Collection: Xul Solar

Xul Solar (born Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schulz Solari, 14 December 1887 – 9 April 1963) was an Argentine painter, architect, and inventor of imaginary languages. Trained in Buenos Aires, he adopted his pseudonym early in his career, reflecting a synthesis of esoteric symbolism and avant-garde experimentation. His work emerged within the 1920s porteño avant-garde, engaging with contemporaries such as Jorge Luis Borges and Macedonio Fernández.

Solar’s paintings feature vibrant chromatic fields, geometric abstraction, and arcane iconography, often incorporating astrological, mystical, and linguistic motifs. His compositions include invented scripts, architectural schematics, and hybrid figures, evoking a syncretic cosmology.

Works such as "Solarized Nude" (c. 1940s) combine tenebristic chiaroscuro with planar fragmentation, while "Solar Bird" (1966) employs a more distilled, hieratic symbolism. His engagement with theosophy and pan-American esotericism shaped his visual lexicon, positioning his oeuvre at the intersection of metaphysical painting and linguistic invention.

Solar’s interdisciplinary practice, bridging visual art, linguistics, and occult philosophy, anticipated later developments in conceptual art and neo-symbolist movements. His works are held in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, where his role as a progenitor of Argentine avant-garde symbolism is acknowledged.