Colecciones de arte

La sombra del caminante, c.1913

FICHA TÉCNICA
La sombra del caminante, c.1913
(The Walker's Shadow)
Oil on cardboard Measurements, 21x 21 cm

Travel is an ever-present part of the biographies of modern artists, especially those who lived on the peripheries of both Europe and the Americas.All of these people were eager to cross borders and penetrate other worlds and languages, adding new experiences, and interacting with other artists and intellectuals.Their assumption was that exceptional things were occurring in those metropolises and it was necessary to live it in person.Newspapers and magazines of the cities on the periphery gave resonance to the movement taking place in Paris, London, Milan, Venice, Berlin, Munich and Madrid and to all the details, enabling the Art and Culture sections of these publications to be “with the times”.This yearning to be up-to-date also engulfed artists and intellectuals, who filled their libraries compulsively with magazines, books, catalogues, post cards –any material that informed one about what was happening on the other side of the ocean.Nonetheless, the anguishing sensation they felt was that all these efforts were in vain (evident in their autobiographies) and that “nothing reached them”.Their readings allowed them to form an imaginary map to travel by when they could finally arrange that trip to Europe that they longed for.In the end, “Europe” could begin anywhere that they marked first on the map; It could be the place they arrived to by steam power (London, Genoa, Vigo, Hamburg), or a stronger nexus, perhaps tied to family tradition, education by teachers, or the previous experience of a colleague who had been there or who, in fact, still lived there.What basically mattered, especially in the travelling experience, was the possibility of coming face-to-face with “those others” and through this meeting, “see oneself”, measure oneself and decide the path to follow.

Xul Solar was no exception to this.His journey was marked by a chart that he had created in his imagination as a child, based on newspaper clippings that he used to build an incredibly vast mental network, once which crossed the five continents and the cultures of past and present, real and imaginary. He built this network from the photos of art works, scenes of customs of diverse peoples and even fantasy characters: dragons, cyclops, etc. This miscellaneous map pointed to his first destination as Australia (ultimately not visited), later to be redirected toward “the old continent”.Family stories, his readings, and random trips through his networks of association would complete this map – a collage that would guide his course from1912 to 1924.

The selection of his maritime company would contribute to defining certain aspects of his trip.Xul sails under a British flag.He arrives in the port of London in April, 1912. The previous year he had reoriented himself-the engineer began to train himself in drawing through self-study.Years later on the line for profession of his passport it would read, “Painter”. His goal, in his words, was “to form a new religion around my art and create a world for my followers. ”This declaration had a budding radical objective that was the founding of something new, and a visionary plan which, by the way, aspired to surpass the limits of the art world. He wanted to create something that he would later define in the Buenos Aires avant-garde magazine as the “new sensibility”. However, to reach this goal first he had to see quite a bit and the long journey he began was his opportunity.

La sombra del caminante, a piece done by Xul during his first years in Europe displays his initial approximations to the art world that was bubbling at the time with Cubism, Expressionism and Futurism.It is a very small painting whose surface recreates, through imagination and through the juxtaposition of triangular planes of colour, the sum of tiles that would make up a mosaic.It is a path drawn in diagonals and a rhythm of intersecting lines that creates sections of adjacent colours, which in turn define the shapes on the surface and open the way to a faceted landscape. The road ends in a cloud. The person walking is going towards it.His shadow follows him and stretches out towards the viewer.An intense palette offers contrasts of greens, ochres and earth tones applied in a vibrant, harmonised way, crating a painting of impact for its dynamism and variety.

This painting is in dialogue with the movements of its time, while not being ascribed to any.It rehearses an artistic layout, being is placed in proximity to Cubism for its “different” way of understanding reality.

Moreover, one detail of Xul’s biography completes the interpretation of this painting. He writes to his father from Turin in 1912: “I always work at the same speed and I see how I am beginning to master the difficult technique bit by bit”; “I have bought a book, Der Blaue Reiter, which is about avant-garde art, Futurism, and Cubism.”

To paraphrase Ernst Gombrich, we can only see what we are prepared to see, that is, what we are capable of perceiving.In this case Xul’s purchase is preceded by his daily practice of collecting diverse images and putting them together in one place.This juxtaposing of images with different origins and motifs must not have been so different from the pages of Der Blaue Reite.This was probably the almanac published by Franz Mark and Vassily Kandinsky, which contained images of “more advanced” art, as they described it, as well as works by primitive peoples, and music by Alban Berg and Anton Webern.Moreover, the essays included in this book reflected Kandinsky’s interest in the relationship between visual art and music. This universe of such plural aesthetic problems and concerns is in harmony with Xul’s yearnings, which would begin to move during these years and continue to develop throughout his entire life, opening the way for projects that would allow him to advance with new language constructions in various registers, musical, artistic, linguistic and literary.

Der Blaue Reiter had been seen in Munich, Berlin and other cities.It brought together numerous artists of different nationalities, beginning with those that had belonged to the group, Der Brüke.With its propositions, Der Brüke presented itself as a critical alternative to Cubism, for even though it recognised its innovative value, it differed with Cubism’s extreme rationality.

Therefore, it is not mere coincidence that Xul felt empathy towards this perspective and the works ofMarc. Macke, Klee and Kandinsky.In this respect, La sombra del caminante materialises as the result of the impact of these travel discoveries. D. W.

SIGNATURE: A signature cannot be made out on the painting’s surface.However, “XIII” appears on the lower left corner which could indicate the year of the painting, adjusting the date to 1913.In addition, Xul abandons the use of oils around 1917-18 and resumes it close to the 1950’s, adding to the assumption that this “XIII” refers to the year the painting was made .

ORIGIN
Latina American Sale, Christies, New York, USA, New York / Important Drawings And Sculpture (Part II).Anon. Sale, Christies, New York, EE UU / Private Collection, Caracas, Venezuela /Vermeer Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

(1) According to ARTUNDO, PATRICIA, this practice of collecting cut-outs would have begun between 1903 and 1907, continuing throughout his life, in “El libro del Cielo. Cronología biográfica y crítica” in “Xul Solar Catalogue” from the MNCARS exhibit, Feb. 26- May 13, 2002. Organiser: Marcos Ricardo Barnatan (p. 201-227).

(2) Ibid (p. 203),

(3) On Xul’s presence in the magazine and the situation of visual arts in it,cfr.Wechsler, Diana, Papeles en conflicto. Arte y crítica entre la vanguardia y la tradición. Buenos Aires, FFyL-UBA, 2004, (pp.119-164 y pp.183-200)

(4) Letter by Xul to his father, Turin, 1912. The Xul Solar Archive, Buenos Aires, in: Xul Solar, Catalogue cit. (p.204)