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Xul Solar
Óscar Alejandro Agustín Schulz Solari, using the name Xul Solar
(Buenos Aires, 1887-1963)

Xul Solar: an identity that is the result of an ingenious play on the sounds of this artist’s real name, Óscar Alejandro Schulz Solari. This was an invention based on some prior circumstances. Invention and creation seem to be appropriate words in referring to Xul and his art.His work is born of intellectual speculation and his vast mental horizon built upon readings of East and West, science, philosophy, and religion – a curious combination of diverse elements.

He was born in San Fernando, in the province of Buenos Aires, on December 14, 1887. With Lithuanian father and Italian mother, he matched the profile of the average Argentinean, as a product of the flood of massive migration that populated the country from the end of the nineteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth.Educated at a state school (secular and mandatory, to homogenise a mixed society), he advanced in studying Engineering at the University of Buenos from 1906-07, moving on in 1908 to a self-study of drawing and painting.

The field of art captivated Xul Solar and guided him toward his new destiny: Europe.He travelled here in April, 1912 and remained until 1924.This lengthy period allowed him to explore techniques, readings, and new horizons that would feed his imagination and inventive capacity. He was part of that flood of modern artists that moved from here to there, striving to build a language.In Xul’s case, he moved between Expressionism, primitive art, and the varieties of Abstract, trying to project a program of all-inclusive action with various symbolic dimensions.

When he returned from Europe, Buenos Aires was just registering the early impact of new art.His introduction was mediated by his prior experiences and by his subscribing to a particular side of the artistic debate, that of rupture.He makes contact with the people at Martín Fierro, the “new generation” magazine, a forum of “new sensibility”. Xul plans an exhibit as his re-entry upon the art scene together with another recently arrived artist, Emilio Pettoruti.Pettoruti, who lived in Italy from 1913 to 1924, had defended the “cause” of Futurism and been a member of the Florentine Artistic Family.Pettoruti exhibits at the Witcomb Gallery in Buenos Aires, in October, 1924 and Xul accompanies him with his writings in Martín Fierro.Xul’s criticism is designed to situate and define Pettoruti’s work, while debating the other critics who were confused with this type of painting, devoid of Naturalism and made up of synthesis and abstraction. In a strongly committed tone, Xul writes: “The people of Buenos Aires can now admire, curse or deride Pettoruti’s work, work which other audiences have approved. . . . Everyone will recognise the great stimulating significance of his art, a starting point for our own artistic evolution. . . . a well defined tendency towards simplicity in the expressive media . . . . towards pure art." Xul positions his colleague, and in this act, himself. He argues that European recognition means legitimisation; he describes the traits of this new art; he declares this art to be foundational to their own artistic evolution, as liberating and a cause of change; he criticises the local environment and defines Pettoruti and himself as “dissidents”, adding to the process of building an alternative aesthetic. Thus, he founds a new tradition and involves himself in building a local vanguard.

In 1924 Xul also exhibits at the Free Salon (1924, Witcomb Gallery), confronting canon institutions such as the National Salon of Fine Art.The critic Altaya interprets this initiative auspiciously, remarking on its ability to stir up the tastes of judging panels, critics and the public.He sets Xul’s work apart from the group for “the strangest and most uncommon contribution” that it represents, and deciphering it as “reminiscent of our dreams, the wild nightmares caused by hashish or opium” or of childhood.In Altaya’s opinion, this art is the result of “an excess of culture”, ascribing Xul’s inventions to the reactionary movement of the time that returns to “the origins of rudimentary art, savages and primitive races”. He concludes that “Xul is not an isolated case, rather a note among many, produced by a collective fatigue that searches for new incentives and poisons in order to suffer a frisson nouveau (new shock).In1925 Xul exhibits at the Independent’s Salon.This firmly establishes him as “extravagant, peculiar and strange” and one of the few who can be called “an independent artist in the strict sense of innovative art”.

As an independent artist, Xul contributed to inventing a tradition of alternative artists that was very significant in the cultural circles of Buenos Aires in the 1920’s, a period marked by the complex consolidation of an artistic field. New formations were emerging, both in images as well as practices, presented as traits of peripheral modernism, as described by Beatriz Sarlo .This view does not negate the complexity of work such as Xul Solar’s.Ethereal and enigmatic, his art carried a new and unique language that he would continue to display and enrich throughout his life.He would add new experiences to this language, not only artistic, but also musical, literary and above all, linguistic.As Pettoruti points out, Xul Solar is unmistakable, concluding that “his artistic conceptions move in unison with the pace of his life and . . . with the pace of our times.Painting based on esprit, culture, and above all, signs. . . . When referring to Xul Solar everything is marvellous.” D. W.

(1) Cfr. Artundo, Patricia , «EL libro del cielo, cronología biográfica y crítica» en: Xul Solar , catálogo de la exposición curada por Marcos Barnatán, Madrid, MNCARS, 2002.

(2) Cfr. Wechsler Diana, B., Papeles en conflicto. Arte y Crítica entre la vanguardia y la tradición. Buenos Aires 1920-30 , Buenos Aires, FFyL-UBA, 2004.

(3) Cfr. Martín Fierro ,magazine of art and free criticism, Buenos Aires, 1924-1927.

(4) Xul Solar , Martín Fierro , Buenos Aires, 1924

(5) Atalaya (Alfredo Chiabra Acosta) Críticas , Buenos Aires, Gleizer, 1934

(6) Sarlo, Beatriz , Buenos Aires 1920 y 30. Una modernidad periférica . Buenos Aires, Nueva Visión, 1988

(7) Pettoruti, Emilio , Crisol, Buenos Aires, 27 de julio de 1933. Archivo Museo Xul Solar.