear. This collection includes two watercolors from 1933 that pertain to this series, Bri-País-Gente (Bri-Country-People) and Noche (Night). In these mystic visions, spatial relationships become more complex; everything is visually dominated by an ambiguous stage-like space, that seems to show visionary dreams as if they were reality. Some years later, Xul worked on a series of mystic landscapes with mountains and architecture. One of these, a watercolor titled Zig-zag, has a group of buildings and walls with windows at the center of the composition, represented in accelerated perspectives with sinuous rhythms, with ladders, figures, parasols and other objects. It is a visionary scene that refers to a universal symbol employed in religious or hermetic iconography: the ladder, in much the same way as the ramp, has a marked emphasis on ascent. In general, the ideas synthesized in this symbol are ascent, gradation and communication between different levels of verticality. Several figures are seen in the painting, carrying out different actions: a pilgrim ascends on the ramp, a woman pauses on another, a female character looks out of a window. These constructions, or sanctuaries, perhaps, seem like so many hermitages, destined to receive those who walk through the world and then retire to dedicate themselves to devotional practice. The sensation produced by Cúpulas (Cupolas) is no different, with constructions that are finished off with domes, including little windows and ascending ramps along which the pilgrims progress. The group of buildings constitutes a grand city that seems to reach up to the clouds; the structures in the foreground follow a curving rhythm, interlaced in part with the visible brick sections; everything seems to have been invaded by some sort of plant life. These works recall a phrase from The Book of the Dead: “My ladder is already in place, so that I might see the Gods.” The mountains and architectural structures with ladders that Xul painted refer back to the Sakkara pyramid, Mesopotamian ziggurats or the teocalis of pre-Columbian America. As is the case in these structures, his paintings refer to a means of ascension toward the spirit. That Xul Solar coincided with the spiritual and artistic world of the German expressionism is evident. Xul’s paintings are characterized by the search of a fusion between art and mankind by means of architecture, with art conceived of as a visionary activity capable of creating spiritual models for a new utopian society.